Challenge Question!

The ability to learn about a culture’s music and the role of that music within culture is easier because of technology. Information can “come from the source;” people from around the world can publish their work for a wider audience. If insider ethnographies exist with more frequency, what is place of outsider ethnographies? Do we need an outsider’s ethnography on a culture when we can readily get an insider’s? (Mike Sokolovsky)


This is a very interesting question which is quite relevant both to the field of ethnomusicology and to this class—this year Kiri made the decision to not allow insider ethnographies as fieldwork projects from the students of MUSC1900. Does this indicate that Kiri believes it necessary for us to learn the skills of outsider ethnography over those of insider ethnography? There are definite advantages and disadvantages to each technique, but I believe that outsider ethnographies serve to explicate certain aspects of tradition that insider ethnographies might overlook. No matter how careful, detached, or professional an insider ethnographer is, I believe that there will always be subtle observations and details that only an outsider will think to record because the insider takes them for granted. In some ways, the best kind of ethnography is that of someone who begins as an outsider and makes the transition to insider, inasmuch as they can. We can only see the full picture, however, by combining the perspectives and learning what we can from each.
A convenient example of this is the Sacred Harp unit that we just studied. The documentary was an instance of insider ethnography. We saw and heard how the filmmakers crafted the work in a way that explained Sacred Harp in the way that they understood it. This included a focus on historical perspectives (“how it used to be”), and an occasional lack of context or explication of such details as the identities of the interviewees or the modern perspectives of people who came to the tradition quite recently. Certainly an element of this omission was due to time and topic constraints, but I believe that part of it was, as we discussed in class, the fact that there were just some pieces of information that seemed so common-place from their insider perspective that they didn't feel the need to explain them. An alternative view comes from Kiri's writing, which is that of an outsider who, over a long period of time, achieved a fair amount of insider status, or at least a strong familiarity with and knowledge of the culture. Because of this, she was able to provide the sort of detailed observations of an insider, but she retained the ability to put herself in the shoes of an outsider and remember to explain every detail.
Neither of the ethnographies was perfect on its own. The documentary had the flaws and omissions that I mentioned, and Kiri's writing is of course limited by the fact that she simply cannot offer the perspective of someone who grew up from birth in the tradition. There are intricacies and subtleties to any tradition that even the most experienced members might not notice if they were not raised in the tradition. My point is that you can never rely on one perspective, be it insider, outsider, or a mix (the outsider who gains elements of insider status). Even as insider ethnographies proliferate, outsider ethnographies continue to contain interesting observations. I remember being impressed at the relatively objective, detached account of Western art music that we read, but I would still love to read an ethnography of this culture from an African drummer or a Tuvan throat-singing ethnomusicologist, as I'm sure that there would be countless insights that I've taken for granted and never thought about.
Ethnomusicologists have gone through a great deal of debate in terms of the ethics of outsider ethnographies, and there is no doubt that such studies have the potential to be very exploitative and inaccurate. I believe, however, that ethnographers should continue to write outsider perspectives, while bearing in mind the hazards and pitfalls that we have been learning about all semester. Through a combination of insider ethnographies and thoughtful, respectful outsider ethnographies we can come to a greater insight into many musical cultures.