Music enculturation

Several other authors have approached the discussion regarding the relation between social
and cultural contexts with performance and reception of music23. For the purpose of this
study, and in order to discuss the relationships between learning and cultural contexts or
ecosystems, I will use the category of music enculturation which, as will be seen, can acquire
different types of expressions according to particular contexts. I will also use, as a standing
point, a particular view put forth by anthropological studies on enculturation, which states that
it is ‘focused on the acquisition of interwoven social, cultural, and personal dimensions of
identity, and of their meanings in the context of socio-cultural understanding and action’
(Porter, 2005, p. 831). From this stance, the idea of enculturation is key to understanding the
process of immersion which is embedded in the learning of most musicians who I interviewed
for this project. Referring concretely to music enculturation, Green states:
The concept of musical enculturation refers to the acquisition of musical skills and knowledge
by immersion in the everyday music and musical practices of
23 For a general discussion regarding music and territory see Deleuze & Guattari (1987). For a
discussion regarding the relation between performance and place, see Stokes (1994), and for a
discussion about music, context and education, see Green (2008, 2013).
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one’s social context. Almost everyone in any social context is musically encultured. It cannot
be avoided because we cannot shut our ears, and we therefore come into contact with the
music that is around us, not only by choice but by default (Green, 2012, p. 22).
The skills and knowledge that are developed throughout this process of enculturation pertain
to the development of perceptual processing, which is related to pitch and rhythmic structures
of musical systems, understanding of aesthetic and expressive norms, and the use of music in
diverse social situations (Tarinor in Savage, 2013, pp. 5-6). As will be seen, enculturation may
also be related to the experiencing of music in connection with aspects that are broader than
the social sphere, such as territory, animals, landscapes or rivers. This is a type of experience
which, as I will argue, is directly related with the way music is lived and performed. In this
sense, I will show some important bonds between this organic experience and the category of
sabor.
I will now present the different types of musical enculturation that I found throughout the
learning contexts that were studied. I will concentrate mainly on enculturation in relation to
the learning of joropo music since, as I mentioned earlier, it was in relation to this style that I
could find more evident links between learning and cultural contexts among participants. Thus,
I have a large amount of rich data which will allow me to dive into a deep and subtle analysis of
the types of relations that are at stake. Other pieces of research can surely offer a more in-
depth look at the way music enculturation takes place in relation to genres such as music from
other countries in South America, jazz or early music.
To start, I should say that I found two main types of music enculturation. In the first place,
there is a primary type of enculturation, which occurs when the learner is involved in direct, in-
person experiences within the diverse social and cultural practices of the original territory
where the music is produced such as: family gatherings, religious celebrations, parties,
festivals, labour activities and so on. This exposure to music within social practices usually
takes place early in life, during childhood and early adolescence, and continues to develop
throughout the years. These early experiences normally have an intense quality, since it is at
that moment of
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life that musical meanings in relation to cultural settings are constructed with a deeper level of
incorporation (Porter, 2005).
On the other hand, I found evidence of what I will refer to as a secondary type of enculturation
(Miranda, 2015). This sort implies having late or virtual contact with traditional music and its
cultural contexts. I understand ‘virtual’ as ‘very close to being something without actually
being it’ or ‘existing or occurring on computers or on the Internet’ (Merriam-Webster, 2016).
Within secondary enculturation, we can find two sorts of experiences. With regard to the first
of these, late, in-person contact is established with local contexts for more or less extended
periods of time. An example of this type is when an adult musician who was born in a region
that is different from the traditional music’s original context, decides to visit that local context
in order to attend a festival and have contact with local people, their customs, and with the
natural environment. On the other hand, it can also include virtual experiences such as when
audio-visual tools are used to study explicit links between music and the social practices
embedded within it; for example, when a teacher uses a video of a joropo ensemble that plays
music for a religious celebration or as accompaniment for dancers. I will also include in this
virtual secondary type of enculturation the active or passive exposure to music, since listening
to and playing music is a cultural practice in itself; an example of this would be jamming with
traditional musicians or listening to music (live or recorded) in a foreign cultural context. The
situations which fall under the first sort (on place secondary enculturation) tend to have a
more intense quality than those of the second sort (virtual secondary enculturation) because
they imply a direct exposure to and interaction with local cultural and social realities.
In the following chart, I condense these different ‘layers’ of enculturation:

