Please read the following:
Yelvington, Kevin A. "The Anthropology of Afro-Latin America and the Caribbean:Diasporic Dimensions." Annual Review of Anthropology 30 (2001) pp. 227-260
There is a link here:Yelvington, Kevin A. "The Anthropology of Afro-Latin America and the Caribbean:Diasporic Dimensions." Annual Review of Anthropology 30 (2001) pp. 227-260
http://www.annualreviews.org.ezproxy.bowdoin.edu/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.227
The question:
How could what Yelvington describes be related to the kinds of musical practices we've been discussing in class?
William Ho
ReplyDeleteThough Yelvington never mentions music specifically he does bring up enlightening studies made in the past that are applicable to what we've been discussing in class. The two extreme views are Frazier's, who believes that slaves brought to the new world had lost any semblance of their original culture, and Herskovits', who believes that a varying degree of Africanisms survived the abuses of slavery in each region. However, both sides agree that in religion there is evidence of surviving Africanisms that have syncretized with other cultures.
We could possibly use Frazier's studies to describe music like the quadrille which is obviously French and lacks any sort of surviving Africanisms. This coupled with a great many people who deny any tie with blackness lends some credence to Frazier and his work.
I think I would be more in line with Herskovits though. The pervasive nature of religion and the use of rhythmic cells, density, and the call and response convinces me of even more surviving Africanisms in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Most of the practices we've talked about involve Africanisms, either wholly authentically or syncretized. The instruments involved, the relationships between the dancers and the musicians, and how they implement rhythm-- no matter what sorts of Europeanness involved-- are rooted in African heritage; in many places in Latin America and the Caribbean Herskovits would put an A under music for the degree of surviving Africanisms.
In this article, Yelvington describes the debate between anthropologist on the creolization model. Are africanisms found in the LA and Caribbean culture today, or has all of African culture been lost?
ReplyDeleteOne view of "black" culture is that it is not static and therefore not inherited, but instead "made and remade under specific historical conditions". This statement agrees with the "negrophobia" of the region, that blackness is negative; and with the idea that LA and Caribbean culture is purely a creation of their own and not comprised of any African elements. The other view is that there are indeed africanisms that have survived the slave trade; LA and Caribbean culture has a clear African influence/derivation. It is agreed that many to most of the africanisms were lost, but it is very hard to deny that there are none remaining.
The evidence of africanisms in LA and Caribbean culture can be found most clearly in the religion but also in the music of the region. If one is to deny the african elements of the music, they must also deny the european indigenous and asian influences.
Melville Herskovits’ theorized that the ‘Africanism’ in New World Negro culture was directly related to the shared experience of humiliation and the hardships under slavery, colonization, and colonialism. Africanisms were representations of ‘survival’ and of adaptations to American culture. Herskovits’ also believed the intensity of the ‘Africanism’ practiced would provide a method to determine the “nation” or ethnicity to which it had derived, This method would explain the emergence of the New World Black culture.
ReplyDeleteFrazier (1939) however, explained that African culture creolized through a combination of “forced circumstances” in which they had to “acquire a new language, adopt new habits of labor, and adjust to the environment of America” (Yelvington, p.253). Yelvington cites Mintz (1971) to make clear that “the characteristic shape of a language cannot be seen outside of its sociological context and the processes of historical change.”
Yelvington notes that the ways in which slaves created community were through cultural changes and adapting to the beliefs, traditions, and religions of others. “What the slaves undeniably shared at the outset was their enslavement” (1992, p. 18) the collective experience of struggle and oppression allowed the mixed individuals to come together, assimilate beliefs, and create the many ‘Africanisms.’ It makes sense that each new ‘community’ would create an altered music style, with the different cultures bringing different elements and rhythmic patterns.
There are distinct rhythms from many years ago that are still used as rhythmic baselines to modern music. Yelvington explains this clearly when he notes, “The efflorescence of identity in migration situations is often tied to constructions of some religious diaspora…along these migration routes come public performances and music where the “Africa” (and thus diaspora consciousness) theme is prominent, for example in Bahian carnival groups and “black music” performers in Columbia.” (Yelvington, p. 249)
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ReplyDeleteMichael Hendrickson
ReplyDeleteYelvington’s article outlines the many debates of anthropologists who are struggling to deal with the issues of culture, specifically black culture, that have come about as a result of the African Diaspora. The article doesn’t really conclude that either argument is more or less valid, but, for me, it continues to highlight the idea that there is no singular, unified “blackness” throughout Caribbean and Latin American music.
The overarching debate Yelvington describes is between Frazier, who believes slaves lost any and all parts of their African culture, and Herskovitz,who believes that certain “Africanisms” still remain. Although I would be more likely to side with Herskovitz, due to the musical “Africanisms” we have discussed in class such as the rhythmic cell, rhythmic density, instrumentation, and call and response, I am also struck by the diversity of music we have listened to in class thus far. This diversity makes me question any anthropologist’s argument that there is a single overarching cultural impact of the African Diaspora because each community clearly has its own flavor of music and musical practices.
The complexity of these arguments and the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a conclusion in sight also emphasize the fact that there truly is not one unified “blackness.” This also relates to our discussion of racial formation, racial projects and Omi and Winant’s idea that race is a social construct.
Charlotte Beach
ReplyDelete2/2/11
The ways in which Yelvington describes black influence in the Americas is similar to that which we discussed in class. He mentions “reinterpretation” which is a racial project that we discussed in class. Yelvington also emphasizes the creolization of cultures in Latin America just as we talked about creolized music. Just as in Latin American music, the African culture is difficult to pinpoint in its purest and most authentic form. Instead, elements of the African, European, and Indigenous culture have all been mixed into one. The Mintz and Price creolization model that is described in the article refers to a linguistic continuum in which different levels of a certain language are more prominent in some areas as they are in others. Again, this mirrors that musical continuum that we described in class (some cultural elements are present more heavily in some places than in others. Thus, you can’t say that a music form or a language is only African of only European due to the high level of creolization in Latin America. Yelvington also mentions that the African and Indigenous elements of culture have been diluted by the European influence (which was imposed via colonization). Similarly to what we talked about in class and what was mentioned in our other texts, people of African descent often do not refer to themselves as black. Instead, they consider themselves morenos or mulattos instead. This coincides with the idea mentioned in class that Africans are too paranoid to embrace their culture and music and declare themselves as African.
On a grander scale Yelvington describes Herskovits' hypothesis of Africanisms "seen as survivals of African cultures that existed in more or less transmuted variants in the Americas". My first thought upon hearing this phrase was Cuban Santeria and its direct connections to the Yoruba in West Africa. The understanding of the diaspora of African people is constantly taking on new meanings; changing according to time and place, but the connections are often visible. Finding these bonds further shape conceptions of "blackness" or black identity in each part of Latin America and the Caribbean. Many anthropologists have tried to explain these diasporic differences and use concepts that we covered in class including "reinterpretation", "adaptation" and "creolization". Although in these instances the scholars are not directly referencing music, they are attempting to make sense of mechanisms used to adapt to the "New World". These mechanisms include creating new languages such as patois and religious practices that mix African and European denominations which imbued with "traditionally" African characteristics. Through the lens of linguistics much of the anthropology is grappling with the presence of dialogue in the study of diaspora. This "concept of dialogue" in my mind links to the call and response trend we discussed as a marker of African tradition. "It entails, rather, multiparty interactions of material" says, Yelvington. Moreover, this diasporic trend is possibly telling of communications of power or ways of having important conversations if it has managed to stay in the music for hundreds of years.
