Nothing was written about the highly visible musical activities of the women I observed. Of the thirteen chapters presented here, seven have been published elsewhere (see the notes to each chapter at the end of the book). And what about the rest of the women in the world and the rest of their music?
One of the most powerful of these concerned the relative status of women and men as separate groups. Women and men from other parts of the postcolonial world still had different stories that needed to be heard. Was the male experience also that of the female in the cultural contexts we studied?
Despite the current picture, references to women's music and musical practices are not rare in ethnomusicological literature. We're all done for the day, sniffing in the basement of the dorm where we're staying. Third-wave feminism grew out of second-wave criticism and took on a life of its own in the 1990s.
However, it was not widely used in ethnomusicological research in the 1990s, as it generally did not include fieldwork. In 1991, for example, Charlotte Frisbie published an essay in Ethnomusicology (the journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology) describing the history of women in the early, formative period of society. Such social behavior is accompanied by an unequal valuation of the sexes, which places women in a subordinate position.
The Describer, Looking In
The process of attaining devekut is described as moving from the animal to the divine soul (or often from "the heel of the foot to the top of the head"); when the divine soul is reached, the animal. For example, Moses, Rabbi Schneur Zalman, and other ancestral men are often referred to as being in the "top of the head," and people living today are in the realm of the "heel to the foot." Finally, the animal or mundane soul is conceptualized as disorder, often in need of constraining laws or codes, whereas the divine soul is seen as ordered or having the ability to order. Devekut is produced by observing the laws of Orthodox Judaism and by living all aspects of one's life with proper divine intention (kavannah).
In order for a nigunim to be included in the repertoire, however, the nigunim must be performed in the presence of a rebbe in a socially sanctioned context, such as a farbrengen. Two main factors influence the performance, composition and reception of nigunim: the spiritual background of the performer and the performer's gender. Many of the Lubavitchers now living in Crown Heights were born into Hasidism, and many come from strong Hasidic lineages that go back to Eastern Europe and the seventeenth century.
In this country, in the late 1960s and 1970s, Hasidism, especially Habad Hasidism, saw the growth of the Ba'al Teshuvah,1 or "returning" movement, resulting in a strong influx of new, predominantly American-born, non-Orthodox Jews who wished to return to Orthodoxy. A woman's singing voice has the potential to connect the body to the forbidden sexuality and thus to the mundane world and the animal soul. Later, scholars debated other issues, such as whether kolisha referred to the speaking as well as the singing voice, or whether a woman's voice was sexually stimulating all the time, only when a (man) recited the Shema (the holiest of Hebrew prayers), only when engaged in religious studies, or only when one was naked.
He saw that the word ervah referred to a woman and to the context of the performance, not specifically to a woman's voice. Whoever indulges in [association with an unlawful woman] becomes open to the suspicion of illicit relations. Whoever sets his mind on these things is subject to the scourging prescribed for disobedience.
It is forbidden even to listen to a woman's song within the forbidden unions, or to look at her hair. Maimonides, in effect, shifted the emphasis from women's inherent sexuality and their voices to the context of a potentially illicit relationship between a man and a forbidden woman within an unsanctioned context. Thus women, especially Ba'alot Teshuvah and young, unmarried women, when not in the presence of men, freely engage in many of the same musical activities as their male counterparts.
The Analyst, Looking In
Women who come to the main Lubavitcher synagogue in Crown Heights sit in the women's gallery, a balcony high above the area occupied by the men, to ensure strict segregation of the sexes. The gallery is enclosed by darkened sheets of plastic, so women's view of and participation in the process below is quite limited. Unmarried Ba'alot Teshuvah tend to be the least valued, but also the most active musically and the most adventurous in terms of their musical practice, often singing under their breath during the Rebbe's gatherings or services, composing their own tunes, call their own. farbrings, and sometimes listen to current popular music.
The rebbe, as the spiritual and symbolic head of this group, controls its destiny through his spiritual lineage, personal sanctity and, above all, his access to the divine realm. Members of the group of least value, unmarried Ba'alot Teshuvah, are believed to be still somewhat connected to the everyday world and are relatively out of control in that they have not yet married and produced children. This belief is confirmed in everyday Lubavitcher life, for of all the social groups within Lubavitcher society, it is unmarried Ba'alot Teshuvah who are most encouraged to continue on their spiritual path, not only through hard study and careful observance of traditional laws, but, more importantly, by marrying and producing children.
Ba'alot Teshuvah, the least valued group, is exploited in a purely Marxist sense, as the group at the top (older, lifetime Lubavitcher males) through the ideology of spirituality control the fruit of their labor—. Ba'alot Teshuvah can be called cooperative, in that they work within the system and do not seem to be oppressed by it. Returning now to the binary contrasts presented in the Lubavitcher worldview, we see that they seem to line up as follows: the mundane domain consists, among other things, of the animal soul, Ba'alei Teshuvah (especially female), modern day usa
The spiritual realm consists of the divine spirit, all adult Lubavitchers, Eastern European Jewish culture, nigunim, and male voices. Things perceived as mundane have the potential to spiral out of control—accumulate too much animal spirit—and therefore must be limited, controlled, or otherwise limited for the protection of the group. Women, especially Ba'alot Teshuvah who perform music, accumulate a triple dose of out-of-control potential: that related to music, to their fertility, and to their sexuality.
The tension relates to whether women's musical performance will bring about social integration or destruction, whether the power of music will cause women and men to lose control sexually or withdraw their fertility, and whether raw sound, in the hands of a woman, it will really be done. music (nigun). Kol isha, in its effective silencing of women's literal and figurative voices, is essentially a male strategy to deny women their sexuality, that is, their power over the survival of the group. Kol Isha, like many of the restrictive codes of Orthodox Judaism, is a complex elaboration on a theme of male dominance within a strongly patriarchal system that, despite protestations to the contrary, values the actions and behaviors of men over those of women. 5.
Miriam, Looking Out
Of course, there are those who look down on the Ba'alei Teshuvah and see them as still part of the "secular" world, but they are not the majority. She may attribute this skewed analysis to the dominance of the animal soul in the researcher and will discard this image of her world. Some of the material presented here was later used in my book Music in Lubavitcher Life (2001).
Such tolerance also represents a potential threat - the allure of the secular, with its spiritually impoverished life. Musical assistants sit close to the rebbe, either at his table with others or in the front rows of the large synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway. Later I realized that the main criterion was spiritual origin; all the Rebbe's close associates were.
Thus, women, when not in the presence of men, engage freely in many of the same musical activities as their male counterparts. It is the responsibility of the Hasid to know himself - and he can only do this with a nigun. Many of the Ba'alei Teshuvah who have recently entered the community have had considerable experience with music.
In the accompanying literature of the tape it is said: "The emanations of the symphony orchestra affect the heart and the mind. Perhaps one of the best descriptions of the tradition of female instrumental performance in the context of courtship is found in the article by Usopay Cadar. Some societies at this end of the continuum are matrilineal or matrilocal, adding to the strength of women's social and family ties.
Such social behavior is accompanied by an unequal valuation of the sexes, which puts women in a subordinate position. 4. Tylor, who in his Primitive Culture (1871) defined culture as the study of the complex whole of human life. In 1977, anthropologist and ethnomusicologist John Blacking published the first collection of articles devoted to the anthropology of the body.
Some of the material I present here is a summary of what has been discussed more fully in earlier chapters. Women who studied women in the field were often too aware of the truth of specific women's lives (often the truth of their own lives).
