Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Reconstituting New Orleans Culture in the Wake of Disaster

哥伦比亚大学研究生Matthew Sakakeeny将在Aaron A.Fox博士的指导下，对卡特里娜飓风过后新奥尔良的当地文化习俗进行民族音乐研究。一个多世纪以来，爵士乐葬礼、狂欢节印第安人仪式和被称为“二线”的游行一直在以非裔美国人为主的社区举行，围绕着游行乐队和其他音乐团体的表演进行。通过跟踪这些事件在城市恢复中的作用，本论文项目将有助于人类学理解，音乐组织的声音与社会实践密不可分。这项研究将主要基于对音乐家和其他从业者的采访以及对文化习俗的观察。这些民族志数据将被解释为回答以下问题：新奥尔良的文化将如何重组，卡特里娜飓风过后，正在发生哪些文化变化，以及这场危机应该如何放在更大的历史中？当地文化的实践超越了地方层面，不可避免地与制造脆弱性模式的政府政策有关。尽管公开谈论种族平等，但新奥尔良的阶级界限通常反映出种族界限。举行爵士乐葬礼和游行的社区存在系统性贫困，这让非洲裔美国居民容易受到灾难的影响，并使卡特里娜飓风成为又一场悲剧，不平等的权力关系体系加剧了这一悲剧。非裔美国文化从业者的话语将是这一领域研究的基础，包括个人回国或不回国的动机和理由。本文将分析新奥尔良文化的多重含义，找出新奥尔良人在政府话语、媒体报道以及新奥尔良人试图重建生活的实际经历中的对应和差异。

Columbia University graduate student Matthew Sakakeeny, supervised by Dr. Aaron A. Fox, will undertake an ethnomusicological study of local cultural practices in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Jazz funerals, Mardi Gras Indian ceremonies, and parades called "second lines" have occurred in predominantly African American neighborhoods for more than a century and are structured around performances by marching bands and other musical groups. By tracking the role of these events in the city's recovery, this dissertation project will contribute to the anthropological understanding that musically organized sound is inseparable from social practice. The research will be based primarily on interviews with musicians and other practitioners and observation of cultural practices. This ethnographic data will be interpreted to answer the questions: How will New Orleans culture be reconstituted, what cultural changes are occurring in the aftermath of Katrina, and how should this crisis be situated within a larger history?The practices of local culture resonate beyond the local level and inevitably connect to governmental policies that create patterns of vulnerability. Despite public discourses of racial equality, class lines in New Orleans generally reflect racial lines. Systemic poverty in the neighborhoods where the jazz funerals and parades take place left African American residents vulnerable to disaster, and made Hurricane Katrina one more tragedy intensified by a system of unequal power relations. The discourse of African American cultural practitioners will be the basis of this field research, including individuals' motivations and reasoning for returning or not returning home. The dissertation will analyze the multiple meanings of New Orleans culture, locating correspondences and discrepancies in governmental discourse, media coverage, and the actual experiences of New Orleanians attempting to rebuild their lives.