Sound Structure As Social Structure

Sound Structure as Social Structure
Author(s): Steven Feld

Source: Ethnomusicology , Sep., 1984, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Sep., 1984), pp. 383-409
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/851232
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
University of Illinois Press and Society for Ethnomusicology are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to Ethnomusicology
This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
SYMPOSIUM ON COMPARATIVE SOCIOMUSICOLOGY
SOUND STRUCTURE AS SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Steven Feld
n this paper I address two questions: What are the major ways that th
classless and generally egalitarian features of one small-scale society revea
themselves in the structure of organized sounds? What are the major ways tha
these same features reveal themselves in the social organization and ideology of
soundmakers and soundmaking? By providing an overview of these areas I hope
to illuminate some dimensions of a sociology of sound for the Kaluli of Papua
New Guinea, a traditionally nonstratified society where egalitarian features seem
significant to sound structure, and where inequalities also are clearly represente
in the distribution of expressive resources for men and women.
My concern with these problems derives from a preoccupation with mergin
ethnomusicological questions (the cultural study of the shared meanings o
musical sounds) with sociomusical ones (the study of musical sounds from
perspectives of the social structure and social organization of resources, maker
and occasions). My work of the last few years (Feld 1981, 1982, 1983) attempt
to understand the most salient lessons about the structure and meaning of Kalu
sounds and ways they are inseparable from the fabric of Kaluli social life and
thought, where they are taken for granted as everyday reality by members of thi
society. My title alludes to a perspective that considers structured sound as "un
fait social total," in the sense that sociologists like Durkheim, Mauss, G. H
Mead, and Schutz stress the primacy of symbolic action in an ongoing in
tersubjective lifeworld, and the ways engagement in symbolic action continual
builds and shapes actors' perceptions and meanings.
My title also alludes to another paper, Song structure and social structure,
one of Alan Lomax's seminal cantometric reports (Lomax 1962). This referenc
is meant to locate this paper, and the Kaluli pattern it reports, in a large
comparative framework for the sociomusical analysis of classless and egalitarian
societies. In doing so I also want to reconsider Lomax's rationale for why we
should compare sociomusical systems, and what we can compare from one to th
next.
For Lomax the "principal message of music concerns a fairly limited and
crude set of patterns" (1962:450); as a form of human behavior music should be
Final version rec'd: 2/1/84 ? 1984 Society for Ethnomusicology
383

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
384 ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, SEPTEMBER 1984
seen as highly patterned, regular, and redundant in each so

structures. Lomax suggested that cantometrics provide prof
societal musical norms. Moreover, "these stable structures
represent patterns of interpersonal relationship which ar
various forms of social organization" (1962:449). Or, as
"salient features of songs are symbols for the key instituti
the sexual division of labor and the state" (1976:9). Lomax
identify, represent, or otherwise reinforce the core stru
comparing distinct patterns of vocalizing, Lomax attempte
stylistic maps, raise questions of evolutionary sequenc
mensions of performance style with basic data on techno-e
mode of production, and social organization for a world e
In Lomax's conception comparative research is fundam
how properties of singing style (musical behavior rather th
significantly co-vary with social institutions and other levels
The expectation all along was for highly patterned shapes
because "singing is viewed as an act of communicative
conform to a culture's standard of performance if it is to a
(Lomax 1976:11).
Compare what? Lomax compared samples of ten songs from four hundred
cultures and correlated the codings with social structural data profiles from
Murdock's cross-cultural surveys and the Human Relations Area Files (Murdock
1967,1969). The small sample size of songs per society was justified by Lomax's
belief that each society has highly standardized and highly redundant perform-
ance models. "Cantometrics is a study of these standardized models, which
describe singing rather than song. Therefore, it is not primarily concerned with
complete collections and descriptions, but with locating provable regularities and
patterns, in the fashion of science" (Lomax 1976:17). Lomax's 37 coding
dimensions attempt to factor all significant universal elements of song perform-
ance style on gradient scales.
Lomax's major report was greeted with mixed enthusiasm. Sample size and
time depth, compatibility of song data with social structural data, psychocultural
reductionism, inferential history, reading correlation as causation, intracultural
and areal variability, and the extent to which the coding system normalized raters
in ways which constrain the accuracy of pattern judgement were all causes of
critical discussion surrounding this monumental work. Much of the criticism
focused on method and data interpretation, and not upon Lomax's basic hypothe-
ses about music as a universal public communication of social identity.
Whatever one's reaction to Folk Song Style and Culture, the publication of
the cantometrics training tapes and coding book (Lomax 1976) must be greeted
as a major event in the history of comparative musical research. Few researchers
ever make their methods so available to others, and we should be grateful to

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
FELD: SOUND STRUCTURE AS SOCIAL STRUCTURE 385
Lomax for these materials. Over the past few years I have listen
learned Lomax's core examples, and tried to apply his paramete
and musical system I know well from intensive field research.
sample of about 700 Kaluli songs and reduced this number to 500
single performer renditions or other reliability problems. What
taught me about those 500 songs is that they display so mu
variability and subtlety that it is virtually impossible to code a n
for them. To construct a typical cantometric profile what I really n
songs, but the problem is, which ten?' How can I maintain t
patterns discoverable in large bodies of data when the cantometr
to sacrifice so much significant data in order to objectify a "co
After wrestling with the training tapes (an example of one o
problems, with the social organization of the vocal group, follo
that Lomax is asking many of the right questions about m
institutions, but the mechanics of cantometrics crunches them
cannot satisfy the researcher accustomed to intensive field
analysis, and grounded ethnographic theory. So I go back to the
compare what?
My suggestion is true heresy to many committed comparativi
we need to pioneer a qualitative and intensive comparative s
without reified and objectified musical and social structural trai
unsituated laminations of variously collected and historically ung
als. Comparative sociomusicology should take the tough question
out with the best materials available for detailed comparison: t
long-term, historically and ethnographically situated case study.
comparisons are going to be the ones between the most radically
case examples, and not between decontextualized trait lists.
The data needed to begin this kind of comparative sociom
statements of pattern for single societies, focusing on stylistic
musical coherence, and the role of music in role differentiation.
etic input will have to be the most thorough emic data. By this I
meaningful comparisons will have to be based on accurate, detail
ethnographic models. So to start, the best way to answer Lo
about the systematic nature of musical representation in social o
study them on the ground, in the field, up close, over long periods
sound structures are observably and undeniably socially struct
A FRAMEWORK
While my firm belief is that the basis for comparing the social life
must be qualitative and derived from intensive local research, I also

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
such comparisons can be framed in general domains that do no

culturally specific dimensions of every sociomusical reality.
broad areas of inquiry into music as a total social fact, into t
organized sounds. Each area is meant to open up a related set
musically situated questions that see sound structures as soci
sound organizations as socially organized, meanings of s
meaningful. For each of the six rubrics I elaborate some rudim
the lists are not meant to be exhaustive in any sense.
Competence
1. Who can make sounds/music, and who can interpret/u

2. What is the pattern of musical acquisition and learning
3. Are there stratifications of skill and knowledge? What ty
sanctioned, recognized, and maintained?
4. Is musical acquisition assumed to be unproblematic? A
5. Do ideologies of "talent" determine or constrain acqu
petence?
6. What is the relationship between competence, skill, and desire for music?
7. What are the differences between production and reception skills, for in-
dividuals, across social groups?
Form
1. What are the material musical means and how are they organized into
recognizable codes?
2. How are musical means distributed across settings and participants?
3. What are the preferred aesthetic orderings?
4. What are the boundaries of perceived forms? What does it mean to be wrong,
incorrect, or otherwise marginal from the standpoint of code flexibility and
use?
5. How flexible, arbitrary, elastic, adaptable, open is musical form? How
resistant to changes, internal or external pressures, or other historical forces?
Performance
1. What are the relationships between makers and materials?

