Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Sustainable and resilient cultural processes, like sustainable ecosystems, require change. All life needs to adapt—even innovate—to survive. This paper shows some of the ways that musical practices have adapted over the past 150 years in the Polish Tatra Mountain region (alpine region of the Carpathian Mountains) in response to dramatic sociopolitical changes and a rapidly developing tourism industry. The musical practices both materially and sonically continue to change, yet the core performative values remain remarkably resilient and identifiably “traditional,” thus modeling a social system that values Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as a flexible way of being. This study explores ways that TEK is remembered and still practiced in some performative traditions of the Tatra Mountains, thus allowing many regional Górale (mountaineers) to continue living thoroughly within the beautiful but unforgiving high Tatras and fully in the modern world. However, recent ethnographic research suggests that many related practices are losing material ties to local ecosystems as unique regional production technologies succumb to less-expensive global imports. This may be severing many of the ties to the ecology and the landscape—both of which have historically defined the region. I also ask how scholars of performance traditions might collaborative with environmental scientists to develop adaptive human-cultural practices and policies that are equitable and sustainable for all biological beings in the Carpathian and other delicate mountain ecosystems.

Presenters

Timothy Cooley
Professor, Department of Music (Ethnomusicology), Global Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, California, United States