Browsing by Author "McDowell, John"

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Drums, Raps, and Song-Games: An Ethnography of Music and Peacebuilding in the Afro-Colombian Town of Libertad (Sucre)
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2018-07) Rojas, Juan Sebastián; Tuohy, Sue; McDowell, John
Throughout the world, violent conflicts negatively impact economies, cultural practices, and the social relations within societies. Focusing on a case study of a cooperative national and community effort that highlights musical and traditional cultural practices, this dissertation explores programs aimed at peacebuilding in post-conflict societies. The Afro-Caribbean town of Libertad, Colombia, suffered violent ruptures during a rightwing paramilitary occupation between 1996 and 2004. In 2007, the Colombian national government began working with community members to implement a Collective Reparation Plan to assist in rebuilding the community and its social fabric. Based on local beliefs that cultural and artistic practices play key roles creating frameworks for collective action and community-building, they designed projects to revive traditional musics and cultural expressions as well as to create new works that resonate more directly with the youth. The revival of traditional funerary wake games and the construction of the musical genre bullenrap—a fusion of hip-hop and local bullerengue—exemplify local strategies for ameliorating problems such as the loss of traditional knowledges and intergenerational tensions in creative and nonviolent ways. Liberteño artists have built frameworks for solidarity and education through participatory performances that empower community members and address local issues through empathy. Based on long-term ethnographic research, this dissertation argues that these programs have been successful because they: 1) build upon a long history of using cultural expressions to foster community solidarity and collective action; 2) foster collective initiatives of local leaders and their social capital; 3) embody the creative resilience of artists in managing local cultural resources towards social ends, and 4) maximize the participatory approach within government programs, advocating sensitivity to local needs. Contributing to the literature in ethnomusicology and peacebuilding, this dissertation offers a methodology for research and design of programs that recognize the transformative potentials of musical and cultural practices in post-conflict scenarios in Colombia and around the world.
ETHNOGRAPHY OF RESISTANCE POETICS: Power and Authority in Salale Oromo Folklore and Resistance Culture (Ethiopia, Northeast Africa)
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2015-06) Dibaba, Assefa Tefera; McDowell, John
ETHNOGRAPHY OF RESISTANCE POETICS: Power and Authority in Salale Oromo Folklore and Resistance Culture (Ethiopia, Northeast Africa) This dissertation is an interdisciplinary folkloristic search for resistance poetics in tradition-oriented folklore of the Salale Oromo in central Ethiopia using both a diachronic and a synchronic approach. The Salale are part of the Tulama branch of the Oromo nation who are engaged in a national liberation struggle. Drawing on critical ethnographic methods, this study provides a folkloristic outline of power and authority in the resistance culture of the people based on the data I collected in Salale in 2009 and 2010 through interviews, focus-group discussions, and participatory observations into the notion of “progressive folklore.” The data shows that the meaning of Salale resistance poetics transcends the ephemeral common understanding of the resistance concept. Here resistance is not used as shorthand just to refer to social protest, peasant rebellion, or more preferably, banditry; it is rather the poetics of emancipatory act. An emancipatory resistance is not simply a strategic plan to change the status quo, oppositional to social change, or a strategy for temporary material gain. In the Salale social world, an emancipatory resistance is rather a spiritual engagement and necessitates a poetics of making, transforming, and escalating the struggle in spirit as in words and praxis. Its end goal is fundamental human freedom and protection for nonhumans from harm. Methodologically speaking, the data shows that, the notion of resistance poetics is a locally grounded theoretical stance, namely, strategic traditionalism, social banditry, ecopoetic practices, ethnic genres knowledge of verbal art, which constitute the “resistance poetics” and can be modeled into a high level analytical significance of critical ethnography to examine unequal power relations. The notion of “hidden resistance,” I argue, which we often read about in resistance studies is simplistic. It is simplistic because it centers exclusively on “deterministic economism” and “pragmatic resignation” of the subordinate to the dominant class. Tradition is used as a subversive means of contra-posing cultural domination, political exclusion, and economic exploitation, particularly with respect to land and land resources, in a disempowering situation. An alternative Salale history is constructed from a micro-historical perspective in which folklore functions as a supplement to historical facts and to augment the folkloric models.
