The Psycho-Social Dynamics of Ewe Names: The Case of Ahanonko

Paper

Steven Mithen, The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body

Review of Steven Mithen, The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005 (hardcover), 2006 (paperback). ISBN13: 9780297643173 (hardcover) £20.00. ISBN13: 9-780753820513 (paperback) £9.99

Language Plots in Musical Spaces: A Response to Adams Bodomo and Manolete Mora

The commentary begins with by briefly reviewing UNESCO’s activities in the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of cultural traditions worldwide, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Suggestions are then made regarding how the observations reported by Bodomo & Mora (2007) might be augmented by various theoretical, musical, and ethnolinguistic perspectives. The commentary also addresses challenges of designing and conducting research regarding integrative performance events and the construction, communication, and interpretation of cultural meaning

Stumbling with/over scripts : Vignettes

Isn't it doubly stimulating to read about "oral tradition" and "orality" by entrusting it to the print medium? Acts associated with media of communication surely reflect the ontological status of the verbum: plural voices, pluralistic voicing, and the inevitable symbiosis of routes and genres. Yes, this is the primary constitution of the "oral," no matter in which specific (?) discipline we locate or discourse it./

Freedom to sing, license to insult : the influence of halo performance on the social violence among the Anlo Ewe

Abstract The experience of performance as a social process and the blending of genres are two important characteristics identifying performance in Africa, as confirmed by Margaret Drewal in her review of performance studies in Africa (1991:64). However, work in these two areas is incipient. It is, therefore, the purpose of this essay to further our understanding of performance by exploring the unique ways in which the halo of the Anlo-Ewe not only exhibits social conditions but also structures and qualifies them. In this study the multidimensional aspect of halo will be highlighted and explained both as an aesthetic strategy and as an integral component in constructing the social significance of halo performance. In order to achieve this dual end, the study will focus on selective musico-artistic and social elements that distinguish the performance from other Anlo-Ewe musical or performance types, with focus on performance as a medium for generating and escalating social violence. Finally, the study will summarize halo performance as celebration and affirmation of life, and as a social experience that draws on artistic framing in the consummation of social reality. This approach will thus increase our awareness of the ontological and symbiotic relationships between performance and its sociocultural environment.Issue title; "African Oral Traditions.

Ruptures, Junctures, and Difference

Royal rituals and festivities are vibrant sites of cultural continuity among the Ewe of Ghana. The rituals exhibit elements of hyperreal, sonic, and sacred/secular sensibilities that frame performance and embodied affectivity. The royal event complex engages the multisensory, the carnivalesque and interstices of the sacred/secular in Ewe spirituality and religious outlook

The construction and manipulation of temporal structures in Yeve cult music: A multi-dimensional approach

The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to investigate in detail how musical time is arrived at, and how it interacts with and is influenced by social events and by the specific context under which the music is performed. The analysis will be based upon examples from Yeve cult music as practised among the Anlo-Ewe of Ghana. In addition, the paper will examine relationships that exist between the individual or composite (musical and extra-musical) temporal structures and participants’ affective response. The affective or experiential domain will also include audience response

The impact of rural-urban migration on a village music culture: some implications for applied ethnomusicology

Rural-urban migration, which is becoming a unique phenomenon in developing countries, constitutes a special challenge in ethnomusicology. Consequently materials, methods, and theory building in ethnomusicology are now being forced to "face the music" in urban areas. It is therefore my purpose to provide a detailed aspect of how rural-urban migration affects musical practice in a particular village in Ghana; and, second, to address specific problems derived from the village situation; and, finally, to explore how a more favourable situation could be created through the implementation of a suggested program of action from the perspective of applied ethnomusicology

Stumbling with/over scripts : vignettes (Chinese)

Isn't it doubly stimulating to read about "oral tradition" and "orality" by entrusting it to the print medium? Acts associated with media of communication surely reflect the ontological status of the verbum: plural voices, pluralistic voicing, and the inevitable symbiosis of routes and genres. Yes, this is the primary constitution of the "oral," no matter in which specific (?) discipline we locate or discourse it./

The Place of Haló in Peacebuilding and Social Reconstruction among the Anlo-Ewe

The constitution and performance of violence in Anlo-Ewe haló engendered lasting vicious cycles in which individuals and groups continue to re-identify with their traumatic memories in very precarious ways. Indigenous reconciliation rituals and government interventions have proved insufficient in repairing psychological, social, physical and spiritual damages that halo has inflicted on interpersonal and intergroup relations. This paper draws on cumulative field materials on both haló and contemporary Anlo-Ewe performance traditions--in which conflict and violence continue to be celebrated, albeit in veiled ways--to formulate alternative paths to social and interpersonal healing, with focus on the centrality and performance resources and reworked indigenous reconciliation rituals. Theoretical arguments draw on select recent research ideas in applied ethnomusicology and related fields, including notions of “poetics of violence” (McDonald 2009, Whitehead 2004); “religion-violence-nexus” (Basedau and Juan 2008); “metaphysical” and “symbolic” violence (Stewart, 2002; Parkin, 1986; Abink, 1999); Schechner’s notion of “transformation” in relation to performance and social drama (Avorgbedor, 1999); Schechner, 1987), and on the perspective of “ displacement of violent memory is enabling rather than repressive” (Shaw, 2007). A systematic program of action-participatory research involving select communities, reconstructed and new music genres which integrate relevant symbols and reconciliation rituals is outlined