Editing Ethnomusicology (section)

=== Decolonizing ethnomusicology ===
In humanities and education studies, the term decolonization describes "an array of processes involving social justice, resistance, sustainability, and preservation".<ref name="ReferenceE">Chavez, Luis and Russel Skelchy. "Decolonizable Spaces in Ethnomusicology." ''Society for Ethnomusicology Student News'' 12(2): 20-21.</ref> Ethnomusicologists have used decolonial approaches for diverse purposes, including showing how non-Western nations use music projects to negotiate [[international relations]],<ref name="Hebert.2022">{{cite book |author=Hebert, David G. |title=Ethnomusicology and Cultural Diplomacy |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2022}}</ref> and to promote equality and transparency in intercultural music performance.<ref name="Ostersjo.2023">{{cite book |author=Ostersjo, Stefan; Nguyen, Thanh Thuy; Hebert, David G.; Frisk, Henrik |title=Shared Listenings: Methods for Transcultural Musicianship and Research |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2023}}</ref> As early as 2006, decolonization became a central topic of discussion, although some ethnomusicologists considered it to be only a metaphor.<ref name="ReferenceE" /> For ethnomusicology, understanding decolonization means analyzing fundamental changes in power structures, worldviews, academia, and the university system.<ref name="ReferenceE" />

Initially, Western methods and beliefs dominated ethnomusicology, as shown in Alder's work from 1885<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mugglestone |first=Erica |last2=Adler |first2=Guido |date=1981 |title=Guido Adler's "The Scope, Method, and Aim of Musicology" (1885): An English Translation with an Historico-Analytical Commentary |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/768355 |journal=Yearbook for Traditional Music |volume=13 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.2307/768355 |issn=0740-1558}}</ref> and Gilman's work from 1909,<ref>Gilman, Benjamin I. 1909 The science of exotic music. Science 30:532-35</ref> which exemplify that Eurocentric approach  of analyzing music via musical scores. The arrival of recording technology and convenient travel, enabled more modern approaches.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Katz |first=Mark |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=r_p_Q6TUrQoC}} |title=Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music |date=2010-10-07 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-26105-1 |language=en}}</ref> That reliance on European knowledge and [[musical notation]] obscured the complexities of other musical traditions, some of which used scales for which no written notation existed at that time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Agawu |first=Victor Kofi |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=rPLkytU0jpcC}} |title=Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions |date=2003 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-94390-1 |language=en}}</ref> However, representing/interpreting music of all cultures with a standard system and notation can also be useful. Western music notation and musical systems serve as a crucial foundation for the comprehensive analysis and assessment of musical compositions. This standardized system provides a common language that enables musicians, scholars, and enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds to communicate effectively about musical elements such as melody, harmony, rhythm, and structure.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blacking |first=John |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=yqR6uASK2C0C}} |title=How Musical is Man? |date=1973 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-295-95338-0 |language=en}}</ref>  

Music archives are in part a legacy of colonial ethnomusicology.<ref>Koch, Lars-Christian. 2006. "Music Archives - A Legacy of Colonial Ethnomusicology or a Model for the Digital Democracy?." ''Society for Ethnomusicology Abstracts'': 100.</ref> Comparative musicologists used archives such as the [[Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv]] to study the world's music.<ref name="Fenn, John B 2006">Fenn, John B. 2006. "Engaging Our Data: Questions of Access, Methodology, and Use with Ethnomusicological Field Video." ''Society for Ethnomusicology Abstracts'': 100.</ref> Recovery and [[repatriation]] of archival records are one way to decolonizing the field. The [[International Library of African Music]] is one recipient of such material.<ref>Thram, Diane. 2014. The legacy of music archives in historical ethnomusicology: A model for engaged ethnomusicology. In J. McCollum and D. G. Hebert (Eds.), ''Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology.'' Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. 309–335.</ref>

Proposed approaches to decolonization include:<ref name="ReferenceE" />
* ethnomusicologists addressing their roles as scholars, 
* the university system being analyzed and revised,
* the philosophies and  practices, as a discipline being changed. 

Kibbee proposed that scholars admit scholarship presented via non-written media. He claimed to observe a Western bias against [[listening]] as an intellectual practice that he further claimed reduced the diversity of opinion and backgrounds. He linked this to colonialism via the ostensible [[Kantianism|Kantian]] belief that the act of listening was seen as a "danger to the autonomy of the enlightened liberal subject". He claimed that colonists tied social mobility to the ability to assimilate European schooling. Many such barriers kept other voices out of academia, such as the denial of intellectual depth in indigenous peoples.<ref name="ReferenceF">Kibbee, Brendan. "Decolonizing through Sound: Can Ethnomusicology Become More Audible?." ''Society for Ethnomusicology Student News'' 12(2): 21-23.</ref>