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

哥伦比亚大学的研究生马修·萨卡勒伊，由亚伦·A.福克斯将在卡特里娜飓风后对新奥尔良的当地文化习俗进行民族音乐学研究。爵士葬礼、狂欢节印第安仪式和被称为“二线”的游行在主要是非洲裔美国人的社区已经发生了世纪多，并围绕着游行乐队和其他音乐团体的表演而组织。通过追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的理解，即音乐组织的声音与社会实践密不可分。研究将主要基于对音乐家和其他从业人员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：新奥尔良文化将如何重建，卡特里娜飓风过后发生了什么样的文化变化，以及这场危机应该如何定位于更大的历史中？地方文化的做法在地方一级以外产生共鸣，并不可避免地与造成脆弱性模式的政府政策相联系。尽管公开谈论种族平等，新奥尔良的阶级界限通常反映种族界限。在举行爵士乐葬礼和游行的社区，系统性的贫困使非裔美国人居民容易受到灾难的影响，并使卡特里娜飓风成为另一场悲剧，这种悲剧因不平等的权力关系而加剧。非裔美国人文化实践者的话语将是这一领域研究的基础，包括个人的动机和理由返回或不返回家园。本文将分析新奥尔良文化的多重意义，定位政府话语，媒体报道，以及新奥尔良人试图重建他们的生活的实际经验的对应和差异。

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.