Amazon Music and Identity Research Group

Amazon Music and Identity Research Group

The Amazon Music and Identity Research Group was founded in 2007; it works on three areasof study: 1. Amazon Indigenous Music; 2. Ethnomusicological studies in Pará, and; 3. Relationships between art, culture and society. The group members are undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctorate researchers, volunteers and researches in general. The group integrates the Pará scenario of researches in ethnomusicological studies through publications, symposia, congresses, research and extension projects and partnerships with other regional, national and international groups. It has an audiovisual archive with ethnographic material constituted from researches in Rio Negro, Oiapoque and Marajó areas, as well as a special pictures collection of Tapajônica and Marajoara musical instruments from the Amazon Musical Archaeology project – in partnership with the Rio de Janeiro National Museum and the Emilio Goeldi Museum in Belém. External partnerships were established with official organizations, such as the Rio Negro Indigenous Federation (FOIRN), and with other traditional communities in Pará. The development of researches on Amazon indigenous societies has offered us other musical epistemology, networks and research collaborations, interchanges and a partnership with these traditional communities. The archaeomusicolocial studies on precolombian societies – Tapajós and Marajó – offers a perspective of these indigenous groups musical practices, integrating rituals and funerals ceremonies. Unfortunately in the scene of ethnomusicology in Pará it is noticeable the absence of African heritage music studies. Other ongoing projects include Japanese immigration, gender studies, and a comparative study on Pan-Amazonian ethnomusicological studies that intends to generate a comprehensive view of the researches made in Amazon.