2. What is the relationship between individual and collective expressive forms
and performance settings?
3. How are forms coordinated in performance? How adaptable and elastic is
musical form when manipulated by different performers at a single moment in
time or over time?

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
4. How do cooperative and competitive social relations emer

What meanings do these have for performers and audi
5. How do performances achieve pragmatic (evocative,
nipulative) ends, if at all?
Environment
1. What resources does the environment provide? How are they exploited'? What
relationships exist between resources, exploitation, and the material means
and social occasions for performance?
2. Are there co-evolutionary patterns, ecological and aesthetic, linking the
environment and sound patterns, materials, situations'?
3. What are the visual-auditory-sensate relationships between people and en-
vironment, and how is this pattern related to expressive means and ends'?
4. What myths or models scaffold the perception of the environment? Are these
related or complimentary to conceptions of person, society, expressive
resources?
5. What mystical or cosmological associations with the environment support,

contradict, or otherwise relate to the socioeconomic context of musical beliefs
and occasions?
Theory
1. What are the sources of authority, wisdom, and legitimacy about sounds and
music? Who can know about sound?
2. Is musical knowledge public, private, ritual, esoteric?
3. What dimensions of musical thought are verbalized? Taught verbally? No
verbally?
4. Is theory necessary? How detached can theory be from practice? What
varieties of knowledge and activity count as musical or aesthetic theory'? How
is music rationalized?
Value and Equality
1. Who values and evaluates sounds'? Who can be valued and evaluated as a
maker of sounds?
2. How are expressive resources distributed, specifically among men an

women, young and old? How do stratifications emerge?
3. How do balances and imbalances manifest themselves in expressive ideology
and performance?
4. Do sounds deceive? Mystify? Who? Why?
5. Are sounds secret? Powerful? For whom? Why?

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
6. How do musical materials or performances mark or m

ferences? How are such differences interpreted? How ar
Broken or ruptured? Accepted or resisted?
These questions, and the six domains that head them, ar

approach to integrating the microscopic, ethnographically
musical lives, with an arena of comparable, general, relevant
us compare sociomusical realities and practices. After a brief
Kaluli, I summarize the most salient issues in the six named
key Kaluli metaphors and concepts for each of these areas, I
an emic Kaluli sociology of sound, to the Kaluli articulation
a sociomusical coherence system. At the same time, use of
parative grid will, I hope, make the Kaluli pattern more av
comparison, and question in terms of the larger issues sur
small-scale, relatively egalitarian societies.
THE KALULI PEOPLE
Twelve hundred Kaluli people live in the tropical rain forest of

Papuan Plateau in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New G
several hundred square miles of rich land, at an altitude of about tw
feet, they hunt, fish, gather, and tend land-intensive swidden garde
sweet potatoes, taro, pandanus, pumpkin, bananas, and many other
vegetables. Their staple food is sago, processed from wild palms th
shallow swamps and creeks branching off of larger river arteries
downward from Mt. Bosavi, the collapsed cone of an extinct volcan
eight thousand feet (E. L. Schieffelin 1976).
Kaluli live in about twenty distinct longhouse communities; in
people reside in a single communal house, comprising some fifteen
(sixty to eighty people). Social life for the village is centered around
where primary face to face interaction occupies most time people are
gardens, on the trails, visiting relatives in other communities, or sta
garden homes or sago camps for major food processing activiti
This is a classless society. There are no social or occupational
tions, stratifications, or ranks. There are no professions, no ascribed
statuses that form the basis for social differentiation. All Kaluli are
their fellows to have equal social potential and endowment, which
make of as best they can. Adults are responsible for getting what th
need out of daily affairs; assistance through friendship and netwo
relations is of primary importance for all Kaluli.
This is also a generally egalitarian society in matters economic an
There are no appointed or elected leaders, spokesmen, chiefs, bosse

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
lers, or middlemen. People hunt, gather, garden, and work to

need, taking care of themselves and their associates through
tion in food sharing and labor assistance. There is little ine
rewards for goods or labor because the goods are the only p
labor or production continually positions people within recip
upon kin, extended family, or friendship ties. There is also li
goods, rewards, or prestige, and no highly valued jobs or ro
rewarded by prestige or material objects. In such a system, e
to a general lack of deference to persons, roles, categories,
power, position, or material ownership.
Additionally, Kaluli seem less sexually polarized tha
societies at the middle range of techno-economic complexit
which mix some partial hunter-gatherer mode of existence w
of herding, fishing, or horticulture. This type of society var
equality, from hostility to mutualism (Schlegel 1977:5). Wh
women have different and often exclusive spheres of daily l
1976:122-124; B. B. Schieffelin 1979), the degree of sexu
animosity widely reported in the Highlands of Papua New G
and Buchbinder 1976, M. Strathern 1972) is not present amon
domains of control and production are cooperative. Bridewea
marital arrangements (usually sister-exchange) are the most
men can cultivate authority and make decisions that express
THE KALULI SOCIOMUSICAL PATTERN
Competence
For Kaluli there is no "music," only sounds, arranged in catego

to greater or lesser degrees by natural, animal, and human agents. K
these categories is widespread, tacit background for everyday life in
No hierarchies of sound types are imposed, no rationales const
differentiating human-made sounds from those of other sources.
assumed that every Kaluli must become a competent maker, recogn
and interpreter of natural and cultural sound patterns. Not only d
adaptation to the rain forest demand and favor acute auditory perce
Kaluli have developed the kind of ideological and aesthetic scaffold
skills that humanize them and provide a coherent cultural framewor
acquisition. This is precisely the point of co-evolution: physical
alone do not explain adaptation; societies invent mutually supportiv
strategies linking nature and culture.
Acquisition of skill in song, weeping, whooping, cheering, h

