Painted Drum

An Indigenous Andean animal hide stretched on a painted drum depicts a figure wearing a ceremonial headdress. This drum is thought to have been played by a woman. Spaniards saw how sacred music was to Indigenous Andean ceremonial practices, and so they systematically destroyed thousands of musical instruments to hasten Andean conversion to Christianity. Major gaps in musical tradition therefore exist. Rare items like this are reminders of what the Spanish took and why.

In the 1600s, music was so important to Indigenous Andean ceremonial life that Spaniards destroyed thousands of musical instruments to hasten Natives’ conversion to Christianity. The number of surviving, older instruments suggests that music had similar import in earlier periods. This rare example is painted with a figure wearing a crescent headdress, an emblem of status; it may have been played by a woman.