Review of 'Music of the Ancestors' by Gordon Spearritt (original) (raw)
Related papers
Kelambut: environment-based traditional music of the Waena Tribe, Sentani, Jayapura, Papua
The 5th International Conference on Climate Change 2020 24-25 September 2020, Bali, Indonesia, 2021
Kelambut is an important instrument for the Waena Tribe and plays a vital role in raising awareness about climate change mitigation. However, until now there has been no indepth study about Kelambut music. The purpose of this study is to identify the traditional music of Kelambut musically and to know the meaning of Kelambut for the Waena tribe. This research was conducted using qualitative methods. The data source is the music of Kelambut itself; the informants are the chief of the Waena tribe, performers, and local cultural observer. All data collected through participative observation, interviews, records, and FGDs were analyzed using ethnic music theory and structural-functional theory. The results are: (1) Kelambut is a traditional musical instrument made from natural environmental wood in the Sentani area. It resembles a boat and is played by hitting the inside part and functions as a communication tool and musical accompaniment to dance. (2) Besides valuing it as a work of art, to balance life with the environment, the Waena tribe also interprets Kelambut as sacred music which provides protection, as a liaison with their ancestors, as a sign of the appointment of a tribal chief (Ondoafi), and as the cultural identity.
Assessing music shift: adapting EGIDS for a Papua New Guinea community
2014
Cite this article: Neil Coulter (2012). Assessing music shift: adapting EGIDS for a Papua New Guinea community. In Niclas Burenhult, Arthur Holmer, Anastasia Karlsson, Hakan Lundstrom & Jan-Olof Svantesson (eds) Language Documentation and Description, vol 10: Special Issue on Humanities of the lesser-known: New directions in the description, documentation and typology of endangered languages and musics. London: SOAS. pp. 61-81
When the echoes are gone : a Yolngu musical anthropology
2001
Music is ubiquitous in the social life of the Y olngu people of northeast Arnhem Land in northern Australia. Not only does it accompany virtually every phase of ritual, including dance, painting, and the production of sacred objects, but it is frequently performed in non-ritual contexts as well, purely for the enjoyment of performers and listeners alike. As such, an understanding of music provides a unique and privileged point of entry into the study of Yolngu culture as a whole. The ethnomusicologist Anthony Seeger has written that an anthropology of music examines the ways in which music is an integral part of culture, while in contrast a musical anthropology examines the ways in which culture is musical and aspects of culture are created and re-created through musical performance. This dissertation is a work of musical anthropology. I provide a detailed examination of the form, content, and meaning of the songs of one particular group of Yolngu, the DhaJwangu people of the commun...
In A. Rumsey, & D. Niles (Eds.), Sung tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands: Studies in form, meaning and sociocultural context (pp. 49-63). Canberra: ANU E Press., 2011
1 Another issue for further exploration concerns how the predominantly sung genre of pikono overlaps with the spoken genre of hapia po, and how these categories are defined and mobilized by different Duna individuals and communities. 2 The term "parish" was introduced to Melanesian anthropology by Hogbin and Wedgwood, who define it as "the largest local group forming a political unit," elaborating that "each parish, then, is composed of persons associated with a certain tract of land, bearing a distinctive name" (1953:243, 253). In using the term parish we follow other scholars of Duna culture, who in turn followed terminology used by Modjeska ). Parish divisions were present in pre-contact times, and are known in Duna as rindi ('land(s)'). See , and Strathern and Stewart (2004) for further information concerning Duna parish divisions and membership rights and responsibilities.
In January and February 2014, the authors went on a fieldtrip to Sumatra’s West Coast with Padang as its centre aiming at discovering and analysing traces of Indian music practices within modern Sumatran society. This fieldtrip was not announced in advance and did not allow for preparations on the side of the informants and performers. All the authors found is exactly that what is always available and could be regularly reproduced. The authors’ impact on the scene was comparatively small as Sumatra is an area that is not unknown to the world of ethnomusicology. Evidence of some ethnomusicological activities such as documents of research-based projects regarding performing arts of Sumatra could be found in the library of Institute Seni Indonesia of Padangpanjang and in the local Museum of Arts in Padang’s Minang Village. However, this paper is initially focused on providing information about unnoticed traces of Hindustani music and some Hindustani cultural aspects that are still extant in some urban West Sumatran communities. The Indian population of Sumatra is multi-layered from every aspect. It is a minority that includes a number of sub-minorities. Orang Kling musicians are a special case as they are descendants from different Indian origin that were migrating at different times who are now mainly Muslims. Simultaneously, they are those responsible for entertainment, a business that is often challenged by leading religious and ideological opinions. The music they are playing and identify themselves with ranges from drumming in the mosque to wedding music that is Bollywood inspired, and storytelling. Two findings were outstanding: the drum of the Muhammadhan Mosque, mainly used by the Kling, with the flower offerings; and the second are musical objects and practical knowledge excavated from Sofian’s family that is trading in spices and has been the centre of some Kling musicians in Padang and Pariaman. Finally, this preliminary study gives an ethnographic as well as individual account on the musical understanding of this group of Indians among other Indians along Sumatra’s West Coast. While “Kling” has in some other places of the Malay World a pejorative meaning, the Kling of Padang and Pariaman are seemingly proud of their name. The discussion of historical and recent literature as well as some questions arising from it may contribute to understand why this is so and whether the musical self of the orang Kling in West Sumatra expresses a differentiated view on their cultural positioning. The story of the orang Kling and their music in Sumatra can throw another light on the complexity of migration and the history of constructing minorities in Southeast Asia.