grauer, echoes of our forgotten ancestors

8/13/2019 Grauer, Echoes of Our Forgotten Ancestors

1/55

VWB - Verlag fr Wissenschaft und Bildung

Echoes of Our Forgotten AncestorsAuthor(s): Victor A. GrauerSource: The World of Music, Vol. 48, No. 2, Echoes of Our Forgotten Ancestors (2006), pp. 5-58Published by: VWB - Verlag fr Wissenschaft und BildungStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41699695 .Accessed: 17/06/2013 12:45

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

VWB - Verlag fr Wissenschaft und Bildung is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to The World of Music.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 128 .97.244.241 on Mon, 17 Jun 2 013 12:45:54 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=vwbhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/41699695?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/41699695?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=vwb


2/55

theworldfmusic8(2)20065-59

Echoes of Our Forgotten Ancestors

Victor A. Grauer

AbstractRecentevelopmentsn he ield f eneticnthropologyuggesthatur arliestully"modernancestorsriginatednAfricaetween50,000nd200,000ears go,and hat singleand f heir escendentsigratedromhat ontinentoAsiabe-tween0,000nd 0,000ears go, estinedo opulatehe est f heworld.he o-calledOut-of-frica,paradigmas penedhe oor o ll sorts fnewossibilitiesregardingurunderstandingfhumanistorynd ulture. rawingnexperiencegained uringmyyears f nvolvement,ith lan Lomax,n the Cantometricsproject,upplementedy xtensivendependentesearch,attemptodemonstratehowhe ew eneticindingsould ead o generale-evaluationf he istory,e-velopment,nd ignificancefmankind'sarliest usic.Itwas barbaricymphony,nunheard-oflend fprimitiveonorousaterials,fmetal, oodndholloweeds. hemelodyose ingingndmetallicromhe en-dersfar bovehe thernstruments....ut t was hetrangeotes f he nklungswhichavehemusicts rimevalesonance.ne fter he ther,n apidut rregularsuccession,heyrembleds the layershookhem,reatingmysteriousremulo

background,nsistent,oft,ike he ow ound f windn he alang rass. ver ndover,ike recordaughtna groove,hemelodyepeated,elentless,ithoutheleasthangef xpression.thad very arrowange,or here ere nly our iffer-ent otesn he cale f henstruments,nd he ompletelytrangeelationf hesenotes o ach ther,he trangenessf heir uning,avehemusicqualitycannotdescribe,reatednatmospheref ncrediblentiquity.twas ike rackingusic oits ource...Suddenly,ithoutarning,hemusictopped. hat roughthemen oafinal alt could ot eterminet ll.Crowtealingggs aid he lian.utwhenaskedim hemeaningf he itle, h Hecouldot ay. twas ld, ery ld Perhapsfromhe ery eginning.

AHouse n

Bali ColinMcPhee

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/55

6 theworldfmusic8( -2006

1. Prologue

Duringhe ummer f 1961,1 had thehonor f collaboratingith hedistinguishedfolklorist,thnomusicologist,nd uthor, lanLomax,nthe evelopmentf radi-callynew pproachothe omparativetudy f world ocalmusic,which e was toname "Cantometrics."ur collaborationesumedarly n 1963and continuedthrougharly 967,when entered hemusic rogramt SUNYBuffalo s a gradu-atestudentn music omposition.lan,with he ssistancef a remarkableeam,continuedodevelopnd xpand he roject ormany ears, ntil pair fdevastat-

ing trokesragicallyorced isretirement.As Lomax hasdescribedt, The cantometricystem etsupa behavioralriduponwhich ll song tyles an berangednd omparedsee,for xample, igure ).Thisgridwas...designed...orate musical erformances]n a seriesof... cales(loudtosoft, ense o ax,etc.)taxonomicallypplicableosongperformancen allcultures.hus ong an becomparedosong, ong ospeech,ndhopefullyo otheraspectsfbehavior"Lomaxt l. 1968:3).Lomaxs innovation as to put side ra-ditionalmusicnotation, ith ts focus n the pecificsf cale and tructure,nfavorofamore enerallypplicable,ehaviorriented,atingystem hich oulddo us-tice othe ort f arge-scaletylisticatterns hich eem ocontrolhe verallhapeof the musical icture orldwide. ore nformationn this ery ich ndcomplexproject anbefoundn,tociteonly ne of many ublications,hebookFolkSongStyle nd Cultureibid.).While hefollowingssayshouldnotbe understoods asummaryfCantometricindingsr a reflection fCantometricss Alanconceivedit, t s verymuchnfluencedymy nvolvementn theproject,ndmy ssociationwith omax,who formanyyears erved s teacher, uide, nspiration, entor,ndeven, o some xtent, ather igure.While feel hat did truly unctions a collabo-rator, urrelationshipas not qual.CantometricsasAlan's dea- the utgrowthofmany ears fresearchnd nsight nhispart- he was directorf the rojectnd

itwasatevery oint nder iscontrol.Thoughhadpreviouslytudiedthnomusicologyor woyears, nder he xpertguidancef DavidMcAllester,ndcompleted Master'sdegreen that ield,myknowledgefworldmusicwasenormouslynhancedymy our lusyears f nten-sive research n Cantometrics,isteningo,rating, nalyzing,ndcomparing usicand statistical atarepresentingvery orner f the world, ftenwithAlanbymyside,guiding, iscussing,radingdeas,debatingesearchtrategies,ometimesr-guing.Many f hedeasexpressednthe ssaybelowfirst mergeduringhese is-cussionsnd anbe consideredutgrowthsrom lan's nsights,hought this ointit s no onger ossibleormetocompletelyort ut which dea was whose. uffice

it osay hat he ollowingouldnothavebeenwrittenf had notworked n Canto-metricsndreceivedhe enefit fLomax'sguidancend nspiration.amnot t allsurewhether e would ompletelypprovef he pproachhave aken ere; see tas incertain aysa continuationnd n some ense vindicationf aspects f his



4/55

Victor.Grauer.choesfOur orgottenncestors 7

is*SP3K-S

- .5 2aq S l^o " o.

"

S

o^ Q s3 2^ -S^ s ss 3 ^l-s e||


5/55


work, ut t would naturallye unfair o holdhimresponsibleor nyof ts weak-nesses rerrors.

I must dd that antometricss in one sense imply method or ross-culturalcomparisonfmusicaltyle, nd hatshow have hosen odeal with t here. can-notdeny, owever,hat n certain uarterst hasbecome veritablemblem orwhole etof deas, heories,ndconclusionshich ecamehighly ontroversial.nwhat ollows,treat antometrics s anessentiallyeuristic ethodology,otper-fect y ny means, ut minentlyseful s a diagnosticoolfor h provisionalort-ing nd omparisonfworld ingingtylesnameaningful anner.t s,however,n

myview,not apablen itself f producingotally bjective esults f the ort e-quired y trict cientific ethod.orthat urposemore igorousndobjectiveestswould enecessary.follow path nspired y, ut nmanywaysdifferentrom hatultimatelyavoredyLomax ndhaveno ntention,t east or ow, frevivingnyof the old debatesregarding is mostcontroversialheoriesnd constructs. oknowledgef Cantometricss required or completenderstandingf what ol-lows.

2. AncestralVoices?

Oneofthemysterieshatmost ntrigued lanLomaxndme from he beginningfour ollaboration as the ery nterestingnd trangeelationshipetween hemusi-calstyles f he womostntensivelytudiedurvivingroups fhunter-gatherersnAfrica, heBushmenf theKalahari esert ndthe ygmiesf the ropicalorests.1Bothgroups ocalizenremarkablyimilar ays.nCantometricerms,heir roupperformancesanbe described s interlocked,ithmaximalocalblend, olypho-ny,preciselyoordinatedhythms,odeled,with pen,relaxed hroats, o embel-lishment,hort hrases,meaninglessocables,tc..Particularlynterestings theproductionf a continuous low f sound, ased on thedovetailingf repeatedrslightlyaried,motives.

Thesimilaritiesre s strikingsthe tyle sdistinctive.etthere eems obe nohistory f nteractionrexchangef anykind etween he arious ushmen roups,based n thedesert ountry f southern frica, ndthemany ygmy ands, preadoutoverhundreds f milesof densetropical orest, ar o the north. systematiccomparativetudy f thevocalstyle f thesehunter-gathererss thebasisofanLPwith ccompanyingamphlet,dited yGilbert ouget, ntitled BushmenMusicandPygmyMusic."Summarizingis observations ith especto bothmusic nddance,Rouget oncludes hat thePygmiesndBushmenwould hushave a musicanda

choreographyloselyelated nd at the ame ime istinct rom ther frican

peoples" RougetndGrimaud956:2-3).Thebook,Mapping umanHistorybySteveOlson2002),summarizesn fas-

cinatingmannermuch fthemost ecent esearchnwhat ouldbe called archaeo-



6/55


logicalgenetics,"r "genetic nthropology,"ncludingomevery ntriguing NAfindingsegardingoth roups. e writes:

Judgingromheir itochondrialfemaleine]ndY[maleine] aplotypes,he n-cestorsf he ushmenad obeone f he irst roupsobecomestablishednAfri-ca.Similarly,everalribesfForest wellersPygmies],ho odayive n catteredremnantsn entral frica,ave ery ldmitochondrialndYlineages.nd ike heBushmen,he orest wellerseem ohave eenmuchmorewidelyistributedtsomeimen he ast... Africansescribedy he ermblack"end ohavemoree-centmitochondrialndYhaplotypes,hought s unknown herendwhen hese

haplotypesivergedromhencestralypes,ibid.:0-51)WhatOlsonssayings that oth he Bushmen ndPygmiesmight ellrepresentthe riginalnhabitantsf Africa. e provides mapshowinghe ntirety f southand eastAfrica opulatedwith he ncestors f the Bushmen,much f the entralareapopulated ith he ncestors f thePygmies,nd smaller ortion fwest en-tralAfrica ccupied ythe ncestors f the Central fricans" r "Bantu" eoples,representativef thebulk f allother ativeAfrican roups. widely uoted tudyledby geneticist u-Sheng hen stimateshat he ncestors f theBiakaPygmiesdivergedrom hypotheticalounderopulationetween6,200 nd102,000years

ago,with

divergenceime or he

KungBushmen etween1,000 nd54,100years

ago.Asamplingf SenegaleseBantus sgiven muchmore ecent ivergenceimeofbetween 7,900nd23,200Chenet al. 2000:1371).2TheBantus,nitiallyon-fined oa single, elativelymall egion, ould ventuallyxpand, oughlyhree ofour housand ears go bymost stimates,hroughllofsub-Saharanfrica, orc-ing hePygmynd Bushmen eoplesntomarginalreas.AccordingoOlson,bas-inghisconclusionsngeneticesearchyHimla oodyallndTrevor enkins,TheDNA ofmodern fricanslearly eflectshis antu xpansion"Olson2002:53).

