Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Traditions In Transition: A Musical Perspective In A Changing, Developing Samoa, Colin Kiley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper was compiled during November 2008. It was a research project that sought out the perspectives of various diverse musicians in Samoa at that time. These musicians included music school instructors, Peace Corps volunteers, Samoan orchestra composers and conductors, traditional Samoan composers, traveled Samoan musicians as well as contemporary Samoan artists. The paper examines how the purposes of music in Samoan society have shifted, altered or changed from traditional times to current-day Samoa in the face of development, a growing economy and increased contact with outside influences. Although the music of Samoa, its purposes, values, uses and aesthetics have …

On Est Ensemble: A Participatory Study Of The Jembe Tradition As Preserved By The Griots Of West Africa, Joel Rowe

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this study, I examine how a culture’s values are reflected in a specific pedagogical process through participant observation; in essence, I endeavor to examine first-hand the anthropology of pedagogy. The jembe, in truth, is comparable to a window into both the teaching model of a Senegalese master drummer and the cultural values reflected in his pedagogical method. In learning to play the parts of seven jembe rhythms with fluidity and recording their cultural significances, I discover the elements of criticism and sacrifice deeply inlaid in the tradition of this instrument. Relative to the communal setting of the griot family …

Kaya Hip-Hop In Coastal Kenya: The Urban Poetry Of Ukoo Flani, Divinity Lashelle Barkley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the global world of the 21st Century, music is one of the few things that has the ability to cross physical as well as cultural borders, which is why my Independent Study Project (ISP) focuses on the role of hip-hop music in the youth culture in Kenya’s largest coastal city, Mombasa. Throughout history, music has proven its artistic power; inspiring people to resist oppression, challenge inequality, and even claim salvation.

This enduring characteristic of music is central to my ISP which explores the emergence of hip-hop in Kenya as well as the evolution of Ukoo Flani, one of the …

A Place In The World: Mh2o’S Construction Of A Peripheral Identity, Ryan Schutt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Hip Hop and, more specifically, Rap music, has been a culture rooted in the notion of the social periphery, the section of society excluded from mainstream, capitalist, bourgeois society. It has historically been a way for this voiceless, disenfranchised, and alienated population to criticize, question, and protest its societal position. The Movimento do Hip-Hop Organizado uses this medium as a way of politicizing and mobilizing the excluded members of Brazilian society. Using Hip-Hop, the organization constructs a socially informed, politically aware, and critically conscious community that is united through their common identification with Hip-Hop culture and MH2O. The case is …

Roma In Vojvodina: Expressions Of Cultural Identity Through Performance, Jane Kaufman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper begins to cover some of the ways Roma cultural identity is expressed through performance in Vojvodina. The way Roma music and dance is seen in Vojvodina is highly influenced by the “circus” image and very little scholarly writing on Roma folklore exists to challenge this image. Roma musicians in rap/hip-hop groups incorporate elements of Roma traditional music and Roma language into rap/hip-hop to confront this stereotype and in performance these influences can interact, challenging stereotypes and revealing current values and traditions.

“Oh Uncle Pema!” The Role Of Musical Agency In The Creation Of A Modern Tibetan Identity, Tracy Ellwanger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“Aku Pema,” a widely popular song in both Tibet and exile, is a useful vehicle for camparing the agency of Tibetan musicians and audiences, as they interact with dominating cultures (Chinese, Hindi, and Western) and official paradigms (espoused by the Chinese government and the Tibetan government-in-exile). After examining the role and implications of “Aku Pema” as a “political” song in both locales, I will look at notions of modernity and tradition, especially in the context of the growing sinocization of Tibetan culture in Tibet and the resulting exile views of pure versus impure Tibetan music.

At the heart of this …

Post-Velvet Jazz Baby, Jack Elkin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Throughout the past fifty years, two principle agents have inhibited experimentation in Prague's jazz scene, totalitarian states and the conditions that followed after the fervor of the Velvet Revolution died out. What has resulted is an environment that has embraced variation but not typically new or contemporary ideas, which is only just beginning to change.

Canto Al Huaso, Canto Al Pueblo: La Música Y El Discurso Político De La Identidad Chilena Durante Los Años Sesenta Y La Unidad Popular, Greg Walz-Chojnacki

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La fuerte polarización de la política chilena durante los años sesenta y la Unidad Popular tiene un reflejo en las representaciones de la identidad nacional a través de la música. Usando la letra de canciones y entrevistas con músicologos y músicos, este ensayo examina el discurso politico presente en la música de este período. Primero, se describe la representación de una identidad nacional tradicional a través de la música de Los Huasos Quincheros. Luego, se analiza la formación de una identidad alternative en dos etapas: el desarrollo de una vision del país que reacciona a la imagen patronal y exclusive …