1. The Garland Handbook of Latin American Music
Part Three: Nations and Musical Traditions, Middle Latin America, Kuna

2. Overview
Kuna (Cuna)
Comprised of several slightly different cultural groups sharing common language
Located along rivers in Northern Colombia, Eastern Panama and Caribbean coast, and San Blas Islands
Waterways significant to Kuna
Both in terms of livelihood and as a metaphorical concept
Place emphasis on communication
Music a primary means of communication
This aspect also evident in other Amerindian musical traditions (compare with the Tarahumara, and later chapters on lowland and highland Amerindian traditions)
Vocal and instrumental music genres predominate
Developed notation for memorization of extended chant
Unique among other Amerindian communities

3. Kuna Musical Thinking Beliefs and music
Music intimately linked to Kuna cosmology
Instruments sacred and social
Notions of musical/cultural change also reflect Kuna beliefs
Traditions continually adapting
Intimate connection between past and present
New ways emerge from ancestral voices

4. Kuna Musical Thinking Kuna concept of music
No Kuna equivalent for Western concept of music
Igar (igala; “way” or “path”)
Refers to most vocal genres
Linked with communication
Specific musical and linguistic conventions associated with each genre
Learned through formal apprenticeship
Non-igar vocal genres distinguished in terms of musical and linguistic conventions
Intimate connection between genres, formal music structure, performance practice, style of dancing, and context

5. Musical Instruments, Contexts, and Genres
Represented by Aerophones and idiophones only
Aerophones primarily trumpets, flutes, and panpipes
Two types of panpipes (bound and unbound)
Panpipes organized and performed in complex ways
i.e., Sets of two, three, or six organized either hierarchically, as complementary male-female pairs, or as like members
Contexts and Genres
Primarily vocal
Including heightened speech (i.e., chant), and improvised singing
Reflects connection between beliefs and music (i.e., music as communication)
Association between genre and instruments
Genres also reflect social identity (i.e., gender, age, etc.)
i.e., chanting for healing, narrating history, and for puberty and funeral rites purview of adult males, requires specialized knowledge

6. Music and Beliefs Music, communication, and acculturation
Sandra Smith outlines the relationship between Kuna beliefs and concepts about music, emphasizing the significance of communication for the Kuna
Consider the following questions:
How do Kuna conceptions of music and their use of music reflect Kuna ideas about communication?
How is the Kuna notion of cultural change linked to Kuna beliefs and notions of communication?
What implications do Kuna beliefs and notions of musical change have for our understanding of identity, tradition, and the relationship between past and present?