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Music and tourism in Cusco, Peru: culture as a resource

This dissertation explores music in Cusco, Peru found in the festivals and other performance contexts related to tourism. The central thesis considers what happen when culture becomes a resource for socio-economic development. First the historical emergence of culture as a resource is examined through the discourse of international agencies, folklorists, and travelers. Next, various contexts of music and tourism in Cusco highlight specific examples of culture as a resource, such as Inti Raymi, other raymi festivals, the pilgrimage of Señor de Qoyllur rit’i, dinner show restaurants, and nightclubs. In each example, I discuss the history of the performance context, the musical repertoire, opportunities for musicians, and how local people keep the performance relevant to their lives. While critics have called cultural tourism a devil’s bargain and proponents have called it a panacea to under-development, I conclude that the real effects of culture as a resource in Cusco are more complex. I analyze the music in conjunction with social conditions of asymmetric power as the aestheticization of poverty. / text

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/6856
Date03 February 2010
CreatorsLaBate, Elizabeth Ann
Source SetsUniversity of Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Formatelectronic
RightsCopyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.

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