Ethnic culture in the global orbit: the phenomenon of spatial development of Tuvan folk music

Abstract

Making use of Tuvan folk music as a case study, the article discusses the features of spatial distribution of ethnic culture in the modern world up to the global level. The author investigatesd the importance of the content of local ethnic culture for the global (Western) culture, and the basis of such importance is found in ancestral human needs. Within the frame of the global culture, meeting these needs looks difficult since the dominant values system in global culture prioritizes a different group of human needs. The paper shows how the ethnic culture is capable to meet ancestral needs, since it includes the values, crucial for human existence but located on the periphery of the global (Western) values system. In this case, the ethnic culture performs a communicative function of correlating them with those of an individual. Modern Tuvan folk music demonstrates the importance of preserving the ethnic identity of culture while adapting it to the thesaurus of the representative of Western culture to ensure the possibility of such communication. Such balance is reflected in the new esthetics of the Tuvan folk music, which is based on amplifying its traditional key sound parameters - a focus on the timbre, onomatopoeia and the ‘paradox of timbre’. All of these are converted into neotradition, which re-actualizes such ancestral needs as commitment to a communal type of life, focus on long-term action and on interaction with nature.

Keywords

• этническая культура
• пространственное развитие
• тувинская музыка
• тувинская народная музыка
• world music
• Тува
• тувинцы
• горловое пение
• хоомей
• Хун-Хурту