Overview

"The Musical Gift tells Sri Lanka's music history as a story of giving between humans and nonhumans, and between populations defined by difference. Author Jim Sykes argues that in the recent past, the genres we recognize today as Sri Lanka's esteemed traditional musics were not originally about ethnic or religious identity, but were gifts to gods and people intended to foster protection and/or healing. Noting that the currently assumed link between music and identity helped produce the narratives of ethnic difference that drove Sri Lanka's civil war (1983-2009), Sykes argues that the promotion of connected music histories has a role to play in post-war reconciliation. The Musical Gift includes a study of how NGOs used music to promote reconciliation in Sri Lanka, and it contains a theorization of the relations between musical gifts and commodities. Eschewing a binary between the gift and identity, Sykes claims the world's music history is largely a story of entanglement between both paradigms. Drawing on fieldwork conducted widely across Sri Lanka over a span of eleven years--including the first study of Sinhala Buddhist drumming in English and the first ethnography of music-making in the former warzones of the north and east--this book brings anthropology's canonic literature on ""the gift"" into music studies, while drawing on anthropology's recent ""ontological turn"" and ""the new materialism"" in religious studies."

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9780190912055

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Reviews

"""In his multicultural analysis of Sri Lanka's soundscape, Sykes emphasizes the public exchange of melodies and rhythms, rituals and dances, between the island's diverse religions and ethnicities. This is an anthropologically rich book presenting a strong case against musical ethno-nationalism."" -- Dennis B. McGilvray, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Past President of the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies ""As assertions about music and the state become increasingly clich�, The Musical Gift provides a timely critique of the ""music and identity episteme."" Focusing on acts of musical giving, the author provides a wide-ranging study of interpenetrating musical histories in Sri Lanka - shared histories that have implications for post-war reconciliation. Music scholars, anthropologists, and South Asianists may all find something useful and surprising in this exciting new work."" -- Richard K. Wolf, Professor of Music and South Asian Studies, Harvard University"

In his multicultural analysis of Sri Lanka's soundscape, Sykes emphasizes the public exchange of melodies and rhythms, rituals and dances, between the island's diverse religions and ethnicities. This is an anthropologically rich book presenting a strong case against musical ethno-nationalism. -- Dennis B. McGilvray, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Past President of the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies As assertions about music and the state become increasingly clich , The Musical Gift provides a timely critique of the music and identity episteme. Focusing on acts of musical giving, the author provides a wide-ranging study of interpenetrating musical histories in Sri Lanka - shared histories that have implications for post-war reconciliation. Music scholars, anthropologists, and South Asianists may all find something useful and surprising in this exciting new work. -- Richard K. Wolf, Professor of Music and South Asian Studies, Harvard University

Author Information

Jim Sykes is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania. His research is in sound and music studies, religious studies, labor history/capitalism, and conflict studies, focusing to date on Sri Lanka and Singapore. He is the co-editor of Remapping Sound Studies (Duke University Press, 2019). He is also a drummer who has recorded and toured widely with numerous experimental and indie rock groups.

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