Music as an experience integral to the ethnicity of the Mbya-Guarani of South America

The Mbya culture forms a part of the Guarani ethnic group that mainly inhabits the territories of south-eastern Brazil, in the Province of Misiones - Argentina, and the Republic of Paraguay. This article will focus mainly on field observations I have made in different communities in these countries, and which will try to synthetically reveal aspects of musical transmission that cross horizontally with an analysis thereof. It forms part of a larger work of investigation which dates from the year 2001, arising from my professional concern to address a gap in the knowledge available to student teachers taking the subject of Didactics of Music during Teacher Training course for Primary School. As a basic requisite of the course, the students were asked to do some research work concerning the native guarani music, but unfortunately they were not able to find regarding material. The manifest lack of information led me to develop a training programme for teachers in the Province of Misiones that was called The Mbya Sound Art as a Pedagogical Instrument, in the service of education for the cultural identity', which was sanctioned by the Ministry of Culture, Education, Science and Technology of the Province. My objective was to communicate general aspects of Mbya history and culture, to teach also the musical expressions through the implementation of workshops that included the construction of the mimby eta(1) and the learning of dances and songs.