Ethnomusicology

With an online directory of more than 230 separate collections, L.A. as Subject ensures that researchers know what materials are available, where they are located, and how to access them.

Live performances by internationally renowned artists in MIM’s theater will give guests an opportunity to hear the music from every corner of the globe.

Their collections represent the four fields of anthropology – ethnology, linguistics, archaeology, and physical anthropology – and include field notes, journals, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, maps, sound recordings, film, and video created by Smithsonian anthropologists and other preeminent scholars.

Developed originally by John B. Howard, later edited and augmented by Connie Mayer, and currently revised by Liza Vick and Kerry Masteller.

Wesleyan has Dr. McAllester's Navajo collection, the largest in the world, which includes eight different versions of Blessingway, two of Shootingway (among other ceremonies), each with hundreds of songs. Other important collections in the Archives include the only recordings in the United States of the Ulahingan, an epic of the Bagobo people in the Philippines; important collections of Iranian, Japanese, Spanish, Shetland Islands, Greek, Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe) mbira music, and North Indian (Hindustani); and exceptional collections of Indonesian and South Indian (Karnatak) music, two specialties of the world music program at Wesleyan.

While fragile, intangible cultural heritage is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization. An understanding of the intangible cultural heritage of different communities helps with intercultural dialogue, and encourages mutual respect for other ways of life.

The importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next. The social and economic value of this transmission of knowledge is relevant for minority groups and for mainstream social groups within a State, and is as important for developing States as for developed ones.

The mission of the Memory of the World Programme is: To facilitate preservation, by the most appropriate techniques, of the world's documentary heritage; To assist universal access to documentary heritage; To increase awareness worldwide of the existence and significance of documentary heritage.

Much of the world's audiovisual heritage has already been irrevocably lost through neglect, destruction, decay, and the lack of resources, skills, and structures, thus impoverishing the memory of mankind. Much more will be lost if stronger and concerted international action is not taken.