Indigenous Religious Musics

by Graham Harvey

Part of the renowned SOAS Musicology Series (University of London) and celebrating the diversity of indigenous nations, cultures and religions, the essays which comprise this volume discuss the musics performed by a wide variety of peoples as an integral part of their cultural traditions. These include examinations of the various styles of Maori, Inuit and Australian Aboriginal musics, and the role of music in Korean Shaman rituals.  Indeed, music forms a key component of many such rituals and belief systems and examples of these are explored amongst the peoples of Uganda, Amazonia and Africa. Through analysis of these rituals and the part music plays in them, the essays also open up further themes including social groupings and gender divisions, and engage with issues and debates on how we define and approach the study of indigeneity, religiosity and music.

With information on available recordings, and including a CD of music from many of the traditions represented, this is a book which gives readers the opportunity to gain a richer experience of the lived realities of indigenous religious musics.
Music can and does change our perception of our "selves" and our world. This text concerns particular musics of particular people at particular times or events. It interfaces music and religious traditions, using multi- and interdisciplinary approaches. The book considers what the terms "indigenous", "religious" and "music" actually mean with regards to this academic study.

Hardcover

First published December 31, 2000

About the author

Graham Harvey, Ph.D. (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1991), is a religious studies scholar specializing in modern Paganism, indigenous religions and animism. He was was head of the religious studies department at the Open University (2013–17), reader and principal lecturer in religious studies at the King Alfred's College, Winchester (1996–2003), and taught religious studies at his alma mater (1991–95).