WhatOlson doesnotmentionrethevery pecialmusical elationshipsmongthese roups.Whenwe ask ourselveswhy he inging tyles f almost ll Pygmies

andBushmenodayre o strikinglyimilar, espitehe normouseographicalis-tances mong ll the many opulationsnvolved,here s no easyanswer. uch ahigh egree f similaritytronglyuggests, owever,hatwhat 've calledPygmy/Bushmentyle oulddateall thewayback to the ime when he ncestors f bothwere single opulationbyChen'sestimate,oughly7,000 o102,000years go).Oncethese roups ad ubdividedndgone heir wn ways,t s difficult o maginebywhatmeans uch practiceouldbe transmittedrom ne to the ther. ndthestyle nquestioneems oocomplexnddistinctive,oodeeplyngrainednto heculture f ll these roups,ohavebeen ndependentlynventednsomany ifferentplaces.

Gilbert ouget, fter careful tudy f both roups,heir ance, s well as theirmusic, oncludeds much, lreadyn 1956for recent xpressionf his viewsonthismatter,eeRouget 004):

If, s t s traditionalodo, ne houldonsiderhe ygmiesnd he ushmensbe-longingo wo acesntirelyistinct,ow an ne xplainhe roublingelationship



7/55


betweenheir usic nd heirances?t annote phenomenonf onvergence,heresemblancesonstitutingsystemoo omplexnd oo oherento llow or nex-planationf his rder. reciprocalnfluencesalso oberejected,eing ivenhedistances much eographics climatic hicheparateshe nes romhe thers.s tnecessaryobelieve,hen,hat he ygmiesndBushmenre f ommontock,ndthat heir ance nd musicepresenthe emainderf commonulturaleritage?(RougetndGrimaud956:3)Theprinciple t workhere, nticipated anyyears go by Lomax,could be

called"socioculturalnertia,"nd defined s follows: tendencyn the art of ny

human roup o retain hemost eeply ngrainedndhighly alued lementsf tslifestylentil cted uponby omeoutsideorce.The ancestors f thePygmiesndBushmenwere n fact cted upon by outside orces,n theform f the so-called"Bantu"ribes,nd s a resultmanywere robablyilled.No doubtmany thers uc-cumbedothe outside orces"nd were ssimilated.What nabled heremaininggroups o survivemayhavebeentheirwillingnesso fallback ntomarginalreas,the ropicalorestnd the desert, here heotherswereunwillingofollow.Oncethese aboriginals"ere nplacewithinheir espectiveefuges,t s notdifficultoseehowtheymight e abletopursue ertain ighly alued raditions ithoutnter-ference.

Let usponder or moment he ossibilityhat certain ype fmusical racticecould have survived ortensof thousands,erhaps ver one-hundredhousand,years.That s a truly taggeringhought,dmittedlyery ifficultoaccept. takesome omfortn the act hat am not he irst o think his way.Rouget,swe haveseen, ametoa somewhatimilar onclusion,hough e wouldhavehad nowayofestimatinghe ime pan nvolved. omaxhadofcourseuspecteds much or ometime.WalterWiora had similar houghtsprompted y Rouget'sobservations):"Bushmen ndAfrican ygmies ave ertainommon raitsntheirmusic nddancethat an be explainedot s taken verby he ne from he ther, ut nly sspring-

ingfrom common oot" Wiora1956:25-26).Aswehaveust earned,hat com-

mon oot"maywellhavebeen he ame ootwe allsprang rom,he arliestmanifes-tation f modern"man homo apiens apiens)nAfrica.

3. Paths from hen to Now

Sinceanthropologistsndethnomusicologistsendnowadayso beextremely aryofbroad eneralizations,speciallyhoseegardingarchaicurvivals,"would ikeatthis oint otake closer ook tthe ogicbehind hypothesishat oessostrongly

againsthegrain f current hinking.et us begin y assuminghat, round 5,000years go (basedconservativelyn Chen'sestimates),he ommon ncestors f thePygmies,ushmen,ndBantu, ad amusical raditionuitedifferentrom ygmy/Bushmentyle, erhaps omevery imple ype fone- r two-notehant, onsistentwith otions f mankind's arliestmusical tterance"ocommonlyeldnthe ast.



8/55

Victor .GrauerEchoesfOur orgottenncestors 11

As various roups ubsequentlyivergednddispersed,t might e expectedhattheirmusicwould, ver housands f years, radually hange.One wouldssume,therefore,hat achgroupwould ventuallyaveevolved tsown tyle, r styles,owecould nticipate general ivergencefmusicalypes mong llgroups,ven hemost solated. hismight eem ntirely easonable.

But t s not he icture resented y he vidence.WhileBantu roups oexhibitvarying egrees f diversity, irtually ll the manyPygmy ands nowdispersedthroughouthe ropicalorestsurrentlyocalizenessentiallyhe ame tyle, sdomost ushmen roups, asednatotally ifferentegion.3here re,moreover,er-

tain roups f African armersnd/or erders ho vocalizenclearly elatedtyles,though suallywithout odeling.Manyothers avedeveloped ery imilarlyrga-nizedpolyphonicnstrumentalraditions.o account or hemusical icture f to-day, newould e forced o rgue hat ll thesewidelycatteredroupsmust ave n-dependentlyvolvedmusicallynthe amedirection,o that y he imewe reach hetwentiethentury hey re all singingand nsomecasesplaying)more r ess thesameway.Bywhatmeans, owever,ould uch n evolution ave aken lace?Onemight ant oargue hat nvironment ight lay a significantole n the develop-ment f musical tyle, o somethingbout iving n the ropicalorestmight avecaused ll the arious ygmy roups odevelop ery imilarmethodsfvocalizationandmusicalnteraction,hroughomeprocessf volutionaryonvergence.owev-er, heBushmennhabit totally ifferentnvironment,heKalahari esert.

Could onegroup aveevolveduch style n its own at sometime nthepast,and hen omehownfluencedllthe thers? t s very ifficulto maginenymech-anism ywhich uch nfluenceouldhavebeen ransmitted.n a recent aper, enet-icanthropologistiovanni estro-Bisoloncludes,n thebasis of a very horoughandcriticalxaminationf mitochondrialNAevidence,hat he womainPygmygroups,he astern ygmiesfZaire nd heWestern ygmiesfCameroon,ongo,and heCentral frican epublic, ivergedrom ne another ore han 8,000years

ago Destro-Bisolt l. 2004:212).4ince heres such "high ensity fvegetation,the arge rea that eparateshe turi orest nd the erritories f Western ygmies(c.1 500kmmeasureds airdistance)svery ifficultocrosswithouthehelp f nadequate echnology,uch s the ronmetallurgyracticedyBantu eoples ut n-known oAfrican ygmies"ibid.:13).Given uch mmenseistances nd uch m-penetrableerraint is verydifficultndeed oimagine owanycultural racticecouldhavediffusedrom ne area o the ther uring he ast18,000years.

Couldthis tyle irst ave evolvedmong heBantu ndthen pread o other e-gions fAfrica ia the xpansionf that opulation,. 3,000or4,000years go? fthe tylewereprimarilyssociatedwith antu groups hismight e a plausible y-pothesis. utwhywould practice riginated yBantu armerseadoptedlmostexclusively yPygmyndBushmenunters, hohavetraditionallynteractednlysporadicallyith heBantu?Andwhywouldwefind hat ame tyle mong irtuallyallPygmy roups pread ut ver uch vast reasofthe ropicalorest?



9/55


Is independentnvention possibility? nly f oneis willing oaccept he x-traordinarilyigh ddsagainst omany eoples catteredhroughoutuch largeareaworkingut he amehighly istinctivendcomplexlyntegratedtyle n theirown.Eventhen ne wouldneedtoexplainhehigh egree f concentrationmongPygmy nd Bushmen roups.While t has beenconvincinglyrgued hat ertainmodes f embodimentouldbeassociatedwith uch style see,for xample, el-itchkina 996andLomax t l. 1966:224-35),see no conflict etween hat ypoth-esis and the ne havebeenpresenting,s there sno reason o assume oth odilyandmusical racticesouldnothavebeenpart f he ame rchaic radition.

Returningo ourhypotheticalfounding"and,etus this ime ssume hat omeform f Pygmy/Bushmentyle adalready ecome stablisheds a traditionmongthem rior othe arliest ispersals.ouldsuch traditionubsequentlyassessen-tially nchanged rom enerationogenerationespitehe nevitableivisionsntogeographicallyndevengeneticallyistinct roupsnd ubgroupss timewent y?Ascounterintuitives itmight eem,f here erenogoodreason or uch traditionto change, t least among ertain roups, henwhy ouldn't t have remained hesame mong hose roups,venfor ens f housandsfyears, ccordingothe rin-cipleof socioculturalnertia ositedbove?

There re wobasic cientificrinciplestwork ere, eibnitz's rinciplefSuf-ficient eason,which nsists hat ll "truths ffact" asopposedo"truths f ogic")must ave a sufficienteason or heir xistence,nd Occam'sRazor,which tates:"One should otncrease,eyondwhat s necessary,henumber f entities equiredtoexplain nything." ccording o theformer, othinganchangewithout suffi-cient eason or uch hange,meaninghat ny raditionan beexpectedo continueindefinitelyrom enerationogenerationnlessomethingappenst omepoint oalter r destroyt. nother ords,heresnothingnatural"r ntrinsic bout ulturalchange,t does notusthappen n tsown,forno reason.Accordingo the atter, fthere s nonecessityoposit more omplexxplanationor nygiven tate f af-

fairs, he implerne should epreferred. hile uch notionmight eem rbitraryorcapriciousosome,thas remainedne of themost mportantrinciplesf cien-tificmodelingo this ay.5Clearlynexplanationasedon thepersistencef a sin-gle practice,ince he imewhen he ncestors f all practitionerserepart f thesamepopulation,s far impler han henotion hat ractices hichwere nitiallyvery ifferentomehowonvergedue to completelynknownvolutionaryro-cesses at work eparatelyneachgroup.

When he arliest Bantu"groups merged, orwhatevereason(s)populationbottlenecks,isputes, volutionaryrocesses,tc.),newsetsof values andneedscouldhave merged ith hem,ausingomefeaturesf he ncestral ygmy/Bush-men raditionobe discarded hile thers ere etained. hus, ertain f hese moredynamicnd nnovativeroupsmight avecontinuedo vocalizepolyphonically,butwithout odeling;thers ouldhavemodifiedheir ocalpolyphonynto implecall-and-responseatterns r supplementedheir ocalizingwith laborate nstru-mentalraditions,nd o on,whichwouldxplainhemusical iversity e seetoday



10/55


among uchgroups.Meanwhile,roupsike thePygmiesndBushmen,marginal-ized but lso to some extent rotectedytheir etreatntodense ropicalorest rdesert, ouldhavebeenfree o maintainhe riginal,ncestralradition ore r essintact. s I seeit, multi-facetedutcontinuousrocess f more r ess this ortseems hemost ikely xplanationor he tylistic istributionsow videnthrough-out ub-Saharan frica.

