Articles by Josep Martí
Ethnomusicology Translations,, 2024
This article raises the need for (Spanish) ethnomusicology to replace rigid nineteenth century ap... more This article raises the need for (Spanish) ethnomusicology to replace rigid nineteenth century approaches with renewed anthropological and sociological concepts and analytical tools, Through the notion of “social relevance,” the author responds to this need and advocates for the
study of horizontal influence (dynamic, meaningful), rather than vertical roots (ancestral, quasi sacred) in a musical repertoire. “Social relevance” would be the academic opposite to “cultural paternity” (as ethnic ascription), prioritizing the importance that a song, instrument, or dance has for a community in a specific moment. Therefore, the main task of an ethnomusicologist is to understand the musical life of a society, because the relevance does not depend on music itself, but on its context. Consequently, the concept of social relevance rejects perceptions of popular music studies as marginal, and instead accepts the study of popular music as a discipline that deserves full scholarly attention, eliminating mythologized hierarchies of elite groups. The article discusses how social relevance manifests in three interrelated dimensions: meaning, or how a musical piece is perceived; the uses to which it is put; and its social functions. These analyses apply to different genres such as opera, jazz, rock, folk, classical, and avant-garde music, and point out the universal attributes they all share according to the principle of their
social relevance.
Sarance, 2022
No es rara la exhibición pública de cuerpos momificados en museos u otros tipos de instalaciones,... more No es rara la exhibición pública de cuerpos momificados en museos u otros tipos de instalaciones, algo que, por diversas razones, es objeto de justificadas controversias. El característico modelo dicotómico de Occidente siempre ha entendido las cosas y a las personas en relación de oposición. Por una parte, el mundo de la materia inerte y, por la otra, el de los seres vivos. Uno de los aspectos que resulta interesante de esta distinción es que el cuerpo, entendido
como res extensa por el cartesianismo, ha quedado entre estos dos polos y asume fácilmente la
categoría de objeto, como en el caso de los cadáveres o de los fragmentos corporales. En no pocas ocasiones, la exhibición de restos humanos tiene que ver con la práctica del racismo. En este artículo, me sirvo de la noción deleuziana de ensamblaje para analizar la centralidad
que posee el cuerpo en la problemática del racismo. A lo largo del texto presto una especial atención al caso del cuerpo disecado de un africano que, con la denominación de El Negro, estuvo expuesto en un pequeño museo naturalista de la ciudad catalana de Banyoles durante
casi todo el siglo XX. El caso de El Negro, que en los años 90 obtuvo repercusión mediática a escala internacional hasta que se consiguió su retirada del museo y la devolución de los restos del cuerpo a Botswana, puede entenderse dentro de una enmarañada red de ensamblajes en
los que, además del racismo, hay que contar con otros como el de la museística, sentimientos identitarios locales y el panafricanismo
Revista d'Etnologia de Catalunya, 2020
One of the facts that characterizes the
years of conflict in Catalonia since 2017
is the prolifer... more One of the facts that characterizes the
years of conflict in Catalonia since 2017
is the proliferation of visual elements on
the street, which reflect the confrontation
with the Spanish state such as flags,
messages in the form of banners or
painted on the walls, and other visual
elements of protest. Beyond the
symbolic value of these visual elements,
a theoretical posthumanist approach
of this social activism in public spaces
leads us to apply a postanthropocentric,
non-dual and relational perspective.
In this way, without forgetting the
importance of discourse, meaning
and structure, attention is focused on
affects, intensities and the event in its
deleuzian sense. The unit of analysis is
not the visual elements or people but the
assemblages, relational fields in which
affects, feelings and emotions emerge.
The space and the elements that make
up the space are not misunderstood
as something disassociated from the
subject but rather understood in terms
of emplacement (Howes 2005), that
is, the sensuous and co-constitutive
interrelationship of body, mind and
environment. The visual elements on
which I will focus my presentation are
co-participants of the social life and they
powerfully contribute to the generation of
emotional atmospheres that are central
to understanding the emoscape of
Catalonia and its polarized identities in
these current years of conflict.
