Mexico. Sua monografia seminal Sound and Sentiment [Som e sentimento], de 1982, realizada a parti... more Mexico. Sua monografia seminal Sound and Sentiment [Som e sentimento], de 1982, realizada a partir de anos de pesquisa na floresta Bosavi, na Papua Nova Guiné, é um marco etnográfico para a antropologia do som, da música e dos sentidos. Em 2012, lançou o livro Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra [O cosmopolitismo do jazz em Acra], juntamente com produções em CD e DVD de seu próprio selo, VoxLox, voltado para produções colaborativas. Seu distanciamento de abordagens c l á s s i c a s e m e t n o m u s i c o l o g i a aprofundou-se com pesquisas sobre jazz em Acra e a relação entre sinos,
What are the major ways that the classless and generally egalitarian features of one small-scale ... more What are the major ways that the classless and generally egalitarian features of one small-scale society reveal themselves in the structure of organized sounds? What are the major ways that these same features reveal themselves in the social organization and ideology of soundmakers and soundmaking? By providing an overview of these areas I hope to illuminate some dimensions of a sociology of sound for the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea, a traditionally nonstratified society where egalitarian features seem significant to sound structure, and where inequalities also are clearly represented in the distribution of expressive resources for men and women. My concern with these problems derives from a preoccupation with merging ethnomusicological questions (the cultural study of the shared meanings of musical sounds) with sociomusical ones (the study of musical sounds from perspectives of the social structure and social organization of resources, makers, and occasions). My work of the last few years (Feld 1981, 1982, 1983) attempts to understand the most salient lessons about the structure and meaning of Kaluli sounds and ways they are inseparable from the fabric of Kaluli social life and thought, where they are taken for granted as everyday reality by members of this society. My title alludes to a perspective that considers structured sound as "un fait social total," in the sense that sociologists like Durkheim, Mauss, G. H. Mead, and Schutz stress the primacy of symbolic action in an ongoing intersubjective lifeworld, and the ways engagement in symbolic action continually builds and shapes actors' perceptions and meanings. My title also alludes to another paper, Song structure and social structure, one of Alan Lomax's seminal cantometric reports (Lomax 1962). This reference is meant to locate this paper, and the Kaluli pattern it reports, in a larger comparative framework for the sociomusical analysis of classless and egalitarian societies. In doing so I also want to reconsider Lomax's rationale for why we should compare sociomusical systems, and what we can compare from one to the next. For Lomax the "principal message of music concerns a fairly limited and crude set of patterns" (1962:450); as a form of human behavior music should be Final version rec'd: 2/1/84 ? 1984 Society for Ethnomusicology 383 384 ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, SEPTEMBER 1984 seen as highly patterned, regular, and redundant in each society, yielding stable structures. Lomax suggested that cantometrics provide profiles for each of these societal musical norms. Moreover, "these stable structures correspond to and represent patterns of interpersonal relationship which are fundamental in the various forms of social organization" (1962:449). Or, as he later put it, the "salient features of songs are symbols for the key institutions of society such as the sexual division of labor and the state" (1976:9). Lomax suggested that songs identify, represent, or otherwise reinforce the core structures of society. By comparing distinct patterns of vocalizing, Lomax attempted to construct world stylistic maps, raise questions of evolutionary sequence, and correlate dimensions of performance style with basic data on techno-economic complexity, mode of production, and social organization for a world ethnographic sample. In Lomax's conception comparative research is fundamental to knowing how properties of singing style (musical behavior rather than musical content) significantly co-vary with social institutions and other levels of cultural behavior. The expectation all along was for highly patterned shapes for each culture, because "singing is viewed as an act of communicative behavior that must conform to a culture's standard of