ReplyDeleteIn his article Yelvington never ventures to discuss any specific musical practices, however, though his studies I can better understand the debate he focuses on about the creolization model of africanisms in the LA and Caribbean culture. The two opposing sides in debate throughout the article relates directly to discussions we’ve had in class about creolization and the evolving African culture.
ReplyDeleteOn one side we have Frazier, who believes that through the process of slavery all African culture has been lost and forgotten in the current black population, and on the other we have Herskovitz, who asserts that some of those past africanisms still linger.
As we described in class many techniques in the Caribbean today, such as call and response and the clave timeline, are mixtures of various types music from cultures all over the world. We cannot directly pinpoint the exact location of every part of this new and evolving interpretation of music that we see in the LA and Caribbean. As we stated in class influences include Native American, European, Chinese, and even East Indian peoples.
Yelvington notes that during slavery forced adaptations on individuals took place due to the oppression and humiliation. Cultural alterations in beliefs, customs, language, and music were the result. Thus, although the article did not state a direct correct side to the debate I am more opted to side with Herskovitz in the debate. There is tremendous ambiguity surrounding the changes that took place to African culture and music during enslavement. Some part of the africanisms still remained in the enslaved and thus transferred to the music we hear out of LA and the Caribbean today.
Elizabeth Humphrey
ReplyDeleteBlack Musics in Latin America
Professor Quintero
Though the article, is not directly talking about the musical influence the African diaspora had in the Caribbean and Latin America, some of what is discussed in the text by Yelvington can be applied to some of the topics we discussed in class. Yelvington discusses Herskovits’s theory of “Africanisms”, which are remnants of African culture, in society (Yelvington, 228). Some of the musical characteristics found in music such as Haitian Vodou or Brazilian Candomblé would be classified as “Africanisms” since there is are similar characteristics in these types of music and African music, such as their emphasis on rhythm. Dialogism, which helps anthropologists determine, linguistically, the interactions between cultures, could be applied to certain musical practices that have been discussed such as Cuban Santería which, in some songs, still has West African language as the basis of the lyrics (Manuel, 6). Maurer’s critique of creolization also relates to practices that have been discussed. Creolization should not solely rely upon “biological reproduction and genetic recombination” (Yelvington, 235); the combination of cultures adds to the process of creolization. This can account for the use of European dances like the quadrille in certain Afro-Latin America or Caribbean communities.
Edie Leghorn
ReplyDeleteYelvington discusses the scholarship concerning the contributions of African culture to the development of the Caribbean and Latin America, commenting that for many years the study of black culture was excluded from anthropology. He contrasts two predominant stands on the influence of blacks in the Caribbean and Latin America. According to Herskovits, historiographies have been predominantly racist, and we need to write blacks back into the history of this region, as they are largely responsible for elements of its identity. At odds with this view, Frazier argues that slaves were completely stripped of their culture in coming to America, and therefore no traces of African tradition can be found in the New World. However, Herskovits asserts the presence of “Africanisms” and endeavors to trace them, as proof of the black contributions to the culture of the Caribbean and Latin America. For some more recent anthropologists, this “tracing of Africanisms” has been a racial project of sorts: trying to give African Americans and their influences a rightful place in history to overcome “negrophobia” and the absence of blacks from history.
In class we have discussed various Africanisms that present themselves through music: collective participation, emphasis on rhythm, and vocal call and response. These musical elements point to the contribution of African tradition in shaping the unique and fused character of Caribbean and Latin American cultures. These elements might not appear to exist in a “pure” form, but culture changes and mutates even when it doesn’t have to cross an ocean and survive under oppression. Yelvington discusses at length the “continuity versus creativity debate” that exists between Herskovits and Frazier. The music we have been listening to and studying in class seems to me to contain both creativity resulting from the interface of different cultures and continuity of African traditions. The instruments employed, the density of rhythm, and the use of repeating referential cells are grounded in the traditions of West and Central Africa. So although these elements can be present in varying degrees and in conjunction with European, Amerindian, and other influences, it seems unlikely that no African traditions made it across the Atlantic with the millions of slaves that were brought over.
Many of the concepts that Yelvington discusses and draws on are somehow related to our class discussions. Early on, he introduces Herskovits and his ideas about what he called “Africanisms”. Herskovits traced these African traits “in religion, language, the family and other cultural forms and institutions transported to the New World with slaves” (228). He describes these “Africanisms as survivals of African cultures” that have endured the transition of African culture to the Americas, especially through enslavement. Herskovits was interested in seeing how and if Africans were adapting to the New World (America), quite similar to the topics we discussed in class about racial projects and black reactions. The “Africanisms” that Herskovits researched are good examples of oppositionality, in that Africans maintained many of their cultural traits even in a new place. Frazier, on the other hand, claims that Africans underwent adaptation, because they were stripped of their culture when they were enslaved in America and forced to adapt new customs.
ReplyDeleteYelvington also discussed how an enslaved past served as a “dynamic source of identity” for some Africans, recalling the use of music that indicates the hardships endured during their experiences with slavery. The blending of cultural traits that occurred is a prominent topic, quite similar to the blending of musical styles and cultures that we have mentioned in class. He explains that “creationist” or “creolization” theorists emphasize “cultural creativity, cultural blending and borrowing, cultural adaptation to local circumstances” (232). Similarly, we discussed the different influences on the musics of Latin America and the Caribbean, such as European, indigenous, and East Indian. Both concepts deal with the blending and mixing of different cultures to create a larger product, whether it is a lifestyle or music.
Ben Hill-Lam
ReplyDeleteYelvington talks about many theories and viewpoints relevant to the musical practices in Latin America and the Caribbean. The first relevant topic is that of acculturation in a continuum. Yelvington describes the “scale of intensity” of africanisms found in countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The scale describe the extent to which certain cultural practices (such as music, language, and religion) are preserved and prevalent in current society. This has clear implications for our area of study, since the extant to which music, religion, and language are present are three of the biggest factors in creating a region’s music and culture. The scale ranks these the religion and music factors quite highly in many areas; it comes as no surprise then that we find polyrhythm, rhythmic density, and certain rhythmic cells throughout the Caribbean and Latin America types of music. The second relevant topic Yelvington discusses is how slaves are not one “body” but are a heterogeneous mixture, just as the Europeans were not one “body”, but also a varied mixture. This touches on the variations and ways that Africans in the Caribbean and Latin America accepted/rejected/blended their own musical practices with those of the Europeans, again accounting for the wide variety and continuum of musical practices found in current day Latin America and the Caribbean. Related to this is the idea of the African Diaspora not necessarily preserving the whole of a transplanted culture, but keeping only bits and pieces, which themselves are not static. These factors add up to produce an identity neither wholly African, nor European but necessarily a definite creolization either. Yelvington stressed that these identities change and flow on their own, growing beyond their original inputs of African and European culture. These take the form of racial projects and the problem of even trying to define race, or a strictly “African” element of music. In class we talked about the extent to which the modern day music of the Latin America and the Caribbean is creolized, but it is obvious that like the African identity and culture as a whole, the music has grown beyond its original impetus and culture inputs, and continues to change, as we can see with Rastafarianism, reggae, and the ever evolving forms of music that become widely commercially successful. The issues Yelvington discusses are fundamentally connected to the development, creolization, delivery, growth, and spread of the African derived musical elements in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Danielle Orchant
ReplyDeleteYelvington outlines two opposing lenses through which to look at Latin American and Caribbean culture with regard to the African Diaspora. Anthropologist Melville Herskovits represents one side, claiming that significant elements of African culture have been preserved in Latin American and Caribbean society. Sociologist E. Franklin Frazier represents the other, arguing that virtually all components of African culture have been wiped out in the New World. As Yelvington outlines these two opposing views, he does not focus on music as an aspect of culture. However, scholars who specifically study black Latin American and Caribbean music are faced with the same question he discusses: how much have African/African-derived cultural practices been maintained in the lives of Latin American and Caribbean inhabitants? In this sense, Yelvington outlines the same issue that we have been considering while focusing on music specifically.
