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Rites, Rights & Rhythms traces traditional Afro-Colombian currulao music from colonial slavery to today's black social movement. The book illuminates a history of struggles over the music's meanings, portraying one of the hemisphere's most important black cultures, and offering a theory of history traced through the performative practice of currulao.
About the author
Michael Birenbaum Quintero received his Master's and Doctoral degrees in Ethnomusicology at New York University. His research focuses on the music of the black inhabitants of Colombia's Pacific coast region, cultural politics, violence and trauma, black cosmopolitanism, and vernacular uses of technology. He is Assistant Professor of Music at Boston University.
Summary
Rites, Rights & Rhythms traces traditional Afro-Colombian currulao music from colonial slavery to today's black social movement. The book illuminates a history of struggles over the music's meanings, portraying one of the hemisphere's most important black cultures, and offering a theory of history traced through the performative practice of currulao.
Additional text
Rites, Rights, and Rhythms is a landmark study in ethnomusicology. It combines sensitive, profound ethnography with a depth of historical insight that is a model for scholars working in any area of the discipline. At the same time, it offers a perspective on the shifting philosophical and material investments in race over time in Colombia that scholars of music and modernity will need to grapple with.
