The flute yoresóx of the Chiquitano

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The Chiquitano are a society indigenous to the lowlands of eastern Bolivia, with a population of between 40,000 and 60,000 individuals (the third largest in the country) distributed among the provinces of Ñuflo de Chaves, Velasco, Sandoval, Germán Busch, Ichilo and Chiquitos (department of Santa Cruz) and Iténez (department of Beni), as well as in three municipalities in the state of Mato Grosso (Brazil). Speakers of the Bésiro language (the fourth most used in Bolivia), they dedicate themselves to agriculture and work on local farms, and keep alive an important part of their identity as a community.

This society arose from the amalgamation of several indigenous ethnic groups, gathered in the Jesuit reductions that were established in the area starting in the 17th century. The Guaraní who accompanied the conquerors used the derogatory diminutive tapiï-mirí, "small slaves", to refer to these peoples. The Europeans simplified the term by calling them "chiquitos" — "little ones". The area they inhabited was since then baptized "Llanos de Chiquitos" or "Chiquitanía".

The Chiquitano have a wide and rich organological heritage, which includes the buxikia busúkïro: wind instruments. Among them is the yoresóx, ioresox or ioresorr, which is also called seku-seku or secusecu. This last term derives from the word siku, the popular panpipe of the Andean highlands, with which the yoresóx bears similarities.

   [Video. From YouTube user Yerko Amilcar Villarroel M.]

It is a panpipe composed of two rows of different sizes, with three tubes each, between which the six possible notes are distributed alternately. Both rows are complementary, played by two different musicians, and are known as "mother" and "daughter" or "male" and "female". The pipes of each row are tied with purubixh cotton thread.

It can be played from Ash Wednesday to the feast of Saint Peter (June 29). It appears especially during Easter Sunday processions, being executed among compadres. Some sources cite her as navotich; the German ethnologist E. H. Snethlage picked up the appellation abōísch. Among the Chiquitano of Brazil it is also called yoresóxh.

More information about this sound artifact can be found in the free-access digital book Musical instruments of the Chiquitano people (Wayrachaki Editora, 2017), accessible through the "In English > Publications > Digital books on music" section at Instrumentarium.

About the post

Text: Edgardo Civallero.

Publication date: 25.09.2023.

Picture: Flute yoresóx. In Musical instruments of the Chiquitano people.