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
drumming, bird call and animal identification, as well as e

recognition, are all fundamentally related. Kaluli assume tha
skill in symbolic modes for expression of sound, as w
recognition of sound, is unproblematic, naturally required o
fact these are very much considered like the acquisition of
competence, requiring similar adult input, engagement, inte
"showing" instruction (B. B. Schieffelin 1979). While we in
some sort of necessity for symbolic competence in the
modes, we assume no such thing for other varieties of symb
therefore utilize culturally invested notions (like "talent") to
ize stratifications in awareness, expressive production, and in
ing parallel exists among the Kaluli.
A basic Kaluli metaphor embodies the construction of a
competence; this is the notion of "hard." Myth has it that
mushy and soft; alin the goura pigeon and ode:n the scrub
stamped on the ground, "making it hard," so life could flou
social life recapitulates the model for the world. Infants are
and bones must "harden." A "hard" person is one who is st
not a witch (witches have soft yellow hearts). Children do
foods until their bodies and language "harden." "Hard talk"
appropriate speech, the talk that gets one what is needed i
(Feld and B. B. Schieffelin 1982). When a song "hardens
and performative structures, people are moved to tears (Fe
"Hard" (halaido) then means social competence, physical
competence, sound competence; control of energies, ability
fluence outcomes, take control over one's life, invoke prope
is assumed that the acquisition and development of social and
the natural "hardening" process that all Kaluli go thr
metaphor links land, body, maturity, control, vitality, lang
social action. For Kaluli, "hardness" is a core element
Clearly not all Kaluli desire, develop, or attain uniform
identical competencies in the composition of songs and poetic
ance of songs or drumming, or funerary weeping. Som
compose hundreds of songs in a lifetime, perform often, p
exegesis of texts, and discourse on musical matters in way
beyond the assumed or recognized abilities of others. Two f
tant to interpret correctly the meaning of this variation. First
competencies in production skill is greatly downplayed by
the much less stratified competencies in meaningful inter
Kaluli assume that differentiation in song performance an
explained by interest and desire, and not by special biologi
talent. My remarks to the effect that certain people seemed to

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
or drum more than others were usually met by Kaluli with no

citing the obvious: some garden more than others, some often
some cook well, others know about building houses, and so forth
seem to have no investment in rationalizing differences in com
simply assume that skills for interpreting and making sounds
acquired and required, and that with instruction and encouragem
will learn to sing and compose as part of their general soci
Form
Most all Kaluli sound expression is vocal, dependent on a str

of poetic and melodic elements. Five types of song exist, one of u
(gisalo) and four borrowed from neighbors (heyalo, ko:luba, sab
of these is organized by pentatonic principles; reductions to thre
variants are common, and there is evidence of melodic converg
the history and diffusion of these four styles in the Bosavi area
compose in three of these five forms (gisalo, heyalo, ko.:luba);
styles consist of closed sets (sabio, iwo:). Gisalo is limited to
seance occasions and is composed only by men. Heyalo and
composed for ceremonies but widely sung during everyday wo
activities. Only in the case of heyalo do men and women partic
composers.
Cutting across these song forms are other varieties and means of sound
expression: women's sung-texted-weeping (sa-ye:.lab), and cheering (uwo:lab),
men's whooping (ulab), and instrumental drumming (ilib) and bamboo jaw's
harp playing (uluna). Three other rattle instruments (sologa, seed-pod rattle;
degegado, crayfish claw rattle; sob, mussel shell rattle) are used for ceremonial
accompaniment to songs. Only the sologa is used more casually for accompani-
ment; additionally it is the only one of these instruments used by women.
Beyond a taxonomy of expressive forms, and the distribution of expressive
means in song, poetics, instruments, and performance, one very significant
generalization can be made about all Kaluli sound forms: no Kaluli sounds are
performed unison. Kaluli know quite well what unison is because missionaries
have tried to get them to sing this way for twelve years and church leaders have
been taught to count "one-two-three" before each song. Aside from church
activities (where only the most committed Christians can actually manage this
new form of vocal organization) it is rare to hear anything approaching unison
sung by Kaluli or emitted from any sound sources in their environment.
Kaluli sound preferences, modeled consciously on bird sounds and the rest
of the forest environment, involve extensive overlapping and alternation, layer-
ing parts and sounds in coordinated nondiscrete textures. In Western musical
terms there is much canon and hocket. In cantometric terms, from Lomax's

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
characterization of the social organization of the vocal

180), three patterns are found: interlock, overlap, and alternat
term Lomax uses for the social organization of musical grou
of parts, common among acephalous bands of hunter-gathe
forest societies. Lomax finds that overlap is most typical of
herd animals and a somewhat more complex production
alternation of parts as more characteristic of societies with cle
and productive systems (Lomax 1976:86).
Listening to Kaluli songs makes it clear that no on
characterizations predominates; there seems to be an equal
the same time, the Kaluli techno-economic picture does no
three Lomax cites as typically matching these sound types.
tion for Kaluli social organization of the vocal group is that
and alternation are equally salient, precisely to the exclusio
Lomax (1976:86) cites unison as "the simplest techniqu
effort"; he finds it "resorted to everywhere but most pro
formances of small tribal societies, especially among planters
animals." While this techno-economic characterization is closer to Kaluli
society than any of the others cited above, Kaluli sound organization simp
lacks a unison principle altogether.
Like the use of "hardness" to characterize a Kaluli ideal of social
competence, there is also a metaphor that draws together the dimension
interlock, overlap, and alternation which are so important in Kaluli sound
style. This is dulugu ganalan, "lift-up-over sound." Parts, sounds, whethe
or many, must constantly "lift-up-over" one another; one cannot sp
sounds "leading" or "following" or "starting" or "finishing." Hum
soundmaking must stagger in layers, like bird calls, or arch up and ove
waterfalls. The idea is more spatio-acoustic than visual; Kaluli like all so
be dense, compacted, without breaks, pauses, or silences (Feld 1983). Wh
people sing together, the subtleties of the shifting lengths of overlap (or,
case of a leader and a group, the nuances in the alternation) are the locu
aesthetic play and tension. In the forest, sounds constantly shift figure
ground; examples of continually staggered alternations and overlaps, at
sounding completely interlocked and seamless, are abundant. For Kaluli
the naturally coherent organizing model for soundmaking, whether hu
animal, or environmental: a constant textural densification constructed f
"lift-up-over sounds."
Performance
The performance of all Kaluli sound expression focuses upon collective

texture and coordination of layered parts. No competitive agendas play out

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
through song performance; the value of layering, juxtaposin

up-over," and densifying are conceived as social activit
situation involves a single voice, the sound is coordinated wit
acoustic features of the environment; this is particularly so
work.
At Kaluli ceremonies composed songs are sung all night

of a visiting community at the longhouse of their hosts. The
texts in particular to be sad and evocative because they conce
images of the places in the immediate, surrounding forest, p
hosts have a sentimental attachment. The performance usually
to tears, and to a sung-melodic-weeping performed in p
ongoing song to which they are responding. The intense
experienced by the hosts results from their being reminded o
lived, worked, and shared many experiences with them at the
mentioned in the song (E. L. Schieffelin 1976, 1979; Fe
It would appear that this sort of evocation in performanc
tremendous focus on the composer and performer of the s
creator. Indeed, direct social manipulation is involved in com
might move a specific individual to tears. At the same time
features of a song that Kaluli stress; they prefer to cast the wh
explicit social and community-wide message framework, larg
ery of land, the central Kaluli metaphor for the accumulat
social experience relating, sharing, and being with others in
When Kaluli men sat down with me after a ceremony to ta
and their meanings, they always stressed the social rath
motivation of song poetics. There is always collective sorro
of the underlying assumption that audience members w
whomever is moved to tears. This derives from the feeling o
ence among those people who share a longhouse and surround
nity. Over and beyond ties of direct close kin, Kaluli feel d
the places they have lived, gardened, worked, exchanged, and
Soundmaking provides no format for the assertion of pow
personal excellence at the cost of others. The recognition of
and performance is clear, and its pragmatic outcome is the w
Despite all this, competition is not a major agenda in the ce
provocation involved is not a manipulation for the sake of
construction of a performance is really activity in concert r
involving sequential solo performances. Individuality is not p
might be; costumes in fact conceal identities, so only the v
singer.
If "lift-up-over sound" and "hardness" are the central metaphors for the
form of and competence in soundmaking, then its central metaphor for perform-

