Customer Reviews

Why Suyá Sing: A Musical Anthropology of an Amazonian People (Cambridge Studies in Ethnomusicology)

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This is definitely a favorite of mine! A fun, personal narrative of his time among the Suya people, weaving together exciting stories from the field with large, overriding concepts that translate to studying music in any culture. Also includes a fantastic postlude, describing a few subsequent trips/interactions since this work was initially finished. As for the details...I'll let you read them. Fantastic, though!

Seeger makes the distinction in this book between an "anthropology of music" and a "musical anthropology," this book fitting in the latter category. A good read whether interested in/involved in Music, Ethnomusicology, OR Anthropology! [i.e. "non-musical" anthropologists need not worry and should also read this].

If nothing else, you should all buy this book to listen to his wife's "Anthropologist's Wife" song/lament - fantastic, and ever so true. My wife and I truly connected with that song as we first heard it while on our first extended time overseas. :)