Thesis summary

Those that fly without wings – Music and Dance in a Chilean immigrant Community

Jan Sverre Knudsen
HOME (English)
HJEM (Norwegian)

Those that fly without wings is an ethnomusicological study concentrating on the practice of music and dance within the Chilean community of Oslo. The study falls within the frames of a “Scandinavian ethnomusicological tradition”, a school of thought where music and dance is studied in view of its social significance. It is a qualitative and interpretive account of how music activity plays a part in the negotiation and construction of identity in an urban landscape, as well as how it gives a voice to internal tensions and contradictions within the immigrant group.

The study concerns a community with a considerable musical activity of various Latin American genres, taking place in public as well as private arenas. By engaging with both historical and present discourses in the community, complex processes of cultural adaptation, redefinition and reconstruction are addressed. Based on field research and interviews as well as song lyrics and poetry, the study examines various ways in which a group of people with an active and committed relationship to music make their practices meaningful in this particular social setting. Drawing upon social constructionist theory, it is argued that performative expressions should not be regarded as reflections of fixed systems of meaning, but rather as sites for negotiating and re-negotiating cultural identities and social life.

Music activity is described as an essential part of the maintenance of the Chilean community as a distinct social entity. The study argues that immigrant culture is intimately connected to social needs of the present and should not be regarded primarily as a way of maintaining links to “roots” and “tradition”. It also challenges prevailing notions of immigrant music as a tool for creating multicultural understanding and bridging ethnic boundaries. This is done by demonstrating how music styles and practices can play a part in the construction of notions of “difference” and “otherness”.