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
ance is "flow" (e:be:lan). Like a waterway situated next to yo

whose water "flows" beyond perceptual immediacy although y
moving at other locations, sound must have a physical presenc
performance and a staying power that carries it beyond the m
flows in your mind, and stays with you beyond the boundarie
event. Performance, like the substance of sound, must b
collective, thick in connotation and resonance; this is what m
Environment
For the Kaluli, the Bosavi tropical rain forest environment takes on several
levels of meaning and abstraction. In the most basic sense the environment is like
a tuning fork, providing well-known signals that mark and coordinate daily life.
Space, time, and seasons are marked and interpreted according to sounds.
Sounds give indexical information about forest height, depth, and distance. The
time it takes a sound to travel through various kinds of bush; the echoes through
land formations, waterfalls, and rivers; the layers of bird sound in the canopy and
at forest openings;-all these provide clock and spatial information to the
accustomed inhabitant of the rainforest. Daily cycles of bird presence, migration
cycles throughout the year, as well as cycles of cicadas and insects are taken by
Kaluli as indicators of location, season, and time of day. These signals have
different auditory appearances from the village longhouse, from the forest edge,
from the gardens, from the trails, or from forest depths. Rather than counting
months or moons, Kaluli conceive seasons and cycles largely in terms of changes
in vegetation, changes in bird presence, sounds of high and low water accumula-
tion, or white water runoff in relation to rainfall. Numerous sounds then are
continually available and interpreted by Kaluli as the clocks of quotidien reality
in the forest.
At another, clearly related level, the forest is a model of balance, of plenty,

of resources, of death and life and cyclical regeneration, of birds, animals, plants
and waters in mutual dependence. In effect, a model of what is natural, given as
normal, predictable; a model for human life and a challenge to it, since human
relationships and society depend on co-existence and management of the forest,
through maintenance and exploitation of its resources. Additionally, it is on this
basis that Kaluli explicitly rationalize the form and performance of song and
human sound with metaphoric ideals about the layering of bird calls and insect
swells, the flowing of waters, arching of waterfalls, and general relationship
between perceptual immediacy and what lies beyond.
Another level of forest-Kaluli relationship is more mystical. Kaluli believe
that two co-extensive realities, one visible, the other a reflection, comprise the
world. In the reflection or mirrored realm men may appear as wild pigs and
women as wild cassowaries high on the hills of Bosavi. The dead return as "gone

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
reflections" (ane mama) to the visible, usually in the form of birds i

treetops. Thus the immediate village area is surrounded with th
through voices and sounds, of friends and relatives. Because birds si
say their names, make a lot of noise, weep, or speak, they provide
neous index of the environment as well as a deeper symbolic underst
self, place, and time.
Beyond these notions-tuning fork, model, mystery-there is als
pleasurable aspect to the way Kaluli approach the forest, whic
sentimentality based on land as mediator of identity (E. L. Schieff
45) and an outright enjoyment of the soundscape. Kaluli find the fo
listen to, and good to sing with as well. Improvised human duets w
cicadas, or other forest sounds are not uncommon everyday events
people will find themselves a waterfall just for the pleasure of sin
shimmering accompaniment. Again, the co-evolutionary tendencies f
and aesthetics: Kaluli not only take inspiration from, listen to
the forest, but become part of it, which ultimately intensifies thei
about it.
In sum, the Kaluli relationship with the forest is neither antagonistic nor
destructive, patterns that are typical among some swidden horticulturalists. Little
ecological pressure, extremely low population density, no competition for
resources, and constantly available food (fish, fowl, vegetables) all contribute to
easy material extraction and exploitation of the environment. At the same time,
the mystical, pleasurable, and tuning-fork dimensions of the forest-Kaluli
relationship reinforce this materialist basis. In all, the forest is a mama, a
"reflection," or mirror for social relationships, particularly as mediated through
the poetic imagery of songs that concern maps, lands and identities (Feld
1982:150-156), as well as through formal structure and singing style.
Theory
For Kaluli, the theory and concepts of where sounds come from and how
they can be organized, and, particularly, what they mean, is not contained in
esoteric knowledge or in a body of private lore controlled or circulated by
specialists. Myths about human-bird transformations explain the origins of
categories of sounds that humans share with each other and with the natural
world, namely, weeping, song, poetics, whistling, talking, noise, mimicry.
These myths frame the meanings of sounds in terms of the range of social
sentiments associated with categories of bird-spirit "reflections." No special
occasions are required for their telling, and no constraints exist on who may tell
or hear them. All in fact are quite short and even Kaluli who don't volunteer to
narrate them can certainly recount the punchline or general point to each. These
myths are central to the meaning and theory of sounds for Kaluli; the facts of

:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff on Thu, 01 Jan 1976 12:34:56 UTC
their codification as myths and their quality as charters for so

their collective importance.
While the general social outlines linking sounds and senti
in myths, Kaluli theory about sound organization goes quite
1981). Kaluli are energetically verbal about song, compositi
musical form; to discuss sound they principally rely on lex
metaphors. All Kaluli terms for water motion, waterway pa
waterfalls are polysemous with the semantic field of sound.
contours, and other structural aspects of song form are inv
parts are metaphorized as bends of waters, or branching st
A number of other theoretical notions are even less spec
while myths and musical terminology code theoretical ideas
mean and how they are organized, not all Kaluli have much
stories or discourse about compositional matters. But al
sounds can mean, what they can bring forth in social occa
must be interpreted. Kaluli share a cultural logic for organi
experiences, and the extent to which that logic is systemat
which it must be treated as musical theory, a foundation f
epistemology, or a Kaluli theory of musical interpretation.
Like the duality of the cosmos already mentioned, Kalu
to all expressive forms; the idea is conventionally expresse
"inside" (sa), and "underneath" (hega). Intentionally sym
not transparent; they must be interpreted, and the act of inter
the Kaluli call finding the "inside" or "underneath." Somet
ings are quite conventional. Even so, the interpretive turn K
assumes concentration, attention, and active listening.
Sounds have "insides" and "underneaths" because they of
the reflected images of birds; birds in turn are spirits, and
emotional and personal associations with spirits, spirit plac
deeply forceful for Kaluli. Additionally, poetic song texts ar
of "bird sound words" (o:be.: go.'no: to), and these have var
and deeply ambiguous "underneaths" which involve a varie
mystifying, and evocative devices (analyzed in Feld 1982
Kaluli listeners are not passive participants in symbolic affa
kind of active social work based on the interpretive assum
always a reflected "inside" or "underneath" meaning to sou
is a necessary, active component in the social life of Kaluli
individual competence with realms of theory and epistemo
Kaluli exhibit marked divergences in the propensity to ve
or poetics. Many Kaluli, including both men and women wh
many songs, simply do not go in for extensive verbalizatio
men tend to be the most talkative and intellectually invest

