ANTH 264 - Music as Culture: Introduction to Ethnomusicology

3 Credit(s)

Music making is a universal feature of human societies, and we can learn a lot about human culture through systematic analysis of music cultures and the broader traditions in which they are embedded. In this course, students explore what music and music making can tell us about people’s identities, cosmologies, social and economic structures, moral codes, religious beliefs, political ideologies, and relationships with the natural world. We approach music making as a behavior grounded in both cultural aesthetics and societal customs. Students are introduced to the anthropological side of ethnomusicology by comparing a wide variety of theoretical and ethnographic approaches to music culture analysis. They explore and apply the concepts, principles, and models cultural anthropologists use to study and represent myths, beliefs, and traditions expressed in the musical systems of different cultures around the world.
This course counts as an Advanced Anthropology Elective for the BA in Anthropology. Satisfies SSCI general education requirement.