Quaderns-e Institut Català d'Antropologia, 2019
Resum La música contribueix a crear, mantenir i també subvertir l'ordre social. Aquesta és una de... more Resum La música contribueix a crear, mantenir i també subvertir l'ordre social. Aquesta és una de les diverses raons per les quals la música es tan important per als éssers humans. L'escenari polític a catalunya des de la tardor de 2017 ofereix nombrosos exemples que il·lustren perfectament aquesta realitat. el moviment social relatiu a les reivindicacions del sobiranisme en un estat espanyol en involució democràtica ha generat la seva pròpia banda sonora constituïda pel paisatge acústic de les cassolades, les consignes i cants que es coregen als carrers o els esdeveniments musicals de caire reivindicatiu que s'organitzen a les principals poblacions del país. tot centrant-me en el període comprés entre la tardor de 2017 i començaments de 2019 oferiré una visió de la diversitat i creativitat de les pràctiques sonores i musicals que, amb la seva particular realitat acústica, caracteritzaren aquells moments de gran efervescència social.
Abstract Music helps to create, maintain and to subvert the social order. This is one of several reasons why music is so important to humans. The political scene in Catalonia since the autumn of 2017 offers numerous examples that illustrate this reality perfectly. The social movement relative to the demands of self-government in a State showing a democracy involution, has generated its own soundtrack made up of the soundscape of caceroladas, the chorused slogans and chants in the streets or the musical events of political kind, which are organized in the main towns of the country. Focusing on the period between the autumn of 2017 and beginning of 2019, I will offer a glimpse of the diversity and creativity of sound and musical practices, which with its own acoustic reality, characterize those moments of great social effervescence.
TRANS, revista transcultural de música, 2004
Asensio, S. y J. Martí: “Prólogo. Música en España y música española. Identidad y procesos transc... more Asensio, S. y J. Martí: “Prólogo. Música en España y música española. Identidad y procesos transculturales”, en TRANS. Revista Transcultural de Música 8.
Globalización, transculturación e identidad son tres conceptos que se hallan estrechamente relacionados. Con la globalización se acercan entre sí sociedades antes mucho más distantes, se unifican mercados y se difunden o generalizan infinidad de prácticas culturales. El fenómeno de la globalización no se entendería sin tener en cuenta sus tres componentes: la dimensión económica, la política y la cultural. Y si se tiende hacia un sistema mundial, un concepto clave para entender los complejos procesos que tienen lugar es el de transculturación. Es precisamente esta idea la que nos ayudó a superar aquellas viejas visiones que entendían las culturas como algo cerrado y casi autónomo. Los procesos de transculturación son parte intrínseca del existir humano, dado que nuestra especie no se entendería sin aquello que denominamos cultura o sin la vida grupal.
In this article I present some ideas related to the posthumanist
thinking concerning bodies. Tryi... more In this article I present some ideas related to the posthumanist
thinking concerning bodies. Trying to understand the reality by
overcoming conceptual schemes of Cartesian dualism, anthropocentrism and biocentrism, the post-humanist notion of the body
is based on different presuppositions from those of humanism.
It does not conceive the body as a mere support of the mind but
instead departs from the embodiment concept, but understanding
this idea in a wider form as it was originally formulated by
Thomas Csordas. The body is conceptualized as an assemblage
of different elements which only becomes understandable through
intra-actions (Karen Barad) with everything that surrounds
it, unlike the classical vision that considers the body as a unified
organic whole separated from its surroundings. The body does
not end at the skin (Donna Haraway). In this way, the boundaries
of the body, so clearly established by epistemological structures,
which are profoundly anthropocentric and based on individual/
society and mind/body dualities are blurred in the conceptual framework
of posthumanism. Within the characteristic non dualist
ontology of posthumanism what counts are relations not entities.
The body is understood rather than in terms of what it is, according
to its capacity of action and interaction (Gilles Deleuze).
Keywords:
body, posthumanism, agency, relationality, affect
Este artículo presenta un análisis de los fondos del IRSH, CELTHO y
CFPM de Níger.
