Development Studies: Socio-economic Development from an Interdisciplinary Perspective Saleha Erdmann |
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My Senior Project... I began my senior project while studying a semester in Bolivia through a program called SIT (not a St. Olaf program). All SIT programs require a research project. I conducted my three week project at a classical music school in a small, isolated, indigenous, former mission town called Urubichá in the Bolivian lowlands in the rainforest. This research project became my senior project for my CIS major. I presented this research at the annual Latin American Studies symposium at Birmingham Southern College in Alabama in April 2006. The links to my paper in English and in español and the supplementary paper I wrote explicitly on development in Urubichá. The Effects of Classical Music on Urubichá Urubichá is a small indigenous town in the Bolivian lowlands that is home to a nationally and internationally renowned classical music school. During three weeks in November and December of 2005, I investigated the effects of the school on its students and the community through interviews, observations, a literature review, and participation as a cello teacher. In addition, I investigated historical context and identity in Urubichá. In 1989 an informal youth classical music program was started in Urubichá and in 1996 the Instituto de Formación Integral de “Coro y Orquesta Urubichá” was founded. The Institute was the first of fifteen music programs in the region, which now are overseen by the umbrella institution of Sistema de Coros y Orquestas (SICOR). Of these fifteen programs, the Institute in Urubichá is one of two with a symphonic orchestra and the only one that offers graduates a degree in music education. A Western classical music school seems somewhat out of place in this town of 4,000 people, where electricity arrived only in August 2005 and the people are proud of their indigenous Guarayo culture. I found that the Institute has significantly affected the perspectives and identities of the people, the structures of their lives, and the local economy. The Institute has introduced students to foreign people and culture through their travels, teachers and musical groups that come to Urubichá, and an international music festival they participate in. It also provides graduates a better chance of finding stable employment because of their accredited degrees to teach music. The presence of the school has also affected the local economy in that the increased presence of tourists, politicians and other interested outsiders, as well as teachers at the school, has enlarged the market for locally made artisan work. Additionally, the school has contributed to some interesting shifts in culture and identity. Participation of girls in the Institute has broken down the traditional taboo against women playing music in Guarayo culture. The first female students defied superstitions such as the notions that they would lose their hair or become unable to bear children if they participated. And, surprisingly, playing Western classical music has promoted a greater sense of Guarayo identity among the musicians, who feel proud to represent their people outside of Urubichá and to be reviving a tradition of music in their community.
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