Audio file
Title: Alan Lomax and Conrad Arensberg give AAAS lecture on Cantometrics (part 3), with remarks on Parlametrics by Carol Kulig
Date recorded: February 21, 1976
Contributor(s): Contributor: Kulig, Carol; Contributor: Barry, Herbert; Contributor: Arensberg, Conrad; Contributor: Lomax, AlanBelongs to: Arensberg/Lomax, 1976
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Date recorded: February 21, 1976
Contributor(s): Contributor: Kulig, Carol; Contributor: Barry, Herbert; Contributor: Arensberg, Conrad; Contributor: Lomax, Alan
Subject(s): Cantometrics; Choreometrics; Anthropology; Child rearing
Genre: lecture
Setting: 1976 meeting of the AAAS, held at the Sheraton-Boston.
Location:
Physical form: Cassette Tape
Tape number: T3784B
Track Number: 1
Archive ID: T3784B
Note: At a Boston meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Response by Alan Lomax to criticisms of Herbert Barry, whose data was used. Parlametrics lecture by Carol Kulig, discussion of vocal qualities - breathiness, etc. Alan Lomax on complexity and more on Herbert Barry. Work organization. Alan Lomax: "Stanley Udy made the most cynical discovery in the history of social science. He found that when you had work teams organized so that the usufruct went into the pockets of the owners and laborers could be forced to work rather than joining the teams voluntarily, then this system, once established, tends to spread and eliminate all the other systems. This is the threat that tyranny always had for all human societies. It's more efficient." No matter how work is organized, face to face elements - whether people help each other in systems of friendship and neighborhood help, can't be controlled by a central authority, but depend on local culture and tradition. Body presentation. Energy factor and work team organization. Child rearing (turns out to be the feeding factor). Need for more data. Questions, comments, and friendly contretemps by Margaret Mead and Alan Lomax. Margaret Mead on the difference in data and depth of research in Cantometrics versus Choreometrics and Parlametrics. Alan Lomax replies that he was propelled by his father and spent most of his life in the field of song research, but speech and literature have always interested him above all. In conclusion, Lomax acknowledges that Barry is right to ask for a closer look inside geographic areas and communities, but adds that if you are going to take that kind of look, then there is a structural backbone that can be thought of in this order of parsimony that Cantometrics can provide.
About the session: Alan Lomax and Conrad Arensberg give a lecture entitled "Cantometrics, The Coevolution of Expressive, Productive, and Cultural Systems: Vocal performance, cultural evolution, movement style, social structures, hierarchy, taxonomy of culture" at the 1976 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The theme that year was Science and Our Expectations: Bicentennial and Beyond.
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