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Abstract

Resumo O artigo analisa possibilidades metodológicas da etnomusicologia no campo da saúde coletiva, partindo de uma experiência que triangulou teorias etnomusicológicas com a análise do discurso (AD). Após uma introdução à etnomusicologia aplicada, segue-se a descrição de aspectos metodológicos da experiência em questão. Em sequência, descreveu-se a condução da etapa etnomusicológica e o processo de triangulação. Os resultados mostram que os sistemas musicais se situam em estruturas de poder, influenciando a construção das subjetividades. A etnomusicologia aplicada emerge, portanto, como possibilidade para a análise das estruturas sobre as quais a música se alicerça. A partir de uma pesquisa a respeito das relações entre o forró e a percepção de jovens sobre a violência sexual, a etnomusicologia apresentou-se como possibilidade teórica para o estudo das performances sociais violentas e dos efeitos da música nas construções identitárias, além de fornecer elementos para o enfrentamento da violência dentro do próprio sistema cultural. Sua triangulação com a AD contribui para uma pesquisa etnográfico-discursiva, como possibilidade de análise das práticas sociais.
3581
Possibilities of ethnomusicology applied to the field
of public health
Abstract This article analyses methodological
possibilities of ethnomusicology in the field of
public health, starting from an experience that
triangulated ethnomusicological theories with
discourse analysis (DA). After an introduction to
applied ethnomusicology, it is followed by a de-
scription of methodological aspects of the experi-
ence in question. Subsequently, the conduction of
the ethnomusicological step and the triangulation
process was described. Results show that the musi-
cal systems are situated in power structures, influ-
encing the construction of subjectivities. Applied
ethnomusicology emerges, therefore, as a possibil-
ity for analyzing the structures on which the mu-
sic is rooted in. From a research on the relations
between forró and the perception of young peo-
ple’s perception about sexual violence, ethnomu-
sicology presented itself as a theoretical possibility
for the study of violent social performances and
about the effects of music in identity building, be-
sides providing elements for the confrontation of
violence inside the cultural system itself. Its trian-
gulation with DA contributes for an ethnograph-
ic-discursive research, as possibility of analysis of
social practices.
Key words Music, Methodology, Public health
Aline Veras Morais Brilhante (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3925-4898) 1
Elaine Saraiva Feitosa (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3006-4710) 1
Epaminondas Carvalho Feitosa (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3563-9651) 2
Ana Maria Fontenelle Catrib (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2088-0733) 1
DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232021269.2.24102019
1 Programa de Pós-
Graduação em Saúde
Coletiva, Universidade de
Fortaleza. Av. Washington
Soares 1321, Edson Queiroz.
60811-905 Fortaleza CE
Brasil. alineveras@unifor.br
2 Programa de Pós-
Graduação em Direito
e Gestão de Conflitos,
Universidade de Fortaleza.
Fortaleza CE Brasil.
HEALTH POLICY, IMPLEMENTATION OF PRACTICES
3582
Brilhante AVM et al.
Introduction
The phenomenon of violence, in its different
manifestations, is not ahistorical or devoid of
subjectivity1. Analysing violence against wom-
en implies understanding how these process-
es permeate societies and their mechanisms of
naturalization and legitimization2, including its
relationship with cultural discourses and perfor-
mances3 and with different social technologies4,
which act in the continuous process of cultural
identity formation3 and gender performativity5,6.
Thus, the need to analyse its relationship with the
naturalization of violence against women emerg-
es based on the premise that historicity is pivotal
to the construction of identity processes7.
Music acts as an artefact8 being “performa-
tively interpreted by a range of hierarchising and
selective procedures [...] subservient to various
powers and interests, of which the ‘subjects’ and
agents [...] are never sufficiently aware7. Given
studies that associate musical performances with
elements that nurture gender violence9-13, the fol-
lowing question emerged: how does music con-
tribute to the perpetuation and legitimization of
violence against women?
This question guided the study “Gender, sex-
uality and forró: a historical social study in the
Northeastern context”14, which analysed the dis-
courses of forró music from 1940 to the present.
Immersion in thematic and musical theory led
to the expansion of the methodological scope in
subsequent research, bringing it closer to ethno-
musicology.
Understanding the violent behaviour and mi-
metic performances of violence as part of a co-
herent system loaded with cultural significance,
a strand of the so-called applied ethnomusicol-
ogy seeks to understand the performative abil-
ities of violence and the meanings that violent
performances have to victims, perpetrators and
witnesses15. From that emerged a study anchored
in the epistemological assumptions of applied
ethnomusicology that sought to understand the
relationship between the ritualistic performances
of forró and youth perception about sexual vio-
lence16.
