Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T10:52:29.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“A Limp with Rhythm“: Convergent Choreographies in Black Atlantic Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2018

Sydney Hutchinson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Until at least the 1980s, scholarship on Caribbean carnivals tended to overemphasize European roots because of the celebration's ties to the Christian calendar. Meanwhile, scholarship on Caribbean music has long been embroiled in nationalistic paradigms that have hindered a view of the Caribbean as a cultural region with more commonalities than differences among the music cultures of the various nations (see Bilby 1985). In this paper, I combat these paradigms with the concept of convergence, an alternative to the problematic “syncretism.” It is complementary to current notions of creolization and hybridity, but unlike those concepts, it serves to emphasize the construction of cultural meaning over biological notions of race or ethnicity.

Abstract in spanish

Abstract in Spanish

El concepto de “cojear” está muy extendido en diversos géneros de música y de baile en la región norteña de la República Dominicana denominada el Cibao. Se dice que el “cojo” caracteriza la forma en que el acordeón y los instrumentos de percusión interpretan los ritmos del merengue típico, y algunos lo consideran una característica que distingue el estilo típico cibaeño del merengue de los merengues de otras regiones el país. El merengue típico tradicional también se bailaba “cojeando.” Por otra parte, los personajes típicos del carnaval cibaeño en las ciudades de Santiago y La Vega también avanzan, según se dice, con un “cojo.” Músicos, bailarines, y carnavaleros dan varias explicaciones verbales sobre la historia y la importancia del cojo, y muchas se lo atan a historias sobre diablos y otros personajes amorales.

Sin embargo, el cojo no es solamente una característica estilística local, sino una que conecta la cultura cibaeña con otras expresiones del “cojo” en toda la región caribeña, desde los ritmos blues hasta el baile del zydeco y el “pimp walk.” El tejido conectivo entre todas estas diversas expresiones culturales podría ser Esu, Eleguá, o Papa Legba, el dios de las encrucijadas que cojea, que a veces se sincretiza con el diablo cristiano, y a quien se invoca al comienzo y al final de las ceremonias de vudú y de la santería. El presente artículo utiliza los datos recogidos a través de entrevistas con músicos y bailarines del merengue típico, cuatro años de participación en el carnaval santiaguero, y las teorías de Henry Louis Gates y Paul Gilroy para explorar las expresiones del Atlántico Negro en un contexto dominicano, mientras explique las conexiones entre la danza y la música desde una perspectiva cibaeña.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 44 , 2012 , pp. 87 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 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