Yelvington touches upon the fact that just as there are many subdivisions of black Latin American and Caribbean cultural practices, there are also varying practices within Africa itself. Herskovits, whose views I tend to take on in the debate Yelvington depicts, argues that elements of these different African cultural practices have genuinely been maintained throughout many regions in Latin America and the Caribbean. We can see this preservation not just through culture in general, but specifically through music elements such as call-and-response and polyrhythm.
However, while African elements are present in modern Latin American and Caribbean music, they have been blended with and sometimes diluted by European music practices; some popular contemporary musical practices in the area are much more heavily European influenced, while others have more of an equal balance of creolization, while still others are African-focused. This variety of musical influences is exactly the topic that Yelvington depicts in a more general anthropological sense. While there is no formula for how much European versus how much African influence is present in Latin American and Caribbean music, it seems clear that not all African/African-derived musical elements have been wiped out.
Laura Connolly
ReplyDeleteYelvington’s article discusses the argument between the loss of identity of African cultures and whether it is actually still present. These identities can be found in music in Latin America and the Caribbean. There are traces of Africanism still found in the new world as Hershovitz believes that these cultures have retained their heritage. On the other extreme, however, Frazier believes that all ties with African heritage have been severed when brought over to the new world after being forced to interact and adopt new practices and cultures.
I thought the creolization theorists have some truth to their argument as the current cultures in Latin America and Caribbean to not seem to have entirely unique cultures, but, rather, cultures that are borrowed and blended to adapt to their local environments (232). This is definitely seen in music as you can often find reoccurring drum rhythms and affects like call and response across islands and different groups of people who very identify as separate groups like the Haitians and the Dominicans. Because there is blending of cultures, there will be varying degrees of blackness found in music because not all parts of African music will be applicable or relevant in a new environment. What is black or what is heritage in one culture may not be defined in the same manner in another culture. From this article, I found myself realizing that there is no one way in which to describe blackness as it is a spectrum and it varies according to the needs and requirements of a time and people. As communication continues to become easier, it will be interesting to see how views of blackness change as the islands and cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean become increasingly connected.
Aggie Kelly
ReplyDelete2/3/11
In his article, Kevin Yelvington discusses the contradicting viewpoints of anthropologists studying how black culture survived in Latin America and the Caribbeans. While the article is not strictly about music, there are certainly many points made that apply and be connecting to musical ideas. Frazier is arguing that while a distinct African culture did exist, black people lost the culture during the traumatic experience of slavery. Thus, the true blackness of their ancestry no longer exists in the modern world. Herskovitz, on the other hand, defends the statement that in fact aspects of this culture continue to be practiced and passed on in the world.
I personally would have to side with Herskovitz. I believe no one would argue that all remnants of this old culture still exist, but it seems unlikely that all elements of the culture would be gone. We have began studying and discussing many elements of music, such as call and response and a heavy emphasis on rhythm, that have strong connections to African music.
On a final note, I found it interesting how easily some of the points Yelvington made corresponded with music. One could isolate certain sentences, and you might think he was talking specifically about music. For example, Yelvington says “even improvisation was an African trait.” (Yelvington, 229) By only looking at that statement, I would assume he is discussing music, especially since African music often emphasizes improvisation on drums and dance. Even though Yelvington wrote an article discussing anthropology, many of his arguments are very relevant to African music.
Yelvington examines two competing arguments regarding Africanism in LA and the Caribbean. First, he presents Herskovits' theory that slaves from West Africa brought Africanisms in religion and culture to the New World. Herskovits felt that there were many africanisms under the surface of "New World Negro culture". If Herskovits' theory rings true, slaves contributed to music of the LA and Caribbean specifically in religious music we have discussed in class such as Cuban Santeria and candomble. Other elements Yelvington brings to light are the themes of "spirit possession, trance and altered states of conciousness", which we observed in class. Yelvington then discusses Frazier's argument that slaves were stripped of their culture when they were brought to America. If slaves had no culture, how could they contribute Africanisms to music? Frazier thought that the slaves created a culture of their own in the New World, and this culture was not derived from Africa. Regardless of this argument, Frazier had trouble denying Africanisms in religion of the New World. However, Yelvington concludes by stating that the fact we must look for Africanisms shows how little African influence there is in music of LA and the Caribbean. I do not agree with Yelvington's final statement, because if this were true, our class would not exist at all.
ReplyDeleteHannah Wurgaft
Yelvington discusses the ways that we can define creolization (how African influences mix with elements of European and indigenous cultures in Latin America and the Caribbean) and how it is possible to define African culture. He explores the two competing paradigms regarding creolization: “the existence of African cultural continuities” and transformations in African culture based on changing historical and social contexts. Yelvington argues that there is a balance that is struck between these two paradigms. While certain continuities exist, they cannot exist in these new cultures and remain completely unchanged contexts around them. For example, he discusses changes in language as well as religion (because in both cases while elements of Africanism remained in these aspects, they were also impacted by European and indigenous cultures). This directly relates to the presence or absence of blackness in music, which we discussed last class. Just as Yelvington examines the creolization process from a broader perspective, so we discussed this same process from the specific perspective of music.
ReplyDeleteSarah Nelson
ReplyDelete2/2/11
In his article, Yelvington analyzes the different views anthropologists have on the “blackness” that remains in Caribbean and Latin American culture. The span of opinions ranges from Franzier, who believed that when African slaves were brought to the Americas they were stripped of the majority of their culture, to Bastide, who thinks that the presence of African culture in Latin America and the Caribbean today is so apparent that it is pointless to even study it. The “new” anthropological theories and models that are being created to study the diaspora and subsequent cultural development particularly excite Yelvington, and he sees these as an opportunity to view the presence of African culture in the Caribbean and Latin America in a new light.