Theperpetuationf archaic ncestral raditionseednot ntail tagnationr en-trapmentnarepetitiveut or housandsf years, s assumedythe living ossil"paradigm. ygmy/Bushmenhereafter /B) style s a very ively, very reative,imaginative,ndfreshmusical niverse,ustainingtself na greatmany ifferentforms nd varieties, elodic, armonic,olyphonic,oetic, tructural,tc., ight ptothe resent ay, when ew ompositions,orms,nd echniquesre till eing re-ated. amtalkingbout tradition,ot fixed, igidlystablished,epertoiref om-positions, rocedures,tc., assedon from enerationogenerationntact nd unal-tered.

Anotherhingobear nmind t this oint sthe otential eaning f uch nap-proach o tradition or thnomusicologytself, hichmaywell havetore-calibrateits hinkingegardingheprovenancef ll themany tyles ncounteredhroughouttheworld.Muchof the urrent enetic ndarchaeologicalesearch n pre-historycites elevantvidence rom he ield f inguistics,hich s extensivendeed.Musi-cal evidence s almost ever resented,sthought ouldhavenobearingn such s-sues.ndeed heres atpresent ery ittlemusicologicalesearchhat ouldbeofuseinthe tudy fhuman istoryndorigins. ndyet, swehave een, llsorts f mu-sicalroots ango very eep ndeed-profoundlyo.Languageshange,ometimesvery apidly. echnologyan changeovernight. any Pygmy roups no longerspeak heir ativeanguageut hat f neighboringribes. heyoftenmakeuse ofmodernlothing,ools, tc..But, s I havedemonstrated,heresgoodreason o be-lievethey tillmakemusic he ameoldway.Therewould hus eem o be a great

dealmusicologyould ccomplishncooperationith ther isciplines,o enhanceourknowledgef thehumanaga.But t must irst iden ts cope, roadentshori-zons, ndrenew ts faith n ts own atent owers f teasingmeaning,istoricalndotherwise,rom ontemporaryources,hroughnference.t s onsuch basisthathaveproceededere.

4. ADiscourseon Method

Notsurprisingly,n viewofthehypothesisresentedbove,many antu nd other

nonhunter-gatherereopleswould eem o exhibit ertain eyfeaturesfP/B tyle,but n a somewhatwatered own"manner. heways n which olovoice(s)andchorus nteract s especially nterestingn thisrespect.Whiletheoverall ffect sconsiderablyimplerhan hat f Pygmy r Bushmen erformances,here s a ten-dency or he arious arts ooverlapnd ven nterlockolyphonically,na manner



11/55

14 theworldfmusic8(2)2006

clearly elated o P/B nterlock, ith ight ocalandrhythmiclend, penthroatedvoices,tc..6

It ookedverymuch o Lomaxand me as though /B tylewere nsome senseprototypicalormuch f Africa enerally. ut what an that mean?Aren't heremany ifferentribal roupsn this rea,withmany ifferent odes fmusicmak-ing?And aren't omeofthese adicallyifferentrom /B tyle? es onallcounts.Sifting hrough ll therecordings,ooks, nd articles n the music f the differenttribal roups,videncemerges f a tremendouslyich ndvaried eries f musicalstyles, ometimeseveraln each tribe. his s whereCantometricsomes n,be-

causeCantometricsepresentsdeliberateimplification,hich eroes non certainvery road, learly efined arameters.hesubtleties,he ine istinctions,he ack-ground,ndthe immediate)ontext retremendouslymportantoa full pprecia-tion nd understandingf eachtradition,achstyle. ut, sLomaxrecognized eryearly n,where road ased omparativetudysconcerned,hey ansometimesetin the way.Cantometricsoes not gnore hedetails, ut t does preventhem romobscuringhe igpicture.7

Since our ntention asto examinemusicmore r ess as a listener ith o for-malmusicalraining ould end o hear t,we took nto ccount ertain ery eneralyet ften ross-culturallyiagnosticlements, hichwould e,formany pecialists,unimportant,ninteresting,r too obvious o consider. peratingn this elatively"crude"manner, antometricserceivesub-Saharan frican ocal musics,verygenerallyandwith ertain ery nterestingxceptions):ociallynteractivethoughnot ypicallys thoroughlynterlockeds P/B tyle),with verlappednd/or nter-locked eader-chorusr chorus-chorusntiphony,erywellblended,ften thoughnot lways)polyphonic, ith ittle o no embellishment,hort hrases,wide nter-vals,repetitivelitany) hrase tructures, ith high egree f variation,ighly omoderatelyepetitiveexts, elaxed,ndopen-throatedoices.Herewe have Bantuprofile lose to thePygmy/Bushmenrofilena greatmany espects,hemost m-

portant ifferencesccurringn line 1,social nteraction:/B tyle s morehighlyintegratednd omplex. swould efit prototype,t s similar nmany arameters,but ftenmore xtreme.8t should enoted,moreover,hat ertain antu roups o-calizein a more omplex,nterlocked,nd ntegrated anner, ven closer oP/Bstyle han s typical. ndmany uchgroups pparentlymploy /B tyle s a modelfor ighlynteractive,nterlockingind nsembles,sually onsistingf ome om-bination f pipes,whistles,lutes,ndtrumpets.9

While herescertainlygreat eal more obe said boutAfrica, hich s amongthemost ighly eveloped, omplex,ndvariedmusicalegionsf heworld, wantto moveon at this oint o broader onsiderations.s I mentionedbove,we now

havegoodreason obelieve,hanks o recent NA-basedgeneticsesearchupple-mented ysomeofthe atest indingsfarchaeologynd inguisticshat hePygmyandBushmenunter-gatherersfAfrica an, n the asis of heirineage,eregard-ed as the aboriginals"f hat ontinent. ut he ame esearchakes s much arther.Accordingo thenowwidely cceptedthough till ontroversial)Out-of-Africa"



12/55

Victor . Grauer. choesfOur orgottenncestors 15

theory, single andof "native"Africans homoved ff he ontinent ntoAsia atsomepoint etween0,000 nd90,000years go,arenowthoughto be the nces-tors f virtuallyvery on- frican modern" umanhomo apiens apiensin theworld.

The"grandmetanarrative"amabout o unfold raws osome xtent pon hisresearch,hough dmittedly uch f t remains ontroversial.hegenetic indingsespeciallyre sometimesuzzlingndcontradictory,s might eexpectedromscience till n ts nfancy,ndmight ellrequireome djustmentsndrevisionsnthe uture. ertain spects f hese heories ake great eal of ense ome,howev-

er, oI havenoproblem rawing pon hem ere.But mustmake tclear hat heideas will xpressbout he volution ndmeaningfmusic renot ompletelye-pendentnany esearchnany ther ield. he new heorieselp oexplainnd lar-ify hepicture ampresenting,utother, uitedifferent,xplanations ight lti-mately rovemore onvincing. hile amattemptingnthese ages o nterpretheevidence s best can,drawing picture oth omprehensivendcomprehensible,mymost undamentalntentions to opendoorson newpossibilitiesnd newap-proacheso somevery ldbut till ascinatingssues.f mywork evives n nterestinthebroad omparativetudy f worldmusic nd eads tofurther ialoguend n-quiry long he ines etforth ere, willbevery leased ndeed.

5. Out-of-Africa

GeneticistucaCavalli-Sforzaioneeredheuse ofgeneticcience sa toolfor n-vestigatingheorigins ndmigrationsf earlyhumansn the ate 1950sandearly1960sndhascontinuedo make mportantontributionsn this ield o the presentday. n his monumentalistory nd Geography fHumanGeneshe summarizesyears f meticulous esearch s follows:Themost mportantifferencenthehu-

mangenepoolis clearly hat etweenAfricansnd non- fricans.... his suggeststhat he plit etweenAfricans nd non- fricans as the arliest n human volu-tionary istory." ombiningrchaeologicalindings ith he eneticesults,egoeson toproposehat: themovementrom frica oAsia must aveoccurredfter heorigin f [anatomicallyodern umans]n Africa" Cavalli-Sforzat al. 1996:93-94).10

The "Out-of-Africa"heorytemmingrom he ioneering ork fCavalli-Sfor-za andhiscolleaguesas, nrecent ears,ed toanexplosionf nterest nda spateofbooks imed t thegeneraludience. ne ofthemost uccessfuluthors, tephenOppenheimer,s also avery nteresting,houghatherpeculative,ynthesizer.n his

fascinatingewbook,The RealEve(2004b),he summarizeshe DNA evidencequite uccinctly:[0]nlyne mallwigOut-of-Africave)of ne ranch,ut f he ozenmajor fri-canmaternallansvailable,urvivedftereavinghe ontinento olonizehe estof heworld. rom his mall roupvolvedll modernumanhomoapiensapi-



13/55

16 theworldfmusic8(2)2006

enspopulationsutside frica... Icannotveremphasizehemportancef he im-pleandsingularact hat nly neAfricanine accounts or ll non Africans.(ibid.:4) 1

Thechapter The GreatMigration:o Asia andBeyond"from teveOlson'sMappingHumanHistory resents map ndicatinghemost robable ath f mod-ern"man's arliestmigrationut f Africa2002:135).Oppenheimer'sheReal Eveoffers very imilarmap racingnalmost denticaloute,tarting,ccordingothisauthor,omewhereery oughlyround 5,000years go,12 romhehorn f Africaacross heRedSea,northeastlong he oastof the Arabian esert, hen outheastalong he oastof ndia, ndfrom here ollowinghe oastline f the ndianOceaneastward ll the waythroughndonesia,whichwasapparently,t that ime, art ftheAsianmainland,ndon to Melanesiand ventually ustralia. ppenheimers-timates he ntire rip, tarting ith he nitial rossingf the riginal andfrom heHorn f Africa oYemen nd hence rom heArabian oast ll theway o ndonesia,might avetaken o more han 0,000years Oppenheimer004b:70-71).Accord-ing oOppenheimer:

If ll non- fricanshare ne ncestralrigini.e.Africa]...lltheirrailshouldeadbackoonepointn pacend ime;nd llthe olonies,eft ehind nroute,houldhold

eneticnd ven

hysicaleysowhowenthat

ay.his sthe ase. ..

Alongthe oastlinef hendianceanwe till ind malloloniesf boriginaleopleshomay edescendedocallyromhoseirsteachcombers..

Curiously,ome f the est,fnot he nly rchaeologicalvidence...omes otfromndia, outh rabia r Africa,ut rom he ater arts f he rail- heMalayPeninsula,ewGuinea,ndAustraliaibid.:56, 59).IfOlsonandOppenheimerrecorrect,s it possiblehat ome uch aboriginal

peoples,"till iving long heOut-of- fricamigrationoute,might eperpetuatingmusical raditionshat riginatednAfrica 5,000years go or more? s there nyevidence fthis?

Toanswer hat rucial uestion, eneed obacktrackbit oconsider ne of hemost haracteristicndsignificantspects f Pygmy/Bushmentyle, heir se ofatechniqueften eferred oas"hocket." his erm,oined uringheMiddleAgesnEurope, iterally eanshiccup," derisive eferenceoastyle opularnthe hurchmusic f the ime. trictly peaking,ocketan bedefined s the ossingf a singlemelodic ineback ndforth etween wo rmore erformers.nextremeases, s ina bellchoir, rcertain frican ind nsembles,achperformerlays nly neor wonotes.nmyview,however,he erm anbe extendedo ncludemore omplexrac-tices, uch s the ightlyoordinatedolyphonicnterlockingfbrief, omplementa-ry,motives ound ocommonlymong he ygmiesndBushmen.his, nany ase,1is how havechosen o definetfor he purposesf this tudy. Vocal"hocketing"ina similarense an be found mong ertainBantu" roupsnvarious arts fAf-rica.The nfluencef hocket analso be felt uite tronglynmuchAfricaneader-chorus esponse,here, snoted bove, lternatingarts ften end o nterlockndfrequentlyomplementne another oth extuallyndmusically,na mannerelated



14/55

Victor .Grauer.choesfOur orgottenncestors 17

to hocket. ocketingn tspurest orms,onthe ther and, uite ommonn Bantuinstrumental usic, s found, s alreadymentioned,n a greatmany nsembles fhorns, lutes, histles, anpipes,tc..Hocketings also thebasis formany thertypes fBantu nstrumental usic,ncludingnsembleylophone erformancendevendrumming.

Cantometricsccountsfor hocket, nd otherhighly ntegrated erformancetypes, nder heheadingInterlock,"t the ightmostxtremef ine1of he odingsheet,abeledThe Social Structuref the inging roup."Asystematicearch ortheoccurrencef this raitworldwideGrauer 965)turned pexamplesf nter-

locked ocalizingmostlymong heAfricanygmiesndBushmen,ut lso: certainBantu ribes,n ndigenouspygmy"ribenTaiwanknown t that ime s the a-jek),theDanipeopleofNewGuinea,heAinuofJapan, heJivaro nd CampaofSouthAmericathough merindianinterlock"ends obe more iffuse hythmical-lythan he ther xamples),heHupatribe f California,omeyodelingattle erd-ers n Switzerland,nd a group f talian tevedores ingingn "Tralalero" tyle.Since hen greatmany dditionalnstances avebeen dentified,argely mong b-original eoplesocated long path tretching rom outheast sia,Taiwan, ndthePhilippines,ownto Indonesiandbeyond, o New Guineaandmany f thesmallerslands fMelanesia.

Someexcellentecordingsrom ll these egionsreavailable,many ccessibleviathe nternet, here lipsfrommost racks an readily esampledseetheDis-cographyormore nformation).n order o fully rasp hepoints ammaking e-gardinghedistributionf various tyles, nd themany imilaritiesnd differencesentailed,urge he eader o isten o asmany xamplesspossible,ither rom hediscs hemselvesrvia the nternet.

Atruly onderfulD set,VoicesoftheWorlda veritablereasurerove illedwith eautiful inging/chantingrom omevery ut f hewayplaces,ontains va-riety f remarkable ecordingsrommany f these reas. Every ingle rack s well

worth isteningo- andstudying. isc 1,track 4,from uadalcanal,s a remark-ableexamplef yodeled olyphonicocalizingnthe olomon slands.Over sus-tained ocaldrone,wofemale oices,nehigh, ne ow, nterweaverief etratonic,hocketedmotivesncounterpoint,eaturingconsistentlyodeled eapofaperfectfourthothehighest itch. his anreadily ecompared ith hewomen's oicesntrack 2 of he ame disc, BushmanJu'hoansi)uring ong.Asidefrom he iffer-ence n tempo, nd the greater omplexity f the Bushmenerformance,here resomestrikingimilarities,ncluding odel,wide ntervals, redominancef "non-sense"vocables,nd, fcourse,ontinualocket. isc 1,track 5 givesusanoppor-tunity oexperiencerarely eard ype fEuropean olyphonicodeling,lso with

wide ntervals,elaxed,penvoices, nd nonsense ocables.This s from witzer-land, ormingvariant f P/B tyle eaturing ore ustainedndextendedocaliz-ingwith owbellsnthebackground.he Cantometricrofiles or ll three f thesetrackswouldbe almost dentical.All involve nterlockedolyphony,moothlyblended,ighlyoordinatedoices,ndnonsense ocables.Allarehighly epetitive,



15/55


featuring ide ntervals, ith oembellishment;lear, elaxed, pen-throatedoic-es;and lurrednunciation.14

Someespeciallynterestingocalizationsnastyle hat eems losely elated anbe found n the emarkableet fCDsSteven eldcompiledrom ismany ears ffieldworkmong he Kalulipeople,n the Bosaviregion f PapuaNew Guinea(. osavi Rainforest usic FromPapuaNewGuinea).Anexampleof P/B-stylehocketed, odeled ocalizinganbe heard n disc2, track ,"Men's WorkGroupClears NewGarden." eginning ith ome solated, odeledwhoops,heworkerssegue smoothlyntomulti-part,nterlockingolyphony,asedona pattern f de-

scendinghirds,ossed ackandforth anonicallymong llparticipants.or com-parison,eeNamibia:SongsoftheJu'hoansi ushmentrack , "TheEland," lsobuilt round similar ind f yodeledanonic ocket.

Themost ommon ype f vocalizingeld discoveredmong heKaluli wascalledbythem lift pover ounding."hisstyle, ased on the nterlockedeitera-tion f imilarmotives oproduce kind f echo" ffect ounds ome ike variantofcertainypes f Pygmy/Bushmenanonic nterlock.ertain racksn discs2and3 of heBosaviCDset ust ited rovide xamplesf his ype fvocalizing,hichwillcall"canonic/echoic"tyle.n some ases the arts an bequite oosely oordi-nated, ut n others he oordinations, swith /B tyle, elativelyight.nmy iew,the anonic/echoicerformancesf all these roupsreclosely elated oP/B tyle,as isapparent hen omparingisc2,track from eld' Bosavicollection ith x-amplesfAfrican ygmy olyphonyhich eatureanonicnterplayseeAnthologyof heMusicof heAkaPygmiesdisc1,track ;disk , track ).15

We can now moveon to comparell of the bovewith trikinglyimilarxam-plesof canonic/echoicocalizingrom heJivaro,n,ofallplaces,SouthAmerica(see,for xample,MusicoftheJivaro fEcuadortrack 02).There re someotherreally mazing racks n this isc, uch s track 05,a "shrunkeneaddance" on-taining oth anonic/echoicingingndhocketedhouting,nastyle esemblinghe

DaniofNew Guinea s well s Ainu nd nuit throat inging."Allsorts f hocketingre ommonn ndonesia,houghmost ecordedxamplesare nstrumental.elativelyarevocalexamplesrom he slandof Florescan beheard n Musicof ndonesia : Vocal nd nstrumentalusicofFlores rack ,"Le-ro,"where ocketedocalizinganbe heard ehind hemore rominentolovoice,and rack ,the trikinglyeautifulOambele,"where hehocketings more istinct,if poradic.he bestknown ocketedocalizingromndonesias,ofcourse,he a-mousMonkey hant f Bali (see,for xample,MusicoftheMorning f theWorldtrack10),with ts uncannily apid nterchangef shouted, lmostbarked, riesamong argenumbers f perfectly ynchronizedarticipants.houghnow con-

sciouslytaged, he hant s generallyonsideredo be basedon traditionalosses-sionrituals redating indu nfluence. hile he ggressiveocketingf the Mon-keyChantmight eem a long wayfrom he gentleyodeled ounterpointf thePygmiesndBushmen,hat s not eallyhe ase. The ast rack n Rouget'Bush-men-Pygmyomparison,or xampleMusicoftheBushmenndPygmiesideB,



16/55


track ),isan extendedecordingf Bushmen hmanitiationitual or oys.Af-ter very rief, ently odeled,ntroduction,e hear oud, houted,nd omplexn-terlockedocketing, ostly n a singlenote, eminiscentf certain assagesntheMonkey hant.Another ecordingf apparentlyhe ame ritual this ime pelledtcoqma)made some40years ater yEmmanuelle livier NamibiaSongsoftheJu hoansi ushmenrack ) sstrikinglyimilar, espite completelyifferentntro-ductory ocalization. greatmany ther xamplesf hocketed ocalizingf onesort r another ouldbe cited. here s, ndeed, oshortagef tribal roups,trewnall thewayfrom outheast sia to ndonesia,he hilippines,ewGuinea,ndotherparts f Melanesiawhovocalizen a mannerlosely omparableo that f thePyg-mies ndBushmenfAfrica.16

6. ThePanpipe Enigma

ThoughurCantometricearch nvolved ocalperformancesnly,we canadd,fromother ources, hefollowingultureswherepurely nstrumentalockethas beenfound: he ipe, lute, histle, ndhorn nsembles f everalAfrican antu ribes,salready oted; lso,amongertainndigenous eoplesfNewGuinea,he olomonIslands,ndonesiaFlores, ali, Java, mong thers), hePhilippinesland fMind-anao, Vietnam,ndcertain ther nclaves n Southeast sia,andChina.We findsimilar ractices,oth nstrumentalndvocal,ncertain illagesn Russia ndotherparts f Eastern urope, nd also theAndes nd other egionsf Centralnd SouthAmerica.

Letusbeginnthe east ikely lace,with considerationf nextraordinary,it-tleknown raditionfpanpipe layingnRussia s describedna remarkable ulti-media ssaybyOlgaVelitchina1996)currentlyvailable n the nternet. crollingdown hentroduction,heres, nthe eft margin, link oa brief ideo lip labeled

"Video1")ofapanpipe erformanceyfourwomen.Ofthis xample, elitchkinawrites: On first istening,hismusic eems loser o African ormsfor xample,otheBa-BenzelePygmymusic) han oanyEuropeanolk nstrumentraditions.etpanpipemusicalpractices imilarn many espectso thoseof Russia are foundacross urope n imited erritoriesfSerbia,Romania,omiRepublicNorth us-sia,Ugro-Finnishopulation),ndLithuania."omy ars t does,ndeed,ound ikean nstrumentalquivalentfPygmymusicaswell asother ypes fhocketedipeandpanpipensemble ommonmongmanyBantugroups),nd nmore han nerespect: or ne thing, t s definitely ocketed, ith ach part losely nterlockingwith very ther; or nother,tpresents continuous,eeminglybreathless"low

of unphrasednterwovenolyphony. ouldsuchclose resemblanceso Africa epurely ortuitous?an there ossibly e a connection etween hewomen f thisRussian illagendthe ribal raditions e have been onsidering?

Let usmove n without urtherommento considerationf completelyiffer-ent ulture,hat f the 4Are'ArepeopleofMalaita n the olomonslands,where



17/55


18/55

Victor . Grauer.choesfOur orgottenncestors 21

Americasnemight ossibly e ustifiednclaiminghat he wo re ompletelyif-ferent ndthus nrelated. oth tyles refoundnboth egions,owever.

