Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T11:08:04.733Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Context of Venda Possession Music: Reflections on the Effectiveness of Symbols

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

John Blacking
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Cases of trance, ecstasy, spirit possession, and other institutionalized states of altered consciousness have frequently been invoked is discussions of the effectiveness of musical symbols, often as if they were the most convincing proof of the extraordinary powers of music. They are, of course, more visibly dramatic than an individual's quiet and total absorption in the performance of a moving piece of music; but there is as yet no evidence that these two kinds of experience are essentially different or that the appropriately different styles of music are crucial factors in generating the different kinds of response.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 17 , 1985 , pp. 64 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by the International Council for Traditional Music

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Berliner, Paul F. 1978 The Soul of Mbira: Music and traditions of the Shona People of Zimbabwe. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Blacking, John 1964 Black Background: the childhood of a South African girl. London: Abelard-Schuman.Google Scholar
Blacking, John 1965 “The role of music in the culture of the Venda of the Northern Transvaal”. Kolinski, M., ed. Studies in Ethnomusicology, 2. New York: Oak Publications, pp. 20–53.Google Scholar
Blacking, John 1971 “Music and the historical process in Vendaland”. Wachsmann, Klaus P., ed. Essays on Music and History in Africa, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, pp. 185–212.Google Scholar
Blacking, John 1973 How Musical is Man? Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Blacking, John 1977a “Towards an anthropology of the body”. Blacking, J., ed. The Anthropology of the Body, ASA Monograph No. 15, London: Academic Press, pp. 1–28.Google Scholar
Blacking, John 1977b “An Introduction to Venda traditional dances”. Lange, R., ed. Dance Studies, 2:34–56.Google Scholar
Blacking, John 1981 “The problem of ‘ethnic’ perceptions in the semiotics of music”. Steiner, Wendy, ed. The sign in music and literature, Austin: University of Texas Press, pp. 184–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blacking, John 1982 “Songs and Dances of the Venda People”. Tunley, D., ed. Music and Dance, Fourth National Symposium of the Musicological Society of Australia. Department of Music, University of Western Australia, pp. 90–105.Google Scholar
Bourgignon, Erika, ed. 1973 Religion, altered states of consciousness and social change, Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Clynes, Manfred 1977 Sentics: the touch of emotions. London: Souvenir Press.Google Scholar
Fry, Peter 1976 Spirits of protest: spirit-mediums and the articulation of consensus among the Zezuru of Zimbabwe, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfias, Robert 1980 “The role of dreams and spirit possession in the Mbira dza vhadzimu music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe”. Journal of Altered States of Consciousness 5 (3), 1979-80: 211–234.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford 1976 “Art as a cultural system”. Modern Language Notes 91: 1473–1499.Google Scholar
Grau, Andrée 1979 Some problems in the analysis of dance style with special reference to the Venda of South Africa. Unpublished MA dissertation, The Queen's University of Belfast.Google Scholar
Lewis, I.M. 1971 Ecstatic Religion: an anthropological study of spirit possession and shamanism. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Maslow, A.H. 1970 Religions, values, and peak-experiences. New York: Viking Compass Book.Google Scholar
Ralushai, Nkhumeleni 1984 “The origin and social significance of Malombo”. Fifth Annual Symposium on Ethnomusicology, Faculty of Music, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Rouget, Gilbert 1977 “Music and possession trance”. Blacking, J., ed. The anthropology of the body, ASA Monograph No. 15. London: Academic Press, pp. 233–239.Google Scholar
Rouget, Gilbert 1980 La Musique et la transe. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Rowan, J. 1976 Ordinary ecstasy: humanistic psychology in action. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Stayt, H.A. 1931 The Bavenda. Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Werbner, Richard P. 1964 “Atonement ritual and guardian-spirit possession among Kalanga.” Africa 34(3):206–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar