Music of Indigenous Peoples of North America

   While we had talked about a lot of different cultures and type of music in class, I was surprised that we only talked about Indigenous peoples from what is now the continental United States, despite the unit being on North America. I was curious about some of those, particularly the Mayans and the Aztecs, so I looked into the music from their cultures. Though there are similarities with these and the other cultures that we learned about, many elements seem to be more similar to those of the Andeans' culture. They have the similarities of using drums, shakers, and woodwinds, however they also used trumpets that are similar to didgeridoos. How they use instruments are pretty different as well, for example most music is heavily based on the woodwinds, and drums are not used to keep beat throughout the songs. Though I did not see many songs with singing, the few I did used normal lyrics rather than using vocables.  

    Another topic I thought was interesting that was briefly mentioned in class was hoop dancing. We talked a lot about shuffle dancing, fancy dancing, and traditional dancing, but hoop dancing is another common one in Indigenous cultures. Traditionally, it was a men only practice, but women have started  to come onto the scene in recent years. Some dancers use up to fifty hoops while dancing, though that is pretty uncommon. Hoop dancing is a form of storytelling, where the dancers act out the stories and use the hoops to create more details. Hoops can be used to imitate animals to tell stories, and the hoop itself is actually supposed to symbolize never-ending life. The way I actually discovered hoop dancing is from seeing it online, which is cool to see dancers do that now to connect with other people who have similar practices. 

This is actually a video of the man I saw on Instagram that first showed me what hoop dancing was. (Instagram @notoriouscree)

    A method of singing I had also found online is throat singing, which I knew was specific to Indigenous cultures, but I wanted to learn more about it. Throat singing is found in three cultures around the world, one of them being the Inuit culture. Inuit people live in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, and throat singing is a common practice in their musical culture. It was often used for games or lullabies, and is exclusively practiced by women, typically in pairs. It is not like typically singing though, as it is heavily based on breath rather than set notes. Throat singing was not widely performed for a long time because, no shocker here, it was banned for a hundred years. However, younger generations now practice it as a way to keep culture alive and connect with each other. This is actually how I found out about it, because I saw a woman post a video of her throat singing with her mother as a way to continue tradition. 

This is the video of the first woman I ever saw throat singing, and her videos told me a lot of what it was and the significance of it. (Instagram @shinanova)

Sources:

“Maya Music.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 May 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_music. 

Both, Arnd Adje. “Music, Song, and Dance among the Aztecs - a Short Introduction.” Music, Song and Dance among the Aztecs - A Short Introduction, www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/music/music-song-and-dance-among-the-aztecs-a-short-introduction. 

“Inuit Music.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Apr. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_music. 

“Throat Singing: A Unique Vocalization from Three Cultures.” Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, folkways.si.edu/throat-singing-unique-vocalization-three-cultures/world/music/article/smithsonian. 

“Native American Hoop Dance.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_Hoop_Dance. 

“Do You Know What Hoop Dancing Is? | CBC Kids.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/do-you-know-what-hoop-dancing-is. 

User, Super. “Native American.” Home, www.lotusmusicanddance.org/native-american-music-and-dance.