Panpipesre playedn hocketednsemblesn Africa s well,thought s notclearwhetherhis nstrumentriginatedhere. pparentlyeither ushmen or yg-mygroups avepanpipes,ut ertain ygmy roups ften lay ingle ipes rwhis-tles nconcert sing similarype fhocket. xamplesf suchpipes, alledHinde-whus can be heardon the CDAnthologyf WorldMusic Africa-Ba-BenzelePygmies.n track ,aPygmy ings ndplays lternatelynahindewhu. group fthese nstrumentsan also be heard n thefollowingrack, ocketinglongwith

mixed hoir. uch effects an becompared ith trikinglyimilar racticesn NewGuinea, s,for xample mongheHulipeople ecorded n Voices f heWorld isc2, track 9,where malesinger lternates etweeninging ndplaying n a reedpipe.Hocketedlutes ndvoices, erymuch nPygmy indewhutyle, ut lso fromNewGuinea,an be heard n Primitive usicof heWorld racks 02 and 103.Vel-1itchkinaescribes strikinglyimilar racticenher ssayonRussiananpipes.

Thepanpipescurrentlyounds a traditionalnstrumentmong ertain eoples,often escribed s"aboriginals,"tribais,"r peasants,"f Southeastsia, ndone-sia,Melanesia,outhAmerica, frica, ndEurope;ecordsxist f tsprovenancenPolynesia, houghheperformingraditioneems ohave died outthere; istoricalrecords nd archaeologicalrtifacts laceit n the world f ancient ivilizationswell:Mesopotamia,urkey, reece, gypt, hina, ndpossiblyndia.19t has notbeenfound, pparently,mong he raditionalnstrumentsf Central sia,Siberia,Australiar, sidefrom rchaeologicalemains,merica orth fMexico.Sincet sfoundnsomany ifferentarts f heworld,oapparentlynrelatedoone anothergeographically,istorically,rculturally,tsdistributionsespeciallyifficultoun-derstand. an the Out-of- frica"migrationonsideredo far hed ome ight nthis uestion,ndothers f similar ort? efore ttemptingresponse,wouldiketoconsider et nothernstrumentalractice.

7. FromStamping ubes to Gamelans

Let us continue yreturningo the fore-mentionedRosetta tone," he AreAre,to examine somewhatifferentype f hocketing,his ime y percussionnstru-ments, pecificallytampingubes.Here eachperformerolds single ube, achwith different itch, tamped ertically n thegroundnprecise ynchronizationwith ll the thers oproducen ntricatelyovenmelodicnterplaynclassichocketstyle for xample, heSolomonslands: TheSounds fBamboo rack0 andSo-

lomonslands: Are Are ntimatendRitualMusic rack)Asimilarype fhocket-edpercussionan also be heardn ndonesia,or xamplen the ektekannsemblesofBali{MusicfBali3 track ,"RamaBudaya").20Wefind losely elatedypes finterlockederformance,s well, na greatmany f the lit drum raditionsfbothIndonesiandMelanesia.



19/55


Hocketedercussion esemblinghat f slitdrums, nly his imewithmetallo-phones, an be found n the Philippinesmong boriginal eoples ivingn the s-land of Mindanao. everal xcellent ecordingsf a gongensemble f this ype,called Kulintangan,an be heard ntheCDKulintang:ncient ong/ rumMusicof he outhern hilippines.rack , Tit u //, ives good ense fhow he ifferentinstrumentselate y ntroducinghem nebyone. Each nstrumentresents veryclear tattoo" hat s then epeated. very ndividualhythmscarefullyesignedointerweave ith ndcomplementll the thers oproduce richly exturedresult-ant"typical f hocketed nsembles enerally. impler ongensembles ave sur-

vived nthe sland f Flores,ustEast ofBali(Music f ndonesia : Vocaland n-strumental usicofFlores rack , "GongGladung labat").Theanklungs a set f uned attles,haken ack ndforth ith oth ands. nce

commonn ndonesiandpossiblyther arts f Southeast sia, t s nowararity.Three r more erformersnteractoproduce type f nterlocking,hythmicnter-play,very imilar othe xamples ustcited,with he dded element f roughly)tuned itches.21 adeentirely f bamboo,he nklungs a "primitive"ncestor fthe ronze nstrumentso commonodaynthekulintanganndother ocketed ongensembles,s wellas themore laborate amelansf Bali andJava. t is alwaysheard s part f an interlocked,ocketingroup, ftenwith dditional ongs nddrums.Anotherqually impleBalinesegamelan, eaturing type f aw's harpcalled hegenggongsbasedon similar ocketingrinciplesseeSampler:ndone-sia, SouthPacificMusicfrom the NonesuchExplorer eries track 11 "LaguKodok").

Such nsemblesypicallyerformnthe apid, epetitive,tattoo" tyle f he litdrums, tampingubes, nd tektekan nsembleslready escribed.ercussion n-semblesf this ype re tronglyeminiscentf hekotekanarts ncertain alinesegamelans,practiceMichaelTenzer as describedsfollows:

Eachmelodic]ayersassignedo ne f our ainnstrumentroups.The ensest

one, suallytfour otes er eat,splayed y he ighest-pitchedetallophonesndgongs. commonechniquemployedy hesenstrumentss that f nterlockingparts, rkotekanwhichllows or apid iligreeobeplayed ypairs fmusiciansfasterhanny ndividualerformerould.houghividednto hythmicallynterest-ing eparatearts, owever,he ompositeotekanroceedsn nunbrokenhythmiccontinuitynd hould eheardsamelodicomponentntegralothe omposition.(Tenzer000)Tenzer' reference o kotekan s both nterlocked nd continuousi.e., un-

phrased)marks his ractice,orme, scloselyonnectedo all thevariousypes fcontinuous,/B-relatedocal and nstrumentalocket nder xaminationcharac-terized s "type "above).Tomy ars, he imilarity ith he 'Are'Are tampingtubes s striking. link oabrief xamplefrecordedotekananbe found n Ten-zer' web-basedresentationibid.).

Butwhat bout he est f thegamelan?skotekanhe nly inkwith ocketing?Inmost amelanerformances,avanese ndBalinese,heres a slow, tately, on-



20/55


tinuous rocessionf lternatingongsnthe ackground,onstitutinghe o-calledcolotomic r"punctuating"ayer f gamelantructure,he egularlyycling empo-ralbasisonwhich ll the ther ayers est.Anespeciallynstructivexamplean befound n disc1, rack ,"Banjaran,"f heCD set ndonesia:Wayang olek.As thispiecemoves longfairly riskly,t s notdifficulto hear relationshipetween heinterplayf the colotomic"ongs ndthat f thehocketedong nsembleslreadyintroducedrom lores ndMindanao,he ormeroundingike stretchedutver-sion f heatter. ven more tretchedut re he lowlyycling,olotomicongs ocharacteristicf the tatelier,lassicalgamelansf theJavanese ourt for xample,Java:Javanese ourtGamelanrack ). t wouldeem, herefore,hat hehocketingtraditionhave raceds echoed tboth hehighestnd owestevels f muchmoreevolved, omplex, nd refined amelan-basedourtmusic. Colotomic hocket"plays similar egulatingr "punctuating"olenother ast Asian raditions,ota-bly nthe ourt-basedagaku fJapan. omefairly lear xamplesan be found ntheCDGagaku ImperialourtMusicofJapan, speciallyrack ,Hassen fwe g-nore hehichirikioboe)andflute, oncentratingainlyn the ong nddrum arts.

8. Survival, r Independentnvention

InSection , after iscussinghe Out-of-frica" heory, askedwhetherherewasany vidence osupporthenotionhat escendentsf ome f he arliest colonies"left ythe heory'sbeachcomber"igrants ight till e singingndplayingiketheirAfrican ncestors.n the remainderf that ection, nd the twofollowing,havepresentedll sorts f very antalizingvidence,uggestinghepossibilityfmusical urvivalsf a sort hatwouldeem t east onsistent ith uch notion. osummarize y rgument hus ar: . the istribution fPygmyBushmentyle n Af-rica uggeststmight ellbe the urvival f n archaicmusical raditionracticed your ncestors rom t east he

eriodf the arliest

enetic ispersals, ossibly ny-where rom 0,000to over 100,000years go; 2. thepresencef more r ess thesamehighly istinctivetyle oday, nbothvocaland nstrumentalariants,longsegmentsf the amepath s that ow hypothesizedor he Out-of- frica"migra-tion, uggestshepossibilityhat he riginalmigrants ere n offshoot f the ameancestralroup, erpetuatinghe amemusicalradition, hichmight owsurvivemore r ess ntact nthe erformanceracticesf numberf aboriginal,"tribal,"and/orpeasant" roups iving long he riginalmigrationath ndbeyond. y thesame oken,t ppearssthough e neednot osit omeunknownrocessf ulturaldiffusion22o account or hepresencef P/B tyle ocalizingndhocketednstru-

mental erformancenEastAsia,Southeast sia, Melanesia, ndonesia,tc. Suchsimilarities,swith hose mong he ygmiesndBushmen, ightmore traightfor-wardly eexplained,oquoteWiora1956:25-26,ited bove),asspringingromcommon oot."



21/55


What re we to make f such hypothesis?rethere ther waysof nterpretingthe ameevidence?Wehave lready ncountered,nmydiscussion fAfricanmu-sic,onevery ommonxplanationor he istributionf imilar raits ndtrait om-plexesnvarious arts f theworld: independentnvention."t s often rgued, orexample,hat particularrtifact rpracticemight ellhavebeen reated natural-ly," nd as a matter fcourse,"nvarious laces nd t variousimes,implys theresult f ome nnate uman eed r desire.While innateness"asrecentlyecomeapopularheme f ognitivecience,thnologicalesearch asconsistentlyevealedthatmost fnot ll cultural racticesre socialconstructs,ot givens" f nature.n

the ase ofP/B tyle, ne must sk why uch need, esire, rpropensity ouldbeinnate nly mong ertain eoplesndnot thers.Another,elated ypothesis,owargely ut f favor,s thenotion hat ll societ-

iesevolvelongmore r ess the ame ines, o thatwecanexpectofind imilar r-tifactsndpracticesropping p nvarious roupst similar tagesntheir develop-ment."f all ormost unter-gathererocietiesnvarious arts f heworld ang nd/orplayednsimilar ays nemight ossiblywant o at east onsideruch n argu-ment ere. ut hey onot. o cite nly hreexamples,skimo unters ave com-pletely ifferentype fmusic rom frican ygmiesndBushmen,nd he borigi-nal hunters f Australiaing ndplay n a manneradicallyifferentrom oth.Wewillhaveoccasionresentlyo askourselves hy uchdifferencesxist. ut learlythey o not eflect volutionarytages.