performance if it is to achieve its social ends" (Lomax 1976:11). Compare what? Lomax compared samples of ten songs from four hundred cultures and correlated the codings with social structural data profiles from Murdock's cross-cultural surveys and the Human Relations Area Files (Murdock 1967,1969). The small sample size of songs per society was justified by Lomax's belief that each society has highly standardized and highly redundant performance models. "Cantometrics is a study of these standardized models, which describe singing rather than song. Therefore, it is not primarily concerned with complete collections and descriptions, but with locating provable regularities and patterns, in the fashion of science" (Lomax 1976:17). Lomax's 37 coding dimensions attempt to factor all significant universal elements of song performance style on gradient scales. Lomax's major report was greeted with mixed enthusiasm. Sample size and time depth, compatibility of song data with social structural data, psychocultural reductionism, inferential history, reading correlation as causation, intracultural and areal variability, and the extent to which the coding system normalized raters in ways which constrain the accuracy of pattern judgement were all causes of critical discussion surrounding this monumental work. Much of the criticism focused on method and data interpretation, and not upon Lomax's basic hypotheses about music as a universal public communication of social identity. Whatever one's reaction to Folk Song Style and Culture, the publication of the cantometrics training tapes and coding book (Lomax 1976) must be greeted as a major event in the history of comparative musical research. Few researchers ever make their methods so available to others, and we should be grateful to
Boudreault-Fournier-Ce numéro spécial d'Anthropologie et Sociétés sur le son s'intitule « Champs ... more Boudreault-Fournier-Ce numéro spécial d'Anthropologie et Sociétés sur le son s'intitule « Champs sonores ». En me préparant pour cet entretien, 1 j'ai réalisé que nous aurions aussi pu l'appeler « Relations sonores » pour mettre de l'avant le thème de l'ontologie relationnelle associé au monde sonore. Pourriez-vous développer davantage cette idée en utilisant des exemples tirés de vos recherches et nous expliquer comment vous êtes passé de l'anthropologie du son à l'anthropologie par le son, 2 en incluant peut-être la phase du tournant acoustique ? Comment votre travail vous at -il amené à penser à l'anthropologie par le son ? Comment ce changement est-il apparu dans votre propre travail ? Steven Feld-Premièrement, merci d'avoir organisé ce numéro spécial et de m'avoir invité à y participer. C'est un grand plaisir d'avoir l'occasion de discuter avec vous et d'établir des liens avec les recherches présentées dans cette revue, que je suis régulièrement d'ailleurs. Hier même, je lisais le numéro spécial « Liaisons animales », car je suis justement en train d'écrire sur ce sujet. Au plan historique, « l'anthropologie du son » est une expression que j'ai formulée en 1972 alors que j'étais étudiant de troisième cycle à l'Université d'Indiana. Je devais écrire un compte rendu du livre The Anthropology of Music, dont l'auteur, Alan Merriam (1964), était mon professeur. Il nous avait demandé d'en faire une lecture approfondie et d'apporter une réponse critique à son livre afin que nous puissions comprendre que la musique devait être positionnée théoriquement en anthropologie, au même titre que la politique, l'économie, la religion, les relations de parenté ou tout autre domaine. J'ai donc lu l'ouvrage avec beaucoup d'attention et j'ai débuté ma réponse critique par cette provocation : « Qu'en est-il d'une anthropologie du son ? ».
No lancamento do CD Rainforest Soundwalks: Ambiences of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea, em 2001, Steven... more No lancamento do CD Rainforest Soundwalks: Ambiences of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea, em 2001, Steven Feld fala sobre sua concepcao de passeio sonoro; a escuta da floresta em seus limites e o “soar que-sobe-alem”; sua escolha de equipamento e tecnicas de gravacao; sua relacao com a musica eletroacustica; e a antropologia do som.Resumo
Close Document Image Close Document Printer Image Print This Document! ... English References: In... more Close Document Image Close Document Printer Image Print This Document! ... English References: Includes bibliographical references (p. [263]-281) and index Subject Keywords English: Human geography; Ethnology; Geographical perception Originating Institution ...
