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British Journal of Ethnomusicology

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Flourishing horns and enchanted tubers: Music and

potatoes in highland Bolivia
a
Henry Stobart
a
Research Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge, CB3 9EU
Published online: 31 May 2008.

To cite this article: Henry Stobart (1994) Flourishing horns and enchanted tubers: Music and potatoes in highland Bolivia,
British Journal of Ethnomusicology, 3:1, 35-48, DOI: 10.1080/09681229408567224

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09681229408567224

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 VOL.3 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY 1994

Flourishing horns and enchanted tubers:

music and potatoes in highland Bolivia
Henry Stobart
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This paper examines the relationship between musical performance and the potato and
its cultivation in a rural Andean hamlet. The potato, it emerges, is not viewed as a
mundane staple, but is central to the structuring of musical expression. Unlike
industrialised societies, musical performance is not abstracted away from everyday
objects and activities. Rather, they provide the basis and inspiriation for such
expression, revealing a very different approach to ecology.

O NE OF THE CENTRAL CONCERNS of ethnomusicology is to discover the

organizing principles and categories meaningful to the group in question. It
should not be assumed that, for example, concepts of "harmony" or aspects of
musical perception, structure or aesthetics can be directly translated between
different groups (or even necessarily between individuals within these groups).
Music is not the universal language that many people have often claimed it to
be. This does not prevent us deriving great pleasure and inspiration from the
musics of other cultures, but the structural principles, aesthetics and perceptual
bases of our appreciation are likely to be radically different from those of the
performers themselves.
My initial attempts to study the music of a Quechua-speaking subsistence
farming community of Northern Potosí, in the high Andes, were full of
frustrations. Innocently, I began by asking questions about música only to be
told about the brass bands of neighbouring towns.1 Later, when people had
eventually worked out that I meant their own local singing, dancing, and the
playing of musical instruments our discussions started to get underway. But
whenever we began to talk about these different forms of music the
conversation always seemed to stray off into agriculture. I often struggled to get
the discussion back to my idea of "music", only to discover a few moments later
that yet again we were talking about potatoes! It took me several months to
begin to realize that it was entirely appropriate to talk about music in terms of
agriculture: the two are intrinsically linked.

1
The Spanish word musica ("music") is used in this part of Northern Potosí to refer to
either urban brass bands or sometimes sikura panpipe ensembles. Locally it is not a generic
term for "music".

35
 36 British Journal of Ethnomusicology, vol. 3 (1994)

Following this approach I also began to realize that my understanding of

"music", and of the semantic space that this concept conveys in European
languages, was radically different from that of my hosts. In Quechua and Aymara
there are verbs to describe the actions of singing and dancing, and innumerable
words which refer to different musical genres, instruments and qualities of sound.
However, this broad range of activities and phenomena is neither encompassed
nor separated from others by being categorized under such general concepts as
"music" 2 or "sound". Direct translations of these European terms simply do not
exist in indigenous Andean languages. The nearest my hosts could come to a
word which expressed such ideas was the Spanish loan word animu, which
suggests the notion of animation as a property of living things.
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Thus, for my hosts, distinct musical forms are not necessarily associated with
one another as "music". Rather, musical performance is contextualized activity.
Each form of song, instrumental music or dance is appropriate to a specific time
or function in the endless cycle of life, death and regeneration: cycles which
overlap and draw creatively from one another. One "life cycle" that has
emerged as especially influential to my hosts and their "music" is that of the
potato.3
For many rural communities of the high Andes the potato is one of the most
important staple crops. Its cultivation, storage, preparation, cooking and
consumption dominates these people's lives, and their wellbeing depends
directly upon a successful potato harvest. In this paper I shall demonstrate how,
for my host hamlet, situated at an altitude of 1100m in ayllu Macha, Northern
Potosí, Bolivia, music and the potato are inextricably linked.4 It would seem that
certain forms of music are experienced, as well as structured, in the context of
potato cultivation: the two directly motivate one another and are embued with
enchantment and heartfelt sentiment.
This account is based on conversations and participant observation in a single
hamlet of ayllu Macha, and upon discussions with Alberto Camaque from ayllu
Laymi, Northern Potosí. Whilst the potato is undoubtably influential to the
musics of many other parts of the Southern Andes, its representation in music is
likely to vary considerably. After all, local and regional variations in musical
forms and styles remain among the most salient markers of identity and ethnicity.

