MUS 416

Fall 2024 All Classes

All Classes

Anthropology of Music

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Credit: 3 hours.

Introduction to the anthropological study of music, including the role of music in the world's societies and non-Western musical systems and cultures.

Same as ANTH 416. 3 undergraduate hours. 3 graduate hours. Prerequisite: ANTH 103 or consent of instructor.

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MUS 416 class schedule data for fall 2024
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	39682	Lecture-Discussion	B	1:00PM -3:50PM	M	Music Building	Buchanan, D	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/26/24-12/11/24 Section Title: Music and Cosmology Section Info: Topic: "MUSIC AND COSMOLOGY." This course explores the position, function, and significance of music in culture-specific perceptions of the mystical, cosmological, and divine ordering of the universe in diverse locales and time periods. As such, it examines the place of sound, musical and otherwise, within large-scale epistemological systems variously embracing spirituality, religion, philosophy, ecology, mythology, (ethno-)astronomy, and morality. It addresses how music facilitates, maintains, enacts, or otherwise contributes to the belief constructs of various communities, often through sacred and secular rites, festivals, or celebrations, its symbolic play within such contexts, and its role in triggering the altered states of consciousness (such as dreaming, meditation, or trance) associated with healing, divination, and spiritual ecstasy. This semester course materials will pay special, but not exclusive, attention to two intertwined sub-themes: 1) sensorial spirituality, or the work and interplay of the senses in facilitating and enhancing mystical experience and spiritual practice, with sound at the center; and 2) acoustemological case studies in which sound, belief, and local ecology (nature, the environment, senses of place) are intrinsically interwoven—and even interdependent. Class readings include key ethnographic studies, fundamental texts in the anthropology and ethnomusicology of belief systems and ritual practice, and the instructor’s own research-in-progress. While these readings largely address music cultures outside the concert canon, students are encouraged to explore research projects dealing with any pertinent musical practice, genre, style, historical era, or composition from anywhere in the world, including those associated with Euro-American art music, popular culture, or their legacies.