When the echoes are gone : a Yolngu musical anthropology
Abstract
Music is ubiquitous in the social life of the Yolngu people of northeast Arnhem
Land in northern Australia. Not only does it accompany virtually every phase
of ritual, including dance, painting, and the production of sacred objects, but it
is frequently performed in non-ritual contexts as well, purely for the enjoyment
of performers and listeners alike. As such, an understanding of music provides
a unique and privileged point of entry into the study of Yolngu culture as a
whole.
The ethnomusicologist Anthony Seeger has written that an anthropology
of music examines the ways in which music is an integral part of culture, while
in contrast a musical anthropology examines the ways in which culture is
musical and aspects of culture are created and re-created through musical
performance. This dissertation is a work of musical anthropology. I provide a
detailed examination of the form, content, and meaning of the songs of one
particular group of Yolngu, the Dhalwangu people of the community of
Gapuwiyak, N.T. I then employ this understanding of Dhalwangu songs to
examine three aspects of Yolngu culture which have been subject to intense
scrutiny in the Arnhem Land ethnographic literature: sociality, connections to
country, and social change. I will demonstrate that musical structures and
musical performances contribute significantly to the production and
reproduction of these and other aspects of Dhalwangu culture. Yolngu culture
is indeed musical, and a Yolngu musical anthropology enables a greater
understanding of Yolngu culture in all its beauty, variety, and complexity.