2
From a more global perspective, it is rare to find a general term that denotes so many
different forms as does the the word "music" in European languages (cf. Seeger
1992:102).
3
This paper was originally written as a chapter for a book in Spanish, for publication in
Bolivia, on anthropological approaches to potatoes. For this reason it concentrates on the
relationship between potatoes and music to the exclusion of other influences upon musical
performance.
4
For links between music, dance or song and potato (and other crop) cultivation or chuñu
production in other parts of the Andes see: Bucchler (1980), Van den Berg (1990:130),
Salaman (1949/1989:47), Vellard (1954:123), Baumann (1982:33), Guarnan Poma
(1615/1980:242, 250 etc), Harrison (1989:190), Arnold (1992), Arnold, Jiménez and Yapita
(1992:126).
 StobarE Flourishing horns and enchanted tubers 37

Furthermore, in differing ecological zones, dominated by herding, for example, or

the cultivation of maize or quinoa, musical performance is likely to be both
influenced by and structured around these activities.

Music and the seasons

Nowhere is the association of distinct musical genres with specific times and
contexts manifested more vividly than in the seasonal use of music—a practice
common to many parts of the southern and central Andes.5 These seasonal
alternations of musical genres, dances and instruments are in many cases directly
linked with cycles of agricultural production.
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In agricultural and musical terms the year is principally divided between the
wet, growing season and the dry, cold season. In Northern Potosí, and several
other parts of southern Bolivia, the end of the rainy or growing season
symbolically coincides with the culmination of Carnival, when the first new fruits
of the year may be eaten.6 The start of the rains is commonly stated to coincide
with the feast of All Saints (Nov. 1) although pinkillu flutes7 may begin to be
played a few months earlier "to call the rain". All dry season instruments must be
put away after All Saints, I was told, as their sounds would "freeze" the young
potato plants.
Although in practice the rains do not necessarily start at All Saints and end at
Carnival, these dates and the accompanying alternation of instruments are
described in terms of an ideal. The pinkillu flutes and kitarra s of the growing
season are said to call the clouds and rain up from the valleys and to help the
crops to grow. In turn the dry season wauqu and siku panpipes9 blow the clouds
away causing clear skies and frosts. Similarly, the shrill sound of the charango10

5
See Turino (1993:41), Mamani (1987), Buechler (1980), Jayma (1989:33), Sanchez
(1989), Indicep (1973), R. Martinez (in Flety and Martinez 1992), Stobart (1987 and
forthcoming)
6
In many parts of La Paz department, the alternation between rainy and dry season
instruments takes place at Easter (Buechler 1980:41).
7
In this region, pinkillu refers to duct flutes usually played in a consort of 4-6 sizes. These
instruments closely resemble 16th century European recorders played in many churches
during the Spanish colonial period. As there is no archaeological or historical evidence of
such instruments in the Andes before the Spanish invasion it seems possible that pinkillu
flutes are based on European models.
8
A local strummed guitar with metal and nylon strings arranged in five courses (sets, tuned
in unison or at the octave).
9
Wauqu (or jula-jula) panpipes are played in hocket in 4- and 3- tube pairs, tuned to an
anhemitonic pentatonic scale. An ensemble typically consists of 30 to 50 players playing
pairs of five sizes, tuned in octaves. Siku panpipes are also played in hocket with pairs of 8-
and 7-tube (or 7- and 6-tubc) instruments. Ensembles typically consist of 6-12 players
accompanied by a bass drum (bombo).
10
A small strummed 4- or 5-course, metal string, mandolin-size guitar. The wooden body
often resembles the shape of an armadillo.
 38 British Journal of Eihnomusicology, vol. 3 (1994)

Fig. 1: Annual Cycle of Musical Instruments,11 Ayllu Macha

Carnival All Saints

Rains Dry/Cold Y Rai

Rains
"Ideal"
Seasons

Kitarra Charango Kitarra

Strings
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Pinkillu Wauqu Siku Pinkillu

