Sonora’s Sacred Soundscapes --Sones Sagrados Sonorenses—

<p>This work begins with a research interest in the folklore of the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. The unexpected discovery of an archive at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage initiates an act of return: the repatriation of sound recordings made in 1944 in Desemboque, Sonora, by ethnomusicologist Henrietta Yurchenco. What starts as a general inquiry into cultural memory evolves into a deeper engagement with sound, place, and the enduring presence of ancestral knowledge. In reestablishing a living lineage between past and present, the researcher embarks on an ethnographic journey shaped by collaboration, introspection, and relational meaning-making. Grounded in a decolonial and autoethnographic approach, this ethnographic study challenges extractive models of research by centering reciprocity, community engagement, and the co-creation of knowledge. Central to this process are María Luisa Astorga and Adolfo Burgos, whose work as cultural bearers and scholars provides profound hermeneutical insight into sacred soundscapes and oral traditions rooted in spiritual practice. Ultimately, this research reframes sacred soundscapes through an environmental and collaborative lens, mapping a path of academic, spiritual, and cultural resonance across the landscapes and coastlines of the Sonoran Desert.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Cultural Studies, PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Arts and Humanities

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Lesperance, Henry

Contributors dc:contributor

• David Luis-Brown
• Paul Faulstich

• Chicanx/Latinx Studies
• Environmental Studies
• Ethnography
• Ethnomusicology
• Indigeneity
• Visual Studies
• Social and Cultural Anthropology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1000

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-2022