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
discourse and interpretation, and their enjoyment of this has no

prompted by several years of dialogue with E. L. Schieffelin
although I greatly doubt that the kinds of discussions we've had wi
absent before our arrival in Bosavi. Again I would point out that d
predisposition to musical discussion and exegesis derives ostensibly
and personal desire; no traditional positions, ascribed social ro
status, or rewards are involved.
In short, for Kaluli, theory is not an activity that takes place a
from compositional, performative, or interpretive practice. A
associated, and theoretical ideas about musical form are part of t
acquired competencies assumed to be essential for Kaluli.
Value and Equality
Soundmaking is highly valued and considered necessary f

expression, and social interaction for all Kaluli men and women.
time there are obvious inequalities in the pragmatic ends these reso
Kaluli maintain that two kinds of structured sound forms, weep
emerged together in myth (Feld 1982:20-43). These are separa
plementary structurings of sound for social evocation. Women's fu
ing, which turns into wept song, is considered by Kaluli to be the
form to being or becoming a bird, as it expresses immediate sorr
and abandonment. Men's ceremonial gisalo song, which ultim
listeners to weeping, is composed and performed as a deliberate p
the fears and emotions of its listeners. Both forms derive from the same source
(bird sound) and reach the same ends, bringing forth deep emotion about loss and
abandonment in the context of village-wide public rituals. Women are highly
valued and evaluated as funerary weepers, and men are highly valued and
evaluated for composing and performing persuasive gisalo songs. In both cases a
reputation may develop for individual performers, at least in the immediate
circumstances surrounding an event; this sort of reputation does not seem to lead
to any marked consequences in terms of social prestige.
No such male-female complementarity exists for other Kaluli expressive
forms, that is, forms not invented by Kaluli but borrowed by them from
neighboring groups. The oldest addition to the ceremonial song repertoire is
heyalo; here in fact there is a great deal of female compositional activity, but the
ceremony is the domain of men. Young men often compose quite a number of
songs in the hevalo format before tackling the more poetically and melodically
demanding gisalo form. Young men perform but do not compose sabio, a song
form from the Lake Kutubu area to the East, introduced by carriers working on
government patrols to Bosavi in the 1950s. Ko:luba was imported into the Kaluli
area in the mid-1960s: men perform and compose in this style but there are very

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
few compositions by women, although some women with fam

from which ko:luba derives know quite a number of the songs
work. Iwo.: is a fixed cycle of songs sung the night before kil
explicit women's counterpart called kelekeliyoba, sung the m
ceremony. These songs also use fixed formulae with only ne
pig names added by the singers.
In terms of instruments, hand drums and bamboo jaw's har
recent introductions to the Bosavi area, although the latter
monochordic mouthbow, whose history is uncertain. Both ins
available to men; drumming takes place before or during cerem
the jaw's harp is associated with the personal recreation of you
involves magical construction secrets which are kept from wo
it is not hidden from their sight, women do not touch the instr
Even so, the dimensions of drum secrets seem to be nothing
character of flutes and garamuts reported elsewhere in P
(Gourlay 1975). Of the three rattle instruments used for cere
ment, only one is shared with women (sologa), while the one u
sob, is clearly considered secret, and should not be touched by
are not aware of the mystical events through which the
se:se:lo:) of these instruments are passed on to Kaluli men fro
(E. L. Schieffelin 1976:214).
One other major soundmaking resource does return us to a very basic
male-female complementarity; these are the matched pair of demonstrative and
assertive collective sounds called ulab, ("says u") and uwo:lab, ("says uwo.:").
For men ulab is a loud group whoop, celebrating the call of the eagle usulage, a
booming UUU! For women, uwo.lab is a raucous group cheer, celebrating the
call of the Superb Bird of Paradise uwo:lo, a screeching U-WO:O:! These two
birds are prominent spirit representations of Kaluli men and women, and the
group soundmaking usually takes place when men collectively work or prepare
for a ceremony, or when women cheer during a ceremony.
The complementary distribution of gisalo and weeping, whooping and
cheering speak for the way Kaluli men and women have coordinated separate
expressive spheres that are related and mutually significant in modes of appeal
and assertion. At the same time the distribution of instrumental and ceremonial
song resources clearly points to the way Kaluli men have appropriated and
control new expressive resources.
Finally, it is important to note the clear inequalities in what it is that these
expressive resources allow men and women to achieve, symbolically and
pragmatically. For men, the composition and performance of ceremonial songs
creates a grand social focus around them and their powers of evocation.
Ceremonial action of this sort is the height of Kaluli stagecraft, drama, and
collective celebration (E. L. Schieffelin 1976:172-196, Feld 1982:163-216).

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
Gisalo is the most powerful of these, but hevalo and ko:luba achi
effect for men. In all three the performance may be so moving that
lose her heart to the dancer, wish to elope, and follow him home. D
contribute to the same social power (Feld 1983).
What weeping achieves for women is far less sweeping. It certa
a social focus on women as performers, and that focus is significan
the role weepers play in articulating community sentiments. But n
social ends and no long-term changes in social life are effected b
largely it is an intensely aesthetic public display of personal g
If there is a key Kaluli metaphor that sums up male-fem
generally, and male-female expressive means and ends specifically
rather ambiguous term ko.li, "different." While this was abo
common term I heard men use when speaking of women, or wom
speaking of men, it certainly means different things from the re
points, and can have positive ("different" in the sense of n
valuable), flat ("different" in the sense of bland, not quite right)
connotations. Kaluli recognize real social difference, but there is of
is negative or antagonistic in that recognition. At the same time,
clearly casts women's differences in a dangerous light: aversion t
blood and belief that women drain male energy are rationales for
other social practices which reproduce beliefs in and actions a
contamination. The tensions and contradictions found here parall
of expressive domains, which have both a complementary dim
weeping, whooping-cheering) and an overlay of male-appropr
sources.
Discussion
To round out the shape of the Kaluli pattern, I organize a summary around
three questions:
(1) How are the obvious egalitarian features of Kaluli life marked within
the organizing schemes of Kaluli sound structures and soundmaking?
(2) How is the most obvious form of Kaluli inequality (men over
women) marked and resolved within the organizing schemes of Kaluli
sound structures and soundmaking?
(3) How does the Kaluli pattern fit into the broader comparative
framework of Papua New Guinea societies?
. in egalitarian societies the division of labor by sex has led to

complementarity and not female subservience; . . . women lost their equal
status when they lost control over the products of their work" (Leacock