Edited books by Josep Martí
Introducción a los Estudios Africanos, 2009
El libro recoge textos sobre Africa de LLuís Mallart, Gustau Nerín, Virgina Fons, José María Ortu... more El libro recoge textos sobre Africa de LLuís Mallart, Gustau Nerín, Virgina Fons, José María Ortuño, Antoni Castel, Albert Farré, Ramon Sarró, Jordi Tomás, Carme Junyent, Myriam Mallart, Creus, Josep Maria Perlasia, José Manuel Prada, Josep Martí, Laura Mascarella, LLuís Mallart, Bernhard Bleibinger, Artur Colom i Yolanda Aixelà.
Call for Papers by Josep Martí
Every academic discipline is concerned in some way or other with the human being, but among the g... more Every academic discipline is concerned in some way or other with the human being, but among the great variety of branches of knowledge there are some that focus more closely on the human condition and its capacity for cultural creation: as a whole these are referred to as the humanities.
Today reference is made, with some justification, to a ‘crisis in the humanities’, a problematic situation increasingly confronted by intellectuals and one that may have major consequences well beyond the cultural field as such. Are the humanities necessary? We believe they are; indeed, we are absolutely convinced they are. It would be difficult to learn to live together, not only amongst each other as human beings but also with the environment which we inhabit, if we do not do so on the basis of knowledge and values inherent to and offered by the humanities.
One of the characteristic traits of humanities studies is critical thinking, not only as regards what is necessary in order to deepen knowledge, but also as regards academic practice in the disciplines. This means that continual re-thinking is required since not to do so would imply lack of awareness of the profound changes—and so needs—experienced by society, changes that without a doubt are already taking place in a process of constant acceleration.
What direction, then, should the humanities follow given the changes and social challenges that confront us today? What should their role be in the highly critical anthropocene moment in which we are living? To what extent do the humanities need reformulation, reconsideration or even overturning of the very humanist mode of thinking from which they derive?
These are some of the questions to be tackled by specialists in the field throughout the international conference ‘Humanities in Transition’ organized by the Institución Milá y Fontanals of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), 23-26 October 2018.
Call for papers:
15/05/2018, 23:59 (UTC/GTM +1)
Notification of acceptance of proposals:
31/05/2018
Registration deadline:
01/10/2018, 23:59 (UTC/GTM +1)
Papers by Josep Martí
Revista D Etnologia De Catalunya, 2001
Yearbook for Traditional Music, 1994
Uploads
Articles by Josep Martí
study of horizontal influence (dynamic, meaningful), rather than vertical roots (ancestral, quasi sacred) in a musical repertoire. “Social relevance” would be the academic opposite to “cultural paternity” (as ethnic ascription), prioritizing the importance that a song, instrument, or dance has for a community in a specific moment. Therefore, the main task of an ethnomusicologist is to understand the musical life of a society, because the relevance does not depend on music itself, but on its context. Consequently, the concept of social relevance rejects perceptions of popular music studies as marginal, and instead accepts the study of popular music as a discipline that deserves full scholarly attention, eliminating mythologized hierarchies of elite groups. The article discusses how social relevance manifests in three interrelated dimensions: meaning, or how a musical piece is perceived; the uses to which it is put; and its social functions. These analyses apply to different genres such as opera, jazz, rock, folk, classical, and avant-garde music, and point out the universal attributes they all share according to the principle of their
social relevance.
como res extensa por el cartesianismo, ha quedado entre estos dos polos y asume fácilmente la
categoría de objeto, como en el caso de los cadáveres o de los fragmentos corporales. En no pocas ocasiones, la exhibición de restos humanos tiene que ver con la práctica del racismo. En este artículo, me sirvo de la noción deleuziana de ensamblaje para analizar la centralidad
que posee el cuerpo en la problemática del racismo. A lo largo del texto presto una especial atención al caso del cuerpo disecado de un africano que, con la denominación de El Negro, estuvo expuesto en un pequeño museo naturalista de la ciudad catalana de Banyoles durante
casi todo el siglo XX. El caso de El Negro, que en los años 90 obtuvo repercusión mediática a escala internacional hasta que se consiguió su retirada del museo y la devolución de los restos del cuerpo a Botswana, puede entenderse dentro de una enmarañada red de ensamblajes en
los que, además del racismo, hay que contar con otros como el de la museística, sentimientos identitarios locales y el panafricanismo
years of conflict in Catalonia since 2017
is the proliferation of visual elements on
the street, which reflect the confrontation
with the Spanish state such as flags,
messages in the form of banners or
painted on the walls, and other visual
elements of protest. Beyond the
symbolic value of these visual elements,
a theoretical posthumanist approach
of this social activism in public spaces
leads us to apply a postanthropocentric,
non-dual and relational perspective.