The study raises some important questions like how we define “blackness” and how these “Africanisms” are spread. These are many of the same questions we have had to ask ourselves in our study of the cultural components that make up Latin American and Caribbean music. Yelvington notes that anthropologists are not entirely in agreement over how to define “blackness.” While some see it as strictly a question of race others prefer to view it more existentially. This ambiguity is central to our debate over the prevalence of African influence in Latin American and Caribbean music. There will never be a definitive way to measure “blackness” in the cultures we are studying, but it seems as though the music in Latin America and the Caribbean, along with the culture as a whole, is a hybridization that began with African culture and then was blended with the cultures of indigenous and European peoples.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDominique Johnson
ReplyDeleteIn the reading for tonight, Yelvington utilizes historical and theoretical perspectives to take the focus away from the different musical discussions in the first reading in its relation to blackness, and instead specifically focuses on the varying views on the creolization model of ‘africanisms’ in Caribbean and Latin American culture. In the article, Yelvington highlights the opposing viewpoints of Frazier and Herskovitz. Frazier believes that because of slavery, all ties to African culture has been lost and forgotten in the current black population (I really believe he is specifically speaking about the black population in America). On the other hand, Herskovitz makes that claim that many of these former ‘africanisms’ still exist today. Yelvington notes the black adaptation and assimilation into white culture due to oppression faced otherwise, which leads to the ‘lack’ of culture in language, customs, music, etc. In reference to black culture in the United States today, I might be inclined to say as a black citizen of the U.S. I can see where Frazier’s argument is more valid and applicable to my personal upbringing, whereas I have many Nigerian and Caribbean friends who have been born and raised in the U.S. and have backgrounds that would support the claims of Herskovitz. Personally, due to class discussions and my own personal sociology background in race and ethnicity, I like this quote from the reading, which sums up my feelings toward the debate, which actually sees me side with Herskovitz, “Africa, the signified which could not be represented directly in slavery, remained and remains the unspoken, unspeakable ‘presence’ in Caribbean culture. It is ‘hiding’ behind every verbal inflection, every narrative twist of Caribbean cultural life. It is the secret code with which every Western text was ‘re-read’. It is the ground-bass of every rhythm and bodily movement. This was-is – the Africa that ‘is alive and well in the diaspora’ (237)”. This quote basically acknowledges the fact that whether or not it is widely broadcasted or not the music that we have been listening to in class does have ties to Africa, whether subtle or not, there is an influence.
There are several arguements presented by Yelvington on blackness in the Carribean and Latin America. In some arguements he presents a case for how Africans lost a sense of their culture and religion by being brought to the Americas. However, he polarizes this opinion with other arguements that state that blackness is ever pervasive in LA and the Carribean and is so present that it is nearly tangible. However, the question that still remains in the end is "what is black?" The answer to this question is much fought over because many anthropologists, especially those who study modern anthropology, have different definitions of what can be defined as black - not only is it a matter of race, but also of religion, customs, and other facets relating to culture. But he presents his analysis with respect to the continuum (continuity) that was brought up in class. There is no such easy way to measure blackness or NONblackness in LA and the Caribean. The influences are present to different degrees in different regions, and thus blackness essentially exists on a continuum. This analysis by Yelvington compared many different sources and assertions, but it still comes back to our discussion of blackness and the external influences on it in the Carribean and LA.
ReplyDeleteBrendan McDermott
ReplyDeleteThis article details the arguments over how much African culture was transferred over with slaves to the Caribbean and Latin America. While not dealing explicitly with music the main points of this piece, about African culture surviving the trip across the Atlantic and brutal enslavement for hundreds of years, are very relatable to Latin American music. Two theories from influential sociologists are presented. Frazier proposed that Africans completely lost their culture over the course of their enslavement. This view does not fit in with our topic of study in this class. We have discussed many ways that African culture survives in present day Latin American music from call and response, to community participation, to the basic rhythms of tresillo and cinqillo. I think all this evidence toward African influence is the reason, “Frazier’s views have fallen from anthropology’s purview.”
In contrast Herskovits work continues to have influence today. He argued that blacks still had much of their old culture in their families, languages, religion, and even music. This is evident in his table where he lists the intensity of African influence in many cultural categories. Over half of the countries he looked at were considered “very African” and many others were “quite African” in the field of music. The paper also points to language use and religion such as Rastafarianism as having African ties. Most of the evidence points to much African influence in the Caribbean. Interestingly many people in the Caribbean do not consider themselves black even though in the U.S. we would. But despite this, blackness has survived many generations of hardship and still seems to be strong in many areas including music.
Christina Pindar
ReplyDeleteMuch of Yelvington’s article highlights the contradiction implicit in the definition of blackness and its representation in music that we briefly mentioned in class on Monday. At times, it seems as if he is suggesting that Africanness has remained distinct and anthropological discussion emphasizes this distinction. Other times, it seems that the anthropological search for Africanness suggests that it has been lost.
In music, improvisation is a way in which minorities and people of African descent assert their power and influence. In the article, this technique is thought to represent “a deep-rooted African tradition of adaptation” (229). Is improvisation a means of adaptation, reinterpretation, or assertion? Is it a means to adopt a new culture or to sustain an old one in that of the unknown? “The power of the enslavement process” is represented as “‘stripping from the aboriginal African culture’ their ‘larger institutions, leaving the more intimate elements in the organization of living’” (232). Regardless of the representation of blackness or continued assertion of its presence, it is inevitably lost in the process of cultural hybridization and creolization. Or is creolization a means in which to keep it alive? There are also many suggestions of an African heterogeneity, but every African is described as one. Thus the New World has stripped Africans of their individuality and distinction, not only through the European/African creolization, but also through the African/African mixing. This similarity is represented in music, however, through the similarity in beats and rhythms—each is distinct, but also has a similar underlying unity.
Many of the musical practices we’ve been discussing have traces of African elements. At the same time, these practices are also the result of acculturation between African, Native, European and West Indian cultures. Although some elements are more apparent than others, there is no dominant root in which musical practices in Latin America and the Caribbean can be fully traced back. However, there is no denial in acknowledging the presence of Africanism in many aspect of Latin American and Caribbean culture. Africanism or having a root to African heritage is present in traditional aspects of the New World such as in religion, language, family and customs. For example, many cultures in the Caribbean have religious practices that incorporate both traditional African religions such as spirit possession and Christianity. Certain cultures also speak languages that are on the borderline of local languages and African and European languages. Although acculturation and creolization has taken places, traces of African traditions indicate that African cultures survived in the New World. Remnants of African traditions in many aspects of the New World in turn influences musical practices in varying countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is similar to how certain people in Latin America with African roots would not consider themselves black. Depending on country of origin, one is willing to embrace their African ancestry. Some may claim black, but never refer to themselves as Negro because it is seen as denoting African ancestry.
ReplyDeleteSteven Borukhin
ReplyDeleteYelvington looks at two opposing views on the African American influence still prevalent in the Caribbean and Latin America. Franklin Frazier argues that slaves who were brought over to the Americas lost their African roots and therefore blackness is not common today. On the other hand Melville Herskovits argues that different regions of Latin America and the Caribbean have varying amounts of culture that survived from the slave times. While neither spoke directly about music, Herskovits’ argument is more accurate in regards to song and dance. Musical nuances such as rhythmic cells, call and response, and timeline are by and large black influences on the music of this region. Furthermore, Yelvington also discusses the religious implications that African culture has brought to the region. Much of the music that we have heard in class is religious. I disagree with Frazier. I believe creolization is obvious and apparent in Latin America. In fact it is most prevalent in music.
