The idiophones of the Ava people

The Ava, a Guarani-speaking people of the Bolivian and Argentine lowlands, preserved a complex musical tradition shaped by Amazonian, Arawak, Andean, and colonial influences despite centuries of warfare, displacement, and missionary intervention. Closely tied to rituals such as the aréte guásu, their musical heritage includes drums, flutes, trumpets, whistles, idiophones, and the singular turumi violin, all generally handcrafted by the performers themselves and embedded in ceremonial, social, and symbolic practices linking music, dance, memory, sexuality, warfare, and relations between the living and the dead.

Among the Ava idiophones was the yandúgua, a rhythm stick, similar to an umbrella, used by the yingári or "dance master" in the ayarisse, a song-dance performed during the aréte in honor of Ñandu Tumpa. It was made with ostrich feathers tied around a long, straight cane.

Another idiophone was the yvýra nambichái, or "tree tendril," anklets made of seeds obtained from a type of vine covered in tendrils.

More information about these sound artifacts can be found in the free-access digital book Musical instruments of the Ava people, accessible through the "Digital books on music. Series 1" section.