In this way, without forgetting the
importance of discourse, meaning
and structure, attention is focused on
affects, intensities and the event in its
deleuzian sense. The unit of analysis is
not the visual elements or people but the
assemblages, relational fields in which
affects, feelings and emotions emerge.
The space and the elements that make
up the space are not misunderstood
as something disassociated from the
subject but rather understood in terms
of emplacement (Howes 2005), that
is, the sensuous and co-constitutive
interrelationship of body, mind and
environment. The visual elements on
which I will focus my presentation are
co-participants of the social life and they
powerfully contribute to the generation of
emotional atmospheres that are central
to understanding the emoscape of
Catalonia and its polarized identities in
these current years of conflict.
Abstract Music helps to create, maintain and to subvert the social order. This is one of several reasons why music is so important to humans. The political scene in Catalonia since the autumn of 2017 offers numerous examples that illustrate this reality perfectly. The social movement relative to the demands of self-government in a State showing a democracy involution, has generated its own soundtrack made up of the soundscape of caceroladas, the chorused slogans and chants in the streets or the musical events of political kind, which are organized in the main towns of the country. Focusing on the period between the autumn of 2017 and beginning of 2019, I will offer a glimpse of the diversity and creativity of sound and musical practices, which with its own acoustic reality, characterize those moments of great social effervescence.
Globalización, transculturación e identidad son tres conceptos que se hallan estrechamente relacionados. Con la globalización se acercan entre sí sociedades antes mucho más distantes, se unifican mercados y se difunden o generalizan infinidad de prácticas culturales. El fenómeno de la globalización no se entendería sin tener en cuenta sus tres componentes: la dimensión económica, la política y la cultural. Y si se tiende hacia un sistema mundial, un concepto clave para entender los complejos procesos que tienen lugar es el de transculturación. Es precisamente esta idea la que nos ayudó a superar aquellas viejas visiones que entendían las culturas como algo cerrado y casi autónomo. Los procesos de transculturación son parte intrínseca del existir humano, dado que nuestra especie no se entendería sin aquello que denominamos cultura o sin la vida grupal.
thinking concerning bodies. Trying to understand the reality by
overcoming conceptual schemes of Cartesian dualism, anthropocentrism and biocentrism, the post-humanist notion of the body
is based on different presuppositions from those of humanism.
It does not conceive the body as a mere support of the mind but
instead departs from the embodiment concept, but understanding
this idea in a wider form as it was originally formulated by
Thomas Csordas. The body is conceptualized as an assemblage
of different elements which only becomes understandable through
intra-actions (Karen Barad) with everything that surrounds
it, unlike the classical vision that considers the body as a unified
organic whole separated from its surroundings. The body does
not end at the skin (Donna Haraway). In this way, the boundaries
of the body, so clearly established by epistemological structures,
which are profoundly anthropocentric and based on individual/
society and mind/body dualities are blurred in the conceptual framework
of posthumanism. Within the characteristic non dualist
ontology of posthumanism what counts are relations not entities.
The body is understood rather than in terms of what it is, according
to its capacity of action and interaction (Gilles Deleuze).
Keywords:
body, posthumanism, agency, relationality, affect
Edited books by Josep Martí
Call for Papers by Josep Martí
Today reference is made, with some justification, to a ‘crisis in the humanities’, a problematic situation increasingly confronted by intellectuals and one that may have major consequences well beyond the cultural field as such. Are the humanities necessary? We believe they are; indeed, we are absolutely convinced they are. It would be difficult to learn to live together, not only amongst each other as human beings but also with the environment which we inhabit, if we do not do so on the basis of knowledge and values inherent to and offered by the humanities.