Inga Rimangapa Samuichi: Speaking the Quechua of Colombia
(Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Indiana University, 2011) McDowell, John; Tandioy Jansasoy, Francisco; Wolf, Juan Eduardo
Inga Rimangapa Samuichi: Speaking the Quechua of Colombia is the world’s first comprehensive language instruction method for the Inga language, the variety of the Quechua family of languages that is spoken in the southwestern corner of Colombia and neighboring regions of Ecuador. It contains 21 chapters drawing on real-world experiences in the Inga community of Santiago in Colombia’s Sibundoy Valley, presenting engaging dialogues as well as targeted exercises to guide the learner towards a basic speaking and reading competence in the language. These lessons are supplemented by an audio companion for the first set of chapters, and by five appendices: a glossary, a profile of Inga suffixes, notes locating Inga among the other varieties of Quechua, a chart of the Inga verb structure, and a list of key words and phrases. This textbook is the product of much collaborative effort. Of primary importance is the contribution of Francisco Tandioy Jansasoy, Inga intellectual and activist, who brings the Inga community to life in its pages. As well, it has benefited from the contributions several generations of Indiana University’s Inga students, who have added and refined its content over the years. Finally, we acknowledge the elders, ex-governors, Inga native doctors, all members of the Inga community, the Committee for Bilingual Education of Musu Runakuna, and the Hermanas Lauras of San Andrés, for their support and contributions to the project. ***It should be noted that this text utilizes practices for writing the Inga language that were prevalent at the time of its publication, and that work continues in the Inga community to refine and perfect the realization of spoken Inga on the written page.
Inga Rimangapa Samuichi: Vengan a hablar la lengua inga
(Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Indiana University, 2012) McDowell, John; Tandioy Jansasoy, Francisco; Wolf, Juan Eduardo
Inga Rimangapa Samuichi: Vengan a hablar la lengua inga es el primer método comprensivo para aprender la lengua inga, el dialecto de la familia Quechua que se habla en el suroeste de Colombia y en las tierras vecinas de Ecuador. Consiste en 21 lecciones utilizando experiencias típicas de la comunidad inga de Santiago en el valle de Sibundoy, presentando diálogos simpáticos además de ejercicios orientados para guiar el estudiante hacia una competencia básica de hablar y leer el inga. Se complementa estas tareas con un audio complementario para los primeros capítulos, más cinco apéndices: un glosario, un perfil de los sufijos ingas, notas acerca el inga entre los otros dialectos de Quechua, un esbozo del verbo inga, y una lista de palabras y frases claves. Este texto es producto de mucha labor colaborativa. De suma importancia es la contribución de Francisco Tandioy Jansasoy, sabio y activista inga, que da vida a la comunidad inga en estas páginas. Además, se ha beneficiado del trabajo de múltiples generaciones de alumnos en la Universidad de Indiana, quienes han agregado y refinado la contenida del texto durante varios años. Por último, queremos reconocer los mayores, los exgobernadores, los médicos ingas, toda la gente de las comunidades inga, el Comité Educación Bilingüe de Musu Runakuna, y las Hermanas Lauras de San Andrés, por su apoyo y ayuda. ***Cabe señalar que este texto utiliza el método de escribir la lengua inga que prevalecía cuando fue publicado, y que sigue en la comunidad inga el trabajo de refinar y perfeccionar la realización de la inga hablada a la página escrita.
Review of 'South American Indian Narrative' by Susan Niles
(Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University, 1984) McDowell, John
Stories about Stories: Life Story Collecting as Commemoration and Social Activism
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2010-06-01) Akerbergs, Ilze; McDowell, John; Carpenter, Inta
The oral life-story is a flexible genre that allows one to connect the private with the public world. It is a window that allows the world to catch a glimpse of the personal experiences and values of the ordinary person. The representations of self and the past that are embodied in life-stories can be used as tools by researchers and activists for larger agendas that create meanings in culture and society. This dissertation deals with two different ways life-story collecting has served two different objectives. Mara in Latvia has created a "master story" that fills and commemorates the "silenced gaps" in Latvian history left by its fifty years under Soviet rule; Karen in Brazil has created a "master story" that works for social change and embraces the diversity of Brazil and the world. Through analysis of Mara's and Karen's own life-stories and the products they have produced, this study examines the "master story" each has created from the many life-stories told to them, against the cultural and political backdrop of Latvia and Brazil.