The Ethnographer as Apprentice: Embodying Sociomusical Knowledge in South <scp>I</scp>ndia

Weidman, Amanda

doi:10.1111/j.1548-1409.2012.01131.x

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Sung in the temple in front of the shrine of Sri Ramakrishna's worshipped photograph, this meditation invokes the overall experience of sitting and receiving at his holy feet. As they sing, the aarati attendees embody the sounds and words around them; they sit in cross‐legged asanas , perform mudras with their hands, and keep time with the music with their silent hand gestures (see Weidman ; Widdess ). During the first hymn, right after the touching of the photograph with the flower, the rhythm and tempo suddenly shift and the lyrics turn from the adoration of Sri Ramakrishna to a direct observation of what is happening at that very moment in the worship service.…”

Section: Hymnody In the Presence Of Sri Ramakrishna's Photographmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photography, Contemplation, and the Worship of Sri Ramakrishna

Buckley¹

2019

Visual Anthropology Review

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Examining the worship of Sri Ramakrishna's photograph provides insight into how a photograph becomes a sacrament—its status transformed from mundane to metaphysical. Sri Ramakrishna's image generates highly contemplative and interior experiences for his devotees. During the aarati worship service, the photograph is phenomenal. It is encountered on levels of bodily sensation that are the very substance of devotional activity—touching, tasting, hearing, smelling, and seeing. In particular, it is the act of devotional singing that finally renders the living presence of the photograph into something that can be experienced. The aarati hymns not only contain expressions of worship and faith. The very act of singing and making sound brings an immediacy to the experience of the living presence of Sri Ramakrishna's photograph.

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Section: Hymnody In the Presence Of Sri Ramakrishna's Photographmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photography, Contemplation, and the Worship of Sri Ramakrishna

Buckley¹

2019

Visual Anthropology Review

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“…These apprenticeships, though, involve not merely learning physical skills; rather, they are fundamentally about personhood. As Rebecca Bryant points out, “Sensorial knowledge is a deliberate process of self‐making that entails becoming a person embedded in a hierarchy of values” (Bryant 2005:234 in Weidman ). This is important to social and class identity.…”

Section: Transnational Yoruba Citizenry: Enculturating the Body And Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Weidman explains, “Through visceral and proprioceptive modes of learning, musical and dance movements cultivate a more than linguistic articulation of self and society. The aesthetic sensibility offers a power through modeling and absorbing that generates embodied feelings of worth, connection and vitality (all of which are deeply embedded in social hierarchies and power relations)” (Weidman ). It is critical, then, to explore not just how musicians’ bodies produce music, but how music is a means for producing subjects who are implicated in hierarchies of power.…”

Section: Transnational Yoruba Citizenry: Enculturating the Body And Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Cuban Cabildos, Cultural Politics, and Cultivating a Transnational Yoruba Citizenry

Concha-Holmes

2013

Cultural Anthropology

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Villamil, a man in his mid-70s, set down the white root he was grating to light a cigarette. The sunlight from the side window reflected upon the silhouetted figure sitting in his customary spot in the wooden, typically Cuban rocking chair. He lit yet another rolled Cuban cigarette and puffed. The sun's rays reflected off of the smoke. From his vantage point, he could observe the rest of the room, which consisted of an altar for Osain [oricha or deity of sacred herbs and healing], a Christian calendar with an image of Jesus, and a double bed. He could also see down the long hall into his altar-filled salon, where his numerous ahijados and ahijadas (godchildren) wait to receive council with their padrino (godfather or spiritual adviser). As a chicken peeked its head around the corner, Osvaldo clarified to me the need to know the appropriate rhythms and words to the sacred songs to be able to communicate with the oricha "so that what you ask for they will give." He was talking from his many years of experience as the obá-oriaté (king or master of ceremonies) and also the akpwón (lead singer) for the Cabildo Santa Teresa, one of three cabildos (mutual aid societies) that has existed in Matanzas since the 1800s. He then started to sing in his aged, throaty voice, offering an oración or prayer to Elegua (the trickster oricha of the crossroads).It is through the words, the rhythms and the movements of these sacred songs that the orichas (Yoruba spirits who connect humans, ancestors, nature and God) were able to travel from Africa to Cuba, live and connect practitioners in cabildos de nación, and continue to travel and offer support for Yoruba initiates in

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“… Participant observation has limitations in some fieldwork contexts, particularly when fieldwork involves a pedagogical process. Had I devoted the time and work necessary to learn the material along with Monsieur Kamara's students, my fieldwork might have followed the model of ethnographic apprenticeship rather than participant observation (Weidman ).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Problem of “Ninjas” and “Bandits”: Ethnographic Encounters with Reformist Muslim Women in Guinea

Fioratta

2018

Anthropology and Humanism

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Muslim women in Guinea who wear face and body coverings are derisively called "ninjas" and "bandits," while those who attend Arabic language and Koranic reading classes are widely regarded with suspicion. This article focuses on women participating in a controversial religious movement, explores how these women engage and embody the limits of gender roles, and asks how examining the experiences of aberrant women can challenge assumptions about both gender and ethnographic practice. [aberrance, ethnography, gender, Guinea, Islam, veiling] One afternoon during Ramadan in September 2010, I sat with my friend Hadiatou in front of her marketplace shop in a small town in the West African Republic of Guinea, where I was then conducting fieldwork. 1 A man, Oumar, joined us. Oumar lived in the United States and was back to visit his hometown. He asked Hadiatou how her business was doing, and she replied that it was fine, though a little slow."You should sell ninja clothes," Oumar suggested. "Would that make money?" I asked. Hadiatou replied that she didn't know, but she didn't like it when women covered themselves completelyor, in the local Pular language verb, buumagol."It's the style, that's all," said Oumar dismissively. But then he told a story about two men who had disguised themselves as women who buumagol and tried to rob his uncle. Hadiatou matched his story with another. She knew of two girls in Conakry, Guinea's capital, who would buumagol during the day, but at midnight they would put on "sexy" clothes and go out dancing. Oumar said that he had a cousin who had started to buumagol, but he did not know that she had adopted this practice when she came to see him upon his return from the United States. When she greeted him, he told her that she would not get any money from him until he could see her face and be sure of her identity. Once she heard the word "money," she uncovered her face right away, said Oumar.Amadou, the proprietor of the shop next door, had been listening to the conversation and now spoke up. "I don't like it when women cover their faces. They can see you, but you can't see them. It's not fair. It's not right. It's too secretive. They are true ninjas!" he concluded.

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The Ethnographer as Apprentice: Embodying Sociomusical Knowledge in South India

Cited by 25 publications

References 21 publications

Photography, Contemplation, and the Worship of Sri Ramakrishna

Photography, Contemplation, and the Worship of Sri Ramakrishna

Cuban Cabildos, Cultural Politics, and Cultivating a Transnational Yoruba Citizenry

The Problem of “Ninjas” and “Bandits”: Ethnographic Encounters with Reformist Muslim Women in Guinea

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