As can be noticed, the chart offers a characterisation of enculturation experiences in relation

to two variables: age (horizontal axis) and type of contact with cultural contexts (vertical axis).
A third (diagonal) axis signifies how intense a particular experience is. In this sense, an early
experience that implies direct and in- person contact with the original context or territory and
with its cultural practices is a primary-strong enculturation. An experience that implies late,
though direct contact with the context and some of its musical traits is a secondary-strong
enculturation. On the other hand, a virtual experience that implies indirect contact with the
territory, for example through videos, is a soft secondary enculturation. From this stance, just
listening to music would imply the softest type of enculturation.
I will argue that, in some cases, secondary enculturation can be understood as a ‘translation’ of
primary enculturation. Both types of enculturation are present in closed systems of
transmission and open systems of transmission contexts. However, early primary enculturation
is much more present in open systems of transmission. On
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the other hand, virtual enculturation appears in a more specialised and structured way along
settings in closed systems of transmission. This means that primary enculturation, which tends
to be more free and organic in open systems, is translated into an experience that is isolated
and can be fragmented with some type of pedagogic intentionality, as in the example of the
video.
In this sense, and from a pedagogical perspective, an interesting intersection can be
established between the above-mentioned characterisation and Green’s (2008, 2013) ideas in
relation to the celebratory experience of music; indeed, this celebratory experience is possible
when there is an adequate mixture of understanding meanings related, on the one hand, to
the inter-sonic elements of music (e.g. form, harmony, rhythm, style) and its delineations (i.e.
contexts of production and reception of music). Exploring educational strategies which
intentionally move along the above-mentioned axis and looking for closer contact with the
cultural contexts embedded in music, might offer pertinent insights into the pedagogic
conditions that can favour this type of celebratory experience of music.
I will now present the different types of musical enculturation that I found throughout the
learning contexts that were studied. I will start by offering some examples of the way in which
musicians are encultured in contexts such as family, social gatherings and groups (open
systems of transmission settings) and will then refer to private lessons and institutions (closed
systems of transmission settings) in an attempt to decipher how enculturation occurs across
the learning spectrum.

Systems of transmission and types of enculturation

Open systems of transmission and primary enculturation

Throughout the first section of this chapter I will be referring to the role of enculturation in the
process of transmission of music within open systems. As will be seen, this process of
incorporation of music is strongly embedded in natural, social and cultural frames that include:
family, friends, territory, nature, labour, parties and religious gatherings. I will argue that the
implicit connections between musical practice and these natural and socio-cultural contexts
are a crucial aspect of the quality of transmission.

Listening to music and playing in everyday life with family and friends
The most typical situations of musical enculturation for cuatro musicians take place when they
are young, in the frame of everyday life experiences24. Several authors agree that
enculturation is a complex matter in the sense that it involves not only social and cultural
structures in which individuals are embedded but is also determined by personal biographies
and situations that imply intricate and diverse ways of subjectification that can vary between
individuals of the same cultural group. However, they also agree that childhood is an essential
moment for the incorporation of cultural meanings, even if these are transformed later on:
Cultural understanding and social competence, and the relevant senses of personal identity,
however they may be subsequently transformed, first begin to be acquired, organized, made
personally significant, and put to social use in the early interactions in which children engage
and in the ‘societies’ and ‘cultures’ that they construct for themselves both seriously and
playfully (Porter, 2005, p. 841).
24 Some examples of early encultu