The main aim of this course is to introduce the student to the dynamics of contemporary Andean culture through the study and observance of cultural performance: traditional music, dances, and fiestas. The close contact with Andean expressive culture will constitute an excellent opportunity to familiarize with its society and sensibilities, and will facilitate a better understanding of its social history, and current development.

The participants will be guided by an experienced research team, and will receive basic training in ethnographic procedures (data collecting), and audiovisual documentation techniques.

An important part of this program is audiovisual documentation (video, audio, photography) as a means of data collecting and knowledge. Students will not only practice a technique that will be handy in the future, but will also fulfill a social role: copies of their recordings will be deposited in the audiovisual archives of the Institute of Ethnomusicology.

Students will visit three important Andean celebrations: the fiesta of Santa Isabel in Ancash, the Fiesta of El Carmen in Pisac (Sacred Valley) and the ritual of the branding of animals in the Mantaro valley (Junín).

This project is directed by Dr. Raúl Romero (Ph.D., Harvard University)

Raúl romero

Raúl R. Romero, Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, Harvard University. Dr. Romero is Director of the Institute of Ethnomusicology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Perú. He is author of several publications on the topic of Andean music and culture.
Among them is the book Debating the Past: Music, Memory and Identity in the Andes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), and the articles on “Peru” in the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South America, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), and "Andean Peru” in Music in Latin American Culture: Regional Traditions (New York: Schirmer Books, 1999). Dr. Romero is also the editor of the
eight-volume CD series “Traditional music of Peru” released by the Smithsonian Institution between 1995 and 2001. He is a recipient of the Endangered Archives Programme Award by the British Library and of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Dr. Romero has been Visiting Professor in the Department of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles and a NEH Visiting Professor in the Native American Studies Program at Colgate University.