emh0025's blog
New on the Faculty Bookshelf -- Steven Friedson's Remains of Ritual: Northern Gods in a Southern Land
"Beautifully written, with a deft integration of history, theory, interpretation, and fine-grained ethnographic detail, Friedson's narrative-style analysis of Ghanaian Ewe shrine rituals and their music is compelling reading with breathtaking insights in every chapter. Integrating the phenomenological approaches of Heidegger with his sustained field research, Friedson presents the reader with more than just a fresh look at Ewe trancing, drumming, dancing, and singing—he teaches us how to conceptualize gold-standard fieldwork. Without didacticism, Friedson demonstrates the importance of long-term field research and how he negotiates his own role as a participant in the most intimate of Ewe shrine rituals without actually becoming a member. Efficacy is in the doing, not in the believing. He has appropriated and reinterpreted a philosopher from the European past to present a strangely beautiful and haunting tale of a contemporary West African musical/ religious practice." - Judith Becker, University of Michigan
Steven M. Friedson is Regents Professor of Music and Anthropology and the author of Dancing Prophets: Musical Experience in Tumbuka Healing.