Considering that ethnomusicology has im-
portant potential in the field of Public Health,
we present an experience report on its use in the
7th Ibero-American Congress on Qualitative Re-
search17. In this context, the present article anal-
yses the methodological possibilities of the use
of ethnomusicology in the field of Public Health,
starting from the experience of a study on vio-
lence against women held in Fortaleza, Ceará,
Brazil, which triangulated ethnomusicological
theories with discourse analysis (DA).
Methodology
This article is based on the report of the expe-
rience of a study that used ethnomusicology as
a theoretical framework, triangulating it with
DA. The data of the study in question will not
be replicated because they are already available in
another publication. They will, however, be ref-
erenced to guide the discussion about the possi-
bility of applying ethnomusicology to the field of
Public Health.
To support the discussion, the theoretical
framework, i.e., ethnomusicology, is presented
next.
Ethnomusicology
Originating from the purely musical18 Berlin
school, ethnomusicology evolved into various
variants19. Its anthropological prespective20,21
understands music as an expression of human
sociocultural behaviour. This strand considers
that music has no meaning in itself and that sub-
jects add – to its meaning – conceptualized and
referenced meanings that do not exist in verbal
language22. The understanding of music as a re-
vealing expression of the human being gave new
impetus to ethnomusicological research23. In this
context, some ethnomusicologists sought, from
Clifford Geertz, the necessary theorisation to
transpose the analysis of musical experience24.
Similar to Geertz, ethnographers do not study the
experience itself but the structures by which ex-
periences occur25,26. Ethnomusicologists should
deepen the structures on which music is based
and its role in the continuous construction and
support of this structure. Musical performanc-
es are situated and inserted within structures of
power and influence, being in themselves politi-
cal acts. Where they are performed, by whom and
for whom, as well as the rituals that permeate and
sustain them, reveal much about the cultural and
social status in which they are inserted27.
Studies by researchers such as Timoti and
Rice provided important elements for the con-
struction of the theoretical relationship between
music and identity28-31. Rice organizes the theo-
risation of this strand of ethnomusicology into
two perpendicular axes. One axis focuses on the
community: (1) geographically focused stud-
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Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 26(Supl. 2):3581-3588, 2021
ies on nations, regions, cities, towns or villages;
(2) ethnic, racial and minority groups; (3) the
musical life of institutions such as schools, pris-
ons and clubs; and (4) the social life of musical
genres. The second axis includes the themes spe-
cific to musical theory: music and politics; the
teaching and learning of music; concepts about
music; gender and music; among others28. Un-
derstanding the role of music in identity build-
ing brought ethnomusicology closer to other
branches of the social sciences, such as cultural
studies and Marxist theory32. In this context, Rice
describes six themes that the author grouped un-
der the moniker of ethnomusicology in times of
difficulty: (1) music, war and conflict; (2) music,
forced migration and minority studies; (3) mu-
sic, disease and healing; (4) music in particular
tragedies; (5) music, violence and poverty; and
(6) music, climate change and the environment15.
The approximation to critical approaches of
difference (feminist theory, minority discourse
etc.) well established in ethnic studies, feminist
studies, studies of popular culture and literary
studies32 culminated in new epistemological pos-
sibilities for ethnomusicology. The Brazilian re-
searcher Samuel Araújo and his colleagues at the
Laboratory of Ethnomusicology of the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro based their research
on the ideas of Paulo Freire to conduct a study on
violence in Rio de Janeiro. They started from the
understanding of funk as a territory, both from a
functional and symbolic perspective and from its
relationship with modes of existence (and resis-
tance) of the residents of the Maré community,
a poor neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro. In ad-
dition to the analysis of the musical discourses
and their contextualization, the study by Araújo
questioned the importance of dialogical ethnog-
raphies of sound practices to curb violence from
the socio-scientific viewpoint33. His research fits
the perspective of researchers who understand
music as a field of action for a subject34, orga-
nized in ritual language and symbolized by histo-
ricity and by the social relations of power27.
The confluence between ethnomusicology
and studies on social performance35 reveals the
scenario for a feminist ethnomusicology23, for
which music plays an important role in the con-
struction of subjectivities and in the introjection
of gender roles36-39. In addition to sound, musical
performance acts in the process of socialization,
both expressing and shaping social order and
gender relations23. Thus, studies of musical be-
haviours act as indicators of gender-based power
relations, supporting sustainable coping strat-
egies. They transpose the geographical space of
their execution, insofar as they analyse universal
practices of legitimization of violence, tied to its
principles of body management and life manage-
ment.
Results
The results are organized into three stages. The
first addresses the methodological aspects of the
experiment in question, which will be thorough-
ly described, including references to previous
studies, the reasons that led to the use of ethno-
musicology and its triangulation with DA. In the
second and third stages, an ethnomusicological
study and the process of triangulation will be de-
scribed, respectively.
