Response to Challenge Question Response

Response to Mike's response

I really enjoyed reading this response. Your point about the “traveling ethnomusicologist” perpetuating a pre-existing order is complex and interesting. I think that you are right, and the idea of a western traveler being exposed to a new culture pre-disposes us to think of that culture as an “other.” However, the question I have in response is whether or not that causes the reader to adopt a western bias—in other words, is emphasizing the non-western-ness of a culture the same as emphasizing the western-ness of the ethnomusicologist? I think it’s a very subtle facet of the argument to which the length of the challenge question wasn’t conducive to fully addressing.

I also liked very much the way you brought in the concept of technology to help trace the progression of ethnomusicology from being an outsider form to an insider form. I agree with your statements, and I think that it will be interesting to see if your predictions about the level playing field take effect.

Your statements about the benefits of insider ethnomusicology were also very interesting, and I enjoyed your discussion on how it exemplified the difficulties of a post-colonial relationship. However, I am not sure if I agree that there are fewer ethical dilemmas than with outsider ethnomusicology. I certainly agree that the ethical dilemmas are different, but insider bias is just as likely as outsider bias to give a distorted view of the culture—do the insider ethnomusicologists not have an equal responsibility to the scholarly discipline as they do to their culture?

Overall, I thought this was a great challenge response. I think you addressed the question very thoroughly and elegantly, and I very much enjoyed reading it.