Alberti, Luis 1983 Merengues. Ed. Marino, Manuel Marion-Landais, Miniño. Santo Domingo: Editora de Santo Domingo.Google Scholar
Aretz, Isabel, and Rivera, Luis Felipe Ramón y 1963 “Reseña de un viaje a la Repüblica Dominicana.” Boletin del Instituto de Folklore [Caracas] 4/4:157–204.Google Scholar
Arvelo Torrealba, Alberto 1999 Obra poética, Caracas: Monte Ávila.Google Scholar
Austerlitz, Paul 2003 “Mambo Kings to West African Textiles: A Synesthetic Approach to Black Atlantic Aesthetics.” In Musical migrations, ed. Aparicio, Francis and Jáquez, Cándida, 99–116. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batista, Carlos 2009 Interview. Leader of Los Reyes del Mambo lechón group and Movimiento de Santiago en Carnaval. Santiago. 3 and 19 February.Google Scholar
Benitez-Rojo, Antonio 1996 The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective. 2nd ed. Trans. James Maraniss. Durham: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettelheim, Judith 1988 “Jonkonnu and Other Christmas Masquerades.” In Caribbean Festival Arts: Each and Every Bit of Difference, ed. Nunley, John W. and Bettelheim, Judith, 39–83. Saint Louis: Saint Louis Art Museum and Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Bettelheim, Judith 1990 “Carnaval in Cuba: Another Chapter in the Nationalization of Culture.” Caribbean Quarterly 36/3–4:29–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bilby, Kenneth 1985 “The Caribbean as a Musical Region.” In Caribbean Contours, ed. Mintz, Sidney and Price, Sally, 181–218. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Blanco, José 2010 Interview. Conguero. Santiago. 12 May.Google Scholar
Bonnelly, Manuel Ulises 2009 Interview. Carnival enthusiast. Santiago. 18 February.Google Scholar
Brusiloff, Carmenchu 1981 “El merengue de ahora: ‘una gringada’ reformada con pambiche” Hoy 7 (Oct.): 28.Google Scholar
Caro Baroja, Julio 1998 “Sobre el diablo cojuelo.” In Miscelánea histórica y etnográfica, ed. Carreira, A. y Ortiz, Carmen, 527–32. Madrid: CSIC.Google Scholar
Cosentino, Donald 1987 “Who Is That Fellow in the Many-Colored Cap? Transformations of Eshu in Old and New World Mythologies.” Journal of American Folklore 100/397: 261–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Rosa, Arsenio 2006 Interview. Accordionist. The Bronx, New York. 7 July.Google Scholar
Gade Nou Leve Society 2005–9 “Belié Belcán.” International Vodou Society, http://www.ezilikonnen.com/dominican/belie-belcan.html (accessed 1 June 2011).Google Scholar
FRenchPorker 2009 “2. Pimp Limp.” Urban Dictionary. http://www.urbandictionary.com/deflne.php?term=pimp+limp (accessed 21 June 2012).Google Scholar
Gates, Henry Louis 1988 The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African American Literary Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gilmore, David D. 1998 Carnaval and Culture: Sex, Symbol, and Status in Spain. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gilroy, Paul 1993 The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Guerrero, José 2006 “El merengue: cubano, puertorriqueño, haitiano, o dominicano? La problemática antropológica de los origenes.” In El merengue en la cultura dominicana y del Caribe, ed. Tejeda, Dario and Yunén, Rafael Emilio, 69–104. Proceedings of the Primer Congreso de Música, Identidad, y Cultura en el Caribe, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, 8–10 April 2005. Santiago: Centro León; Santo Domingo: Instituto de Estudios Caribeños.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, Sydney 2008 “Merengue Tipico in Transnational Dominican Communities: Gender, Geography, Migration, and Memory in a Traditional Music.” PhD dissertation, New York University.Google Scholar
Irobi, Esiaba 2007 “What They Came With: Carnival and the Persistence of African Performance Aesthetics in the Diaspora.” Journal of Black Studies 37/6: 896–913.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, Henry 2006 Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Keyes, Cheryl Lynette 2004 Rap Music and Street Consciousness. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Lesage, Alain-René 2001 Le diable boiteux. Ed. Pierre Jannet. (Orig. pub. 1707). http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35019 (accessed 21 June 2012).Google Scholar
Limón, José 1994 Dancing with the Devil: Society and Cultural Poetics in Mexican-American South Texas. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Liverpool, Hollis 1988 “Origins of Rituals and Customs in the Trinidad Carnival: African or European?” TDR 42/3:24–37.Google Scholar
Lizardo, Fradique 1982 “Apuntes. Investigatión de campo para el montaje del espectáculo religiosidad popular dominicana, Auditorio de Bellas Artes 15, 16, 17, 18 de abril 1982.” Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Directión General de Bellas Artes, Museo del Hombre Dominicano.Google Scholar
Mackey, Nathaniel 1987 “Sound and Sentiment, Sound and Symbol.” Callalloo 30:29–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morel, Tomás 1994 Obras competas. Santiago de los Caballeros: Ayuntamiento de Santiago.Google Scholar
Patrick, Peter n.d. “Linguistic Convergence and Divergence, and Acts of Identity.” Course notes for LG 232 Sociolinguistics, University of Essex, UK. http://courses.essex.ac.uk/lg/lg232/ActsIDcriteria.html (accessed 29 June 2011).Google Scholar
Payano, Héctor 2003 “La décima popular dominicana: Recopilaciön, clasificaciön y análisis de sus recursos más sobresalientes.” PhD dissertation, City University of New York.Google Scholar
Pedrosa, José Manuel 2001 “El diablo cojuelo en América y Africa; de las mitologías nativas a Rubén Dario, Nicolás Guillén y Miguel Littin.” Revista de filología e letterature ispanische 4:69–84.Google Scholar
n.d. “Leyendas de Timbiqui (Cauca, Colombia): Etnotextos y estudio comparativo.” Revista de Folklore [Fundación Joaquin Diaz] 21a/245:168–175. http://www.funjdiaz.net/folklore/07ficha.cfm?id=1946 (accessed 1 June 2011)Google Scholar
Pelton, Robert D 1980 The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plater, Ormonde, Speyrer, Cynthia, and Speyrer, Rand 1993 Cajun Dancing. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Quinn, Eithne 2000 “'Who's the Mack?’ The Performativity and Politics of the Pimp Figure in Gangsta Rap.” Journal of American Studies 34:115–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reyes, José 2006–9 Conversations and interviews. Individual lechón. Santiago.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Marín, Francisco 2004 Prologue and notes to El diablo cojuelo by Luis Vélez de Guevara. (Orig. pub. 1922). http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12457/12457-h/12457-h.htm (accessed 21 June 2012).Google Scholar
Rosenberg, June C. 1979 El gagá: Religión y sociedad de un culto dominicano; un estudio comparativo. Santo Domingo: Editora de la UASD.Google Scholar
Stewart, Charles 1999 “Syncretism and Its Synonyms: Reflections on Cultural Mixture.” Diacritics 29/3: 40–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, Ruth 2005 Music in West Africa: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tejeda Ortiz, Dagoberto 1996 Cultura popular e identidad nacional. Santo Domingo, Repüblica Dominicana: Consejo Presidencial de Cultura, Instituto Dominicano de Folklore.Google Scholar
Tejeda Ortiz, Dagoberto 2008 El carnaval dominicano. Antecedentes, tendencias y perspectivas. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia Section National de Dominicana.Google Scholar
Thomas, Greg 2009 Hip-hop Revolution in the Flesh: Power, Knowledge, and Pleasure in Lil'Kim's Lyricism. Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tisserand, Michael 1998 The Kingdom of Zydeco. New York: Arcade Publishing.Google Scholar
Tujibikile, Pedro Muamba 1993 Las cachüas: Revelación de una historia encubierta. Santo Domingo: Ediciones CEPAE.Google Scholar
Vélez de Guevara, Luis 2004 El diablo cojuelo. Alicante: Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. (Orig. pub. 1641). http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/el-diablo-cojuelo–0/ (accessed 21 June 2012)Google Scholar
Waxer, Lise A. 2002 The City of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves, and Popular Culture in Cali, Colombia. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Wojcik, Daniel 2006 “Pimp Walk.” In Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, ed. Prahlad, Anand, 983–84. Westport: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Zapata, Máximo 2009 Interview. President of Movimiento de Santiago en Carnaval. Santiago. 19 February.Google Scholar