Methodological aspects of the experiment
The forró (genre of music that originated in
Northeast Brazil) is not only musical style but is
in fact an important phenomenon in the creation
of the idiosyncratic image of a single and timeless
Northeast that, although it never existed40-42, has
been introjected, including by Brazilians from
the Northeast region43, giving forró a status of
a Northeastern cultural symbol. In this context,
forró and its relationship with social gender roles
have become our object of study.
A previous DA of forró songs provided im-
portant information about the discursive and
ideological formations that permeate the lyrics.
However, this study emerged from the need to
analyse the relationship between forró, bodies
and subjectivities in their real context of interac-
tion. Thus, for eight months, between March and
November 2014, researchers and technical staff
were deeply immersed in the daily life of the For-
taleza neighbourhood, which has the worst rates
of violence against women44. The neighbour-
hood in question exhibits several vulnerabilities:
it has a Human Development Index (HDI) of
0.40344, is located in the most populous region
of Fortaleza (with 585,347 inhabitants), which is
also the poorest, with an average household in-
come of 3.07 times the minimum wage, and has
the second highest rate of illiteracy (17.83%). It is
no coincidence that the neighbourhood belongs
to Integrated Security Area (AIS, for its abbre-
viation in Portuguese) 2, the territory with the
highest homicide rate in Fortaleza45. Considering
that Fortaleza is located in the Northeast – the
Brazilian region with the highest numbers of
3584
Brilhante AVM et al.
femicides46 – the neighbourhood in question re-
vealed itself to be an appropriate scenario for the
proposed study.
Ethnomusicological observations were made
in the daily life of the neighbourhood, focusing
on the relationship between people and the mu-
sic that people play in the neighbourhood. In
addition, ethnographic observations were per-
formed at forró dances, observing the physical
structure, sound, social performances, dynamics
of the parties and the relationships between men
and women in real situations. The thorough and
detailed descriptions in a field diary provided a
broad overview of the relationship between mu-
sic and social gender roles. This knowledge was
crucial for planning the subsequent stage.
In the second phase of the research, two fo-
cus groups were conducted in 2015 with 14 boys
aged 14 to 18 years old who were enrolled in two
elementary and secondary schools in the state.
After preliminary explanations, three previously
selected forró songs were played. After each song,
the meaning of its contents were debated. The
discussions were recorded and transcribed in full
and analysed according to the principles of DA47.
The findings of that study have been published16,
and we do not intend to repeat them here. The
present article focuses on the methodological
aspects that guided the aforementioned study,
seeking to discuss the application of ethnomu-
sicology in a study in the field of Public Health.
Immersion in the musical world scenario
the violence experienced in the chords
and beats
The approach to the musical reality of the
neighbourhood presented numerous challenges.
The first derives from the very concept of eth-
nomusicological research. This is generally un-
derstood as the study of a musical culture alien
to the researcher’s experience, seeking to iden-
tify the internal codes of the observed cultures.
Despite the participation of an experienced an-
thropologist in this study, immersion in musical
culture required the researchers to observe and
record the musical aspects and to delve into the
theoretical aspects of the field of musicology.
Another challenge was access to the field, which
required authorization from the faction groups
that run the region.
Thus, the authors experienced immersion
in the scenario. The ethnomusicological obser-
vation of an ethnographic nature demands a
humble approach to the cultural codes that or-
chestrate local sounds, performances and move-
ments. This process requires multiple data collec-
tion instruments, including non-participant and
participant observation, detailed descriptions in
a field diary and audio-visual records of daily life
in the neighbourhood. In addition to the struc-
ture and the sociocultural habits and interactions
that are organized in it, the researchers were at-
tentive to the musical culture of the neighbour-
hood and its relationship with individual and
group performances. Thus, dense sound immer-
sion was the goal. We observed and recorded the
various musical styles that vibrated throughout
the daily routine of the neighbourhood, in ad-
dition to the individual and social performanc-
es built around these songs. Sounds from home
radios that pierced through the walls of houses
and speaker cars (carros de som – cars with loud-
speakers mounted on top), music in commercial
establishments, cell phone ring tones – all music
was observed and recorded. In the midst of funk
and country music, forró stood out. The con-
versations with the residents involved questions
about daily life in the neighbourhood and about
the influence of music on the cultural identity of
the residents. Given that violence against women
is the object of the study, the relationships be-
tween genders – including social performances
and the influence of music on them - were cen-
tral to the observations.