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
1978a:79, see also Leacock 1978b, 1977). Leacock's examination

gatherer and horticultural economics shows that women foraged an
much if not more basic resources to hunter-gatherer life than men
they distributed the food to networks of kin as well as nuclear fa
which typically mix hunting and gathering substrata with a dom
tural practice partially share in the pattern Leacock describes, and
range of egalitarian tendencies as well as unequal or contra
Schlegel's (1977) notion that theories of sexual stratification mu
person-to-person relations and ideology as well as person-to-goo
clearly essential if we are to understand societies like the Kaluli
politically and economically egalitarian than sexually so. This is
because Kaluli have the economic resources to produce a surpl
subsistence needs. The theory that stratification systematically
surplus has been recently dismantled by both Marxists and non-M
in favor of theories that see stratification more closely related
dynamics (Cancian 1976).
Given all this, one thing we can clearly predict is that a soci
Kaluli with such a combination of demographic characteristics a
easy subsistence, ecological diversity, and economic resources lik
hunting, fishing, sago production, and gardening, will not neatly
social-economic-technological characterizations like "hunter-gath
cultural," "peasant," and so forth. Our expectation therefore
complex, and ambiguous or contradictory tendencies in sociomusi
well as social organization. This seems to be the case in several r
one hand, the image of deep mutualism and co-aesthetic relation
forest ecology is reminiscent of hunter-gatherers like the pygmi
(summarized, from Turnbull, in Lomax 1962). The general situat
petence, musical form and performance, environment and theor
emphasis on cooperation, complementarity, autonomy, valuing self
others and to ecology. It is easy to imagine how these musical belie
and actions can be coherent within an egalitarian societal framew
they can be locally perceived and sustained within that framewo
At the same time there are imbalances in the distribution of
resources between men and women; more significantly, there are
the pragmatic ends served by these resources. Men can myst
persuade, and even win women, but what are women getting fr
funerals and singing at work besides personal enjoyment, fu
general social solidarity? Male-female inequalities then are definit
the sphere of musical organization, but to push the qualitative p
important to realize that the form in which they are marked doe
secret instruments stolen from women in mythic times, doe
deception maintenance, does not involve daily antagonisms,

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
involve sanctions of personal violence. All of these variants, foun

Papua New Guinea, are not manifest in the Kaluli situation.
A final way to scrutinize the pattern of male-female inequa
Kaluli pattern is to look at the larger Papua New Guinea ethnogr
through a widespread social institution where inequalities are id
practically enacted: male initiation cults. In an introduction to a r
of essays on this topic Roger Keesing (1982:7-11) summarize
prominent themes involved in Papua New Guinea cult activity. T
idea that men and women are physically and psychologically diff
fluids and essences of women are potentially if not actually harm
boys must be subjected to rigorous initiations so that they will n
male homosexual activity is essential to the ideology of sexual sep
creation of differentiated men, and that residential separat
necessary in order to avoid female contamination.
A central feature of many of these cults is secret instrument
flutes. K. A. Gourlay has devoted a monograph to the distributio
and meaning of these instruments, showing that the male secrec
their use is a central component of the deception of women
revelation during the rites.
Maintenance of secrecy is linked closely with the men's deception of the

uninitiated youths through explanations given about the mysterious sounds.
to whom the secrets have been revealed, emphasis is on maintaining the
(1975:102).
The Kaluli seem to have practiced (until 1964) an extremely moderate

variant of this pattern, without traumatic, violent rituals, or secret flutes; it was
called the baiu a. In an essay on this institution, E. L. Schieffelin (1982) argues
that this was not an initiation cult because there was no formal status change
involved and because novices assumed no submissive and dependent role.
Nevertheless,
The bau at exhibited many features typical of a male initiation program, including the
seclusion of the members, ritual activity aimed at promoting growth and enhancing male
qualities, and the teaching of secret lore (E. L. Schieffelin 1982:156).
The bau a stressed hunting activities, promotion of strength including

homosexual intercourse to promote growth, long expeditions, and development
of knowledge of the forest geography, flora and fauna. The ideological stance
toward women was clear: ". . . Kaluli believe that women have a debilitating
influence on men. A man who has had too much to do with women is likely to
lose his stamina, become fatigued on the trail" (E. L. Schieffelin 1982:178).
Moreover,

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
To non-participants, and in particular women, the bau a was presented

powerful and dangerous institution (ibid:163).
The bau a was in earshot of the village longhouse, so wom

of the men; this was supposed to be tantalizing. While women
know any of the secret aspects of what was going on, some in
bit about it (ibid: 163). But the bau a "... expressed what men
themselves, what they stood for and wanted to be... "(i
For the young men, the bau a removes them from the margins of social
thrusts them to its center; they emerge from seclusion in their best and
cultural image (ibid:194).
In other words, they emerge as controlled, energetic, good hu

able about the forest, including the spirits who reside there.
supplying a large amount of cooked meat to members of th
surrounding communities, thereby placing them all in their
The differences between the bau a and some of the other traumatic
separation rites practiced in the Papua New Guinea Highlands is clearly un-
derscored by societal differences. Complex initiations with grades, alliances, and
the like require large populations. Although the bau a was symbolically and
ritually elaborate and complex, it had none of the stratified complexities of
graded initiations common for many of the other societies summarized by
Keesing (1982) and discussed in the literature.
Ecological pressures, root crop intensification, and increasing population
density are common in many Papua New Guinea Highlands societies. A major
shift toward intensive cultivation increases the burdens on women, and seems to
be accompanied in many societies by increased male control through appropria-
tion of the products of women's labor. The Kaluli, by contrast, are low in
production, lacking in ecological pressures and crop intensification. They are not
competing for food or territory, and their population size is stable. Men's
hunting, clearing and gardening activities seem complementary to women's
gardening and sago-making work. This produces none of the competition
necessary for the organization and maintenance of a "big man" social system
exchanging women and their products.
While the bau a shares many surface features with initiation cults in Papua
New Guinea, it appears to have been a more subdued variant of most of the
institutions discussed in the literature surrounding issues of male-female relations
(Keesing 1982, Allen 1967, Gourlay 1975, Langness 1974, Murphy 1959, A.
Strathern 1970). Kaluli men seem far more interested in impressing women than
in maintaining hostilities with them. Ceremonial song, costuming and perform-
ance, hunting and providing meat for exchange are the activities males most
cultivate and use for impressing women. These activities are not filled with the

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
preoccupations reported elsewhere: maintaining separateness, ant

ing ritual secrets, using secret instruments which are forbidden
penalty of rape or murder. Kaluli seem to promote male my
promoting extensive female deception. The lack of secret instrum
to ritual deception, was replaced by whooping and singing at th
could hear this from the distance, but its purpose was to excite a
so much to deceive. Here, as in ceremonies, Kaluli men assume an evocative
stance toward both women and other men. Toward women that evocation
translates as power through difference while toward men that evocation translate
as solidarity and nostalgia.
CONCLUSION
Keil argues that:
The great force shaping music and its meaning is social inequality specifically as
manifests itself in four directions at once: The dominance of some men over other men
men over nature, of men over women, and of some societies over other societies. Am
those remaining primitive peoples who have managed to maintain the social, natural,
sexual equalities, I assume that "music" is a vital part of that maintenance. Indeed,
such societies what we call music-dance-ritual-religion-ecology seem to be fused in
nearly one homeostatic system, symbolizing nothing or everthing (1979:1).
The Kaluli seem both to uphold and to contradict these three statem
First, social inequality is not the main force shaping music and its mean
Kaluli. The dominance of some men over other men, of men over nature
society over other societies is not a major theme in the content of Kalul
not related to the occasions of their performance, and not related to th
organization or performance styles of song makers. At the same time
seen that social inequality of men over women is clearly manifest amon
despite other complementary and cooperative tendencies. This ineq
sociomusically marked in two ways: differential expressive resources of m
women, and differential social-pragmatic ends those resources may serv
social inequality is marked in some dimensions of Kaluli musical life but
others; where the marking occurs, it is neither systematic nor without c
tion, particularly given the prominence Kaluli invest in the complement
song/weeping and whooping/cheering.
Keil's next statement also has validity for Kaluli, but again, the dic
less than wholly applicable. Kaluli traditionally did maintain many soci
natural equalities, and in their notions of competence, of form, of perfo
of theory, and of the environment, many indications of equality and bal
be found. Indeed, it seems that "music" is a vital part of maintainin
concepts and those relations with each other and the environment.