One of the characteristic traits of humanities studies is critical thinking, not only as regards what is necessary in order to deepen knowledge, but also as regards academic practice in the disciplines. This means that continual re-thinking is required since not to do so would imply lack of awareness of the profound changes—and so needs—experienced by society, changes that without a doubt are already taking place in a process of constant acceleration.
What direction, then, should the humanities follow given the changes and social challenges that confront us today? What should their role be in the highly critical anthropocene moment in which we are living? To what extent do the humanities need reformulation, reconsideration or even overturning of the very humanist mode of thinking from which they derive?
These are some of the questions to be tackled by specialists in the field throughout the international conference ‘Humanities in Transition’ organized by the Institución Milá y Fontanals of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), 23-26 October 2018.
Call for papers:
15/05/2018, 23:59 (UTC/GTM +1)
Notification of acceptance of proposals:
31/05/2018
Registration deadline:
01/10/2018, 23:59 (UTC/GTM +1)
Papers by Josep Martí
study of horizontal influence (dynamic, meaningful), rather than vertical roots (ancestral, quasi sacred) in a musical repertoire. “Social relevance” would be the academic opposite to “cultural paternity” (as ethnic ascription), prioritizing the importance that a song, instrument, or dance has for a community in a specific moment. Therefore, the main task of an ethnomusicologist is to understand the musical life of a society, because the relevance does not depend on music itself, but on its context. Consequently, the concept of social relevance rejects perceptions of popular music studies as marginal, and instead accepts the study of popular music as a discipline that deserves full scholarly attention, eliminating mythologized hierarchies of elite groups. The article discusses how social relevance manifests in three interrelated dimensions: meaning, or how a musical piece is perceived; the uses to which it is put; and its social functions. These analyses apply to different genres such as opera, jazz, rock, folk, classical, and avant-garde music, and point out the universal attributes they all share according to the principle of their
social relevance.
como res extensa por el cartesianismo, ha quedado entre estos dos polos y asume fácilmente la
categoría de objeto, como en el caso de los cadáveres o de los fragmentos corporales. En no pocas ocasiones, la exhibición de restos humanos tiene que ver con la práctica del racismo. En este artículo, me sirvo de la noción deleuziana de ensamblaje para analizar la centralidad
que posee el cuerpo en la problemática del racismo. A lo largo del texto presto una especial atención al caso del cuerpo disecado de un africano que, con la denominación de El Negro, estuvo expuesto en un pequeño museo naturalista de la ciudad catalana de Banyoles durante
casi todo el siglo XX. El caso de El Negro, que en los años 90 obtuvo repercusión mediática a escala internacional hasta que se consiguió su retirada del museo y la devolución de los restos del cuerpo a Botswana, puede entenderse dentro de una enmarañada red de ensamblajes en
los que, además del racismo, hay que contar con otros como el de la museística, sentimientos identitarios locales y el panafricanismo
years of conflict in Catalonia since 2017
is the proliferation of visual elements on
the street, which reflect the confrontation
with the Spanish state such as flags,
messages in the form of banners or
painted on the walls, and other visual
elements of protest. Beyond the
symbolic value of these visual elements,
a theoretical posthumanist approach
of this social activism in public spaces
leads us to apply a postanthropocentric,
non-dual and relational perspective.
In this way, without forgetting the
importance of discourse, meaning
and structure, attention is focused on
affects, intensities and the event in its
deleuzian sense. The unit of analysis is
not the visual elements or people but the
assemblages, relational fields in which
affects, feelings and emotions emerge.
The space and the elements that make
up the space are not misunderstood
as something disassociated from the
subject but rather understood in terms
of emplacement (Howes 2005), that
is, the sensuous and co-constitutive
interrelationship of body, mind and
environment. The visual elements on
which I will focus my presentation are
co-participants of the social life and they
powerfully contribute to the generation of
emotional atmospheres that are central
to understanding the emoscape of
Catalonia and its polarized identities in
these current years of conflict.
Abstract Music helps to create, maintain and to subvert the social order. This is one of several reasons why music is so important to humans. The political scene in Catalonia since the autumn of 2017 offers numerous examples that illustrate this reality perfectly. The social movement relative to the demands of self-government in a State showing a democracy involution, has generated its own soundtrack made up of the soundscape of caceroladas, the chorused slogans and chants in the streets or the musical events of political kind, which are organized in the main towns of the country. Focusing on the period between the autumn of 2017 and beginning of 2019, I will offer a glimpse of the diversity and creativity of sound and musical practices, which with its own acoustic reality, characterize those moments of great social effervescence.
