The Black Cow's Footprint

by Wolf, Richard K.

• ISBN13: 9780252031168
• ISBN10: 0252031164
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-07
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

A black cow leads the members of a South Indian hill tribe, the Kotas, to the Nilgiri Hills and, with its hoof, indicates where to found each village. This footprint acts as a moral center of gravity, an important place for music_making, dancing, and other rituals. Places such as this, and moments in time, serve as physical and moral "anchors" for the Kota community. In this book, Richard K. Wolf explores how the Kotas "anchor" their musical and other activities around places and significant moments in time and, in the process, constitute themselves as individuals and as a group. This volume also includes a CD of Richard Wolf's Kota field recordings.

Table of Contents

Tables, Maps and Figures	viii
Guide to Abbreviations and Pronunciation	xi
Acknowledgments	xiv
Introduction: Of Kotas and Cows	1	(38)
The Major Ceremonies
The Kotas as a Tribe
Tribal Status, Kota Music, and Power
Kota Kinship and Spatial Organization
``Tribal'' Living
Kota Music at Home
Musical Spacetimes, Concepts, and Theories
The Village Council
Ethnographic and Historical Issues: Ethnic Relations in ``Traditional'' Nilgiri Society
Emerging Populations and Shifting Demographics
Scholarship and Knowledge
Fieldwork Background and Dramatis Personae
Kota Villages
Shawms and Songs	39	(30)
Dancing and Drumming
Tribal Music in South Asian Contexts
Classification of Percussion Patterns
Other Instruments
Genres, Contexts, Songs, and Composers
A God Song by S. Raman
Analysis and Exegesis
Songs of Grief (Atl)
An Atl to Puccan's Father
Crossing Genres: Cirmuk Kamatn's Musical Sin
A Generically Ambiguous Song
Conclusions: Time and Place, Genre and Gender
The Morality of Places	69	(34)
Maps in the Mind
Space and Spacetime
People and Their Places
Kota Categories: Village, Forest and Field
Musically Implicated Places
Song Maps
Place through the Senses
Place and ``Pollution''
Music, Emotion, and Ker
The Kota House
A Structuring Structure?
Other Sites of Importance
Summary and Conclusions
Knowing When and Where	103	(30)
Gaining Knowledge, Controlling Time
Spatiotemporal Factors Affecting Musical Learning
Learning from Recordings
How Kotas Analyze Their Music
Loudness, Extension, and Structural Nostalgia
Musical Evaluation
How a Performer Shapes a Piece in Time: Composing, Singing, and Rendering
Listening Guide and Musical Discussion of Mundan's Bugir Rendition (Fig. 8)
Discussion and Textual Analysis of Cindamani's Rendition
Comparison of Two Renditions
Responding and the Metaphor of a ``Gap''
Cultural Implications of Admixture
What Gets Transmitted with Music: The Shape of a God Tune Narrative
Conclusion: The Where and When of Knowing
Points of Anchor	133	(29)
Anchoring Places of a Kota Culture Hero
Holidays
Tempo, Convergence, and Closure
Anchoring in Ceremonies
Anchoring of Larger Performance Units
Music and Eclipses
Metvay's Version
The Temporality of Irregularity
Affect and Subject	162	(24)
Open Forms of Spacetime
Closed Forms of Spacetime
Ceremonies and Travel
Spatiotemporal Parameters of Status
Remembrance
Emotional Contour and Texture
Musical Emotion
Food
Shifting Sands
Affect and Subject
Ceremonializing the Self	186	(33)
Devr: The Kota God Ceremony
Music and Spacetime in the God Ceremony
Pac Tav and Varldav: The Green and Dry Funerals
The Pac Tav
Bovine Sacrifices
At the Cremation Ground
The Varldav
Bond-breaking
Conclusion: Models, Objects, and Mutability
Conclusion: Dancing where their Ancestors Danced	219	(14)
Sameness and Difference
Spatiotemporal Forms of Identity
Philosophical Distinctions and Real-world Articulations
Foundations of Spatiotemporal Thought
Footprints and Anchoring
Appendix: A Musical Census of Kolmel Village	233	(4)
Glossary	237	(8)
Notes	245	(17)
References	262	(13)
Main Index	275	(21)
Index of Music and Dance Entries	296	(11)
Name Index	307	(3)
Musical Examples on CD	310