Native American Music and Culture
1. The purpose
In the grand scheme of things, we have learned about the Native American culture and what I would call a brief synopsis. Let's be serious when we learned about the Native American culture in school. We learn about the culture typically at a young age and not well retained, especially their music. There are hundreds of Native American tribes throughout the United States, and each and everyone has music that reflects their traditions and roots to their ancestors. Typically the Native American's could use music to tell stories, heritage, wars, ceremonies, and even celebrations. Sometimes their music was used to sing prayers and invoke spirits. One thing that all of these different songs had in common is the human voice. An essential instrument in the Native American culture is the human voice. Though out history we have listened and learned about harmonies and melodies, and I couldn't think of a better example. It is the most portable instrument that you could ever have, quite literally. However, being light and portable was also important when it came to their instruments. Coming back to the education system, I also thoroughly believe that our education system needs to be updated to teach about the Native American culture at a later age with thorough detail rather than what we are doing now.
https://www.psaudio.com/article/the-earths-heartbeat-native-american-music/
At first glance, it seems evident that music has a significant impact on the Native American culture. However, not many realize that the very music we have been listening to in class, is what ties the Native Americans today to their ancestors. By having these ties, they have created a cultural survival. From what I have found in the article attached, is that the natives use music in a specific way to tie themselves to their ancestors, to their families. I also found "to be human is to make music," and I couldn't agree more. No matter the culture throughout history, we have seen many different types of instruments and music styles have been carried on throughout the descendants of a multitude of cultures. In the video, all of the instruments correctly show real examples of their instruments. As well and their size and materials. Even this reminds us of the "use what you have" mindset that many Native's have. Similarly each instrument can create different pitches allowing for conjunct and disjunct melodies.
3. Respecting a culture
I chose this article because The people in the video are of Native American culture. Who else would have a better insight? One of the most important things that we have to remember is, we must respect different cultures. Growing up, I had seen Indian costumes and even saw many of my friends dress up as them for Halloween. In hindsight, we were only seven; none of us understood how bad this hurts. This might sound crazy but, I'm glad that I experienced this. I gained greater respect and appreciation for the Native American people in their culture. If you watched the video, you heard, "I don't think there's a single costume with a feather in the middle like this," "I think it's supposed to resemble animal Hyde," or even "many people don't understand that every single pattern of beads on a powwow dress means something." This article and video truly made me understand how these costumes are offensive and disrespectful. As we go forward as a society, I hope to see us grow in maturity and respect.
I feel like you have taught me a lot of new things, especially how to respect a culture like the Native Americans. They have some really cool instruments and I thank you for sharing what you found about them. I agree with the Halloween thing, but I also feel like we weren’t trying to offend them, but rather have some fun as little kids. On the other hand, some people may not take it that way and feel offended and that’s okay. We just need to apologize for offending them and then pick a different costume, like a ghost or a witch or something. Thank you for sharing your research with me. It was fascinating to see what you found.
ReplyDeleteHi! I completely agree with you when you say that being taught at a young age about the Native Americans didn't really give us a chance to retain all there was to know. I liked how you included how others tried dressing like Native Americans and don't know the meaning behind how the clothing is made. You've made some great points on this post.
ReplyDeleteThank you for explaining that schools don't really teach or speak about Native American culture, history, or music as much as they really should. Thank you for explaining that even though this culture might not be significant to everyone, everyone still needs to respect everyone and they're cultures.
ReplyDeleteDallas, respecting the culture is something that people definitely need to be more aware of! Halloween makes it easy to often overlook how we could might possibly offend anyone and their culture. Dallas music is a great way to connect people. So, when they use music to connect to their ancestors it completely makes sense! I loved reading your blog and your insight to Native American Culture.
ReplyDelete