4gg£g||ggggg
Winds lüiilli ü
J JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN IjUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

attracts frosts, which are specified to be essential for freezing the potatoes to
make chuño in the cold winter months of June and July.
When we examine the seasonal alternation of instruments in more detail, their
relationship with potato cultivation is further emphasized. For example, pinkillu
flutes and the kitarra12 begin to be played in earnest from the very moment that
the seed potatoes are planted and begin to sprout in November. These
instruments are then played continuously through the growing season until the
end of Carnival when, in a special rite of farewell (pinkillu kacharpaya), they are
hidden away and exchanged for the dry season charango. Following Carnival, I
was told, the rains should cease, the potato plants die down and the tubers swell
and mature ready for harvesting.
The associations between these rainy season instruments and potato plants
are often most explicit. In the Sacaca region of Northern Potosí I have seen
wooden pinkillu flutes carved with the images of potato plants. Also,
throughout the region, many types of rainy season guitars (kitarra, talachi,
guitarilla) are decorated with the image of growing plants, usually suggesting
the form of a flowering potato plant.
During the dry season, when potato plants have died down and their tubers
lie dormant, pinkillu flutes and the colourful rainy-season guitars are packed
away, out of sight (often alongside foodcrops in storage huts). When, on several
occasions, I asked what would happen if these instruments were played during

11
Recordings and further illustrations of some of these instruments are given in Baumann
(1982) and Flety/Martinez (1992). For further details of playing techniques and local
approaches to these instruments see Stobart (1987, in press, and in prep.).
12
I use the Quechua spelling kitarra, for this traditional local strummed string instrument, in
order to avoid confusion with the Spanish guitarra.
 Stobaru Flourishing horns and enchanted tubers 39

Fig. 2: Flourishing plant decoration of a rainy season kitarra

Sides of body painted red,
and red stripe of paint
along back Back of neck and peg box
painted black
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Sound hole Neck and peg box

encircled by painted black and
Alternate red alternate rings of vhite
and green leaf red and green rays
shapes encircle
bridge

the dry season, a frequent answer was "the player would grow horns". These
horns were sometimes further linked to the idea of "devils" (cf. Harris 1982).
However, at a more immediate and practical level this explanation appears to
refer to dormant potato tubers. It would clearly be inappropriate to play rainy
season music (wayñu) associated with growing crops during the dry season as it
would cause the tubers to sprout, like horns, and begin to grow at the wrong
time of year13. Musical sound thus orders the seasons and cycles of production.
The relationship between the performance of wayñu and the sprouting of
potato (or ocau) tubers is made explicit in the following wayñu verse of the
rainy season from ayllu Macha.

Uqa llura, papa llura {misturas fikita)

Oca sprouts, potato sprouts (confetti flowers)

Maytaq chay wayñu mayura? (misturas t'ikita)

Where is the wayñu master? (confetti flowers)

Although the seasonal variation of musical forms, instruments and dances was
surprisingly strictly observed within my host hamlet, in many other parts of

13
This relationship between flourishing greenery and horns is emphasized in many rituals.
Pairs of long liria (Iris) leaves or green molle (pepper tree) twigs are handed to each person
in turn and placed in their halbands, both resembling and being termed astas or "homs".
14
A sweet tuber cultivated widely in the Andes (Oxalis tuberosa).
 40 British Journal ofEthnomusicology, vol. 3 (1994)

Fig. 3: The'horned potato: a sprouting seed potato

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Northern Potosí and the Bolivian highlands these traditions are disappearing.
Older men complained to me that today the young men or mozos living near the
town of Macha play their charangos throughout the rainy season and for that
reason the weather has become mixed up and harvests poor over recent years.
The state education system, rural development agencies, and even local radio
stations, broadcasting in Quechua and Aymara, rarely (if ever) respect this
essentially Andean method of ordering time and way of life.

Finkillu flutes as potatoes

The analogy between potatoes and the instruments of the rains also appears to
be paralleled in instrument construction. My hosts and Alberto Camaque from
ayllu Laymi both treated the wind instruments of the rainy and dry seasons as
seasonal equivalents, drawing attention to the differences in their constuction. It
was maintained that the wooden pinkillu flutes of the rains are "alive" because
they have many "holes". In this context, the word "holes" was used
specifically to refer to the fingerholes that a player stops and unstops to give life
and form to a melody. These nodes or points of transition which prescribe the
alternating pitches and rhythmic form of a melody would appear to be analagous
to the "eyes" of a potato. Significantly, potatoes with many eyes are reserved as
seed for the following year whilst those without eyes are unable to grow or
regenerate.
 Stobart Flourishing horns and enchanted tubers 41