Rebecca Centanni
ReplyDeleteWhile we have been spending a lot of time discussing the difficulty in assessing the degrees of blackness present in the music of Latin America and the Caribbean, I find it interesting that Yelvington begins his paper by pointing out two extremes in looking at the people and culture of the area. On one end of the spectrum is Herskovits, who notes that various “Africanisms” exist in the area, such as religion and language, which have endured slavery and become integral components of African assimilation into the New World. On the other hand, Frazier argues that slaves lost all of their culture, essentially stripping them of all ties to Africa.
The inner part of the article relates more to the types of musical practices we have been discussing in class. Yelvington notes “syncretism has worked to the point where…one will find African cultural traits in whites as well as European cultural traits in the descendants of Africans” (242). The concept of cultural mixing is present in the musical forms that we have discussed in class, as we reiterate the fact that none are purely European or African; they are a mix of many cultures. For example, some mix European instruments and musical structure with African lyrics and drums. The article also notes that the study of Latin America and the Caribbean cannot be broken down simply into black and white, but there are many more factors at play. These other influences help explain the truly heterogeneous nature of the musical forms.
The article specifically mentions musical forms. In the chart on page 230-231, music is one of the few categories that displays a high level of African retention in the majority of the countries. Even Frazier had to admit that there is an evidence of blackness in religious practices in the area. This corresponds to the evidence of African traditions in religious musics and Afro-Christian religious practices in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as Santería, Vodou, and Candomblé that we discussed in class.
The majority of the music that we have been studying so far in the course are examples of music from purely African origins. However, we have looked at some types of music and celebrations that are a combination of African influences and European influences; this is what anthropologists have dubbed “creolization”. In the article, two prominent anthropologists argue over the influence of African culture on music and society after the Middle Passage. Frazier argues that slaves basically all of their original culture after arriving in the New World. Herskovitz argues that varying aspects of African culture have survived and have mixed with other cultures in the Caribbean. The most prominent of these would be religion. One example of religion in the Caribbean with African influences is Santeria, which is a combination of certain African belief systems with Roman Catholicism. The article also touched upon the view of race in the Caribbean and some of the negative views certain countries have on African ancestry.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Herskovitz argument on the survival of Africanisms and their influences on music. All of the music that we have reviewed so far have shown distinct African influences along with certain combinations of European influences.
The focus of Yelvington’s article is a discussion of anthropological scholarship related to the African diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. This diaspora enabled the transfer of African music to the “New World” along with the African slaves shipped across the Atlantic. Yelvington discusses the academic debate regarding the degree to which African slaves assimilated with the dominant culture upon arriving in Latin America and the Caribbean (228-229, 232). This debate connects to our discussion in class regarding how some individuals obviously of African descent learned to play and dance to traditional European music.
ReplyDeleteYelvington continues on to discuss the heterogeneity of the populations in Latin America and the Caribbean and the creolization that occurred among those populations (233-236). Although Yelvington emphasized the diversity in language, the themes of heterogeneity and creolization speak directly to the types of musical practices we have discussed in class. Last class we discussed the convergence of indigenous, European, and African forms of music, which provides a perfect example of both the heterogeneity and the creolization Yelvington highlights.
In his discussion of identity and race, Yelvington examines the issues of determining “blackness,” discussing the varied classifications found in mestizaje (métissage or race-mixing) classifications (242). The difficulty in establishing clear identifications regarding who fits into what racial category speaks to the question we addressed in the last post – how is blackness a part of music in Latin America and the Caribbean? The difficulty in determining race and identity in Latin America and the Caribbean makes it difficult to classify music as being “black” music or having distinctly “black” elements.
Chelsea Young
ReplyDeleteIn his article, Yelvington compares many different opinions from different scholars and anthropologists, where a definition of blackness is usually the goal of each person’s argument. However, in the end the debate essentially comes down to the idea that there is not one exclusive way to define race, which we talked about in class the other day. There is a type of continuum, where on one side of the spectrum a person can be very black and on the other side a person can be very white. Because of creolization, there is a mixture of cultures from Europe, Africa, and other parts of the world that have contributed to the Latin American and Caribbean cultures. Thus, as far as music is concerned, it is hard to decipher purely “black” elements in the music. As Yelvington has mentioned through his studies, he has come down to the decision that societies and cultures are continuously changing, and new elements are brought from other parts of the world. Thus when different cultures are mixed, especially new cultures, it is hard to define anymore what exactly “blackness” is. How can you define blackness as purely African or Haitian? The question of race will always be up for discussion, and thus it is inevitable in the Caribbean and Latin America to define what is and is not black.
In the article Yelvington spends a great deal of time talking about the African Diaspora and the different ties related to the culture that has evolved. One similarity between what he discusses and the musical practices we talked about in class are the blending of peoples to create a very unique style of culture in which the cultural barriers cannot really be differentiated. Yelvington focused on the blending of different types of Africans to create “blackness,” which we discussed in class, in addition to what the Europeans added to culture. In the article Yelvington also talked about how there are certain aspects of African culture that have transfused all over the globe and can now be found almost everywhere. Reggaeton is an example of this. We also talked about the importance of Reggaeton in class and the impact it has on the people of the Caribbean. Finally, Yelvington talked about how the emigration of slaves to the Caribbean, from all different parts of Africa, gave the Caribbean many African linguistic roots. The section where Yelvington spoke about dialogue directly relates to what we speak about in class in regards to how African beats (that emerged in the Kongo Basis probably) have become the basis for an innumerable sum of musical beats and songs, which have now spread all over the world. Despite the fact that Yelvington was clearly more concerned with the anthropological value of studying the mixing of the African and Caribbean cultures, his point of view, which was not at all musical, shed light onto elements of culture, which we had not considered.
ReplyDeleteYelvington first talks much about the influence of various anthropologists on legitimizing the study of black cultures in anthropology; reason being a dispute between anthropologists arguing for the “existence of African cultural continuities” and anthropologists arguing for “New World culture creations in the context of discrimination and deprivation characteristic of the experiences of people of African descent” (227). This in and of itself relates to our discussions in class (and in the previous discussion question) on the [African] continuum found in music of the Caribbean—that is, the different degrees to which African heritage (in particular) is present in different regions of the Caribbean. Yelvington explains how certain concepts employed by one anthropologist, Melville J. Herskovits, in his studies have become part of the perspectives of subsequent generations of anthropologists. Some of these concepts that we have discussed in class include: reinterpretation and syncretism, as well as improvisation. However, Yelvington states that today scholars tend to be grouped into two competing groups: the neo-Herskovitisians and the creationist/ creolization theorists, of whom “emphasize cultural creativity, cultural blending and borrowing, cultural adaptations to local circumstances, and ethnogenetic processes” (232). This is what we’ve talked about most in class, this idea that Caribbean musical practices are a result of many different incidences of fusion, adaption, and embracement throughout Caribbean history.
