The Lyrical Creation of Community: Song as a catalyst of social cohesion in Andean Peru

Abstract

This article examines the performative role of waynu, a widespread song-genre in the Andes, in creating an “intersubjective community” among participants. The data-corpus comprises extracts from interviews which I conducted during a year's period of fieldwork (2010–2011) in Chiquián and Pomabamba, Ancash department, Peru. I couple my analysis of the extracts with congruent concepts in Quechua, the indigenous language, in order to show how indigenous philosophical orientations can provide as robust an analytical framework as concepts in formal scholarship. I conclude by suggesting that the application of an intersubjective analytical framework to the study of verbal art can constitute a productive agenda for future research on indigenous traditions.