South American Indians and the Conceptualization

of Music 

Shuo ZhangMusic Department

I Suya and Shavante: Case Studies from Two South

American Indian Groups in Brazil

• 1.1 General Backgrounds of Suya and Shavante

• 1.2 From Speech to Song: Suya vocal genres

• 1.3 Modes of Shavante Vocal Expression

1.1 General Background

1.2 From Speech to Song: Suya vocal genres

Categories Sub-categories

Saren ‘To tell, to instruct, to relate’

‘instruction’

‘what the old people tell’

Recitatives’

Kaperni ‘speech’

‘everyday speech’

‘bad speech’

‘angry speech’

‘everybody listens speech’

‘slow speech’

Sangere ‘Invocation’

‘burity palm racing log invocation’

Ngere ‘music/songs’

‘shout songs’

‘unison songs’

TABLE 1

Ngere (song) Priority of melody of text;Time, text and melody fixed by non-human sources

Kaperni(speech)Priority of text over melody;Text and melody determined by speaker;increasing formalization in public performances

Saren (telling) and sangere (invocation) relative priority of relatively fixed texts over relatively established melodies

FIGURE 1

Distinguish songs/music from speech

• priority of its melody over text• fixed mode of its presentation• extensive use of textual repetition• fixed length of its phrases• fixed relations among pitches• unimpeachable authority of its texts• Origin of songs

1.3 Modes of Shavante Vocal Expression

• dawawa(ritual wailing)• dano?re(collective singing)• political oratory/plaza speech

II Data Analysis2.1 Speech-music continuum2.2 Conceptualizing music—

criteria for definition and scope

Single vs. Multiple Criteria for conceptualizing music

2.3 The Whorf Hypothesis

LANGUAGE THOUGHT

Lexicon

Grammatical Categories

Cultural Patterns

?

Color Studies

Stage I Stage II Stage III Stage IV Stage V Stage VI

Black/dark (cool)

Black Black Black Black Black

White/light (warm)

White White White White White

Red Red Red Red Red

Yellow or grue

Yellow Yellow Yellow

Grue Green Green

Blue Blue

Brown

A stage VII language would add one or more of the following in any order: purple, pink, orange, grey.

2.4 Music as a mystic power

• Suya: non-human origin• Shavante: learned through dreams• Ancient Greek: unite power• American: musical talent, gift

III Extended Comparison and Analysis

• 3.1 A Case study of Kino people in East Asia

Conclusion

THANK YOU