Culture of Peru
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Peru |
The Native American heritage of Peru is one of the richest in South America. Although Spain gave Peru its language, religion, and rulers, the civilization of the Inca has left its traces throughout Peruvian culture. Archaeological excavations have uncovered monumental remains of Native American societies. The Inca in particular were skilled in stonework, engineering, weaving, and gold and silver work. The Nazca and Moche people, who inhabited Peru before the Inca, created textiles, pottery, and jewelry. Examples of their art can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum in Lima. Architecture of the Spanish colonial period, a fusion of Spanish and Native American forms, is called Creole. In art, painters known as nativists pointedly interpreted 20th-century Peru in a Native American mode. |
The descendants of the Quechua and Aymara peoples populate the Andean highlands of Peru. Many do not speak Spanish and have preserved the customs and folklore of their ancestors. Along the coast and in the highland cities, white, mestizo, and black Peruvians live in a modern Western style. In contrast to these settlements are the jungles of eastern Peru, where more isolated groups of Native Americans retain lifestyles similar to those of their ancestors. The pentatonic scale used by the ancient peoples of Peru still survives, and instruments whose origins date from the pre-Columbian period (before the arrival of Europeans) are widely used today. |
They include the reed quena or flute, the antara or panpipes, conch shells, the ocarina, and various percussion devices. The Spaniards brought stringed instruments to Peru. The violin, the harp, the guitar, and the charango, a mandolin-like instrument, are very popular. Among the most popular folksongs and dances are the yariví, a love song; the huayno, a rapid dance of the highlands; the cashua, a circle dance; and the marinera or zamacueca, a handkerchief dance. Lima has a national music conservatory and a symphony orchestra, the latter organized in 1938 by Austrian-born Theo Buchwald. The orchestra encourages Peruvian composers by performing their compositions. |
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Music of Peru. eldoradomusic.net |
The most distinguished 20th-century Peruvian composer was the Paris-born André Sas, who founded a music school in Lima in 1929. His compositions reflect the influence of native music. Sas was also an authority on folk music. Encarta |
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