Abstracts Anthropology

Music, movement, martial arts: sound and gesture in West Sumatran, West Javanese, and Afro-Bahian combat-dancing

by Paul Howard Mason

Practices of combat-dancing integrate music, dance and martial arts. Indonesian and Brazilian practices of combat-dancing originate from geographically distinct societies; incorporate different ways of moving; and use almost entirely different musical structures. They are embodied social practices that exhibit idiosyncratic patterns of sociocultural entrainment and different underlying modes of embodiment. This thesis looks at two practices of combat-dancing found in Indonesia and one practice of combat-dancing originating in Brazil: silek minang is the indigenous martial art of West Sumatra, pencak silat seni is found predominantly in West Java, and capoeira is a widespread Afro-Brazilian art. Focusing on instances of combat-dancing that feature music, I examine the relationship between sound and movement - a field of research known as choreomusicology. Informed by my fieldwork experiences, this thesis situates the relationship between music and movement in each art within a social, historical and cultural context. In Indonesia, silek minang practitioners rarely train their art to music, but come together with musicians in performance for audience entertainment. The combative gestures of silek minang have a symbolic relationship to the percussion and woodwind music but exhibit few other correlations. In contrast, practitioners of the choreographed art of pencak silat seni occasionally train with recorded or live music. In performance, the sharp and abrupt movements of pencak silat seni are preferably accompanied by highly trained musicians who attempt to mimic the choreographies with corresponding dynamics, timbre and tessitura. In Brazil, capoeira practitioners practice a swaying and circular movement improvisation art that is subordinate to the steady magnetic rhythms of a percussion orchestra. Whether live or recorded, music is always present during capoeira training but is preferably produced live during performances. The contrast between Indonesian and Brazilian practices of combat-dancing illustrates patterns of culture change in socially organised human expressive systems. The cases of Indonesian and Brazilian combat-dances demonstrate dynamics of long-term, large-scale cultural change, even 'evolution,' by demonstrating the ways that diverse historical, political, religious, social and even aesthetic forces shape unpredictable transformations in these arts. Within the context of globalization, practices of combat-dancing can be predisposed to spread easily or subject to change as a result of the transnational flow of practitioners. For example, the relationship between music and movement can become disrupted as communities of practitioners swiftly become larger and more widespread and as expertise diffuses unevenly. From combat-dancing through choreomusicology to cultural evolution, this research is empirically based on fieldwork conducted in Indonesia and Brazil, methodologically inspired by developments in the study of the relationship between music and movement, and theoretically driven by a desire to…