[ANPPOM-L] [JFRR] The Black Cow's Footprint: Time, Space, and Music in the Lives of the Kotas of South India (Wolf, Richard K.)

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Sex Jul 20 11:26:08 BRT 2007


The Black Cow's Footprint: Time, Space, and Music in the Lives of the
Kotas of South India. By Richard K. Wolf. 2006. Champaign: University
of Illinois Press. xv + 313 + CD pages. ISBN: 9780252031168 (hard
cover). 


Reviewed by Fugan Dineen, Wesleyan University (ddineen em wesleyan.edu).


[Word count: 871 words]


The Kotas are a South Indian "tribal" people, numbering fewer than
two thousand, based in seven villages in the Nilgiri Hills. Richard
K. Wolf takes the title of his wide-ranging ethnographic study of the
Kota from a local legend in which "a divine black cow of ancient
times indicated with its hoof where each Kota village (kokal) should
be founded. On the sites of these 'black cow's footprints,' the
ancestral village founders built their dwellings" (5). These houses,
one of which is in each village, are known as "houses of the erected
post."

In The Black Cow's Footprint, Wolf explores how the Kotas make and
remake themselves through music, dance, and a host of other ritual
and quotidian activities. These actions are filtered through the
author's "interest in how aspects of space, place, and time are
socially deployed or constructed" (1). In this context, the temporal
setting of the black cow story and the locations of the footprints
take on special significance: "ancient times" indicates an abundance
of catym ("truth") in the world and the Kotas' state of unity with
god (both of which have since been lost), and "each village's
respective 'house of the erected post' . . . constitutes a center
of moral gravity" (5). Likewise, other space/place/time
matrixes--e.g., movement from home to village to cremation ground in
response to the ever-flowing "rhythm of deaths" (170)--become
coordinates for Wolf's concept of "spacetime." He uses this rubric,
borrowed from anthropologist Nancy Munn, to position Kota activities,
attitudes, and identities with respect to four pattern types:
anchoring, centripetence, centrifugality, and interlocking.

Wolf employs spacetime patterning to theorize Kota identity formation
during the tribe's two main ceremonial complexes, the god complex
(devr) and the death complex (tav). While the Kotas' physical and
spiritual trajectories are recognized as multifaceted, they generally
proceed inwards (through centripetence towards unity) in the god
ceremonies and outwards (by means of centrifugality towards
differentiation) in the death complex. Interlocking occurs at various
stages and on multiple levels (in both musical and social
organizations) in these two realms. The author grounds his analysis
of the Kotas' god and death rituals in detailed ethnography, which
then serves as a platform for further theorizing. For example, Wolf
looks into Kotas' metaphysical positioning in time and space, which
is partially achieved through internal and social mapping of places
through song, the cross-domain valuation of unity in society and
music, and the converse move to individuality and bond breaking in
mortuary rituals. Wolf also delves into the types, meanings, and
consequences of affect in Kota ceremonies. In doing so, he considers
how both musical and non-musical elements (such as foods and eating
practices) register in the "emotional texture" of Kota ritual (177).

The persistence required in following Wolf's wide-ranging and at
times highly-complex investigations of non-musical issues pays off in
the holistic understanding of Kota music that eventually emerges.
While music itself is most directly addressed in Chapters 2 and 4, it
is woven into much of the text. At times, Wolf considers broader
issues related to music's social function, as in his analysis of song
texts filtered through the comments and reflections of his Kota
collaborators. In other sections, he analyzes musical details, such
as how kol players (the Kotas' main melodic instrumentalists)
"anchor" their melodies around structural drum beats "and more or
less fit the rest of the melody in the intervening spaces" (2). The
book's four transcriptions are skillfully deployed to support his
musical analysis as well as the broader theoretical issues of
spacetime. In addition, the author regularly refers the reader to the
accompanying CD. These thirty-nine musical and sound examples are
invaluable in bringing the text to life.

In Chapter 5, Wolf more fully develops his concept of anchoring
across a range of spacetimes. For Wolf, anchoring not only serves as
a metaphor for musical coordination, but also describes the
connections Kotas make with their geography, histories, social
relations, and large-scale temporal events. The anchoring metaphor is
especially useful because it allows room for "real" world slippage:
just as a ship's anchor may drag or be totally hoisted out of the
water, anchor points in music, time, or social contexts may shift or
be entirely reworked to meet changing circumstances. An example of
the latter is the Kotas' twentieth century transition from buffalo
and cow sacrifices to vegetarian foods at the dry funeral ceremonies,
and its consequences in their theorizing about death (184).

Music is sometimes central and sometimes peripheral or even silent in
Wolf's discussions. This is consistent with his contention that
"social life is learned as an amalgam" (38). By positioning music in
relation to many other activities, Wolf fashions a gestalt of the
Kotas' music. In this way, he brings the reader into the Kotas'
richly complex world of sound, smell, tastes, textures, and thinking.
The Black Cow's Footprint is a much-needed and extremely valuable
addition to the limited ethnomusicological literature on Indian
tribal peoples. The comprehensive glossary and detailed index add to
the monograph's value for ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and
others who will be drawn to Wolf's careful ethnography and
multifaceted analysis. While challenging, the book is well worth the
effort in that it clearly conveys the author's deep regard for the
Kota and their musical endeavors.
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