Boasian distinction of form/principles abstracted from content/substance in a broader historical ... more Boasian distinction of form/principles abstracted from content/substance in a broader historical perspective of symptomatic traits (see also Gerbrands 1968 for a restatement from a more material culture/ museological viewpoint). Later, and in different contexts, Gregory Bateson (1972) and Roman Jakobson (1960) conceived style as a key element in communicative and metacommunicative framing, by differentially foregrounding code from message. Like music and art historians, anthropologists and linguists (somewhat in distinction to literary theorists) have defined style more in terms of shared conventions of form, rather than deviations from them (see Meyer 1979:15fn.). Taking us specifically to the musical groove, Leonard Meyer puts it all together when he says: "Style constitutes the universe of discourse within which musical meanings arise (1967:7)." Each culturally constructed "groove" is such a universe, regardless of whether a society is characterized by tendencies toward more singular monolithic style formations or toward multiple ones; has style tendencies in conflict and contest or acceptance and reproduction; situates style more generally in other cultural patterns of fission, fusion, flux, acceptance and rejection. Instantly perceived, and often attended by pleasurable sensations ranging from arousal to relaxation, "getting into the groove" describes how a socialized listener anticipates pattern in a style, momentarily able to track and appreciate subtleties visa -vis overt regularities. It also describes how a seasoned performer structures and maintains a perceptible coherence (Keil 1966a relates the groove to the subjective processes of swing, vital drive, and metronome sense in jazz). "Getting into the groove" also describes a feelingful participation, a positive physical and emotional attachment, a move from being "hip to it" to "getting down" and being "into it." A "groove" is a comfortable place to be.2 When Aretha Franklin (1967) covered Sam Cooke's tune "Good Times" she changed the first line from "Come on baby and let the good times roll" to "Get in the groove and let the good times roll." And the way James Brown (1966) tells it: when your baby and you are tight and everything you say or do is mellow she keeps everything alright and you know that you're the only fellow ain't that a groove! Of course the musical "groove" here derives from a primary reference to the patterned indent spaces on a disc recording, observable lateral impressions in a record's surfact. The music is mysteriously "in" these physical recesses, pressed into the vinyl, and listeners may imagine journeying there to merge right "into the groove." Styles are engraved and ingrained in cultures the way grooves are engraved and ingrained in record discs. Related, more general, dubs for styles and their attentive processes include the idea of the "sound" or "beat" (in Francophone Africa, "cadence"), for example: the Philly sound, the Nashville sound, the Motown sound, the Austin sound, the reggae beat, Afro-Beat. Names of places, of record companies and studios, eras, genres, and fusions abound FELD
... L'imitazione che i kaluli fanno del loro richiamo è w k-wu, enunciando la prima sillaba ... more ... L'imitazione che i kaluli fanno del loro richiamo è w k-wu, enunciando la prima sillaba durante il movimento verso l'alto e la seconda durante quello verso il basso. In questo caso, l'onoma-topea è conforme allo spazio e al moto in fuori e in basso del suono. I kaluli di-...
... em AfricadAfro-American/American musical synthesis that overdubs quirky 1960s LongIsland/Bril... more ... em AfricadAfro-American/American musical synthesis that overdubs quirky 1960s LongIsland/Brill Building Simon lyrics, pedal steel guitar riffs from a ... That no ownership of this product is significantly shared with them (beyond their wages for recording studio time - triple union ...
Mexico. Sua monografia seminal Sound and Sentiment [Som e sentimento], de 1982, realizada a parti... more Mexico. Sua monografia seminal Sound and Sentiment [Som e sentimento], de 1982, realizada a partir de anos de pesquisa na floresta Bosavi, na Papua Nova Guiné, é um marco etnográfico para a antropologia do som, da música e dos sentidos. Em 2012, lançou o livro Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra [O cosmopolitismo do jazz em Acra], juntamente com produções em CD e DVD de seu próprio selo, VoxLox, voltado para produções colaborativas. Seu distanciamento de abordagens c l á s s i c a s e m e t n o m u s i c o l o g i a aprofundou-se com pesquisas sobre jazz em Acra e a relação entre sinos,
What are the major ways that the classless and generally egalitarian features of one small-scale ... more What are the major ways that the classless and generally egalitarian features of one small-scale society reveal themselves in the structure of organized sounds? What are the major ways that these same features reveal themselves in the social organization and ideology of soundmakers and soundmaking? By providing an overview of these areas I hope to illuminate some dimensions of a sociology of sound for the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea, a traditionally nonstratified society where egalitarian features seem significant to sound structure, and where inequalities also are clearly represented in the distribution of expressive resources for men and women. My concern with these problems derives from a preoccupation with merging ethnomusicological questions (the cultural study of the shared meanings of musical sounds) with sociomusical ones (the study of musical sounds from perspectives of the social structure and social organization of resources, makers, and occasions). My work of the last few years (Feld 1981, 1982, 1983) attempts to understand the most salient lessons about the structure and meaning of Kaluli sounds and ways they are inseparable from the fabric of Kaluli social life and thought, where they are taken for granted as everyday reality by members of this society. My title alludes to a perspective that