Organography, organology and ethnoluthery as a proposal for the study of traditional musical instruments

Abstract

In a review of the classical literature on traditional Mexican musical instruments, several results come to light: scholars, including myself, have spoken indistinctively of organography and organology as the conceptual and methodological frameworks for the study of the traditional musical instrument. This has led to a certain epistemological ambiguity when using these terms, which have been understood as disciplines, methods, arts, sciences, and, mainly, as a system of taxonomies. Most studies are focused on the instrument approached as an inanimate material object, classifiable and described under a universal and homogenizing model. In this article, a review of the traditional musical instruments studies in Mexico is presented in order to expose my own methodological proposal different from organology and organography for the study of the instrument from an approach called “ethnolaudery,”which proposes the study of musical instruments based on traditions and from a processual perspective; looking at musical instruments as a piece of culture and inside specific cultures; considering the diverse contexts of production (according the corporal, material, and symbolic dimensions); and focusing on the specialized crafters of string instruments: violeros, vigoleros, lauderos, guitarreros, ebanistas, setimuriecha, guitarrachiketl, kuachichiketl, p´as b´ometik, etc.