Anotherommonrgumentorndependentnventionays lose attentiono theeffects f the nvironment. ere we are on firmer round, inceenvironmentasbeen een s an mportantactornphysicalvolutioninceDarwin.However,s wehave lreadyearned,he ygmiesf he ropicalorestnhabitn environmentadi-callydifferentromhat f theBushmen, hohave daptednagreatmanyways otheir esert abitat. he differentnvironmentsight ell xplainertain henotyp-ic andgenetic ifferencesetween hese roups. ut tcannot xplain heirmusicaldifferences

ince,sIhave

demonstrated,heir ocalizationsre

xtremelylose

sty-listically,long very argenumberfparametersndeed,othe oint hat ven pe-cialists rainedn Africanmusic annot asilytell them part. thnomusicologistSteven elddeveloped very nterestingheory, asedon the elf-perceptionf theKalulipeopleof NewGuinea,namely hat he lift p oversounding" tyle, is-cussed bove,was creatednresponseocertain eatures f their nvironmentFeld1982,1996).As we have een,however,ssentiallyhe amemusicalractice, hichIcalledcanonic/echoic,"swidely oundnmany ifferentnvironments,ncludingan assortment f locationswithin outheastAsia,Papua-NewGuinea, slandMelanesia,ndSouthAmerica.

Feld' idea s a version f broaderoncept nowns"functionalism,"he laim,pioneered yMalinowski ndRadcliffe-Brown,hatmost fnot ll cultural lementsmust riginaten a realorperceivedeedto fulfill particularunction ithin hatsociety.Onemight heorize,or xample,hat /B style, anonic/echoictyle, rhocketedanpipe layingan beexplained,ot s theperpetuationf some ncient



22/55

Victor . Grauer.choesfOur orgottenncestors 25

tradition,ut s a creative esponseoaparticulareed hat appenedoariseneachsocietyt a certain laceandtime, ossibly ue to certain tructural hangesn thesocietys a whole. uch processould nly eunderstoodithin he ontext f hesocietytself. or many unctionalists,herefore,nvironmentalrbiologicalonsid-erationsside,most fnot ll elements f culture an be understood nly n what ssometimesalled micasopposedoetic terms by nalogywith he honemicndphoneticspects f inguistics),he ormerepresentingheviewofthe nculturatedinsider,he atter he viewofthemore bjective, ossiblyscientific,"utuninitiat-ed,outsider.thnomusicology,longwithmuch f nthropology,asstronglyend-

ed toendorsehe mic iewpointor ome ime, lacing armore alueon the mme-diate cultural ontext s experienced y the "natives" han any morebroadlycomparativeiew,howeverobjective"r "scientific"n ntent.

Anthropologistarvin arris as attacked he ositionhat all knowledgesul-timatelyemic'"as a fundamentallydealist trategy:Todeny hevalidity f eticdescriptionss ineffect odeny he ossibilityf socialscienceapable f xplain-ingsocioculturalimilaritiesnd differences"Harris 979:45).ForHarris, here-fore, nceonehasdecided otake he emic"position,twould ollow s a matterfcoursehat newouldend oreject llattemptsoexplainny ulturalr ocialprac-tice n the asis ofobservationsrawn romome xternalontext.

Rather han et nto longdiscussion f the pistemologicalssuesunderlyingsuchdebates, willargue, imply, hat he omplexlyntegrated,ighly istinctivenature f P/B tyle, long with ts qually istinctiveatterns f distribution,ouldappearostronglyesistxplanationsasedonanymodel f ndependentnvention,at east ny hat haveeverheard f. Here, swithmydiscussionf themeaningfP/B tylenAfrica, willhaverecourse otwobasicscientificonstructs:he rinci-pleofSufficienteason ndOccam'sRazorseeSection ,above).

If thedistributionf P/B tyle mong omany aboriginal" roupsweredue toindependentnvention,hen heremust e a sufficient eason or achone- or ny

of hosenventionso haveoccurred.f twere

implymatter f

bangingstick n

a hollowog,then erhapsll instances ouldbeexplaineds the esult f aneed ocommunicatever ongdistances, functionalesponseo the nvironment.nce aslit s carved nto hatog,however,urningt nto "slit rum,"n mportantulturalelement as been dded ndthedifficultyfexplainingll instancess independentinventionsncreasesonsiderably.

P/B tyles farmore omplexhan ny lit rum,nvolvingot nly high egreeof social ntegration,oordination,nd sheermusicalitymong ll participantsutalso, nmany, hough ot ll,cases, very istinctivetyle fvocalization:odel.tisvery ifficulto see how apractice f such omplexitynd distinctivenessould

have been nventedutof whole loth n somany ifferent lacessoremote romone another. nd fone wouldwant oargue hat he variants"fP/Bfound ymeinsomany ifferent lacesarenotvariantst all,but otally ifferenttyles eflect-ing otally ifferentraditions,hen ow do we account or hepresencef all suchvariants ithin single roup, he Are'Are?



23/55


Toget n evenbetter eel for his roblem,etusfocus ur ttention n thepan-pipe.The ndependentnventionf that articular,ery istinctive,nstrumentnsomany ifferent laces,unlikelys it eems,might eregardeds a remote ossibili-ty.But he trongssociation ith ocketingust bout verywhereefind anpipesmakes uch nexplanationarmore ifficulto ccept.And tworks othways.fwemight ant oregardhe resencefhocketings an ndependentnvention, e havetoaskwhy t s so often ssociatedwith articularnstruments,uch s the anpipe-andvery istinctiveorms f vocalizing,uch s yodelingnd so many f the therfeaturesssociatedwith /B tyle. nemight rgue hat particularype f nstru-

ment r particularype fmusical nteractionouldbe ndependentlynvented.utfor oth o beindependentlynventedntandem,nsomany ifferent laces?Leib-nitz'sprinciplesbasedonsufficienteason,otust ny eason t all.

Theresone more urn f the crew, nfact n emic onsiderationf greatnter-est,which have notyetmentioned.hroughoutoutheast sia, ndonesia, hina,NewGuinea,slandMelanesia,ndSouthAmerica swell, hevarious nstrumentsassociatedwith ocket,specially anpipensembles,ut lso slit rums,nd, n n-donesia, ongs ndgamelans,re regularly ivided ntomale-femaleairs.Whilethere eems obe ittle vidence f uch airingnAfrica,he trongssociation iththis ype f ymbolismnsomany isparate laceswould eem omakendependentinventionspeciallynlikely.

Despite ll the vidence gainstndependentnvention,f want oexplainhevarious istributionatterns f P/B tyle, ocket, odel, anpipes,tc., s survivalsof n ancientmigrationrom frica, very erious roblememains.Whilendepen-dent nventioneems ncompatibleith hePrinciplef Sufficient eason,whataboutOccam's Razor?Canexplanationsased on ancient urvivals eregardedssimplerhan hose asedon ndependentnvention?oronething heres ahugegapbetween heHorn f Africa nd Southeast sia,which as to be accounted or.Wedo not indmuch f ny vidence fhocket r nterlock nYemen,Arabia, akistan,or ndia.There s another

ugegap,betweenMelanesia nd South

America, hichseems lmostmpossibleo account or. inally, e havetoexplainwhy hose an-pipe-playing,ooting, ussianwomen tudied yVelitchkinaound omuch ikeBaBenzelePygmies.

There remany spects f P/Bdistributionhat eemquite learly atterned, oquestion,speciallyhe ntire omplex inkingomany ndigenousroupsnEastAsia,SoutheastAsia,Indonesia,nd Melanesia,ncluding ew Guinea. Occamwouldnot iveusanygrief ver hose. xtendingur eachwestwardoAfrica,ast-ward oSouthAmerica,ndnorthwestwardoEurope, owever,he imple ictureblurs, s toomany erious apsare eft naccounted or. f ndependentnventions

not realistic ption, hen urvival ardlyeems nybetter.f wecannot ind sim-ple explanationor he trange istributionf P/B tyle, henwe willfind urselveslost omewhereetween he cylla fLeibnitz nd heCharybidisfOccam.



24/55


9. Upcoast,Downcoast:FromAsia to theAmericas

As the nalysis fferednthe reviousectionmakes lear, hemusical vidence e-viewedhus ar,while nmyview ompelling,snot n tself ufficient oresolveheresultingpistemologicalilemma. hedistributionsescribed bove cannotatis-factorilyeexplainedither n thebasis of ndependentnventionr survival. utthere emains lot more vidence oconsider, usical, rchaeological,ndgenetic.

I want t this oint oreturn oa considerationf he Are' Are.They re special-ly mportant, ot nly ecausehey erpetuate/B tyle ocalizingnd nstrumental

hocket ut lso because,s wehave een, heymanageopreservehesetylesnsomany ifferent orms- orms elated o thepracticesf other, eemingly ery e-mote, roups. or xample,sIhave lready emonstrated,efind olyphonican-pipehocketingnCentral merica,heAndes,ndparts fAmazonia,ut ften n amuch implerormhan /B tyle nterlockedocketing,ince llparts ooften endto play n the samerhythm, ather han ontrapuntally.ne might e temptedoclaim hismakes uchpractices ompletelyifferent rom frican nd Melanesianpiping. utremarkablynoughwe find oth ypesmong heAre'Are, he /B on-trapuntalype nd the Central ndSouthAmericanhythmicnison ypeseemydiscussion f ypes and2, nSection above).Whenweaddthe act hat outh ndCentralAmericananpipesre, s we havealreadyearned,o often ivided ntomale-femaleairs, s is commonnbothAsia andMelanesiaswell, trans-Pacificrelationshipf some ort eems vident,houghdmittedlyery ard oexplain.

Similarly efind, mongmany entral nd SouthAmericanribes, hat eemsto be a variant f P/B vocalizing, here achsinger ings ssentiallyhe ametuneeither this/her wnpaceor n a sort f roughlyoordinatedcho what called he"canonic/echoic"tyle bove).Lomaxand debated ver hebestwayto codethis,as ithas elements f both eterophonynd nterlockwesolvedhe roblemydou-ble-coding).s it ctually elated oP/B tyle racompletelyifferentractice? sIhave

already ointed ut,he Are Are

provides with n

importantlue,because

theyvocalize bothways, n "classic" P/Bcontrapuntaltyle nd canonic/echoicstyle.t ooksverymuch s thoughhe wo tyles rerelated, et nother eason orpositingome sort f interconnection,arfetched s thatmayseem,betweenheAmericanroupsndthe Out-of- frica" /B migrants.