Fig. 4: Pinkillu flute consort performing in a llama corral at Carnival

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In contrast, it was stated that the wauqu and siku panpipes of the dry season
do not have "holes" (i.e. fingerholes). They are thus "dead" (wañusqa) and,
like potatoes without eyes, are unable to regenerate. Furthermore they were
compared to chuñu (freeze-dried potatoes) and said to be fragile. Both these
types of cane panpipes usually only last a single season and must be purchased
new each year. Unlike the panpipes of the dry season, the wooden pinkillu
flutes of the rains are specified to be ""strong" (resisten) and are expected to
last for several years; thus they have the regenerative associations of seed
potatoes with many eyes.
Pinkillu flutes are brought back to life each year at the start of the rains. Like
seed potatoes, they are wetted or "made to drink". At first, when they are
brought out of storage, the sound of these dried out instruments is weak but
after continued playing and wetting with chicha (aqha) or water during
performance their sound becomes rich and vibrant. As Alberto Camaque, from
ayllu Laymi, put it: pinkillu flutes are "like a plant" or "like greening". The
vibrance of plant life, during the rainy, growing season is most vividly reflected
and motivated by both the form of the instruments and the "lively" sounds of
pinkillu flutes.
 42 British Journal of Ethnomusicology. vol. 3 (1994)

Fig. 5: Qhata dancers encircling a kitarra player

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Enclosing the flutes; earthing up the potatoes

The strong association between pinkillu flutes and potatoes would appear to be
emphasized once again in the performance of the qhata dance.15 For this circle
dance which is performed at major feasts during the rains, the pinkillu (or
kitarra) players are enclosed by a ring of dancers. The circle comprises both
unmarried men and women16 but it is the women's presence and voices that
dominate. They sing in response to the men's pinkillu flutes which are enclosed
within the ring. This sense of the male.pinkillu flute players being "trapped", by
the essentially feminine dance circle, was emphasized in several conversations.
Alberto Camaque explained that the Aymara word qhata, from which the
dance derives its name, refers to the plaiting together of between 10 and 20
lengths of thread (q'aytu) to form a strong cord, such as the type used for
women's hair braiding (tullma) or for tying a belt (chumpi). Such a cord, it was
specified, is strong (resisten) and cannot be broken easily. Similarly the dancers
braid themselves together securely, holding alternate hands so that their arms are
crossed and the pinkillu flute or kitarra player(s) cannot escape. The image of
enclosure and imprisonment in this dance was also related to the walls built
around fields during the rains and to llama corrals.

15
See also Arnold 1992 for discussion of a similar dance in nearby Qaqachaka.
16
Married people may also join in the qhata dancing at Carnival.
 Stobart: Flourishing horns and enchanted lubers 43

When I discussed this dance with Alberto Camaque, he directly compared the
pinkillu players in the centre of the dance circle to "growing plants". According
to this analogy it would seem that the dancers represent the soil or mother earth
which protects, but also imprisons and ultimately destroys the parent seed potato
when it has given birth to the next generation. Such an interpretation would
seem to be paralleled by the translations for the word cahuatha from Bertonio's
Aymara dictionary of 1612, which refers to both the actions of ridging potatoes
and dancing in a circle whilst holding hands.

Cahuatha: Baylor una rueda de gente tomándose de las manos.

[To dance in a circle of people holding hands]
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Cahuatha: Allegar latierraa las matos de las papas para que crescan.
[To pile earth up to potato plants so that they grow]
(Bertonio 1612, II: 32)

However, during the rites of "farewell to the pinkillu flutes" (pinkillu

karcharpaya) at Carnival, the circle of qhata dancers was dramatically broken,
releasing the enclosed flute players. For the dry season wayli dance, which
immediately follows the "farewell" to Carnival, hands are not held and each
person dances separately. This way of dancing singly was referred to using the
verb stem sapa-, which in both Quechua and Aymara17 suggests the idea of
"standing alone", where each person must fend for him- or herself. Accordingly,
the wayli dance is said to be especially linked with harvest, when the new
potatoes are uncovered and separated one by one from the earth.

Weeping potatoes
Over the many months I stayed in my host hamlet, I was constantly impressed by
the way in which nothing was wasted; a sharp contrast to wastefulness of most
industrialised societies. There was an ash pile (in which the llamas loved to roll)
beside each house, but no other form of rubbish heap. Any old packets or tins
were swiftly appropriated. A little later they would reappear transformed into a
children's toy, incorporated into a game or set to some other practical use.
Similarly, any vegetable waste, such as potato peelings or bean husks, was put
to practical use, even if this meant carrying it for several hours to do so. As my
host's mother put it: "peelings just left strewn around on the mountain peaks, or
elsewhere, would be lonely and weep like a deserted child. They would not

