Music: Anthropology

Abstract

Originally presented as a keynote address to the 2003 Congress of the Musicological Society of Southern Africa, this paper surveys the field of interactions between music and anthropology. The historical problematics of an institutional location for the discipline of ethnomusicology are linked to changing theoretical approaches and the appearance of landmark studies. The paradigm represented by Anthony Seeger’s ‘musical anthropology’, with its connection to a broader ‘performance anthropology’, suggests important directions for future research, particularly in the areas of nationalism and trans-nationalism, ethnic identity and the location of culture, as examples from South Africa to Eastern Europe demonstrate.

South African Journal of Musicology Vol.22 2002: 1-12