The Ethnomusicology of Religion: Fieldwork Methods and Ethics

Society for Ethnomusicology

SEM, Denver, Colorado, October 26, 2017.

Roundtable Abstract

Ethnographic fieldwork is often shaped by logistical issues including access, documentation, rapport, and fluency (both cultural and linguistic). Ethnomusicologists researching musics within religious or sacred contexts, however, face additional challenges. For example, moments of spiritual transcendence complicate participant-observation, both for ethnographers who belong to the faith tradition they are researching and for those who do not. Similarly, the varied expectations of the researcher’s audiences problematize documentation and representation. In this roundtable, participants consider these and other issues. Working within Indian sacred music communities in the U.S., Brita Heimarck addresses the importance of interviews in documenting private realms of musical faith, while enabling a specificity of individual experience. Conducting fieldwork within evangelical communities as a religious outsider, Andrew Mall frames ethnographic fieldwork as a negotiation of privilege and capital, with close consideration of its ethical challenges. As an Orthodox Jew researching popular music in the Orthodox Jewish community, Mark Kligman confronts interlocutors’ (sometimes misplaced) assumptions about shared ideologies as well as subsequent representational challenges. Jeffrey Summit addresses the challenges which confront a “participating/observer,” contrasting religious and cultural imperatives with the critical distance needed to analyze religious practice. Exploring further “insider/outsider” positionalities in field situations, Marcia Ostashewski interrogates issues related to gender norms; alliances and relationships across diaspora communities; and the ethnographer’s role in contexts concerned with the preservation, maintenance, and revival of music practices. Through these contributions and a moderated conversation with the audience, this roundtable addresses the ethical and methodological challenges of fieldwork posed by the ethnomusicology of religion.