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
Keil's final statement also makes a lot of sense for the Kaluli: the
interpenetration of the environment with all Kaluli sound recognition an
expression really does symbolize everything in some way: competence ("hard-
ness"), form ("lift-up-over sound"), performance ("flow") are all tied togethe
by theory (in myths of human/bird transformation). The success of Kaluli
soundmaking as a deeply affective and emotional medium of communication
grounded in this invented coherence.
Moving to the general from the specific, my concerns with comparison hav
in great part been stimulated by reading Alan Lomax's work and by trying t
apply his training tape examples and coding procedures to Kaluli data.
obviously differ from Lomax at the outset in a basic philosophical matter: I do
not equate explanation with normative statistical correlations or causal analysis.
am more concerned with explaining the situated meanings of sound patterns in
the intersubjectively created world of actors and actions, and I am concerned
with the role local ideologies play in constituting and maintaining those local
specific sociological models of and for musical realities. I am therefore biased
toward what Lomax calls the "narrow features" of both the stream and content
of music, while his own focus is on grosser, objectifiable and redundant features
of the behavioral stream. At the same time, I have argued that it is possible to
conceive a set of comparative research questions that make use of local models
and metaphors while at the same time identifying issues that have broader
comparative value, concerning both the conceptual and material dimensions of
musicality. While these six domains may look more like artifacts of the
cultural-ideational sphere rather than the sociological, I have indicated that
cultural constructs are essential precisely because of the way they lead to and
provide local models for social structure (social roles, division of labor,
stratification, and differentiation).
I have also stressed that there is not a yes/no issue about correlating song
structure and social structure. Obviously such correlations are possible, whether
undertaken in world sample quantitative terms or small-scale ethnographic ones.
The issue is: how do we interpret such relationships, and how do we argue for
what they mean? Lomax's tendency has been toward causal connections between
social evolution and singing style. He argues for causal covariance from societal
complexity to melodic interval complexity, text precision and rhythmic freedom.
He argues for causal covariance from societal sexual restrictiveness to singing
voice nasality, and social cohesion to choral cohesion.
The most complete and convincing quantitative reanalysis of cantometric
data thus far, by one of Lomax's early statistical co-workers, uses multivariate
techniques to argue for historical diffusionist rather than evolutionary in-
terpretations of cantometric data. Many song features interpreted by Lomax to be
correlates of evolutionary process can be explained almost exclusively by
regional location (Erickson 1976). If culture history is enough to explain the kind
of taxonomic variance Lomax originally found, Erickson insists that:

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
For nearly every major style in the cantometric taxonomy, a wide variation c
on the posited cultural/institutional correlates. By contrast, such styles d
overstep the boundaries of their ethnohistoric homes. When they do, it appears t
context of an important event in history. The attempt to explain song in te
universal unilinear process of social evolution-for all that such a dimens
shown to exist-is to over-simplify our understanding of this most human o
(1976:307).
Erickson argues that song style is less a causative reflection of social

institutions than an emblem of social identity. Lomax's early papers also stress
the functional importance of song style as an indicator of social identity, thus:
S. . from the point of view of its social function, the primary effect of music is to give the
listener a feeling of security, for it symbolizes the place where he was born, his earliest
childhood satisfactions, his religious experience, his pleasure in community doings, his
courtship and his work-any or all of these personality shaping experiences (1959:929).
The notion that the most general relationship between sound structures and
social structures concerns identity has strong support from qualitative research,
and certainly is a conclusion that could be derived from the Kaluli material,
where musical structures frame the message: this is what we are, where we are,
who we are. At the same time these musical structures more specifically move
the listener to an interpretive plane beyond general messages about identity and
boundaries to more explicit Kaluli semantics of sound. Here is where the listener
"turns over" the sound organization of singing and poetics to find "'un-
derneaths" about bird and spirit manifestations, and through these, "'insides" of
social emotion and world-sense coherence.
The Kaluli case makes it clear that it is difficult and confusing only to argu
from objectified social structures to musical structures; the result is a net o
reifications. Everything that is socially significant and institutionally real f
Kaluli is not necessarily represented in musical order, occasions, or resources
One cannot directly predict the shape of the Kaluli musical system, singing sty
or performance organization from their mode of production and techno-econom
complexity. The Kaluli sociomusical system is varied in its resources and form
and includes manifestations of musical features and style that can also be fully
partially found among societies of hunter-gatherers, horticulturalists, herder
planters, and even peasants (the most unegalitarian societies known to us; Falle
1977).
At the same time, it is equally unappealing to reverse the argument,
predicting social structures and modes of production from musical forms. Many
similar surface musical forms are found in societies of widely varying social
complexity, although the musical forms have greatly divergent meanings and
identities in these separate historical and geographic settings. (Witness the use of
hocket in the Renaissance.) In short, for all societies with similar techno-

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
economic-social features we might expect more musical vari

indicated. Conversely, for all similar sound patterns an
production we might expect more social patterns to which t
related. For any given society, everything that is socia
necessarily be musically marked. But for all societies,
musically salient will undoubtedly be socially marked, albeit
ways, some more superfluous than others.
In a series of recent papers, Judith and Alton Becker hav
of the meanings of "coherence" in symbolic systems (A
Becker 1979, J. and A. Becker 1981). They follow Kenneth
the naturally felt sense of experience in different symbolic
to world-sense, to the construction of cultural boundaries, a
orientations to living and feeling. A central feature in this
maintaining process that sustains symbol making and interpr
human cultures as we know them, is metaphor. "Metaphor
even cease being taken as metaphors-as they gain iconicity
(Becker and Becker 1981:203). In this paper I have also
coherence of Kaluli sound and social order through Kaluli m
indeed, are not metaphors to Kaluli, but simply what is real)
indicate that, as local sociocultural models, metaphors
compared for what they tell us about possible coherences, p
realities. It is my hope that a comparative sociomusicology
these lines, elaborating not correlations of song structures a
but coherences of sound structures as social structures.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Revision of a paper read at the Society for Ethnomusicology annual meetings, T

October 1983 at a session co-organized by Charles Keil and myself on Comparative Socio
of Classless and Egalitarian Societies. Many of the issues discussed here have emer
conversation with Charlie and been enhanced by our ongoing materialist-idealist di
ments at the SEM panel from Marina Roseman, John Blacking, and Tony Seeger we
reformulating my remarks, as were comments from Simon Frith, Georgina Born, and Jody
the Sociology of Music Conference at Trent University in August 1983. 1 am also grate
Shepherd for inviting me to present a version of this material there amongst sociologist
music researchers. For research support 1976-1977 and 1982 1 am grateful to t
Endowment for the Arts, the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation, the Insti
New Guinea Studies, the Archives of Traditional Music, and the Anthropology Fil
Kaluli words, the typed symbols /e:/ and /o:/ equal c and 3. Other letters carry their ph
for orthography see Feld 1982:17-19.
NOTES
1. Lomax (1976:16) maintains that "Generally, the more songs per culture we analyzed, t
clearer the core style became." This is a difficult statement to evaluate. While it should be obvio

