Browse Titles - 2 results
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Carnival King of Europe, Tabom in Bahia
directed by Juan Diego Diaz, fl. 2017 and Nilton Pereira, fl. 2017; produced by Juan Diego Diaz, fl. 2017, Brazil. Embassy (Accra), Tap Portugal and Fiesta Hotels & Resorts, S.L., in Carnival King of Europe (London, England: Royal Anthropological Institute, 2017), 52 mins
There is a small community in Ghana who identify as Brazilians. Their name is the Tabom. They are the descendants of former enslaved Africans and creoles who resettled from Bahia to Ghana during the 19th century, especially after the Malês Revolt in Bahia of 1835. They left Bahia escaping repression, looking for...
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directed by Juan Diego Diaz, fl. 2017 and Nilton Pereira, fl. 2017; produced by Juan Diego Diaz, fl. 2017, Brazil. Embassy (Accra), Tap Portugal and Fiesta Hotels & Resorts, S.L., in Carnival King of Europe (London, England: Royal Anthropological Institute, 2017), 52 mins
Description
There is a small community in Ghana who identify as Brazilians. Their name is the Tabom. They are the descendants of former enslaved Africans and creoles who resettled from Bahia to Ghana during the 19th century, especially after the Malês Revolt in Bahia of 1835. They left Bahia escaping repression, looking for better life opportunities, and in search of their ancestral roots. They were received by the Ga people in British, Danish and Dutch-dom...
There is a small community in Ghana who identify as Brazilians. Their name is the Tabom. They are the descendants of former enslaved Africans and creoles who resettled from Bahia to Ghana during the 19th century, especially after the Malês Revolt in Bahia of 1835. They left Bahia escaping repression, looking for better life opportunities, and in search of their ancestral roots. They were received by the Ga people in British, Danish and Dutch-dominated Accra and gradually integrated to this group and to the larger Ghanaian society. However, despite the fact that they no longer speak Portuguese and that most have never set foot in Brazil, they still cherish Brazil and have never given up their dream to visit Bahia, their ancestral homeland.Master drummer Eric Odwarkei Morton is one of many Tabom who has dreamt all his life about visiting Bahia. He is a sixth generation Tabom and a key member of his community who presides religious and funerary ceremonies through song, drumming, and prayers. Tabom in Bahia documents Eric's journey to Brazil and also his preparation for the trip in Accra. The three-week journey took him to urban and rural locations in Salvador, Cachoeira, Santo Amaro, and Valença. Eric met with capoeira and samba-de-roda masters, Candomblé dancers, musicians, and spiritual leaders, members of carnival associations, music teachers and students, and black activists. He was received with anticipation and treated with utmost respect by an Afro-Bahian community that cherishes their African heritage. During the trip Eric not only discovered capoeira, samba-de-roda, samba-reggae, ijexa, and various Candomblé traditions, but also shared agbe, the musical style that he commands.Ethnomusicologist: Juan Diego Diaz
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Field of Study
Anthropology
Content Type
Documentary
Contributor
Juan Diego Diaz, fl. 2017, Brazil. Embassy (Accra), Tap Portugal, Fiesta Hotels & Resorts, S.L.
Author / Creator
Juan Diego Diaz, fl. 2017, Nilton Pereira, fl. 2017
Date Published / Released
2017
Publisher
Royal Anthropological Institute
Series
Carnival King of Europe
Speaker / Narrator
Juan Diego Diaz, fl. 2017
Topic / Theme
Cultural identity, Drums, Folk music, Samba, Candomblé, Capoeira, African Brazilian, Agudas
Copyright Message
Copyright © 2017 Royal Anthropological Institute
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This is A Music: Reclaiming An Untouchable Drum
directed by Zoe C. Sherinian; produced by Zoe C. Sherinian (Sherinian Productions, 2011), 1 hour 13 mins
This ethnomusicological documentary is about the psychological and economic transformation of a group of Dalit [formerly called outcaste or untouchable] parai frame drummers from a village near Paramagudi, Tamil Nadu, South India. The internal shift in the self-perception that these drummers undergo includes three...
Sample
directed by Zoe C. Sherinian; produced by Zoe C. Sherinian (Sherinian Productions, 2011), 1 hour 13 mins
Description
This ethnomusicological documentary is about the psychological and economic transformation of a group of Dalit [formerly called outcaste or untouchable] parai frame drummers from a village near Paramagudi, Tamil Nadu, South India. The internal shift in the self-perception that these drummers undergo includes three interwoven threads of musical identity: the identity of the drum, of the music they play, and of the status of the drummers. Through t...
This ethnomusicological documentary is about the psychological and economic transformation of a group of Dalit [formerly called outcaste or untouchable] parai frame drummers from a village near Paramagudi, Tamil Nadu, South India. The internal shift in the self-perception that these drummers undergo includes three interwoven threads of musical identity: the identity of the drum, of the music they play, and of the status of the drummers. Through the lens of rarely filmed folk performances and the experience of an American female ethnomusicologist who comes to study with the group Kurinji Malar, we see a group of nine drummers trying to eke out a living while negotiating ongoing caste discrimination in their village. The Hindu caste system constructs parai drummers and their drum as polluted because they play for funerals. As they have professionalized, however, they reconstruct their performance as “music” and their identity as “worldly.” The film also explores the economic options of these musicians as laborers. Two of the best drummers are tempted to limit their “drumset” performances to auspicious festival occasions because they are able to make enough money and gain social status as construction workers. Other members who work as field laborers or shepherd goats are completely dependent on drumming to supplement their income. The narrative of this film focuses on the cultural debate among these drummers over whether they should reclaim the term parai (associated by many with the drummer’s “degraded” caste name Paraiyar) or they should continue to use the English term “drumset,” which carries middleclass status. When the drummers get an opportunity to go to the large cosmopolitan city of Chennai to participate in the Chennai Sangamam folk festival, they experience very different treatment at the hands of both the festival organizers and the multi-caste, multi-class urban audience. On their way to the festival they are shocked to find the extensive use of the term “parai-attam” or parai dance in all of the festival advertisement. One of the drummers asks, “Why do they still associate us with the ‘Paraiyan’ caste? Why won’t they let us walk freely in society?” When we interview them soon after they arrive and then at the end of their festival week in Chennai, we see, however, that their overwhelmingly positive reception has greatly shifted their self-perception and value of village based folk artists. Further, they decide to (re)embrace of the term “parai.” It becomes clear that experiencing this appreciation helps the Kurinji Malar drummers reinforce a sense of pride in their drumming as valued music where as previously it was easy for them to internalize these practices as degraded. The question then becomes; can they sustain these changes back in the village? This film shows that changing how parai drummers identify their art reflects the process of changing self-identity through musical performance possible for those still considered by many as “untouchables.” However, this case ultimately shows that complete change in presentation of self in the village context is difficult because of the economic dependence of outcaste drummers on the village middle castes who continue to practice casteism. Woven throughout the film are dynamic and rare examples of village folk dances like karagattam, kummi and oiylattam, oppari funeral lament, stick fighting, and drumming as well as the voices of the drummers and local activists, who tell the story of the process of working for the economic and social liberation of the oppressed Dalits of India through the folk arts.
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Field of Study
World Music
Content Type
Documentary
Contributor
Zoe C. Sherinian
Author / Creator
Zoe C. Sherinian
Date Published / Released
2011
Publisher
Sherinian Productions
Topic / Theme
Folk music, Spirituality, Religious beliefs, Ethnomusicology, Drums, Tamil
Copyright Message
Copyright (c) 2011 Sherinian Productions LLC
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