Anthropology

Music

Ethnomusicology: The study of music in its social and cultural contexts.

  • Frances Densmore —>Native American Music & Culture

Musical Instruments in Prehistory: Field of Ethnomusicology focuses on all aspects of music including its genre, message, artist, and instruments used to do so

  • Emily Brown studied development of musical instruments in Ancestral puebloan sites. This yielded insights to the types of instruments created including percussion and woodwind flutes used to create music culturally centric to the Puebloan people. Also gave insight in structural hierarchy of those entrusted to manufacture instruments. Techniques for creating instruments are passed down ensuring knowledge is carried through future generations.

Structure & Function of Music in Different Societies: Grounded in human experience. Structure evolved along with the experience of human who created it.

  • Early 1800s hymns of Choctaw tribes show the traumatic experiences from when Choctaw people were removed from their homelands and reservation camps by the government. Songs speak of both individual and collective experiences.

  • Enslaved people used music as emotional escape from difficult situations and as means of communicating with those speaking different languages during Middle Passage.

    • “Go Down Moses” used by Harriet Tubman as a Underground Railroad conductor as a signal to those who were enslaved to escape to freedom. Song speaks of Isralites enslaved by Egyptians in ancient times.

  • Civil rights movement, many black artists used music as a way to challenge structural inequity.

    • Aretha Franklin

    • Sam Cooke - “King Of Soul”, first band Soul Stirrers

    • Bob Dylan - “The Times They Are A-Changin”

Importance Of Sociocultural Context In Understanding Music:

Patricia Campbell proposed that children’s perspectives on musical interests are derived from their family, community, and environment. Your appreciation for music is founded in the sociocultural environemnet that you were raised in.

Music As Basis For Subculture & Community:

Affiliation of music with identity become a common inquiry with rise of music subcultures which arose in the 1970s.

  • Punk SubCulture - Formed own community and values founded on DIY. Need to break from common ideals and values in order to think and do for oneself.

Cultural Appropriation: Improper or disrespectful use of a meaningful element of a culture or identity outside of its intended cultural context by someone who is not a part of that culture of identity. Often involved with social inequity.

  • Wesley Morris —> NYT writer who wrote in the 1619 Project regarding mass appropriation of Black Music

Sport

Anthropology Of Sports:

Anthropologists understand sports as a cultural performance. The study of sport is used for archaeologist research related to spots tools, human interaction of sport, or biological maturation.

  • Ajeet Jaiswal —>Describes as the study of human growth and development

  • Sport artifacts offer significant contributions to material art

  • Sports offered theatrical performances since ancient times

Evolution Of Sports:

For most of documented history, sports played a significant part in the human experience for audience and participants.

  • Sports provide more than entertainment. With the commercialization of sports, many common people attend sporting events. The business of sports creates opportunities for success in people with exceptional abilities.

Youth Sports:

Recreational sports for youth are common in various cultures. This can be especially important in marginalized communities where sports are viewed as deterrents from dangerous activities. Programs are often focused on community-building initiatives.

  • Indigenous Americans —> Rezaball, an aggressive style of basketball.

Anthropology, Representation, & Performance

Cultural Identities:

Art, music, and sports have been sources of cultural identity from prehistoric times. Art and sports are intertwined with several human rights movements and the pushed for diversity. Music provides a mean for escape. Sports give a platform for cultural identity.

Art As Resistance:

  • Graffiti —>Reminisce to ancient cave paintings. Graffiti became a popular form of cultural expression in Western countries in the 1960s. Modern graffiti is often performed in public view, intended to make a statement

    • Banksy —>English street artist active for more than three decades. Views art as act of rebellion, was often in trouble as a teenager which lead to him first exploring art. Art typically responds to social or cultural issues.

Music As Resistance:

  • Hip-Hop —>Consistently served as a means of protesting injustice toward people of color. Inception in 1970s. Increased representation has come increased acceptance for hip-hop as a respected art form.

    • Kendrick Lamar “DAMN”

    • Chuck D & Flavor Flav “Public Enemy”

Sport As Resistance:

  • Olympics —>Tommie SMith & John Carlos depicted raising black-gloved fists during medal ceremony. 1968 black power salute.

  • Jackie Robinson —>Major league Baseball

  • Colin Kaepernick kneeling during national anthem NFL player

Integral Features:

  • Can be resistance and display evidence of historical resistance.

  • Tells stories of people since prehistoric times

  • Aspects of the human condition foundational in each form of resistance.