Music praxis, sumak-alli kawsay (wellness-healthy living) and cultural transformative action in two Andean Ecuadorian communities

This dissertation investigates the multidimensional relationship between music praxis and collective wellness-healthy living-sumak kawsay-alli kawsay within two North Andean Kichwa Kutakachi Ecuadorian communities, San Pedro and Santa Bárbara, in the Cotacachi canton. Drawing on the Latin American paradigm of social determination of health and contributions from (ethno)musicology and social sciences, particularly anthropology, it proposes a critical musicology that understands music not exclusively as symbolic expression nor as a self-contained sonic object, but as a socially determined praxis participating in the reproduction and transformation of collective life. This framework advances a transdisciplinary and intercultural approach grounded in collaborative knowledge construction between the communities and the researcher. Through a metacritical methodology grounded in the paradigm of social determination, and drawing on documentary research, critical geography, ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and critical musicological analysis, this dissertation examines the tonos, chants, and prayers of the Flauteros, Cantoras y Rezadores of the Holy Week/Pascua/Pawkar Raymi procession. It analyzes this as a socially determined music praxis dialectically articulated within processes of collective wellness-healthy living, including territory, memory, and social relations. The contrast between San Pedro and Santa Bárbara—despite their shared historical and geographical space—reveals differing degrees of modernization and transculturation, and their corresponding impacts on collective life and music praxis. The study further demonstrates how music praxis involves both protective and destructive processes within socially determined modes of living, while simultaneously participating in their reproduction and transformation. The findings contribute to critical, transdisciplinary, and intercultural approaches to music and collective wellness-healthy living, and propose pathways for transformative sociocultural action grounded in the specific historical and territorial configurations of community life.