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
that larger samples indicate clearer patterns, the real issue is whether the cantomet
or blur too many significant sociomusical dimensions to begin with, thus in
pattern" will be overly simple, and thereby making additional sample data
2. I write in an ethnographic present of the late 1960s to mid-1970s, based o
of two co-workers, ethnographer E. L. Schieffelin and linguist-ethnograph
Massive changes took place in Bosavi in the 1960s and 1970s; some of these are
cultural destruction in E. L. Schieffelin 1978. When I returned to the Kaluli in 1982 I found that
evangelical Christianity, so strong by the mid-1970s, had lost much of its appeal. Kaluli tired of
waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ after so many years of being told to prepare for an
imminent arrival. Some ceremonialism was reinvigorated, but there were new disruptions and
changes related to outside contact, circulation of cash, and desire (largely through mission influence)
for material Western goods. The changes that have taken place have differently affected the various
longhouse communities, and differentials within communities are also clearly apparent. New forms
of exploitation and confusion have spread, and cultural anxiety has heightened. While this essay does
not touch on the implications of all this for Kaluli social organization, it is important to note that new
forms of stratification are evident: Christianity has given status and advantage to a small few,
cultivated high rewards for pastors, introduced cash and social differentiation, and greatly debased
traditional personal autonomy for Kaluli.
REFERENCES CITED
Allen, M. R.
1967 Male Cults and Secret Initiations in Melanesia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Becker, Alton
1979 "Communication Across Diversity," in A. L. Becker and Aram Yengoyan, eds., The
Imagination of Reality (Norwood: Ablex), pp. 1-5.
Becker, Judith
1979 "Time and Tune in Java," in A. L. Becker and Aram Yengoyan, eds., The Imagination of
Reality (Norwood: Ablex), pp. 197-210.
Becker, Judith and Alton
1981 "A Musical Icon: Power and Meaning in Javanese Gamelan Music," in Wendy Steiner,
ed., The Sign in Music and Literature (Austin: University of Texas Press), pp. 203-215.
Brown, Paula and Georgeda Buchbinder, eds.,
1976 Man and Woman in the New Guinea Highlands. Washington: American Anthropological
Association.
Cancian, Frank
1976 "Social Stratification," Annual Review of Anthropology 5:227-248.
Erickson, Edwin
1976 "Tradition and Evolution in Song Style: A Reanalysis of Cantometric Data," Behavior
Science Research 11(1):227-308.
Fallers, Lloyd
1977 "Equality and Inequality in Human Societies," in S. Tax, ed., Horizons in Anthropology
(Chicago: Aldine, 2nd. edition), pp. 257-268.
Feld, Steven
1981 " 'Flow like a Waterfall': The Metaphors of Kaluli Musical Theory," Yearbook for
Traditional Music 13:22-47.
1982 Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression.
adelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
1983 "Sound as a Symbolic System: The Kaluli Drum," Bikmaus 4(3):78-89.
i.p. Kaluli Weeping and Song. 12" stereo disc with notes in English and German. K
Bdirenreiter-Musicaphon.

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
Feld, Steven and Bambi B. Schieffelin

1982 "Hard Talk: The Functional Basis for Kaluli Discourse," in D. Tannen, ed., Analyzing
Discourse: Text and Talk (Proceedings of the Georgetown University Roundtable in
Linguistics and Languages, 1981). Washington: Georgetown University Press, pp. 351-
371.
Gourlay, K. A.
1975 Sound-producing Instruments in Traditional Society: A Study of Esoteric Instruments and
their Role in Male-female Relations. Port Moresby and Canberra: Australian National
University-New Guinea Research Unit.
Keesing, Roger
1982 "Introduction," in Gilbert Herdt, ed., Rituals of Manhood: Male Initiation in Papua New
Guinea (Berkeley: University of California Press) pp. 2-43.
Keil, Charles
1979 "Marxism as the Context for a Symbolic Analysis of Music," Paper presented at the
Society for Ethnomusicology annual meeting, Montreal.
Leacock, Eleanor
1977 "Women in Egalitarian Societies," in Renate Bridenthal and Claudia Koonz, eds.,
Becoming Visible: Women in European History. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
1978a "Society and Gender," in Ethel Tobach and B. Rosoff, eds., Genes and Gender (New
York: Gordian Press), pp. 75-85.
1978b "Women's Status in Egalitarian Society: Implications for Social Evolution," Current
Anthropology 19(2):247-275.
Langness, L. L.
1974 "Ritual Power and Male Dominance in the New Guinea Highlands," Ethos 2(3):189-212.
Lomax, Alan
1959 "Folk Song Style," American Anthropoologist 61:927-954.
1962 "Song Structure and Social Structure," Ethnology 1(1):425-451.
1976 Cantometrics: an Approach to the Anthrolpology of Music. Berkeley: University of
California, Extension Media Center.
Lomax, Alan, et. al.

1968 Folk Song Style and Culture. Washington: American Association for the Advancement of
Science.
Murdock, G. P.
1967 "Ethnographic Atlas: A Summary," Ethnology 6:109-236.
1969 Ethnograplhic Atlas. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Murphy, Robert
1959 "Social Structure and Sex Antagonism,'' Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 15(2):
89-98.
Schieffelin, Bambi B.
1979 How Kaluli Children Learn What To Say, What To Do, and How To Feel: An Ethnographic
Approach to the Development of Commnunicative Colmpetence. Ph.D. diss., Columbia
University.
Schieffelin, Edward L.
1976 The Sorrow of the Lonel/' and the Burning of the Dancers. New York: St. Martins Press.
1978 "The End of Traditional Music, Dance, and Body Decoration in Bosavi, Papua New
Guinea." (Discussion paper 30-32.) Boroko: Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies.
1979 "Mediators as Metaphors: Moving a Man to Tears in Papua New Guinea," in A. L. Becker
and Aram Yengoyan, eds., The imagination of reality (Norwood: Ablex), pp. 127-144.
1982 "The bau a Ceremonial Hunting Lodge: An Alternative to Initiation, in Gilbert Herdt, ed.,
Rituals of manhood: male initiation in Papua New Guinea (Berkeley: University of
California Press), pp. 155-200.

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC
Schlegel, Alice
1977 "Toward a Theory of Sexual Stratification," in Alice Schlegel, ed., Sexua
(New York: Columbia University Press), pp. 1-40.
Strathern, Andrew
1970 "Male Initiation in New Guinea Highlands Societies," Ethnology 9(4)
Strathern, Marilyn
1972 Women In Between. London: Seminar Press.

46.196.73.207 on Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:36:22 UTC

Sound Structure As Social Structure

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Sound Structure As Social Structure

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Sound Structure As Social Structure

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Sound Structure as Social Structure

Author(s): Steven Feld

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/851232

This content downloaded from