Why Suyá Sing: A Musical Anthropology of an Amazonian PeopleLike many other South American Indian communities, the Suyá Indians of Mato Grosso, Brazil, devote a great deal of time and energy to making music, especially singing. In paperback for the first time, Anthony Seeger's Why Suyá Sing considers the reasons for the importance of music for the Suyá--and by extension for other groups-- through an examination of myth telling, speech making, and singing in the initiation ceremony. Based on over twenty-four months of field research and years of musical exchange, Seeger analyzes the different verbal arts and then focuses on details of musical performance. He reveals how Suyá singing creates euphoria out of silence, a village community out of a collection of houses, a socialized adult out of a boy, and contributes to the formation of ideas about time, space, and social identity. This new paperback edition features an indispensable CD offering examples of the myth telling, speeches, and singing discussed, as well as a new afterword that describes the continuing use of music by the Suyá in their recent conflicts with cattle ranchers and soybean farmers. |
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Abiyoyo absolute pitch activities adult Agachi animals anthropology asked bathe birds body ornaments body paint boys Brazilian cassette context dancers deer described ethnomusicology euphoria everyday speech example fish forest camp formal friends forms gardens genres grunt human hunting Hwinkradi important Indian individual invocations Kaikwati Kaluli kapérni Kayabi Kayapo leap and sing learned listened lived log racing maize manioc melody men's house moiety mother Mouse Ceremony mouse singers Munduruku musical performance myth name givers name receiver name set name-based ngére participation person phrases rainy season songs rattles recording relationships Rio de Janeiro rising pitch ritual specialist river sang São Paulo sarén second half Seeger shout songs singers sisters slow speech society sounds spirit structure style sung Suyá ceremonies Suyá music Suyá Sing Suyá village tape throat transformation Trumai unison songs Upper Xingu usually witch women Xingu National Park Yawalapiti young