The Sound of Welsh Patagonia
Performance, Subjectivity, and Music in Y Wladfa, Patagonia, Argentina
9781837722198
Distributed for University of Wales Press
The Sound of Welsh Patagonia
Performance, Subjectivity, and Music in Y Wladfa, Patagonia, Argentina
An ethnographic study of the Welsh-Patagonians that live in the settlement of Y Wladfa.
In 1865, a group of 153 Welsh settlers emigrated to Argentina, following an offer from the Argentine government of one hundred square miles on which to live, with the hope of creating a little Wales away from Wales, free from the influence of the English. The Sound of Welsh Patagonia explores the historical and present-day implications of this emigration through an ethnographic account of how and why Welshness is created, sustained, and performed in the Chubut Province of Patagonia, Southern Argentina.
The monograph is based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in the village of Gaiman and surrounding areas with a community of Welsh Patagonians who live in the Chubut Province. Drawing on data gathered from in-depth participant observation and interviews, it argues that the individual and collective subjectivity (of both the Welsh self and the broader community as Welsh) was performatively constituted in the settler colony through the dynamics of seeing and being seen, and through the dynamics of hearing and being heard. In making this argument, The Sound of Welsh Patagonia analyses a series of ethnographic encounters to consider the usefulness and limitations of concepts that have been developed to theorize the self, such as subjectivity, subjectivization, performance, performativity, and self-cultivation.
In 1865, a group of 153 Welsh settlers emigrated to Argentina, following an offer from the Argentine government of one hundred square miles on which to live, with the hope of creating a little Wales away from Wales, free from the influence of the English. The Sound of Welsh Patagonia explores the historical and present-day implications of this emigration through an ethnographic account of how and why Welshness is created, sustained, and performed in the Chubut Province of Patagonia, Southern Argentina.
The monograph is based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in the village of Gaiman and surrounding areas with a community of Welsh Patagonians who live in the Chubut Province. Drawing on data gathered from in-depth participant observation and interviews, it argues that the individual and collective subjectivity (of both the Welsh self and the broader community as Welsh) was performatively constituted in the settler colony through the dynamics of seeing and being seen, and through the dynamics of hearing and being heard. In making this argument, The Sound of Welsh Patagonia analyses a series of ethnographic encounters to consider the usefulness and limitations of concepts that have been developed to theorize the self, such as subjectivity, subjectivization, performance, performativity, and self-cultivation.
272 pages | 14 color plates, 2 maps | 5.43 x 8.5
History: Latin American History
Sociology: Social History
Table of Contents
Figures,
Acknowledgements,
A note on translation,
Chapter 1: Introduction – Musical Encounters,
Chapter 2: A little Wales away from Wales,
Chapter 3: ‘Eisteddfodamos’: Eisteddfod as ritual performance,
Chapter 4: Performing Patagonia under the gaze of the Welsh other,
Chapter 5: Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the most Welsh of them all?,
Chapter 6: “The community is a family, and the choir is the glue”: Performing Patagonia for the ear of the Welsh other,
Chapter 7: Conclusions - Sound and the subject,
Works cited, p. 301
Acknowledgements,
A note on translation,
Chapter 1: Introduction – Musical Encounters,
Chapter 2: A little Wales away from Wales,
Chapter 3: ‘Eisteddfodamos’: Eisteddfod as ritual performance,
Chapter 4: Performing Patagonia under the gaze of the Welsh other,
Chapter 5: Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the most Welsh of them all?,
Chapter 6: “The community is a family, and the choir is the glue”: Performing Patagonia for the ear of the Welsh other,
Chapter 7: Conclusions - Sound and the subject,
Works cited, p. 301