Audio file
Title: Conrad Arensberg and Alan Lomax discuss correlation of ethnomusicology with Murdock and White's cultural classifications (part 1)
Date recorded: July , 1963
Contributor(s): Contributor: Vizedom, Monica; Contributor: Arensberg, Conrad; Contributor: Lomax, AlanBelongs to: Arensberg/Lomax, 1963-1968
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Date recorded: July , 1963
Contributor(s): Contributor: Vizedom, Monica; Contributor: Arensberg, Conrad; Contributor: Lomax, Alan
Genre: interview/commentary
Location:
Physical form: Reel to Reel
Tape number: T1263
Track Number: 1
Archive ID: T1263
Note: Arensberg: You need to get the best possible samples of styles. First develop empirical hypotheses and then pick out Murdockean correlations and generalize what you have found. Style sample must be good and the ethnography correct. Work on the Manus an example of good ethnography. A problem is which hypotheses and in what order to present them. We could pick out position of women and child acculturation and correlate with group expression in music - polyphony and heterophony in choral music. Might be most sensible to correlate styles with work organization and work our way down to child preparation for the group role. Lomax: The child material is most in doubt. Arensberg: Childhood socialization won't make as much sense without social organization. Male-female relations important but can't make as much sense without social organization. Lomax: Participation or not is most direct, symbolism is not. Arensberg: That way we can avoid a sea of Freudian allegation. Freedom to leave household or work group and its relation to polyphony. Arensberg: Role of the shaman in traditional hunting society in initiating randomized group action. (More efficient than having individual families going off on own to find game.) This can be described as a form of group choreography. If they don't have a shaman they will press a little boy around whom the group feels an emotional association (perhaps he was lost) into service. Parsonians go wrong when insist on injecting psychological meaning into analysis. They don't understand natural science based on measurement of how people act. Alan Lomax: Rubato parlando style most associated with areas of strongest inhibitions. Areas with most spontaneity have most freedom to play with clocklike regularity. Theory of parlando as a kind of rhythmic repression. Arensberg: Inhibition of possibility of building social relationships. You go by prestructured social relationships or not at all. German children will sit in a room of toys and not play until given permission by adults.
About the session: Conrad Arensberg and Alan Lomax discuss varied ethnomusicology and performance style and culture topics. Some conversations include Victor Grauer.
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