Thecognateso not top here. he Are'Are lsoplay tampingubes,na man-nervery imilar o the hocketingnterplayocharacteristicf gong nsemblesromMindanao oFlores,Bali,and Java. f we knewnothing bout Are'Are tampingtubeswemight ave ome ingeringoubts s to whether hehocketingf thegongensembles ouldbe related oP/Bhocket. nd et us notforget hevariousypes f

interlockedlit rum erformanceoundnMelanesia,olynesia,ndSouthAmeri-ca,not o mention hemost ikely laceoforigin or hisnstrument,frica.Canall thesevarious racticesnotforgettingheRussianpanpipers-we deal

further ith urope resently)eally e traced ack oOppenheimer'"Out-of-fri-ca"migration?et us take closerookat the most hallengingase,the inkwith



25/55


Central ndSouthAmerica- and the bsence f anyNorthAmericanink,whichmust lso be explained.or a long ime felt ure here adtobe a connectione-tween hoseSouthAmericananpipesnd Melanesia.Buttheonlypossibilitycould ee was a directink ia the acificOcean,which adbeen ll but uled utbyanthropologists.remainedkepticalnthat core. here wereust oomany hings,not ustpanpipes, hich eemed orequire trans-Pacificonnection. owthat heDNA evidence sin, have earned omydisappointmenthat his ooall but otallyrules ut nydirect onnection ia the acific. t was onlywhen took closer ookatthis amegeneticvidence hat nother ossibilitymerged,ia a farmore ndirect

link.Theweb ite JourneyfMankind"Oppenheimer004a)containsn nteractive"GeneticMap," developed y Stephen ppenheimer,akingheviewertep y tepthroughhe Out-of- frica"migrationhat s the enterpiecef hisbook.Byclick-ing long hismap t s possibleoeasily rack hegeneralutlines f themigrationdiscussed ofar. will ummarizets ontents ere.

Though hemap begins140,000years go, wecanskipto thedates45,000-40,000BC,as we are oncernedt this oint nlywith he eoplingf heAmericas.Moving long rom his egionf time, ppenheimerraces slowbut ure rogres-sionofhisOut-of- frica beachcombers,"rom outheast sianorthwardlong heeastAsiaticcoast,to be joined roughly 0,000-25,000yearsago by two otherstrands,rriving y wodifferentoutes,iaCentral sia andSiberiaespectively.23Thefollowingtep hows ll three roups rogressingver he andbridge tBeringStrait,nd hen ividingetweenand nd ea routesntoNorth merica. ote, ow-ever, hat ythenext tage, 2,000-19,000,he ceAgemaximum asmademost fNorthAmerica ninhabitable.ne group n the outheast emains,pparentlyarenoughouth o survive.t s alsopossiblehat ome f he nomads ouldhave afelyreached arts fCentral ndSouthAmericaythis ime.

AccordingoOppenheimer2004b:300-13)fNorth merica ad beenpopulat-ed

prioro the ce

Age,and there s now

very oodevidencehat his s what

hap-pened, hat opulation ouldhave ither een wiped ut r forced omovewhen heIceAgehit- either o refugesn the outh, rbackwhere hey adcomefromnthenorthwest here t that ime here ay large andmassrelativelyree f ce,nowre-ferred oas"Beringia."he next wo teps n his displayhow he outhern roupcontinuingouth opopulatemost f SouthAmericawhile nother roupmovesbysea(dottedines)from eringiaogradually opulatehewesternoast f both on-tinents.n thenext egment e see NorthAmericaepopulated,s theglacier e-cedes,bygroups rom oth he northwestnd outh.

Oppenheimeradalready osedanimportantuestion, Why o little iversityintheNorth?" inceBeringiawouldhavebeenbyfar hemost ikely ntry oint ntotheAmericas, ost heories ould redict reater iversity,oth eneticnd inguis-tic, ntheNorthernatherhan he outhern emisphere.ut the pposites in factthe ase. SouthAmerica s farmore iversenboth espects.ow he s in a positionto answer his uestion.f most f NorthAmericawereuninhabitableuring he



26/55

Victor . GrauerEchoesfOur orgottenncestors 29

height f he ce Age, twould hereforeave ostmost fnot ll tspopulation,nlyto be repopulatedater yNaDenespeakersrom henorth nd Amerind peakersfrom he outh, ithAleut nd nuit peakers rrivingt ater ates. North mericasless diverse han outhAmerican his view because theoriginal opulation askilled ff r forced odisperses a result f the ce Agemaximum.

Tosummarize,heAmericasmayhaveoriginallyeenpopulatedy hree iffer-entgroups:n offshoot f the riginal ut-of- frica beachcombers,"teadily ro-gressingromndonesia,pthe oastofEasternAsiato the xtreme orth; nowvery ifferent roup rom entral sia,which adalready roken ff rom hemain

line housandsfyears arlier; nd third, ifferentromhe irst wo, rom iberia.All threemight avemade tacross he rctic andbridge rior o the ceAgemaxi-mum, ut nly ertain roupsmight ave made t far nough outh o be safefromthemaximum hen t finally rrived. ouldthesehave ncluded irect escendentsof he riginal eachcomberroup, ringing ith hem he anonic/echoicariant fP/B ingingtyle nd heir ocketinganpipes?f o,then, sthey rogressedurthersouth, heywouldhavepopulatedertain reas n Mexico,CentralAmerica,heAndes,ndtheAmazonBasin,where heir escendentsouldbeliving oday.Ac-cordingothis ineofthought, edonotfind anpipes24r canonic/echoicingingnorth f Mexicobecauseny tragglersrom hat roupwouldnothave urvivedheworst f he ceAge.Thegroups aking efugenBeringiamayhaverepresentedhetwoother opulationsraced y Oppenheimer, hosehistory ad taken hem n adifferentourse,hroughentral sia andSiberia,where hey ouldhave ost ouchwith he riginal /B raditions,ince heresnow, utside f he nuit Throat ing-ing" raditionNattiez 999),ittle race f P/B tyle inging, r panpipes,orth fMexico.Possibly ue to their hared xperiencesn Beringia uring he ce Age,thesenorthern roupshavestrongmusicalresemblanceso oneanother,makingAmerica orth f Mexico nunusually omogeneoustyle rea.Furtheright nthisisshedbyZagoet l. (1995:4)who dentified:

three redominantAlpha]globinene aplotypesmongrazilianndians, distri-butionhat]as ome eaturesn ommon ith he istributionsbservedn outheastAsia,olynesia,elanesiandMicronesia.The requencyfhaplotypeeamongtheAmazonndianssthe ighesthus ar bservedn ny umanopulation.toc-curs egularlynOceanic nd outheastsian opulationsut s absentnEuropeansand ub-Saharanlacks.

[Additionally]llexamplesfhaplotypea dentifiednour ampleontained...variantwhich] hen resentscommonlyssociated ith aplotypeslaor id nSoutheastsia, olynesia,icronesiandMelanesia.After onsideringll this vidence,longwith considerablemount f ddition-

algenetic atagleaned rom he esearch f others, he uthors onclude:the imi-larities etween ative South]Americansndpopulationsrom hePacific slandsareprobablyhe onsequencef ncientommonrigins hat redatehe eoplingftheAmericas ndOceania"ibid.: ).



27/55

30 * theworldfmusic8( -2006

Somebasicquestions egardinghedistributionf song tyle nd nstrumentsntheAmericasppear o be answereduite legantly y thepicture utlined bove.Manyyears go,as astudentfCharleseeger tUCLA,I compiledbibliographyofwritingsn themusicalnstrumentsf SouthAmerica. omy stonishmentdis-covered hat here as n fact large orpus fpublicationsescribingtremendousvariety f pre-Columbiannstruments:lutes, histles, anpipes,clarinets,"arkhorns, litdrums, tc. see,for xample,zikowitz970).Thispicturescompletelydifferentrom hat orth fMexico,where here re basicallyhreenstrumentypes,thedrum, he attle nd he lute, discrepancycouldnot ccount or t the ime.

The scenarioresentedyOppenheimerccounts ot nly or he istributionfpanpipesndcanonic/echoicinging ut lso the roliferationf nstrumentsener-ally nthe outh. t alsohelps o xplainwhy ome f hesenstruments,ot nly an-pipes, uthocketedark orn nsemblesnd lit rums,re ommonnMelanesia swell. f we assume he riginalbeachcombers" ere he nes thatmade t farthestthefastest, hen hatwould xplain oth he imilarities ith he Solomons,wherethey ouldhave eft olonies uch s the Are Are, nd severalNewGuineagroupswith imilarmusicalraditionsnd nstruments.ccordingothis heory,henomadswouldhave maintainedimilar raditionss they raveled orth longthe oastofEastAsia,passedthrough eringia ndmade heirwaydown oCentralndSouthAmerica. hepaucityf nstrumentsnthenorth ouldbeexplained y he ffects fthe ce Agemaximum,hichwouldhave overedmost f North merica,huswip-ingoutmost f thegroups iving here nd forcinghe urvivors ack nto he nlyrelative armth f Beringia. ccordingoOppenheimer,ifewouldhavebeenbru-tally ifficult or hose urvivors,n an environmenthatwouldhaveoffered eryfewmaterialsrom hich obuildnstruments.hus,when he escendantsf thesegroupswere inallyble to movedown ntoNorth merica roper fter he ceAge,itmakesense hat heywouldhave ostmost f their nstrumentalraditions.

Thisexplanations both bit omplicatedndnecessarilypeculative.utwhat

we know bout hemusicalspect oesseem ofit. ppenheimer'bookmay here-fore roviden importantlueasto how variants f P/B tyle ingingndplayingcouldhavemade talltheway o Central nd SouthAmerica utnot urvivedntheNorth.25

10. The Australian ilemma

If the riginal ut-of- frica roupmoved niformlyll thewayfrom frica ownthe oast f outh Asia totheMalayPeninsula ndfrom here own hroughndone-

sia to New Guinea ndAustralia,s is sometimeslaimed,henwemusicologistshave problem.Whilemany ndigenousroupslong he beachcomber"outeingandplay na mannertronglyeminiscentf P/B tyle, here as tomyknowledgenever eenany nstancef such style oundnywherenAustralia. havenever



28/55

Victor .Grauer.choesfOur orgottenncestors 31

heard fpanpipeshere ither. nfact hemusicaltyle f heAustralianboriginessdramaticallyifferentrom he ypes fmusic nder iscussion hus ar.

NativeAustralianmusic s remarkablyomogeneoustylistically. e usuallyhear olo orharshly lended nison inging, ith opolyphony,ather ordy exts,long phrase engths, iatonic o narrow ntervals, ne-beat ccompaniment,on-stricted, asalvoices,with high egree f rasp ndforcefulness.hiswould eemthegeneral ule hroughoutll of nativeAustralia, hich s remarkable. he mostdistinctivelementnAustralian usic s,ofcourse,hedidjeriduwhichmight erelated otheMelanesian ark orn r possiblyven he lmostmythic ygmymoli-mo and splayed ontinuously,sing breath ecyclingechniqueot nlike ertainEuropeanndNorth frican ractices.While uch esemblancesight ot e entire-lyfortuitous,hedidjeridund ts music eemoneofakind, nique,ndessentiallylimited oAustralia.

