Jan 22 / Indigenous Dance / The Areito: Preparation - The Chants


https://rbcmusic.com/product/d209-indian-chant-and-dance-leidig-niehaus/
 

 Unit: Indigenous Dance

Theme: The Areito: Preparation - The Chants


I

  Introduction

The chants in the cordon dance may be the only reference we may have from the chants performed in the areitos. Today we will listen to the Yanomami's chants as as one of the examples from living culture in which indigenous chants give us an idea of how they were performed in the Orino region where the Arawaks, the ancestors of the Taino people, come from. Using Meredith Pizzi's ideas on how to create chants, we will explore chanting as a form of sung poetry.

 

 II

 Learning Objectives

  • Understand the characteristics of the chants
  •  Explain the importance of chanting within the context of a ritual
  • Gain an awareness of the connection between chanting the spirits
  • Experience the vocal production of a creative chant with a purpose
  • Reflect on the work done in class


 III

 Main Lesson


1

 

Journal Article

From Areyto to Cordon

Jorge L. Morejon

Preparation & Chants

https://scholarship.miami.edu/esploro/outputs/991031787120302976 

 

Cordon Dance
 
(10:20 -  12:49)
 

 2

 Book

Keepers of the Sacred Chants: The Poetics of Ritual Power in an Amazonian Society 

(Pages 2,3 and 179)

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Keepers_of_the_Sacred_Chants/bhkcEpMIdFYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=role+of+Chants+in+rituals&printsec=frontcover 

Jonathan David Hill  

Jonathan D. Hill was born in 1954. Hill is a professor and former chair of anthropology at Southern Illinois University- Carbondale. In his book Keepers of the Sacred Chants, he explains ritual chanting as a a rich amalgam of myth and music, whose purpose is to serve as a means of integrating individuals into a vertical hierarchy of power relations between mythic ancestors and human descendants. (pp. 201-216)

Keepers of the Sacred Chants: Table of Contents 

Read the Table of Contents for summaries of main ideas developed in the book.

 

3

Blog

Music Therapy for Young Children 

Meredith Pizzi

 https://raisingharmony.com/a-chants-for-change/#:~:text=Chant%20and%20song%20share%20many,pitch%20and%20formed%20key%20structure.

Meredith Roman Pizzi,, MPA, MT-BC, is a leader in Music Therapy Entrepreneurship and a passionate and energetic champion for the music therapy profession. Her article for the Center for Early Childhood Music Therapy, Raising Harmony, illustrates in practical ways the importance of chanting for children and adults.

 4

 


 

IV

 A Note to Remember

 The shaman's musical dialogue with the spirits of the dead ... produces feelings of power that run through the musical linking together of natural forces and a community of people united by a common sentiment of grief over the impending death of a child (Hill 2,3). Also, the chants, as it happens in Hinduism, uses vowels that gave a resonance (or vibration) in certain parts of the body, the energy centers, shakras or meridians, which is healing.

 

V

 Case Studies


Yanomami: The chants

The chants below are part of David Toop's fascinating journey in 1978 through the Amazon jungle to meet and record the last Yanomami shamen. The result of this journey was "Lost Shadows: In Defense of the Soul, (Yanomami Shamanism, Songs, Ritual). Both double CD and LP originally included a 40-page booklet with text and pictures telling the full story. An updated version of the album offers unlimited streaming via the Bandcamp app, plus download in mp3, FLAC and more. 

David Toop was born in New York City in 1949. He is an English musician, author, curator, and emeritus professor. From 2013 to 2021 he was professor of audio culture and improvisation at the London College of Communication. He was a regular contributor to British music magazine "The Wire" and the British magazine "The Face." He has been a member of music groups such as The Flying Lizards, Frank Chickens and Alterations. He has explores genres as diverse as  Dance/Electronic, Halloween music and Natural Sounds.

The Yanomami are an indigenous group of people who live in the Amazon rain-forest on the border of Brazil and Venezuela, in what some describe as the upper Orinoco region. The Yanomami population is estimated to be around 35,000 people. They live in around 200–250 villages across the Roraima and Amazonas states in Brazil, and some also live in southern Venezuela. They are hunter-gatherers who fish, grow crops, and move every few years to allow the soil to regenerate. For this reason one could say they are a Neolithic group of people.

The Yanomami speak several languages, including Kami, Yamaki, and Urihipë. The word "Yanomami" means "forest land". The Yanomami believe in a complex cosmological dynamic between humans and non-humans, and that the forest-land, or urihi, is a living entity. Their chants are part of the shamanic rituals they practice to communicate with the spirit world. They could be described as a harmonious cacophony of sounds when one can identify the call and response mode of singing. Although they may sound chaotic to the Western ear, there is a perceptible order within the chants.

The Yanomami face threats to their lands, culture, and way of life from illegal gold mining, which has led to deforestation, river poisoning, and the spread of disease. In 2020, a 15-year-old Yanomami boy died from COVID-19, and in January 2021, ten Yanomami children were reported to have died from the disease. The Brazilian government has announced a plan to address the crisis, which includes security efforts, food distribution, and a new health center. Because they come from the Orinoco area, the place the Arawack Tainos come from, and because, like Tainos, they are in the Neolithic, I wanted to use their chants as reference to compare them with the chants of the Cordon Dancers.

 a)

Harmonies

Mabutawi-Teri: Young Men Singing, Pt.1

b)

 

Mabutawi-Teri: Young Men Singing, Pt.2

Cacophony of sounds

c)

Mabutawi-Teri: Young Men Singing, Pt.3

Call and response


d)

Mabutawi-Teri: Young Men Singing, Pt.4

Order within Chaos

 

VI

Activity

Blog

Music Therapy for Young Children 

Meredith Pizzi

 https://raisingharmony.com/a-chants-for-change/#:~:text=Chant%20and%20song%20share%20many,pitch%20and%20formed%20key%20structure.

Referencing the blog-post by Pizzi (2015), explore voice production of sounds and narrow it down until it becomes an actual chant. Then, create a ritual context in which the sound has a function, a meaning and a purpose.

 

 VII

Discussion Questions


  • What are the main characteristics of the chants in the case study?
  •  Why are chants important of within the context of a ritual? Use (Hill 179) to illustrate your answer.
  •  How would you describe the use of chanting in the Cordon dance?
  • After experiencing chanting, what was the function, purpose and meaning of your own chant?
  • What is a chant according to (Pizzi 2015)?
  • Reflect on the work done in class

 

VIII

Journaling

 

IX

Glossary

 

X

Sources

1. Hill, Jonathan D. (1993). Keepers of the Sacred Chants: The Poetics of Ritual Power inn an Amazonian Society. University of Arizona Press

2.Morejon, Jorge Luis (2018). From the Areíto to the Cordon: indigenous healing dances. Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença 

3. Pizzi, Meredith (2015). A Chants for Change.  Music Therapy for Young Children.

https://raisingharmony.com/a-chants-for-change/

4. In Defence Of The Soul (Yanomami Shamanism, Songs, Ritual)

 

XI

Student's Work 

Monica came up with the phrase: "I feel tingles of inspiration," 

which we chanted and danced.

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