Sounding the Indian Ocean: Musical Circulations in the Afro-Asiatic SeascapeJim Sykes, Julia Suzanne Byl Sounding the Indian Ocean is the first volume to integrate the fields of ethnomusicology and Indian Ocean studies. Drawing on historical and ethnographic approaches, the book explores what music reveals about mobility, diaspora, colonialism, religious networks, media, and performance. Collectively, the chapters examine different ways the Indian Ocean might be "heard" outside of a reliance on colonial archives and elite textual traditions, integrating methods from music and sound studies into the history and anthropology of the region. Challenging the area studies paradigm-which has long cast Africa, the Middle East, and Asia as separate musical cultures-the book shows how music both forms and crosses boundaries in the Indian Ocean world. "Evocative, wide-ranging, and fascinating. A highly original contribution that charts the way for many future paths of exploration." - RONIT RICCI, author of Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia "Undoubtedly the definitive, standard-bearing work on the deeply cosmopolitan and interconnected soundworlds of the Indian Ocean." DAVESH SONEJI, author of Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India "A finely crafted voyage that secures the place of ethnomusicological scholarship in the reconstruction of one of the world's oldest long-distance trading arenas." - ANGELA IMPEY, author of Song Walking: Women, Music, and Environmental Justice in an African Borderland "Adeptly shows how music composes and transgresses categories, genealogies, and geographies in Afro-Asiatic seascapes." - SMRITI SRINIVAS, coeditor of Reimagining Indian Ocean Worlds. |
Contents
Sounding the Indian Ocean | 54 |
Womens Mobilities | 77 |
Sonic Liberation on the Andaman Islands | 99 |
Baloch Musical Repertoires and Culture Production | 120 |
Sensing | 145 |
Troubadours Technology | 158 |
Sikh Sacred Soundings in Kenya | 181 |
Locating Performance | 199 |
Using Siddi and Sheedi Musical Practices | 216 |
Squinting at Greater India | 233 |
Performing Arts | 251 |
Káfriinha Kaffringha and the BailasphereSri Lanka and Beyond | 274 |
Audible Dakwah and the Performance | 297 |
Global Indian Oceans and the Promise of a Decolonial World | 311 |
Contributors | 317 |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic African Andaman Islands Arabian Peninsula Arabic Archives baila bailasphere Baloch Bandung Bengali British Burma Burmese Cambridge Cape Malay Cape Muslim Cape Town Clunies-Ross Cocos Keeling Cocos Malay colonial connections context Cosmopolitanism Creole cultural dancers Diaspora drum East Africa edited ethnic Ethnomusicology genre global Gujarat Gulf Gurdwara Guru Hadhrami Hindu identity Indian Ocean Indian Ocean world Indonesia instruments Islam Journal káfriinha Kenya kirtan Kuwait listeners Makindu Makran Matua Mauritian Mauritius mawlid melody migration mobility modern movement Mozambique Muhammad musical traditions musicians Muslim na‘t Najir networks Pakistan performance pilgrimage poetry political populations Portuguese Burgher practices Quranic Rangoon Rasmussen recitation recordings region religion religious rhythm ritual sacred scholars Sheedi Siddi Sikh Singapore singers singing social Society song sonic sound South Asian Southeast Asia Sri Lanka Studies style Sufi Swahili Swahili coast taarab Tamil texts tion tufo twentieth century western Indian Ocean women Yemen