South American Indians and the Conceptualization
of Music
Shuo ZhangMusic Department
I Suya and Shavante: Case Studies from Two South
American Indian Groups in Brazil
• 1.1 General Backgrounds of Suya and Shavante
• 1.2 From Speech to Song: Suya vocal genres
• 1.3 Modes of Shavante Vocal Expression
1.1 General Background
1.2 From Speech to Song: Suya vocal genres
Categories Sub-categories
Saren ‘To tell, to instruct, to relate’
‘instruction’
‘what the old people tell’
Recitatives’
Kaperni ‘speech’
‘everyday speech’
‘bad speech’
‘angry speech’
‘everybody listens speech’
‘slow speech’
Sangere ‘Invocation’
‘burity palm racing log invocation’
Ngere ‘music/songs’
‘shout songs’
‘unison songs’
TABLE 1
Ngere (song) Priority of melody of text;Time, text and melody fixed by non-human sources
Kaperni(speech)Priority of text over melody;Text and melody determined by speaker;increasing formalization in public performances
Saren (telling) and sangere (invocation) relative priority of relatively fixed texts over relatively established melodies
FIGURE 1
Distinguish songs/music from speech
• priority of its melody over text• fixed mode of its presentation• extensive use of textual repetition• fixed length of its phrases• fixed relations among pitches• unimpeachable authority of its texts• Origin of songs
1.3 Modes of Shavante Vocal Expression
• dawawa(ritual wailing)• dano?re(collective singing)• political oratory/plaza speech
II Data Analysis2.1 Speech-music continuum2.2 Conceptualizing music—
criteria for definition and scope
Single vs. Multiple Criteria for conceptualizing music
2.3 The Whorf Hypothesis
LANGUAGE THOUGHT
Lexicon
Grammatical Categories
Cultural Patterns
?
Color Studies
Stage I Stage II Stage III Stage IV Stage V Stage VI
Black/dark (cool)
Black Black Black Black Black
White/light (warm)
White White White White White
Red Red Red Red Red
Yellow or grue
Yellow Yellow Yellow
Grue Green Green
Blue Blue
Brown
A stage VII language would add one or more of the following in any order: purple, pink, orange, grey.
2.4 Music as a mystic power
• Suya: non-human origin• Shavante: learned through dreams• Ancient Greek: unite power• American: musical talent, gift
III Extended Comparison and Analysis
• 3.1 A Case study of Kino people in East Asia
Conclusion
THANK YOU
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