17
Approximately 20% of the vocabularies of Quechua and Aymara are identical or similar
(Mannheim 1991:40). According to accounts from older people, Aymara was widely spoken
in my host hamlet in the last century. Although today much ritual language and local place
names are Aymara, the inhabitants are essentially monolingual Quechua speakers
(incorporating many loan words from Spanish).
 44 British Journal of Ethnomusicology. vol. 3 (1994)

serve any use." In this realistic approach to ecology she attributed animate
associations to plant life and in particular the ability to make sound.
Plant life, like that of humans and animals, is understood in terms of cycles of
life and death. Food crops must be treated appropriately as they pass from the
world of the living to that of the dead in the same way as humankind. Humans
who die having transgressed the boundaries of social order roam between the
puna (highlands) and valleys weeping and wailing as condenados ("condemned
ones"). It would seem that plant life is categorized in a similar manner.
Significantly, the Quechua word waqay which my host's mother used to refer to
the "weeping" of vegetable waste or children, and often describes the sounds of
condenado, is also the common word for the sounds of musical instruments.
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The animate aspect of food crops emerges again in the ritual language used in
ceremonies. For example, the potato is called ch'askañawi, a reference to its
many eyes (ñawi) as "starry" or "bushy" (ch'aska). In everyday language
ch'askañawi can simply mean "eyebrows", which are an important
consideration in assessing the beauty of a girl, but in the context of song, my
hosts explained that it refers to a "lover".18
From our various discussions it became clear that when the local girls sing
these songs the idea of "lover" was not restricted to the world of humans. For
my hosts, at least, there was a strong sense that potatoes must be treasured, loved
and cared for in the same way as humans. As living things they are also animated
and nurtured by love and sentiment. Thus, the lives of humans and potatoes
overlap and are sometimes compared with one another, as in the following song
verses from the Feast of the Holy Cross (May 3):

a)
Imilla papila muraru sunkitu
Imilla19 potato with a purple heart

Chika jovencita vibora sunkitu

Young girl with a snake heart

b)
Imilla papata pilar atiwaqchu?
Could you peel an imilla potato?

Cfudata Indiata fisti atiwaqchu?

Could you dress an Indian girl ? 20

18
The refrains of many songs include lines such as Linda cholita chaskañawi ("Beautiful
girl with the eyebrows").
19
Imilla is the Quechua word for both "girl" and a variety of potato.
20
I am grateful to Denise Arnold for her suggested interpretation of fisti as vestir (Spanish
"to dress") and to Rosaleecn Howard-Malvcrde for her help on the grammar of these verses.
 Stobart: Flourishing horns and enchanted tubers 45

Siren voices
In my host hamlet I was told that all music comes from the sirinus. These are
demonic and enchanting beings which live in gullies, waterfalls, springs or
rocks.21 Should you chance upon these creatures during the nights of Carnival,
it is said, they will undoubtedly be dancing qhata and singing to the music of
pinkillu flutes. Their music is so beautiful and dancing so enjoyable that you
might easily be charmed away; possibly to your doom. Other people specify that
if you hear the sirinus at, for example, a waterfall, they sound just like pinkillu
flutes. More than any other instrument, the sirinus are especially associated with
the pinkillu flute.
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New pinkillu melodies or wayñu, I was told, must be collected every year.
Today, few people in my host hamlet have the knowledge to make the
dangerous journey to the sirinu to collect these new tunes, although new wayñu
may just fall under men's fingers as they play their flutes, "put there by the
sirinu". From the feast of San Sebastian (20 Jan) new wayñu begin to be
collected, imitated from other communities who still know how to listen to the
sirinu at waterfalls, or even copied from commercial recordings. No matter where
or how these tunes are collected, they are said always to have ultimately come
from the sirinu. San Sebastian, I was told, is the patron saint of the sirinu and on
his nameday they begin to come out of the earth—"just like plants". Similarly,
another neighbour explained that new wayñu tunes come "out of the fields".22
This emergence or birth, between the time of San Sebastian and Carnival, does
not refer to green plants coming out of the earth but to the new baby potato
tubers which begin to form beneath the soil at this time. As the new potatoes
form on the root system of the parent plant, each developing its own individual
identity and shape, so also do the new pinkillu melodies surface with the sirinus.
Accordingly, each melody also has its own individual shape and form. These new
tunes, collected between San Sebastian (20 January) and Carnival
(February/March) are played day and night throughout Carnival, saturating the
soundscape. But then, with the end of Carnival, the pinkillu flutes are
dramatically hushed and hidden away for the dry season.23
Pinkillu flutes are not heard again until the following November when these
same tunes, from the previous Carnival, are played once more24. At this time the
seed potatoes born in the previous rainy season are planted, and start to sprout
horns and grow, encouraged by the wayñu melodies dating from their birth.