ReplyDeleteComing off of last class’s discussion question, Yelvington also talks a lot about “blackness” and what exactly the term means. He defines blackness as a “kind of ethnicity (“race” and culture) arising form cultural “identity politics” (240). Blackness is also part of processes of creolization, asserts one anthropologist (Rahier). Rahier explains further, “These processes brought cultural fragments form various origins… to mingle in particular ways, to be reshaped… and to become singular cultural traditions associated with blackness” (240). As well as providing a better picture of the how blackness is present in Caribbean musics, Yelvington points to how this presence of blackness works in the religious subset of Caribbean musics by using examples like Cuban santería, Haitian vodou, and Brazilian candomblé (248). Yelvington says in his explanation how blackness, in the form of African-derived and Afro-Christian religions, actually transcends nation states from Africa to the New World. Why? I think that the impact that African heritage has had on the musics of the Caribbean is so great and the individual African influences are so widespread through Africa that we have to consider them all together in order to grasp the true immensity of the Africa’s impact on Caribbean music.
Yelvington’s article discusses the development of anthropology of the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean, and much of what he draws on can be applied to what we have talked about in class thus far. Yelvington goes into depth on the ideas of an anthropologist Herskovits and a sociologist Frazier. Herskovits traced what he called “Africanisms” “in religions, language, the family, and other cultural forms and institutions transported to the New World with slaves” (228). He pointed to Africanisms that that exist in similar forms from their origin with African slaves. Thus, Herskovits believed that aspects of the African culture were preserved in the New World. Frazier on the other hand, believed that Africans were stripped of their culture, believing that they were forced to “acquire a new language, adopt new habits of labor, and take over, however imperfectly, the folkways of the American environment” (231-232). Today, most scholars either stand in support of Herskovits (called neo-Herkovitsians) or Frazier (called “creationist” or “creolization” theorists).
ReplyDeleteThese ideas relate to what we have discussed in class in that in many ways certain aspects of the African culture and their music remain very visible in the music of Latin America and the Caribbean. The participatory nature of the music in which the entire community is encouraged and expected to participate is an aspect of the African culture still present today. It is not just the lead musicians who control the experience and participate. All who attend are expected to clap, sing, or dance. In addition, the dense nature of the music as well as the repetition, call and response, and interlocking parts are “Africanisms” still present. Many African religious components are still present in various music forms. Two such examples are Santería and Vodou. In Santería, a spirit called an orisha possesses a chosen one. Abakuá, in which a society of men get together and essentially celebrate their own carnival in Cuba, is another example in which a religious system has been transplanted from Africa to the New World. However, some aspects of African music have been altered or mixed with European and indigenous forms or even disappeared. This could lean to support the view put forth by Frazier. When the Europeans colonized the Caribbean and Latin American and brought over slaves from Africa, they forced many to change their cultural practices, including their musical forms. Thus, much of the music in the area started to have stringed instruments, brasses, and some even took on certain rhyme schemes. For example, contradance is a very European style but it has drum music from Africa in it. This stands as an example of a hybrid of the two cultures. The whole debate on if something is still African if it only has certain forms of its original state draws on what we have discussed in class because it relates to how to define African. Do you need something to be retained one hundred percent? Race is not easy to define and perhaps cannot be fully defined. It takes on different meaning and significance according to the culture in which one lives.
The struggle faced by any developing culture or minority group often is a need to feel assimilated. Much of the music we discuss in class ultimately is a form of expression and identity. Although the article does not touch on music in depth, it does expand upon the theories of cultural development after the African Diaspora. These two trains of thought can be exemplified through the types of music we hear and see in class.
ReplyDeleteThe Herskovits theory suggests that African past has a pejorative connotation and that as a result blacks suffered greatly in the new world Americas. The contrasting view is that African slaves lost their native culture during the process of slavery and effectively became “disadvantaged Americans”. Examples can be seen for both theories. As Yelvington quotes, “”entire aspects of African civilization have been preserved in Latin America so clearly that no concept of ‘reinterpretation’ is needed to discover them””. A community such as the one Yelvington describes here exhibits little cultural change from the Diaspora. Proof of this assertion would exist within the African music that is predominately unaffected by European or Native American cultures. Related to the topic of the continuum, Yelvington describes the situation of blanqueamiento. This theory suggests people tend to disassociate themselves with black heritage because of the discrimination the black label incurs.
Rodolfo Edeza
ReplyDeleteYelvington's articles deals with two anthropologists, Frazier who believes that African culture has had any influence on its development. He argues that slaves lost parts or all of their culture and had to adopt a new one thorough force of circumstances. On the other hand Herskovits argues that certain parts of Africanism are still present in today’s cultures. Herskovits defines his project as that of “The Negro in the New World.” Some of the concepts argued by Herskovits about African diaspora in the Americas is cultural tenacity, retentions, reinterpretation, and syncretism. One of the biggest traits that he finds in the musical practices we have discussed in class is improvisation an African trait that is deeply rooted in African tradition of Adaptation. Africanism represented the survival of adaptations that the American cultured hid beneath cultural forms blacks had adapted. I would agree more with Herskovits due to different musical practices we have discussed in class. Africanism can easily be spotted in Latin America and the Caribbean through religious music. For example, Abakua is a Cuban religious system from Africa Niger river. The instruments, density rhythm, and repeating cells are grounded in the traditions of Africa. Particular rhythmic cells such as tresillo, cinquillo, and the habanera are believed to be from the Kongo. The issues Yelvington discusses are connected with the development and spread of African musical elements throughout the Latin America and the Caribbean.
In Yelvington's article he provides two opinions on whether or not Africans maintained their culture during the African diaspora into LA, the caribbean, and the Americas. Herskovits and Frazier bring opposing views. Frazier argued that Africans were dispossessed of their culture whereas Herskovits argues that some of their culture was help through religion. I think that it was difficult for the African people to hold together their culture. They were enslaved and told not to practice their culture. I believe that one way they were able to carry on their culture was through religion and music. As we saw in class there was a video of the man being possessed by a spirit. These types of religious acts were ways in which they were able to preserve culture.
ReplyDeleteHowever because these people were being displaced, and enslaved, there were inevitable people from different cultures being forced together. This caused cultural blending, borrowing, and adaptation. These were things that we also talked about in class, the idea that "blackness" is found in music. But if all of these different people are coming together and sharing bits and pieces of their culture with one another then inevitably this was going to come out in their music as well. Blackness is not one form and cannot create one form of music. But if fact it is the mixture and adaptation of all these different cultures that made the music what it is. Yelvington states, slaves had one thing in common and that was their enslavement, everything else had to be created by them. He also talks about how blackness is stigmatized and how white US scholars impart their own concepts on race. All of these ideas go back to what was discussed in class about blackness and how it relates to music. But from the reading we can see in fact that it comes from a mix of different cultures and races and cannot be described as one single blackness.
