Audio file
Title: Conrad Arensberg, Alan Lomax, and sociologist Stanley Udy discuss classifications of work organization and music (part 2)
Date recorded: February , 1966
Contributor(s): Contributor: Udy, Stanley; Contributor: Arensberg, Conrad; Contributor: Lomax, AlanBelongs to: Arensberg/Udy/Lomax, 1966
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Date recorded: February , 1966
Contributor(s): Contributor: Udy, Stanley; Contributor: Arensberg, Conrad; Contributor: Lomax, Alan
Description: A continuation of conversation between Alan Lomax, Stanley Udy, and Conrad Arensberg on classification of work organization.
Subject(s): Cantometrics; Ethnomusicology; Anthropology
Genre: interview/commentary
Location:
Physical form: Reel to Reel
Tape number: T2026
Track Number: 1
Archive ID: T2026
Note: T2026: First part of this tape is continuation of discussion above with Stanley Udy. End of tape contains an interview of Mabel Hillery by Joan Halifax. Stanley Udy: Key to understanding musical forms might lie in the rhythm of work as a universal experience, requiring operation in cyclical rhythmic pattern. Lomax: But it must be a daily activity and organized according to formal rules. Music is (a) public, and (b) is the most periodic of all communication. Udy: Painting is not. Lomax: Not so nearly, but other people will find out how to look at painting and other expressive forms, which, by definition, have to be periodic. Musicology has been looking at structures of different musical languages but not as music as a communication system. Udy: The perspective of musicology has been a humanistic appreciation of unique great works rather than comparing large numbers of average works. Arensberg: It hasn't been empirically comparative. Udy: No, it's been a case study. Lomax: Our problem is to pull together social variables with stable musical areas (hunter gatherer teams, irrigation teams). Udy: Your explanatory problem is: what kind of cultural profile would explain the stability of musical forms? Arensberg: We are dealing with the organizational factors, no so much about music. Lomax: One or two songs are enough, provided they are typical. Solo singing at a high level of expertise implies exclusion of everyone else by the proficient. Performance is concerned with the glorification of the emperor or the top level of society. Rewards. Balance and unbalanced reward systems. Udy: My definition of reward was limited to concrete material reward (physical things), but we know that prestige is substituted for money. With technology there is an upward flow of goods. When a group of men builds a house, one man ends up with the house. In an unbalanced liturgical system (Murdock's term), the boss gets everything. Rewards tend to differentiate roles. Unbalanced compensatory systems. Collectors keep what they find. Arensberg: Commensalism (bears in a bear patch). Among collectors all may be retained| some retained| some distributed. Udy: I define reciprocity as part of a recruitment system rather than a reward system. Balanced systems produce more stabililty. Animal husbandry and pastoralists. Difficulty with the data on pastoralists. Arensberg: Most recent research shows high degree of organization and planning among pastoralists, who move from pasture to pasture over time, disperse and regroup. Not organized by day, but by annual round. They need to calculate far in advance. Are autonomous and permanent, more like incipient agriculturalists. Preliminary generalizations: Where custodial relations are present in a society, voluntary organizations tend to be absent, but this doesn't preclude families helping each other out. Voluntary organizations tend to be temporary.
About the session: Conrad Arensberg, Alan Lomax, and sociologist Stanley Udy discuss classifications of work organization and music.
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