Globalización, transculturación e identidad son tres conceptos que se hallan estrechamente relacionados. Con la globalización se acercan entre sí sociedades antes mucho más distantes, se unifican mercados y se difunden o generalizan infinidad de prácticas culturales. El fenómeno de la globalización no se entendería sin tener en cuenta sus tres componentes: la dimensión económica, la política y la cultural. Y si se tiende hacia un sistema mundial, un concepto clave para entender los complejos procesos que tienen lugar es el de transculturación. Es precisamente esta idea la que nos ayudó a superar aquellas viejas visiones que entendían las culturas como algo cerrado y casi autónomo. Los procesos de transculturación son parte intrínseca del existir humano, dado que nuestra especie no se entendería sin aquello que denominamos cultura o sin la vida grupal.
thinking concerning bodies. Trying to understand the reality by
overcoming conceptual schemes of Cartesian dualism, anthropocentrism and biocentrism, the post-humanist notion of the body
is based on different presuppositions from those of humanism.
It does not conceive the body as a mere support of the mind but
instead departs from the embodiment concept, but understanding
this idea in a wider form as it was originally formulated by
Thomas Csordas. The body is conceptualized as an assemblage
of different elements which only becomes understandable through
intra-actions (Karen Barad) with everything that surrounds
it, unlike the classical vision that considers the body as a unified
organic whole separated from its surroundings. The body does
not end at the skin (Donna Haraway). In this way, the boundaries
of the body, so clearly established by epistemological structures,
which are profoundly anthropocentric and based on individual/
society and mind/body dualities are blurred in the conceptual framework
of posthumanism. Within the characteristic non dualist
ontology of posthumanism what counts are relations not entities.
The body is understood rather than in terms of what it is, according
to its capacity of action and interaction (Gilles Deleuze).
Keywords:
body, posthumanism, agency, relationality, affect
Today reference is made, with some justification, to a ‘crisis in the humanities’, a problematic situation increasingly confronted by intellectuals and one that may have major consequences well beyond the cultural field as such. Are the humanities necessary? We believe they are; indeed, we are absolutely convinced they are. It would be difficult to learn to live together, not only amongst each other as human beings but also with the environment which we inhabit, if we do not do so on the basis of knowledge and values inherent to and offered by the humanities.
One of the characteristic traits of humanities studies is critical thinking, not only as regards what is necessary in order to deepen knowledge, but also as regards academic practice in the disciplines. This means that continual re-thinking is required since not to do so would imply lack of awareness of the profound changes—and so needs—experienced by society, changes that without a doubt are already taking place in a process of constant acceleration.
What direction, then, should the humanities follow given the changes and social challenges that confront us today? What should their role be in the highly critical anthropocene moment in which we are living? To what extent do the humanities need reformulation, reconsideration or even overturning of the very humanist mode of thinking from which they derive?
These are some of the questions to be tackled by specialists in the field throughout the international conference ‘Humanities in Transition’ organized by the Institución Milá y Fontanals of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), 23-26 October 2018.
Call for papers:
15/05/2018, 23:59 (UTC/GTM +1)
Notification of acceptance of proposals:
31/05/2018
Registration deadline:
01/10/2018, 23:59 (UTC/GTM +1)
music is the study of its semantic implications in a given socio-cultural
context. It is clear that hybridization, in one way or another, is an inherent
process in all kinds of music. For this reason it is important not only to
observe the origins and development of this phenomenon, but also to pay due
attention to what hybridization refers to on the emic level, i.e. hybridization as
a bearer of meanings, elucidating which meanings are associated by social
agents to these kinds of processes. This article focuses on this important
question and presents some general reflections on the meanings of
hybridization through concrete examples from the Catalan musical tradition.
Discussion will be restricted to the ethnicity-semantics axis. For this reason,
the examples of the Catalan musical tradition that are taken into account
belong to those musical streams that have explicitly conferred ethnic value to
it