Men

Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia Men Contributors: Linda Cimardi Editors: William Forde Thompson Book Title: Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia Chapter Title: "Men" Pub. Date: 2014 Access Date: December 15, 2014 Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks Print ISBN: 9781452283036 Online ISBN: 9781452283012 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452283012.n231 Print pages: 692-695 ©2014 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This PDF has been generated from SAGE knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book. Music in Social and Behavioral ©2014 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452283012.n231University of Bologna In several Western cultures, the word man has long been used, both in human and social sciences and in common discourses, to mean generally the human being, without a sexual or gendered specific connotation, but as a uniform category. However, as sociologist Georg Simmel has demonstrated, the traditional concept of humanity [p. 692 ↓ ] is implicitly shaped on manly elements and male worldviews. Although anthropologists had long studied social institutions related to manhood, masculinity was not thematized as a specific issue until the late 1970s, when the influence of feminist theories and gender studies on the complex of social sciences led to the academic foundation of men's studies. In the field of music, men's compositions and performances, as the most manifest musical expressions in society, have dominated the interest of both musicology and ethnomusicology at length. Similarly to what happened in the social sciences, gender studies were central in opening up a new approach to the investigation of men's (and women's) music, works, and performances. Men in Social Sciences In anthropology, social ceremonies connected to manhood (i.e., circumcision rituals) reserved to men (e.g., some male secret societies or social bonds) have traditionally been analyzed as some of the most evident cultural traits in a society, but little attention was given to masculinity as a specific topic. Moreover, a central institution as marriage has for long been analyzed as a phenomenon involving groups of people, disregarding its crucial role for the definition of individual (male and female) identity. In Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity (1990), anthropologist David D. Gilmore presents several case studies concerning the notions of manhood in different societies, with a special attention to recurrent patterns of virility. The central element emerging from this cross-cultural comparison is the general necessity of proving and showing masculinity in order to be a man: the individual needs to fit culturally determined categories and display virility to assert masculine gender. In nonWestern communities, this is usually marked by body practices and rituals (e.g., Van Gennep's rites of passage), which establish a status of manhood and a particular male identity. Page 3 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia: Men Music in Social and Behavioral ©2014 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge In anthropological studies, light was shed on the construction of self-identity through the interest for the processes of construction of the social human being, who needs cultural operations to integrate his or her biological nature and become fully human: this issue is conceptualized in the notion of anthropopoiesis, investigated by Francesco Remotti in Forme di Umanità (2002). Its specification as andropoiesis (the construction of man) introduced a renovated attention to the nonbiological, socially created elements of manhood. Works analyzing male rituals (e.g., Nande tribe's circumcision ceremonies) as well as their social implications (creating a neat division between recognized men and both women and boys) have deepened understanding of the cultural and social dimensions of masculinity. Anthropology of youth, however, has shown how rites of passage have lost meaning, or have been radically modified, in the postcolonial age, where urbanization, neoliberalism, and new intergenerational relationships have opened innovative avenues to assert masculinity. “Navigation” as the capability to find one's place in the adult world by means of agency and choice has become an important concept in studies of youth, especially males. Social sciences have acknowledged how the process of becoming a man in other societies often implies forms of affirmation common to their Western counterpart, especially based on obtaining financial incomes, the possibility of creating and supporting one's family, and gaining social status and acceptance in the adults' world. In the social sciences, and especially in sociology, male identity started to be thematized in the 1930s and 1940s in the United States with the theory of sexual roles, intended as a psychological correspondent of biologic sex and conceptualized as normative. In this context, heterosexuality was taken as the normal paradigm, and scales of masculinity and femininity, with values that referred to different kinds of cultural stereotypes, were elaborated. A new trend of interest for investigating men's identity developed after 1970, adopting the theoretical contributions that emerged from feminism and gender studies, which saw gender as a system of power inequality; in a constructivist perspective, distance was taken from sexual roles theory, the biological base for social difference was denied, and femininities and masculinities were defined as acquired social identities, derived by cultural prescripts and embodied by individuals through enculturation. Page 4 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia: Men Music in Social and Behavioral ©2014 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge During the 1980s, an academic field for men's studies emerged as a counterpart of women's studies, focusing in particular on masculine identity, [p. 693 ↓ ] manhood issues, male sexuality, and men's rights. Central is the theoretical construct of “hegemonic male identity,” the idea of a dominant model of manhood as heterosexual and institutionalized through marriage. R. W. Connell developed this concept by demonstrating how hegemonic male identity determines asymmetrical power relations between man and woman, but also between man and man, thus creating “subordinate male identities.” In her work, Masculinities (1995), Connell deals with the idea of manhood as an identity that contains multiple connotations, with heterosexuality or homosexuality just some of the possibilities. The focus moved from one manhood to plural