considers structured sound as "un fait social total," in the sense that sociologists like Durkheim, Mauss, G. H. Mead, and Schutz stress the primacy of symbolic action in an ongoing intersubjective lifeworld, and the ways engagement in symbolic action continually builds and shapes actors' perceptions and meanings. My title also alludes to another paper, Song structure and social structure, one of Alan Lomax's seminal cantometric reports (Lomax 1962). This reference is meant to locate this paper, and the Kaluli pattern it reports, in a larger comparative framework for the sociomusical analysis of classless and egalitarian societies. In doing so I also want to reconsider Lomax's rationale for why we should compare sociomusical systems, and what we can compare from one to the next. For Lomax the "principal message of music concerns a fairly limited and crude set of patterns" (1962:450); as a form of human behavior music should be Final version rec'd: 2/1/84 ? 1984 Society for Ethnomusicology 383 384 ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, SEPTEMBER 1984 seen as highly patterned, regular, and redundant in each society, yielding stable structures. Lomax suggested that cantometrics provide profiles for each of these societal musical norms. Moreover, "these stable structures correspond to and represent patterns of interpersonal relationship which are fundamental in the various forms of social organization" (1962:449). Or, as he later put it, the "salient features of songs are symbols for the key institutions of society such as the sexual division of labor and the state" (1976:9). Lomax suggested that songs identify, represent, or otherwise reinforce the core structures of society. By comparing distinct patterns of vocalizing, Lomax attempted to construct world stylistic maps, raise questions of evolutionary sequence, and correlate dimensions of performance style with basic data on techno-economic complexity, mode of production, and social organization for a world ethnographic sample. In Lomax's conception comparative research is fundamental to knowing how properties of singing style (musical behavior rather than musical content) significantly co-vary with social institutions and other levels of cultural behavior. The expectation all along was for highly patterned shapes for each culture, because "singing is viewed as an act of communicative behavior that must conform to a culture's standard of performance if it is to achieve its social ends" (Lomax 1976:11). Compare what? Lomax compared samples of ten songs from four hundred cultures and correlated the codings with social structural data profiles from Murdock's cross-cultural surveys and the Human Relations Area Files (Murdock 1967,1969). The small sample size of songs per society was justified by Lomax's belief that each society has highly standardized and highly redundant performance models. "Cantometrics is a study of these standardized models, which describe singing rather than song. Therefore, it is not primarily concerned with complete collections and descriptions, but with locating provable regularities and patterns, in the fashion of science" (Lomax 1976:17). Lomax's 37 coding dimensions attempt to factor all significant universal elements of song performance style on gradient scales. Lomax's major report was greeted with mixed enthusiasm. Sample size and time depth, compatibility of song data with social structural data, psychocultural reductionism, inferential history, reading correlation as causation, intracultural and areal variability, and the extent to which the coding system normalized raters in ways which constrain the accuracy of pattern judgement were all causes of critical discussion surrounding this monumental work. Much of the criticism focused on method and data interpretation, and not upon Lomax's basic hypotheses about music as a universal public communication of social identity. Whatever one's reaction to Folk Song Style and Culture, the publication of the cantometrics training tapes and coding book (Lomax 1976) must be greeted as a major event in the history of comparative musical research. Few researchers ever make their methods so available to others, and we should be grateful to
Boudreault-Fournier-Ce numéro spécial d'Anthropologie et Sociétés sur le son s'intitule « Champs ... more Boudreault-Fournier-Ce numéro spécial d'Anthropologie et Sociétés sur le son s'intitule « Champs sonores ». En me préparant pour cet entretien, 1 j'ai réalisé que nous aurions aussi pu l'appeler « Relations sonores » pour mettre de l'avant le thème de l'ontologie relationnelle associé au monde sonore. Pourriez-vous développer davantage cette idée en utilisant des exemples tirés de vos recherches et nous expliquer comment vous êtes passé de l'anthropologie du son à l'anthropologie par le son, 2 en incluant peut-être la phase du tournant acoustique ? Comment votre travail vous at -il amené à penser à l'anthropologie par le son ? Comment ce changement est-il apparu dans votre propre travail ? Steven Feld-Premièrement, merci d'avoir organisé ce numéro spécial et de m'avoir invité à y participer. C'est un grand plaisir d'avoir l'occasion de discuter avec vous et d'établir des liens avec les recherches présentées dans cette revue, que je suis régulièrement d'ailleurs. Hier même, je lisais le numéro spécial « Liaisons animales », car je suis justement en train d'écrire sur ce sujet. Au plan historique, « l'anthropologie du son » est une expression que j'ai formulée en 1972 alors que j'étais étudiant de troisième cycle à l'Université d'Indiana. Je devais écrire un compte rendu du livre The Anthropology of Music, dont l'auteur, Alan Merriam (1964), était mon professeur. Il nous avait demandé d'en faire une lecture approfondie et d'apporter une réponse critique à son livre afin que nous puissions comprendre que la musique devait être positionnée théoriquement en anthropologie, au même titre que la politique, l'économie, la religion, les relations de parenté ou tout autre domaine. J'ai donc lu l'ouvrage avec beaucoup d'attention et j'ai débuté ma réponse critique par cette provocation : « Qu'en est-il d'une anthropologie du son ? ».
