Ecosystems and Sounding Lives: Musical Instrument Makers in Greater Central Asia

Environmental changes present new challenges for twenty-first century musical instrument makers who continue customary practices but are also forced to make visual and sonic changes due to eroding natural resource access and health. Informed by fieldwork in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, western China, and western Mongolia, this article uses an eco-ethnomusicological approach to consider relationships between instrument making and the social, cultural, and ecological systems that influence the characteristics of natural resources and the creative opportunities of makers. Managing change, makers use prior knowledge to account for patterns and variables and support adaptation as they work to sustain local musical practices.