Rodolfo Edeza
ReplyDeleteYelvington’s articles deals with two anthropologists, Frazier who believes that African culture has had any influence on its development. He argues that slaves lost parts or all of their culture and had to adopt a new one thorough force of circumstances. On the other hand Herskovits argues that certain parts of Africanism are still present in today’s cultures. Herskovits defines his project as that of “The Negro in the New World.” Some of the concepts argued by Herskovits about African diaspora in the Americas is cultural tenacity, retentions, reinterpretation, and syncretism. One of the biggest traits that he finds in the musical practices we have discussed in class is improvisation an African trait that is deeply rooted in African tradition of Adaptation. Africanism represented the survival of adaptations that the American cultured hid beneath cultural forms blacks had adapted. I would agree more with Herskovits due to different musical practices we have discussed in class. Africanism can easily be spotted in Latin America and the Caribbean through religious music. For example, Abakua is a Cuban religious system from Africa Niger river. The instruments, density rhythm, and repeating cells are grounded in the traditions of Africa. Particular rhythmic cells such as tresillo, cinquillo, and the habanera are believed to be from the Kongo. The issues Yelvington discusses are connected with the development and spread of African musical elements throughout the Latin America and the Caribbean.
Yelvington, though not specifically citing music, discusses the African diaspora in the context of many influential anthropologists and cultural theorists. While he mainly focuses on the work of Frazier and Herskovits, whose work creates an interesting contradiction, he also explains Hall's understanding of the nature of diaspora, which, I think, relates back to some of the concepts that we have discussed in class. Hall writes, "Africa, the signified which could not be represented directly in slavery, remained and remains the unspoken, unspeakable 'presence' in Caribbean culture...It is the ground-bass for of every rhythm and bodily movement. This was - is - the 'Africa' that is 'alive and well in the diaspora'". His point is that everything that has happened in the Caribbean has African undertones. This idea is also apparent in many of the types of music that we have listened to in class. While there are few types of music that are purely African, purely native American or purely European, Caribbean music usually comprises components of two or more of these components. African styles are typically the common denominator, too. So while it may be true that, as Moore also suggested, some of the richness of African music may have been lost as they crossed the Atlantic, African undertones have and always will exist in the Caribbean. All of this relates back to the idea of a continuum, and the way that styles and cultures blend to create unique and distinct types of music.
ReplyDeleteYelvington describes the debate surrounding the continuity of African culture in black Latin America. There are two sides to the argument, one says many aspects of the culture are directly African, while the other side argues these aspects result from a hybrid of cultures, or creolization, and is really a separate new world culture in itself. This can be related to black music in Latin America as there is an internal debate there as to the “blackness” of certain elements and a search as to where some African musical elements are included or may be missing. There is an underlying question as to if this is African music or new world music.
ReplyDeleteWhile never speaking of music Yelvington analyzes the diaspora associated with the immigration of millions of Africans to Latin-America and the Caribbean, we have been studying the effects this has had on afro-music in those regions. His analysis of how positively or negatively blackness was viewed created class separation; we have seen that this caused differences in afro-musics and creolization. He also speaks about syncretism among races which created a variety of them, as we have seen syncretism lead to a variety of black musics in the region.
ReplyDeleteOscar Pena
Calla Hastings
ReplyDeleteWhile Yelvington’s article does not discuss music directly, it does discuss the idea of cultural retention and highlights many arguments that support our in class findings. At the core of Yelvington’s paper, a discussion of the anthropological treatment of the African diaspora in Latin America, is the debate between the anthropologists Herskovits and Frazier. Herskovits argues that elements of African culture have been retained in the New World while Frazier claims that it is in fact the “context of discrimination and deprivation” that has shaped the African culture in Latin America today.
Looking at our class discussion in the context of Herskovits’ argument first, the retention of many musical practices such as call and response patterns, collective participation, and an emphasis on rhythm all act as evidence of remaining African culture. In addition Herskovits argues that through understanding and exploring the “Africanism” found in the New World that some symptoms of racism and oppression can be alleviated. Through anthropological understanding Herskovits is in effect trying to promote his own racial project. Looking at Frazier, on the other hand, in the context of our class discussion bring to mind the idea of “neo-African” music. Music that is not influenced by European tradition but at the same does not find its roots in Africa. This “neo-African” music evolved in response to its creator’s new-found environment. It was therefore in many ways a product of slavery and oppression. While discussing these two extremes in anthological thinking Yelvington is sure to mention that there is a middle ground, a group of scholars that believe this debate should not be so polarized. Yelvington mentions creolization, an idea we discussed a good deal in class. Music in Latin American today is not purely African or completely devoid of any African roots but instead lays on a continuum.
Sam Bonnel
ReplyDeleteSeveral of Yelvington's points resonate with the topics we've discussed thus far.
First, he cites Herskovits' work in tracing back to Africa, elements of African culture ("Africanisms") that were brought with slaves and then developed further and changed with later contact with other cultures. Herein lies the basis of course: exploring how African traces remain in the musics of Latin America and the Caribbean. Yelvington notes that these Africanisms are the elements of African culture that remain in Black Americans, much like the musical elements (rhythm, instruments, call and response, etc. that survived even in the face of oppression and creolization.
Yelvington further explains that because of creolization, none of these cultural elements can be called definitively "African elements", and evidenced by their respective introductions, Moore and Manuel agree.
While Yelvington discusses acculturation in terms of assimilation into American culture, its elements (cultural tenacity, retention, reinterpretation, and syncretism) closely parallel the types of racial projects (reinterpretation, adaptation, and oppositionality) we are discussing in the course. Both sets deal with the ways in which the African culture in these regions change or withstood change in the face of multiple pervading cultures. He cites Parsons' studies which explained that these elements which survived are the Black contribution to the nation. Yelvington cites Hall, who notes that Africa is in the rhythms and dances of the diaspora. Likewise, Moore and Manuel note that Blackness and African culture's presence are perpetuated by these musics.
The text meshes with our course in that Yelvington also explains how the dilution of African culture was seen as a means of improving it, and how Blackness is stigmatized and the label "Black" is avoided. We discussed this exact issue of negrophobia, especially in the Dominican Republic, relating to how Blackness is partly absent in these regions because the African roots of these musics fail to be acknowledged, and because Blackness is looked down upon.
In Yelvington article explains shows differences of Frazier's and Herskovit's view. Frazier's view being "from anthropology's purview" and Herskovit's being of African-isms. They talk about how Blacks in South America do not refer to themselves as black, although most of them black. The music originating from Africa they use the three racial projects to go to their own style of music. They 1.reinterpret, 2. adapt, and 3. oppose the music to make it a black reaction or racial formation.
ReplyDeleteYelvington concludes his essay with the statement when trying to study blackness in LA and the Caribbean, "The picture is extremely complicated, and there is no reason to believe it will not remain so for time to come" (p. 251). Yelvington presents a number of legitimate anthropological theories and scholars who attempt to try and piece together this definition. Nonetheless, it is the timeless debate between Herskovits and Frazier that has laid the groundwork for debate in finding the relevance of blackness in LA and the Caribbean.
ReplyDeleteYelvington does not discuss the degree in which music in LA and the Caribbean can be tied into the degree of blackness in the area. However when he presents the theories of Herskovits and Frasier, we are able to draw some comparisons to their hypotheses to the types of music we have studied thus far. Herskovits believes that "Africanisms" can be seen in the Americas in "religion, language, the family, and other cultural forms and institutions transported to the New World" (p. 228). Thus, when we hear music that has a strong African rhythmic cell base, or more specifically a "call and response" piece of music, we tend to think of Herskovits' theories. Frasier, on the other hand, believed that Africans lost all of their original identity when they were forced to come west during slavery. This can be seen in European influenced music that we have heard thus far, like the quadrille. When we watch the video of the group of people dancing in a ballroom setting with very European attire and manner it made me think of Frasier as well.
