Content uploaded by Robert Bradley
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Robert Bradley on Jun 19, 2014
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
A Western Mirage on the Bolivian Altiplano
Abstract and Figures
A history of the Bolivia's Gateway of the Sun with emphasis on Western visitors during the 19th century.
Figures - uploaded by Robert Bradley
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Robert Bradley
Content may be subject to copyright.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Recent social violence in Bolivia is examined in the context of that country's dominant historical narratives. The practice of archaeology in Bolivia is intimately tied to the development of nationalism and a history of colonialism. While the history of Bolivian archaeology has seen multiple interpretations of the past, the dominant voices have consistently emphasized understandings of the past that legitimize and bolster Bolivian nationalism and contemporary social politics. In particular, theAltiplano site ofTiwanaku has been formulated as a locus of Bolivian national patrimony, while other regions have been marginalized as ‘peripheries’ or ‘frontiers’. This understanding of history is not simply a matter of debate for archaeologists, but has very real consequences in present-day geopolitics and the lives of individuals.
The present article has two tasks: to define the essential features of a musical form widely known during the eighteenth century by its Italian name of serenata , and to give an account of its cultivation in Venice during the same period. We shall need to devote considerable space to the first task, since by no means all writers on music recognize the serenata as an independent genre, some viewing it as a species of miniature opera and others as merely a particularly elaborate type of cantata; further, not all commentators share our view that the term was once used - and ought still to be used for analytical purposes - in a generic sense, so as to include not only works actually termed serenata but also many others with original descriptions as diverse as azione, componimento, festa or introduzione. So we must start by identifying as precisely as possible the repertory under consideration. Subsequently, when we examine the occasions on which serenatas were performed and the ways in which their music, words and manner of presentation were made to fit those occasions, we shall limit ourselves to a single city, Venice, and its dominions. This restriction has the practical advantage of bringing our investigation within manageable proportions without demanding the sacrifice of too much detail. But it has another, more fundamental purpose. Since the serenata was the most ‘occasional’ of genres, any study of it in a local context will throw into relief the peculiarities of that locality's political and social life. Nowhere could this be truer than in Venice, a city unlike any other in government, institutions, economy, mores, and, not least, topography. By studying the Venetian serenata we can learn more about Venice itself.
BlackJeremy. The British Abroad: The Grand Tour in the Eighteenth Century. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Alan Sutton. 1992. Pp.xx, 355. £17.99. - Volume 25 Issue 1 - Morris R. Brownell
