ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes the comparative perspective of anthropology to explore violins as migrating objects. It explores migration and mobility as cover terms for all kinds of movement, including of people, objects, ideas, resources, status, and power. A profound factor driving cultural mixture, and most pertinent to the migration of violins, has been colonialism. Colonialism was the major force behind the migration and adaptation of the violin outside Europe. The violin as played in South India gives a chance to explore the process of indigenization and to consider how adoption of a musical instrument is linked to other cultural changes. Karnatic violin playing has continued to change over time, owing in part to several influential artists. By the late 20th century, its style got smoother, more florid, and capable of greater speed. In parts of the Middle East, adoption of violins was part of a larger process of incorporating elements of Western music.
