2022 Volume 87 Issue 3 Pages 480-498
In resent years, a series of discussions around the so-called "post-relations" is gradually becoming popular in Euro-American anthropology. According to these discussions, anthropologists have focused too much on relationships and connections, leading to the problem that people who are not connected even if they want to connect and the behavior of daring to refuse connection are no longer visible and thematized in the field. In fact, even in anthropological research on music, there has been a tendency to regard music as something that "connects with others" and to value this connection as something positive. The purpose of this paper is to present the musical concepts of "music against others" and "music to be in solitude," daring to oppose this relational view of music. Specifically, we will observe the case of Bolivian folkloristic music and try to extract unique thoughts on music through the life histories of two musicians. Although both musicians were active at the dawn of folklore music, their success gradually declined over time, and they attempted to make a comeback. This paper will discuss their thoughts under the theme of the desire for solitude, showing how they have continued to resist Bolivian kinship, peer relationships, and the times, and how this overlaps with the view of music as power in Bolivia.
