SEARCHING FOR THE “AUTHENTIC NATIONALISM”. INSTITUTIONALISATION OF FOLK DANCES REPERTORIES FROM ARGENTINA, BOLIVIA AND PERU BY THE MIDDLE OF XX CENTURY

Abstract

This paper discusses in a comparable manner the constitution of the hegemonic folk repertories of Peruvian, Bolivian and Argentinean dances and their institutionalization in the ’40 and ‘50, intending to reflect on the diverse aesthetic significations and valuations attributed to the expressive elements that were constructed in them as “Indigenous”, “Andean”, “Afro” and “Creole”. Through the researches based on historic sources and our own ethnographic materials, this work describes the conformation of these repertories, accounting for the main actors involved –governments, cultural promoters, artists, researchers, diffusers- that resulted in the creation of cultural patrimonies and modes of nationalism. During this period, the institution and folk programs of research encouraged the preservation and compilation of what they considered “survivals” (music, dance and oral literature), under a social and cultural conflict characterized of intense internal migrations that increase ambivalent feelings about the popular sectors. Finally, we consider that in the three cases analyzed, ideological apparatus were developed which supported an hegemonic vision of the historic processes and the “authenticity” of certain expressive elements and his repertories, that involved the legitimation of unilineal projects about the culture and the current citizens identities’ representations.