Jeff Todd Titon covers a number of new methods in approaching Native Americans and inquiring about their music in the text. The first important new method that Titon talks about at the beginning of the chapter is fieldwork. He mentions that fieldwork is an important practice because it is, "no longer viewed principally as observing and collecting (although it surely involves that) but as experiencing and understanding music" (see Titon 1992[1984]:xvi, Titon 87). This concept is reminescent of how McAllester viewed Native American culture and music in his text entitled "An Apache Fiddle." In the text, McAllester is described as actually observing closely as to how an Apache Fiddle was made with a grand sense of interest and fascination while doing so There are two specific practices mentioned which stand out from the others in a certain way, which are phenomenology and hermeneutics. These practices remain important because they are associated with, "Theories of knowledge based on understanding rather than explanation" (Titon 90). This idea reminds me of how, as discussed in previous readings and in class, that when it comes to Native American music, it is more essential for an outsider to apprehend how a song is actually meant to be perceived, especially since the core of its meaning varies from person to person, and to gain a sense of personal experience of the message in a song by letting oneself mentally experience the song in a surreal fashion. Phenomenology is individually significant because it highlights the instantaneous, solid, receptive planet of people who are animated, and it tries to cement information in a world of events viewed by people who are alive. Hermeneutics on the other hand had initially been regarded as a means of looking at the Bible, however it transformed into a strategy for trying to understand written works as a whole.
Other significant practices mentioned are included as part of a general description from the narrator's point of view in regards to the term "ethnomusicology," as what he describes as a "paradigm." Titon describes ethnomusicology as important based on the details that it has an, "emphasis on fieldwork and cultural immersion, rather than survey work; in addition, ethnomusicologists tend to distrust broad comparative generalizations and produce, instead, monographs based on detailed studies of particular music-cultures" (Titon 91). I think that this goes to show readers that ethnomusicologists really take their work seriously, since they try to dig deep and try to take it further into retrieving the accurate details of Native Americans and their music, as well as other cultures' music, with details that go against popular beliefs and that try to include more descriptive and informative details on these things. Jeff Todd Titon brings up another important concept in the chapter in regards to the word "text" and how it is defined. One important idea presented by him says that, "any meaningful action can be considered, or read, as a text; thus, a musical performance, for example, can be understood as the equivalent of a text" (1981b, Titon 90). Another key concept in regards to the word "texts" involves the basic definition given by Titon himself which is, "subjects of interpretation" (Titon 92). These ideas reminds me of how any concept in Native American culture can be subject to multiple and varying views of interpretation from both insiders and outsiders, which was mentioned in class. In addition, the usage of music in the example above and the idea of how any significant thing can represent a text reminds me how in Native American culture, just one important word that holds a symbolic meaning can represent an entire key concept of something, which was discussed in class and in previous readings.
Bruno Martell addresses the insider/outsider concept in his text through the details of his personal encounters with Native Americans during his travels. One important detail in regards to this concept mentioned in the reading explains that an outsider must have forbearance towards their interviewees and not be pushy with them in order to get the information they seek from the start out of them. This idea is present when a Native American spotted for an interview by the narrator who he approaches in a town at his residence tells him to, "'Come back and see me next Tuesday, and bring your machine,'" (Martell 134) when the narrator initially does not have enough cash to give to the man to enable him to learn about his music after he lets his main objectives be known to the man. Another important detail mentions how the personal relationship between an insider and an outsider can be very awkward and uncomfortable for one or the other, or both, at first but this relationship can eventually end up becoming more enjoyable. This idea is seen in the text when at first the narrator feels out of place in the town that he enters and is extremely nervous about asking who is and where to find a Native American who can explain to him important information in regards to Native American culture and/or music. He is also very wary when approaching the Native American man at his residence, but is a completely changed man some time later in his relationship with the man, named Joe, when the narrator says that, "I joined his family on picnics, moved from outsider to observer to something approaching participant-observer" (Martell 135). These ideas remind me of how all outsiders trying to gain insight into Native American music and culture when they approach these respective people should come off to them as pleasant, confident, respectable, and willing to open their minds up to a wide array of possibilities ,while not seeming to be presumptuous, awkward, pushy, or out for only their own benefits in any way whatsoever so that way they can get the best out of Native American culture and music. It definitely a lesson to be learned that any outsider trying to get inside Native American culture and music should make their interviews and such on these topics as less awkward as possible. The man in this text had a bit of an awkward encounter with the Native American, and this kind of interaction was also present in Curtis' text, in the story about an individual trying to translate/interpret the Hopi language in song down on paper and was given a questioning look by the chief of this group of people when the narrator was still writing things down on the paper long after he had finished singing, since this was no easy task for the narrator. In conclusion, Titon and Martell both address important concepts that require a decent amount of explanation for readers to fully understand.
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