Title: "Bi-Musicality" in the Cultural Configurations of the Caribbean
Abstract:Melville Herskovits's model in Afro-American studies (see 1958 and 1966), still applied today to Caribbean and Afro-Latin-American culture, was based on ethnographic documentation in the epicenters of...Melville Herskovits's model in Afro-American studies (see 1958 and 1966), still applied today to Caribbean and Afro-Latin-American culture, was based on ethnographic documentation in the epicenters of African retentions in the New World. The purpose of his work, starting in the 1930s in various field sites in the Americas as well as in Dahomey, was to refute the assumption that slavery had been so harsh that it had obliterated all African heritage. He found his proof, in particular, in expressive culture-the arts, language, and ritual. Ritual, which included music, was especially important evidence because of its conservatism. In Bahia, Brazil, for example, he found Yoruba still to be spoken and the ritual in some candomble contexts to be quite true to African practices (Herskovits 1937). However, this fascinating point having been well made, the observations of contemporary scholars who turn to places and contexts at the margins of the African-American culture area may suggest a broadening of Herskovits's model. For example, in ritual counterparts of his case studies from the margins of Afro-America, African influences are clearly apparent in belief systems and ritual, including music. Herskovits would have deemed most such influences reinterpretations rather than African retentions. Moreover, in a single event, African-influenced (though perhaps not African-derived) drumming may coexist with sung rosaries or other sacred texts retained from archaic Catholic liturgy. The two may in fact be performed by the same person. Thus, traditional music from today's point of view may in fact beRead More
Publication Year: 1994
Publication Date: 1994-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 8
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