Intimate Distance: Andean Music in Japan

Michelle Bigenho

ISBN 10: 0822352354 / ISBN 13: 9780822352358

Published by Duke University Press, 2012

About this Item

2012. Paperback. Andean Music in Japan. 248 pages, 18 illustrations. This is a book about Andean music, its reception in Japan, and the resultant transcultural connection. Michelle Bigenho toured Japan with Bolivian musicians and dancers and describes how the two nationalites connected with each other through song and dance. Cateogry: (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly. BIC Classification: 1FPJ; 1KLSX; AVGE; JFC. Dimension: 234 x 159 x 15. Weight: 372. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780822352358

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Intimate Distance: Andean Music in Japan
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822352354
• ISBN 13: 9780822352358
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

What does it mean to play "someone else’s music"? Intimate Distance delves into this question through a focus on Bolivian musicians who tour Japan playing Andean music and Japanese audiences, who often go beyond fandom to take up these musical forms as hobbyists and even as professional musicians. Michelle Bigenho conducted part of her ethnographic research while performing with Bolivian musicians as they toured Japan. Drawing on interviews with Bolivian musicians as well as Japanese fans and performers of these traditions, Bigenho explores how transcultural intimacy is produced at the site of Andean music and its performances.

Bolivians and Japanese involved in these musical practices often express narratives of intimacy and racial belonging that reference shared but unspecified indigenous ancestors. Along with revealing the story of Bolivian music's route to Japan and interpreting the transnational staging of indigenous worlds, Bigenho examines these stories of closeness, thereby unsettling the East-West binary that often structures many discussions of cultural difference and exotic fantasy.

About the Author

Michelle Bigenho is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Hampshire College. She is the author of Sounding Indigenous: Authenticity in Bolivian Music Performance.