I believe that based on the music we have listened to thus far and the constant African connection we have been able to make, Herskovits may be right in his theories. Blackness is present in LA and the Caribbean and it can be seen through the music of the region.
Vanessa Rendon
ReplyDeleteBlack Musics in Latin America
2/3/11
Yelvington’s mention of terms such as “cultural tenacity,” “retentions,” “reinterpretation,” “syncretism,” and “acculturation” suggest that musical practices in Latin America and the Caribbean were born from these sociocultural concepts. He defines the anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean as possessing two distinct views: a neo-Herskovitsians notion versus a “creationist” or “creolized” notion of the African Diaspora. Herskovits’ idea that improvisation was an African trait is directly associated with the musical styles of the Caribbean because improvisation is a fundamental aspect of its music. Mintz & Price explore the survivals versus cultural creation of blacks in Latin America and the Caribbean through the combination of social and cultural perspectives on blackness. They focus more on the values than on the sociocultural forms, and they hope to identify the causes that transform behavioral response in blacks. This study of the underlying values and thoughts of African-derived culture implies that musical practices in Latin America/Caribbean contain those basic African-derived assumptions about social relations and expectations about the way the world functions. Because black slaves from distinct parts of Africa were seen as “crowds,” not as “groups, when they came to America, they developed their own cultural mixture and underwent “renewals of identification.” The continuum of African culture is open to change and adaptations under certain conditions and persistent in retaining cultural elements in others. Because of the negative association with blackness in numerous Latin American and Caribbean countries, musical practices have been greatly influenced by European musical styles and fewer people remain on the African continuum. Themes described by Yelvington such as, the blacks’ flight from persecution, the intersection of gender and blackness, and the influence and combination of African and European religions are integral to the composition of music in Latin American and the Caribbean.
Yelvington’s debate appears to further discuss and blur many of the questions and conclusions I had after our last reading, in terms of looking for “blackness,” and wondering what exactly “blackness” entailed. His exposition of the two schools of diaspora thought, that of Herskovits and that of Frazier, exemplifies the two ways of studying and perceiving “black” cultures in the Western Hemisphere: retention of Africanisms or creolization/invention.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was especially interesting how the conflict between the two boils down to anthropology’s quest for the “pristine”—which has its logic, because without the reference point of "non-contact" culture, how can you define what is or is not a product of retention on the part of slaves and what was their ingenious invention in the face of their hardship and new European cultural influences?
We can definitely determine that certain aspects of music came from Europe: the stringed instruments, the minuet-style dancing, even specific verse forms like the décima. However, In Caribbean Currents Manuel notes that décima, as a “minor verse form in 16th and 17th century Spain, it came to be widely cultivated as a song text in diverse forms in Latin America but essentially fizzled out in peninsular Spain itself” (Manuel, 14). So although the trait is indisputably of Iberian origin, it is now unique to the Caribbean. Although a relic of one culture, it is a documented one. On the other hand, anthropologists may argue that the continent of Africa itself has been in more constant contact with the European influence than the were colonies, which operated on the true margins of the empires. As result, we’ve fleetingly commented that many deity worships are practiced in the Caribbean more commonly than in the nations where they are allegedly derived, “creolization” aside. The mother-culture’s own ethnogenisis has taken completely different turns, and it has been far less documented in ways accessible to anthropologists, obviously, than the cultural evolution of—for example—Spain.
Therefore without credible sources on the “pristine” African cultures, how can we determine what traits—musically or not—are direct retentions of mother-cultures that have survived in the satellite cultures of the Caribbean, and what are purely inventions unique to this side? How can we choose between the two schools of thought when it comes to the African Diaspora?
Yelvington's description and incorporation of Herskovit's
ReplyDeleteScale of Intensity of New World Africanisms" directly relates to what we have been discussing in class. In particular, part of this scale describes music in the "New World". Herskovits's scale ranges from a to e. A represents "very African", whereas e represents little African. If we define blackness as having African roots, this scale demonstrates the amount of blackness in Latin-American music. Interestingly, an overwhelming majority of rankings seem to be a, "very African". This seems to suggest that music in Latin-America is indeed "very black". This study would be useful in discussion of how black music is in Latin-America.
Stephen Sullivan
ReplyDeleteIn the Caribbean and Latin America, determining if Africanism exists in the culture is a contentious subject. Two opposing theories discussed in the article include Frazier’s belief that African culture has disappeared and Herskovitz’s belief that it still exists within these populations. As an outsider is difficult to determine which theory is more accurate.
I don’t think you cant deny that Africanism doesn’t exist in this culture, however, it is true that as the society evolves it gets hard to identity where it is. One interesting question asked in the article was “How can one establish a science if its very object cannot be clearly defined?”. The world is becoming a big melting pot; as more countries assimilate together, many traits of different cultures are mixed and redefined. ‘We (can sometimes) see “cultural identity shifts from blacks and mulattos to the nation as a whole,” so that “one will find African cultural traits in whites as well as European cultural traits in the descendants of Africans.” There will always exist some influences rooted in their music, but they become harder to identity as they evolve and become influenced by other cultures. Music is the best representation of this idea.
Kevin Yelvington examines anthropologist’s views on how black culture has or has not survived in Latin America and the Caribbean. Although he focuses on culture and does not directly speak about music in this work this article is relevant to our discussions because music is such an essential part of African, Caribbean, and Latin American culture.
ReplyDeleteYelvington and the anthropologists he evaluated try to define African culture in the Caribbean, but each anthropologist’s idea differs. Two views are Fraizers and Herskovits. Fraizer thinks that slaves brought to the new world lost all original culture and traditions, while Herskovits thinks Africanism survived slavery to a certain extent in each region.
Fraizer’s idea relates to our classes musical practices because many black music and dances do not resemble any original African traditions. There are musician in Cuba and Puerto Rico that use string instruments, which are European. Dances, such as the quadrille, also present in the Caribbean originated in France. Herskovit’s idea relates to our discussions because we have discussed how different slave owners allowed slaves to keep their heritage in different degrees. This led some Africans to retain their culture on different levels than others, which resulted in no unified blackness throughout the Caribbean, an idea we talked about in class.
Yelvington discusses how a myriad of ambiguities have come up in the anthropological study of African culture and influences in Latin America and the Caribbean, primarily because of the difference in approach of modern research and past research in this area of anthropology. I found that the section of Yelvigton' paper that had most relevance to what we discussed in class was his section about identity. He quoted Bastide, who said that there was clearly a presence of retention of African civilization in South America, it was difficult to research in South America because of the mixing of cultures, or creolization. He notes that Some European customs are adopted by "black" people, who argue that their origins aren't African or resent the concept of blackness, and that some whites adopted African customs, often without their conscious realization. The concept of black identity becomes nebulous. Yelvinton discussed the mixing of races and how different races viewed themselves and others, making the point that black identity is always changing in accordance to the influences of time and other things. Yelvington refers to the different religious practices in the Caribbean and South America, like Santeria and Candomble.
ReplyDelete