Urbanization, Gender, and Cultural Emergence in The Music Of Dominican Popular Religion: Palos And Salves In San Cristóbal

Piper, Daniel Clifford

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Year:: 2012
Contributor:: Piper, Daniel Clifford (creator); Perlman, Marc (Director); Austerlitz, Paul (Reader); Miller, Kiri (Reader); Titon, Jeff (Reader); Brown University. Music: Ethnomusicology (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Caribbean; gender; modernization; emergence; Music; Religion; Blacks; Sex; Urbanization; Caribbean Area; Dominican Republic
Extent:: xviii, 556 p.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0F47MFD

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Abstract:: This dissertation is a regionally centered study of black popular religion and music in the Dominican Republic. Salves and palos performance are described and interpreted as historically dynamic traditions within the context of religious beliefs and practices in the province of San Cristóbal. Processes of cultural change associated with modernization are examined revealing significant relationships between gender, urbanization and cultural emergence. Popular religion in the Dominican Republic integrates African-derived ancestral rites, Catholicism in its official and popular varieties, and Dominican Vodú (also known as Las 21 Divisiones). Dominican salves and palos are creole music genres which are deeply syncretic, blending various African, Hispanic, and Caribbean influences in highly distinctive ways. Salves are songs performed before an altar or saint’s icon, and constitute essential devotional music of popular Catholicism and Dominican Vodú. Palos long-drumming is historically associated with death rites and patron saint celebrations of Afro-Dominican religious brotherhoods, and more recently also with Vodú ceremonies and urban dance parties. Dominicans in the last several decades have been transforming their music and socio-religious customs in response to a decline of rural agriculturally based culture, massive internal and external migration, the growth of urban population centers, and changes in institutionalized religion. Documenting strong parallels between a shift in gender roles in popular religion and music in San Cristóbal with other changes in performance contexts, musical style, and social organization, this dissertation indicates that gender has been a central mediating factor in the modernization of salves and palos music. Specifically, a modification of gender roles was a primary condition shaping the character of innovations in musical style, as well as other changes in performance practice. The findings of this research suggest that while broader changes in society can be primary forces behind transformations in musical culture, their effects are often indirect and depend on mediation by other elements of social life (such as gender roles) which may have more direct implications for performance practice.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2012)

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Rights: In Copyright
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Citation

Piper, Daniel Clifford, "Urbanization, Gender, and Cultural Emergence in The Music Of Dominican Popular Religion: Palos And Salves In San Cristóbal" (2012). Ethnomusicology Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0F47MFD

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Ethnomusicology Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Ethnomusicology department.
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