Critical Review 2: Barz and Cooley Ch. 9

This chapter describes the importance of considering the possibilities of reciprocal influence between the Ethnomusicologist and the culture being studied. While the fieldworker consciously focuses on appropriate conduct and ethics during and after the fieldwork is conducted, little attention has been paid to the ways in which the fieldworker has an effect on the culture, and some sort of effect is inevitable. There are three ways in which the fieldworker is implicated in transmission with regard to tradition: preserving, memorializing, and mediating. Overall, it is important to realize that we are not studying a culture as some distant thing that is separate from ourselves, but rather we are human and we are studying a group of humans.

Discussion Question:
Shelemey mentions and later dismisses the idea that learning a culture’s style of music or traditions and then sharing them to the rest of the world could be an act of appropriation. Shelemey claims, however, that most cultures would still appreciate this action because the music is still passed on and will outlive the members of the culture, and the outsider’s learned music doesn’t necessarily take away from the original character of the music. Even if we assume that the Ethnomusicologist—who chooses to learn and pass on a previously foreign form of music and thus represent a culture—does follow every code of conduct and respect that we can think of, it seems like a large generalization to state that most cultures would appreciate this. Can you think of any examples where this would not be appreciated? Can an outsider, no matter how well-intended, truly act as a mediator to deliver the learned music to the world and still maintain the authenticity of the tradition? In our previous reading, we discussed the definition of tradition and that it is subject to change, so if it is slightly altered, consciously or subconsciously, by the ethnomusicologist in the mediation process, is that change still considered to be within the natural change of tradition, or is this music now something new that cannot be lumped into a category with the music directly produced from the given culture?


ps. Sorry for my bad grammer, I hope this makes sense.