Flautas de tubo complejo en Los Andes. Nuevos descubrimientos en la organología prehispánica

Abstract

The flutes with complex tube, capable of giving a “cracked sound”, are known in various pre-Hispanic cultures between the south of Peru, the Bolivian altiplano, the Argentine Northwest and North and Central-South Chile. Currently they are only known among the Mapuche and Chinese dances, in Chile, and their archaeological past had been analyzed regarding these living traditions. In this article we want to deliver new information that allows us to expand this panorama towards the Central Andes in pre-Hispanic times. These are ceramic flutes corresponding to different times and cultural systems. These findings relativize the difference, which until now we made, between flutes of a single tube (generically called ‘pifilkas’) and those of several tubes (known generically as ‘antaras’). The interpretation of these data opens new perspectives to the sound panorama of the region in the past, demonstrating a great refinement around the timbre properties of sound and its use as part of the culture.