Music 74 / 139: Indigenous Music & Politics
Summer Session D
Robbie Beahrs (PhD Candidate, Ethnomusicology)
In recent decades, indigenous music has become a critical site for examining questions of contemporary identities, traditional knowledge, cultural ownership, and political activism in our globalizing and hyper-mediated world. This seminar-style course examines indigenous modernities through musical and cultural practices of indigenous peoples from four different cultural groups: the Inuit of Arctic Canada, the Sámi of Lapland, the Ainu of Hoikkaido (Japan), and Aboriginal peoples of Australia. Drawing on scholarly readings, recordings, music videos, films, and the Internet, we will approach questions large and small: Who or what does “indigenous” refer to in various political, national, and transnational contexts? How is “indigeneity” performed musically? What kinds of tensions, possibilities, and alliances do indigenous identities offer for contemporary world citizens? How have the academic disciplines of ethnomusicology, folklore, and ethnic and cultural studies approached contemporary indigenous issues? Central to our discussions will be tracing and problematizing binaries such as traditional/modern, local/global, and authentic/appropriated.
Please email me if you have any questions about the course: robeahrs@berkeley.edu
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