Oppenheimer'analysis rovidesn importantlue to the riddle f Australiandifference:Thegenetic icture ellsus that here re no shared lansbetween us-tralians nd New Guineans,nd thatNewGuineansre as geneticallyistant romAustralianss anyothernon- frican eoples...theevidencemplies hat]NewGuineamayhave been colonizedbeforeAustralia nd also thatAustralian lanswerenotdescended romNew Guinean nes"(Oppenheimer004b:64-65).Hegoesontoconclude hat ew Guineamayhavebeen ettled oughly5,000,Austra-lia65,000years go.What ouldhavehappenednthose10,000years o make heAustralianso different rom o many f the NewGuineans,ndbyextensionheother beachcomber"roups, othmusicallyndgenetically?26

Oppenheimeroo spuzzledbythe dd geneticndmorphologicalaps.Buthefinds very nterestingndpossibly ery mportant lue n"thegreatest atural a-lamity o befall ny humans, ver," heeruption, . 70,000-74,000ears go, ofMount oba, nSumatra.heexplosionwas so vast t eft plume f sh over he n-tirety f ndiafor pproximatelyiveyears,whatOppenheimeras called "nuclear

winter,"n which lmost very iving hing nthat rea would havebeenwiped ut(Oppenheimer004b:82).This sone of he ery ew ventsnprehistoryhat anbepreciselyated ndmeasured,ince a metres-thicksh ayers found hroughoutheregion."

Oppenheimeroeson to write f "the paradox f the ndiangenetic icture,nwhich hegenetic rail f the beachcombersanbedetected,ut hebulk f ndiansubgroups.areuniqueothe ubcontinent,speciallymong he ribes f he outh-east.This s whatwe would xpect or recoveryrom great isaster"ibid.: 93).Inother ords,whenwe have situation here he ulk f thehuman opulationseither illed utright rdiesof tarvation, ith nly very mallgroup f urvivors,this ooksverymuch ike formulaor enetic- ndcultural- hange.Oldgeneticlinesmight e all butwiped ut nd newonesformed. ld cultural raditions ightbe all but ost- and newones reated ut f vaguememoriesndmyths f he ast.27

Is itpossiblehatAustralia,opulated,t east 10,000years fter he Tobablast,could have beenoccupiedbyone of the ltered urvivor inesout of SouthAsia?



29/55


Couldthat lsoexplainhemusical iscrepanciesetween ustralia nd the est fthe ut-of- frica /B tyle inger-players?ould hat opulationave implyost tspolyphony,tshocketing,tspanpipes,tc. s a result f n ages-oldaturalatastro-phe, ndbeenforced o nvent tself new?

11. Passage throughndia

Today, everal roups f so-called Paleosiberian"untersurviven solatedock-ets of subarctic nd arctic urope ndAsia,stretchingrom orthern candinaviathrough orthern ussiato Sakhalinndbeyond,oHokkaido,henorthernmosts-landofJapan. ike their aleolithicncestors,he ives of most aleosiberiansre(orwere) rientedround erds f reindeer, hich hey ollow verongdistancessthe nimalsmigrate.t s currentlyssumedhat heir ncestors ncepopulatedargeareasofEuropendAsia,butwere t somepoint riven orth,ntomarginalreas,bytechnologicallyore dvancedNeolithicroups. he ancestorsf the aleosibe-rians rethus houghto havebeen he aboriginals"fEuropendAsia,ust s theBushmen ndPygmiesre houghtobe the riginalnhabitantsfAfrica.

Most of the music ecorded rom hesegroups,heSmi Laplanders),ukah-girs, amoyede, ven,Nenyet, inu, tc.would eem o be about s differentromP/B tyle s possible.WhilePygmiesndBushmening ogether ith reat ocialcohesionnacomplextyle f nterwoven,nterlocking,ocketedolyphony,ftenaccompanied y rhythmicallyntricatelapping, aleosiberiansend, or hemostpart, osing oloandunaccompanied,relseaccompaniedyrelativelyimple ne-beatdrum trokes. espite hemany ifferences,aleosiberian usic assomeveryinterestingeaturesncommon ith spects fP/B tyle,ncluding tendencyouserepetitiveor nonsense)exts,wide ntervals,ndrelaxed, elativelypenvoices.Communal throatinging" ituals ave alsobeenrecorded,mploying very is-tinctive ocal

technique,kin o

hocket,hat

maywellbe related o P/B

tyle.29ut

the most common ndpervasiveimilaritiesnvolve woparticularlyistinctivecharacteristics:ontinuousocalizingndyodel.

AmonghePygmiesndBushmen, continuouslow f sound s producediathe nterlockingf parts, o there eed be no audiblepausesfor reath. nstead fphrasesnthe sual ense, here re often hort, epeated,rvariedmotives ithinnon-hierarchicaltructure.hesingersfree o take breath henever eededwith-out nterruptingheflow f sound.Certain aleosiberianongs recharacterizedyanongoingmelodic tructurehat ounds ike t would- or should- be continuousexcept or henecessityhat he inger ake breath rom ime o time.Avoidinghe

type fphrasing e find ormal,oordinatingreaths ith hrase ndings, aleosi-berian ingers illoften reathe rbitrarily.have abeledhismethod breathless"becausebreathingeems oplayno role nthe hapingf themelody. hesongs reconceived,pparently,s a continuouslow f sound n which few hortmotivesinterplayt a single rchitectonicevel, allingackupon hemselves ithoutause.



30/55

Victor . GrauerEchoesfOur orgottenncestors 33

When tcomes, reathingsoften eard s an nterruptionf this low, atherhan"punctuationark"ndicatinghe ndofaphrase. notherimilarity ith /B tyleis a tendencyoactivate heglottal reaofthevoice, ither hroughodeling, typi-cal feature f Smi oik singing, r extreme lottal shake," speciallyommonamong iberian roups.

While t s interestingospeculateegardinghese oints f similarityetweentwo therwiseighly ivergenttyles,he ingingtyles fvirtuallyllthe boriginalgroups fnorthernurasia, rom he misofEurope hroughhePaleosiberiansfAsiato the Ainuof northern apan,ppear obe as remarkablyonsistentmongthemselvessare he ygmy/Bushmenroups. eedlessosay, heCantometricro-files f ust bout llthe aleosiberianongsnour amplereremarkablyimilarna greatmany arameters.30his s somethinghat houldnotbe taken or ranted.LikethePygmiesndBushmenn Africa, hePaleosiberiansre widely catteredover truly astareaofextraordinarilyifficult errain. pportunitiesor ontactandmutualnfluenceanhardly aveexisted ormany housands fyears;ndeed,probablyotuntil ll the wayback o thePaleolithictself. s with hePygmiesndBushmen,herefore,he losestylisticffinitiesmong hesewidelycatteredeo-plesspeakstronglyor hegreat geoftheir ocal traditions.

Whatmany onsider obe the irst eligion,hamanism,sthoughtohavedevel-oped among hesePaleolithicuntersndcontinuesmongmany f their escen-dents oday. gain his s not omethinghat hould asily etaken or ranted,spe-cially ince races f Shamanismanarguablye found n almost ll religions.hefirst rum mayhavebeentheShaman'sdrum, framemembranophonetill n useamongmany f hese rctic untersoday.fP/B tyle ppears rototypicalor roupvocalizingnAfrica enerally,henwemight ant o consider hepossibilityale-osiberiantyle ould beprototypicalor ertain ther reas where olosingingscommon,specially, orthernnd central urope,North frica, ndmany arts fAsia.

There re oundrchaeologicaleasonsobelieve he ncestorsf he aleosibe-rianhunters nceoccupiedarge reasofboth urope ndAsia. t stands oreason,

therefore,hat heirmusicaltylewouldhave eft races n both reas. n my pinion,theressome xcellentvidence orust uch hypothesis.here re trong imilar-ities, or xample,etween heheavily lottalizedocalizingommonn Siberia ndtheelaborate lottal rnamentationo characteristicf Korean nd Japaneseolosong.

EuropendAsia(andculturallyelatedegionsf North frica)would eem obethe nly arts f heworldwhereolounaccompaniedinging as acommon ndwidespreadraditionalractice. taste or his ery ndividualizedode fexpres-sionmayhave been nherited rom he olosinging f their aleolithic ncestors(thoughhe tyle ascertainlyvolved ver heyears nd here re now ome ignif-icant ifferences,uch swordier,essrepetitiveong exts,normal" hrasing,o-ordinated ith hebreath, nd a preferenceor trophicnd, speciallynAsia andNorth frica,more omplexmelodicorms,lso basedonphrasing).



31/55


There s anotherntriguingossibility orth xploring,hough peculative: efind hroughouturope,Western sia, ndNorth frica ompellingvidence f hesurvivalf breathlessness"nthe orm f group fwindnstrumentsspeciallye-signed oproduce continuous,ninterruptedtream f sound,nitiallyhroughe-cyclingf he reath, ltimatelyiathe se of wind eservoir. hile est knowno-dayas a Scottishnstrument,hebagpipehasbeenfoundnmany arts f NorthernandSouthernurope,Western sia,and North frica,with history eachingarback before he arliest hresholds f recorded ntiquity. adefrom he kin f ananimal uch s a sheep, oat, r pig, t has consistentlyeenassociatedwith hep-herds nd other erders- nd maywell havehadtotemicignificanceor omeofthese roups. here s some videnceinkingtwith eligious racticesf shaman-isticnature. he magico-religiousssociations o doubt ontributedo tseventualuse nmilitarynstitutionsndreligiouseremonies,practicehatmight ave edtothedevelopmentf another breathless" ind nstrument:heorgan.Theherdingandshamanisticssociationsf thepipes, longwith ts continuouslow f sound,notto mention he distinctivelyglottal" uality f tsornamentations,ll tend osuggest linkwith aleosiberianocalism.thasbeen laimedhat he agpipe rig-inatedn theMiddleEast anddiffusedhroughouturopevia theRomanEmpire.But t s difficult o reconcile uch theory ith he nstrument'slmost xclusiveprovenancemong erding eoples ormost f ts history.

ApracticeommonnScotland s the mitationf he agpipe y he oice.Suchsingings saidto haveoriginatednthenineteenthentury, hen hebagpipesweresupposedlyanned. owever,fwecompare ipe mitationsythe cots raditionalsingerMaryMorissonseeHeather nd Glen ideB,track 0,orScotlandrack 3),with ypicalxamplesfPaleosiberianocalizing,31e find ome trikingimilari-ties:solounaccompanied,ext epetitionuseof nonsenseyllables),ontinuousmelody, lusiveornonexistent)hrasing,rbitrary reathing,elaxed,penvoice,glottal mbellishment,nd races fyodel.

Thebagpipemayhave counterpart

nacertainype fAsiatic nstrumentithsimilarly idespread istributionnd apparentlyncient ineage:the khene also

known s the hengor sh. This nstruments alsodesignedor ontinuous lowsince tproduces soundwhile heplayer reathes oth n andout.Thegenesis fboth nstruments ight ellbe traceableothe anpipe,owever urtherpeculationregardinguch elationshipsould ake s toofar field.

Ihave xamined hemusic f he aleosiberiansnd peculatedegardingtspos-sible mpact n the developmentf certain urasiatic oca

grauer, echoes of our forgotten ancestors

Documents