21
For further details of sirens and devils as the source of music and enchantment, see Grebe
Vicuña (1980, 150-65), G. Martinez (1989, 52), Turino (1983), Sanchez (1988), R.Martinez
(1990), Van den Berg (1990:130), Arnold (1992).
22
Wirtasmanta lluqsin.
23
This takes place during the pinkillu kacharpaya, mentioned above, when simultaneously
the qhata dance circle is broken and the pinkillu flute players released.
24
In practice a few other new tunes were also played at this time and in other regions new
tunes are collected for this feast. However, my hosts and Alberto Kamaqui specified that the
tunes from the previous Carnival should be played at All Saints (1 November).
 46 British Journal of Elhnomusicology, vol. 3 (1994)

Fig. 6: Cycle o/pinkillu tunes25 fwayñuj

Carnival: "farewell
to the sirens"

Emergence of Feast of the All Saints

the sirens Holy Cross

year 1
year 2
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JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Pinkillu flutes Pinkillu flutes

ESgsgsj First generation of potatoes and wayñu melodies

| | Second generation of potatoes and wayñu melodies

E$$$$$3 Third generation of potatoes and wayñu melodies

These tunes thereby act as an emblem which marks the identity of that
generation of potatoes.
Later in the rainy season, at the feast of San Sebastian (20 January), new baby
potatoes begin to develop beneath the earth and the new melodies (year 2)
which surface with the emergence of the sirinu are collected. Meanwhile the
parent potato becomes rotten (ismu) and disintegrates beneath the soil. The old
melodies, of this dying generation of potatoes (year 1), are now said to be out of
date (pasasqaña) and insipid or tasteless (q'ayma), contrasting with the new
generation which are specified to be sweet or tasty (misk'i)—words that are also
used to describe the flavour of potatoes.

Conclusion
Most vividly, pinkillu tunes and their renewal each year may be seen to
represent the cycle of potato cultivation that is so central to my hosts' survival
and wofldview. The creation and animation of the potato, which parallels and
perhaps forms a model for other forms of life, is expressed and motivated by
music. Music symbolizes animu or life. These melodies, representing the life cycle

25
Also see Arnold (1992:31) who notes that, for the nearby Qaqachakas, the cycling of
tunes is linguistically correlated with both the progressive forgetting or desocialisation of the
dead and with cloth which gradually becomes ragged and wom-out.
 Stobart: Flourishing horns and enchanted tubers 47

of each generation of potatoes, are especially linked with pinkillu flutes. They
are taken up by women's voices, who encircle the male flute players in the qhata
dance. In this uterine embrace the flutes become like seed potatoes enclosed in
the soil; protected, revived, regenerated but also destroyed.
The wooden pinkillu flutes themselves would seem to be understood as a
metaphor for the seed potato, which alternates each year between dormancy and
revitalisation. Their fragile dry-season counterpart, the panpipes, are associated
with chuñu, freeze-dried potatoes, which are frozen and trampled in the cold
winter months.
For my hosts the potato is no mundane staple, but is an enchanting and
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magical being whose life is seen in many ways to parallel and enable their own.
Potatoes must be loved and cared for, just like human children. This sentiment is
expressed through music, song, poetry and dance which, in turn, are some of the
ultimate expressions of human feeling. For the people of this highland hamlet, at
least, it would seem that the potato must count among the most important
organizing principles of musical performance. Or rather, might it be more accurate
to say that music is one of the primary expressions of the potato?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost my deepest gratitude goes to my hosts and to Alberto Camaque for their
friendship, hospitality, patience and enthusiasm. I am also especially grateful to Suzanna
Ranee, Ben Kohl and Linda Farthing for their wonderful and unconditional hospitality,
warmth and humour in La Paz. Thanks to Bill Sillar, Diura Thoden van Velzen, Alison
Spedding, Denise Arnold and Olivia Harris for their comments on earlier drafts of this
paper. Finally, I aknowledge the British Academy and St John's College Cambridge for
funding towards this research.
This paper is dedicated to my brother John, in happy memory of the Bach Two-Part
Inventions and other duets for horn and tuba that we played in our youth.

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