No lancamento do CD Rainforest Soundwalks: Ambiences of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea, em 2001, Steven... more No lancamento do CD Rainforest Soundwalks: Ambiences of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea, em 2001, Steven Feld fala sobre sua concepcao de passeio sonoro; a escuta da floresta em seus limites e o “soar que-sobe-alem”; sua escolha de equipamento e tecnicas de gravacao; sua relacao com a musica eletroacustica; e a antropologia do som.Resumo
Close Document Image Close Document Printer Image Print This Document! ... English References: In... more Close Document Image Close Document Printer Image Print This Document! ... English References: Includes bibliographical references (p. [263]-281) and index Subject Keywords English: Human geography; Ethnology; Geographical perception Originating Institution ...
Boasian distinction of form/principles abstracted from content/substance in a broader historical ... more Boasian distinction of form/principles abstracted from content/substance in a broader historical perspective of symptomatic traits (see also Gerbrands 1968 for a restatement from a more material culture/ museological viewpoint). Later, and in different contexts, Gregory Bateson (1972) and Roman Jakobson (1960) conceived style as a key element in communicative and metacommunicative framing, by differentially foregrounding code from message. Like music and art historians, anthropologists and linguists (somewhat in distinction to literary theorists) have defined style more in terms of shared conventions of form, rather than deviations from them (see Meyer 1979:15fn.). Taking us specifically to the musical groove, Leonard Meyer puts it all together when he says: "Style constitutes the universe of discourse within which musical meanings arise (1967:7)." Each culturally constructed "groove" is such a universe, regardless of whether a society is characterized by tendencies toward more singular monolithic style formations or toward multiple ones; has style tendencies in conflict and contest or acceptance and reproduction; situates style more generally in other cultural patterns of fission, fusion, flux, acceptance and rejection. Instantly perceived, and often attended by pleasurable sensations ranging from arousal to relaxation, "getting into the groove" describes how a socialized listener anticipates pattern in a style, momentarily able to track and appreciate subtleties visa -vis overt regularities. It also describes how a seasoned performer structures and maintains a perceptible coherence (Keil 1966a relates the groove to the subjective processes of swing, vital drive, and metronome sense in jazz). "Getting into the groove" also describes a feelingful participation, a positive physical and emotional attachment, a move from being "hip to it" to "getting down" and being "into it." A "groove" is a comfortable place to be.2 When Aretha Franklin (1967) covered Sam Cooke's tune "Good Times" she changed the first line from "Come on baby and let the good times roll" to "Get in the groove and let the good times roll." And the way James Brown (1966) tells it: when your baby and you are tight and everything you say or do is mellow she keeps everything alright and you know that you're the only fellow ain't that a groove! Of course the musical "groove" here derives from a primary reference to the patterned indent spaces on a disc recording, observable lateral impressions in a record's surfact. The music is mysteriously "in" these physical recesses, pressed into the vinyl, and listeners may imagine journeying there to merge right "into the groove." Styles are engraved and ingrained in cultures the way grooves are engraved and ingrained in record discs. Related, more general, dubs for styles and their attentive processes include the idea of the "sound" or "beat" (in Francophone Africa, "cadence"), for example: the Philly sound, the Nashville sound, the Motown sound, the Austin sound, the reggae beat, Afro-Beat. Names of places, of record companies and studios, eras, genres, and fusions abound FELD
... L'imitazione che i kaluli fanno del loro richiamo è w k-wu, enunciando la prima sillaba ... more ... L'imitazione che i kaluli fanno del loro richiamo è w k-wu, enunciando la prima sillaba durante il movimento verso l'alto e la seconda durante quello verso il basso. In questo caso, l'onoma-topea è conforme allo spazio e al moto in fuori e in basso del suono. I kaluli di-...
... em AfricadAfro-American/American musical synthesis that overdubs quirky 1960s LongIsland/Bril... more ... em AfricadAfro-American/American musical synthesis that overdubs quirky 1960s LongIsland/Brill Building Simon lyrics, pedal steel guitar riffs from a ... That no ownership of this product is significantly shared with them (beyond their wages for recording studio time - triple union ...
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