concepts of masculinities. The importance of this analytic model lies in the fact that the political order, structured on sexual inequality where men dominate, is seen as founded on the naturalization of male supremacy, its assumption as a natural fact and pertaining to a domain not subjected to political discussion. In postmodern societies, the hegemonic male identity can be considered as disarticulated into at least two different variants: one based on the physical virility, and the other defined by economic power. Subordinate male identities sometimes tend to support hegemonic masculinity, in its double articulation, as a general symbolic means for the reproduction of power relations between genders, and consequently corroborate the status quo. More recently, men's studies broadened the net of interdisciplinary connections through the open exchange with queer and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) studies on one side, and with race, ethnic, and postcolonial studies on the other. This has permitted the growth of a renovated scholarship in which other crucial elements defining individual identity are considered alongside gender. In this perspective, a more comprehensive and deeper understanding of the cogent construction of subordinate masculinities has been possible. For example, in industrialized societies, the frequent criminalization of men from ethnic minorities is usually related to an emphasis on their diversity, thus racializing their male identities. By contrast, it has been demonstrated that normative masculinities (as well as femininities) that support the hegemonic gender models contribute to strengthen a social and political order in which the gender identity of subordinated groups is manipulated to maintain their inferior position in society. Page 5 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia: Men Music in Social and Behavioral ©2014 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge Men's Music The history of Western art music has been dominated by male composers, artists, and performers because Western society saw music professionalism as a masculine activity (with the main exception of female singers); consequently, musicology as a discipline has typically concentrated on men's musical works and interpretations. In the last decades, the acceptance of a gendered perspective in this field has led to thematizing differences brought by sexual differences: manhood as an object of study in Western art music has thus been identified, in a parallel path of research into women's role in this musical tradition. Ruth Solie's Musicology and Difference (1993) is one of the first works dealing with this issue, and some of the essays of the volume debate the topic of musical masculinity. John Blacking's leading book, How Musical Is Man? (1973), still employs “man” in the sense of “human being,” whose varied musical behaviors are considered, until the last two ethnomusicological studies polarize on male music traditions, usually without an open discussion about the gendered specificity of these repertoires. Similarly to what happened in Western art music, men's musical practice was also the most noticeable in the majority of traditional contexts. This is because public music performing and instrumental playing (normally accompanied by some sort of music professionalism) is usually a male domain in several traditional societies. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, music related to traditional chiefs' and kings' courts was mainly performed by men, as royal musicians and griots. In various traditional communities, musical instruments were reserved to men and forbidden to women, who could not play them, and in some cases, could not even touch or see them. In some of these contexts, musical instruments condensed conceptions of virility, which could be related to the specific shape of the instrument, its sound, or its material. For instance, among some Aboriginal groups, the bullroarer is a secret manly instrument associated to male initiation because of the grave buzz it produces, which is thought to have great power, and in some communities, [p. 694 ↓ ] to evoke spirits. For this reason, it is taboo for women, children, and generally noninitiated men. Even in the field of vocal music, European devotional music connected to the Catholic religion was Page 6 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia: Men Music in Social and Behavioral ©2014 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge primarily performed by laic male associations, the confraternities, whose polyphonic repertoire is usually impressive, whereas female confraternities are rarer. In ethnomusicology, the centrality of gender in music practices has been acknowledged since the early 1990s. In this area, an early interest for women's musical expressions has later been complemented by a focus on men's repertoires, with a deeper reflection on gender implications. Music linked to manhood ceremonies, as the one played during different kinds of male initiation rituals, has been analyzed in its peculiarity as manly music expression, underlining the specific form and content as codified masculine identity that is fostered by music. The investigation of manly concepts has equally touched upon traditional marriage music, in which gender identity (in its dual and opposed declinations) is usually expressed. The relative youth of popular music studies and their strong link to sociological analysis have marked an early adoption of research trajectories directed to the inquiry of gender identity, and in particular of the plurality of male subjectivities, heterogeneously represented in the different popular genres, through musical form and style, lyrical content, and onstage performance. LindaCimardi, University of Bologna http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452283012.n231 See Also: • • • • • Cultural Meaning of Gender Gender Power Social Bonding Women Further Readings Adams, R., ed. and D. Savran, eds. The Masculinity Studies Reader . Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. Page 7 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia: Men Music in Social and Behavioral ©2014 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge Biddle, I. D., ed. and K. Gibson, eds. Masculinity and Western Musical Practice . Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2009. Jarman-Ivens, F., ed. Oh Boy! Masculinities and Popular Music . London: Routledge, 2007. Whitehead, S. M. Men and Masculinities: Key Themes and New Directions . Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2002. Page 8 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia: Men