The observation of daily life was accompa-
nied by immersion in the neighbourhood’s night
life and its relationship with forró. For that, the
researchers immersed themselves in the six forró
clubs that enliven the landscape. Observations
were performed on several nights during week-
ends for six months. The observations focused
first on the physical structure, common to all
clubs. The walls surrounding the terrains, the
holes in the wall that act as ticket offices, the nar-
row entrances and exits, the organization of the
stage, basically, the whole structure was rigorous-
ly described. In this scenario, ritualistically repro-
duced performances, with temporal sequences,
hierarchies, rules, interdicts and obligations48,
were organized both on stage and in the dance
hall. The observation of clothing, music, dance,
body movements, ways of approach and changes
in these aspects with the temporal sequence al-
lowed us to understand the ritualistic organiza-
tion of forró for those individuals and their re-
lationship with the introjection of hierarchically
structured social gender roles.
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Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 26(Supl. 2):3581-3588, 2021
Triangulating ethnomusicology and DA
After ethnomusicological immersion, focus
groups were conducted with adolescents. The
knowledge acquired with the first stage of the
research and the historical-social study of forró
music was crucial for the organization and imple-
mentation of the subsequent stage. Twelve songs
were chosen in a previous study14, based on the
presence of elements associated with sexual vio-
lence. During immersion in daily life in the neigh-
bourhood, based on the observation of everyday
sounds and parties and on the mediatic reproduc-
tion in the neighbourhood’s most popular media,
this group was reduced to three16.
In addition to planning the data collection,
triangulation with ethnomusicology increased
the scope of the data analysis. The forró ritual –
as most musical systems – involves music, dance
and behaviour. DA requires contextualization. In
this context, in a study that aims to analyse the
discourses of young people about forró songs that
refer to sexual violence, the ethnomusicological
observation allows an understanding of the func-
tioning of social practices related to music and the
role of music in building identity.
Discussion
Given the epistemological diversity that makes up
ethnomusicology, its application seeks a way to
theorise about the field and to act on it49. Mimetic
behaviours of violence are part of a system fraught
with cultural significance. Not surprisingly, the
results of the present study showed concordance
between forró and other cultural artefacts. The
theoretical understanding of the effects of musi-
cal performance on identities and subjectivities
therefore provides elements for facing violence
and for other public health problems to occur
within and through this same cultural system15,50.
It is noteworthy, however, that applied ethnomu-
sicology transposes the theorisation of music as a
sound evocative of other elements of the context,
demanding analyses of the processes by which
sound is perceived24.
The various musical systems are usually se-
mantically complex. The term forró, for example,
is not restricted to music and is also used to de-
scribe the dance, the festivals and the spaces where
it takes place. These elements together culminate
in ritualistic performances that act as intensifiers
of internalized social practices in a continuous
transgenerational interaction27. Just as they are so-
cially and culturally situated, the musical systems
also become ethically saturated. Our deeper values
are implicit in the ritual structuring of more com-
plex systems27. Musical systems, however, do not
function only as repositories of cultural values.
They act in the construction of subjectivities and
in the introjection of gender roles31,36-39. Ethnomu-
sicological studies can therefore point to indica-
tors of gender-based power relations, supporting
sustainable coping strategies within the culture
itself.
In areas of conflict, it is common for rival
groups to use cultural systems to silence, antag-
onize, exacerbate differences, terrorize and even
torture enemies15. On the other hand, musical
practices are also used as strategies of transforma-
tion and resistance. A study conducted in 2013 in
Sri Lanka, for example, addresses the emergence of
songs against or outside the communal languages
promoted by the two armies that were fighting a
civil war in the country. That study explored these
songs as possibilities of resistance and of building
new national cultures that favour the psycholog-
ical and cultural freedom of the population51. A
study conducted in a poor community marked by
violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, brought ethno-
musicology closer to the ideas of Paulo Freire of
building horizontal social connections between
researchers and the population33. Inspired by the
study by Araújo, the young participants were in-
vited to develop an extension project that aimed
not only to discuss the songs but also to decon-
struct and reconstruct them, for facing cultural
violence.
These recent epistemological possibilities of
ethnomusicology build a scenario favourable to its
triangulation with other critical theories, as is the
case for most approaches based on DA. According
to Orlandi, the senses are not produced by the sub-
ject but rather in another place, anterior and exter-
nal to him/her because “language is materialized
in ideology, and ideology is manifested in the lan-
guage”
52
. Understanding the functioning of social
practices and their relationships with discourse
therefore demands contextualization, benefiting
from an immersive experience in the field. In this
sense, Magalhães, Martins and Resende propose an
ethnographic-discursive study, according to which
DA approaches studies of an ethnographic nature,
in a relationship of complementarity, for analysing
social practices
53
. In this case, a study that analyses
discourses on musical systems and their relation-
ship with public health problems (in the present
case, sexual violence) finds the triangulation with
ethnomusicology to be a fruitful practice.
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Brilhante AVM et al.
Conclusion
Ethnomusicology, in its applied and critical
strands, presents itself as an epistemological
possibility within the field of Public Health. The
study reported here allowed theorising the role
of forró as a complex musical system in the inter-
nalization of violent gender relationships. In ad-
dition, it constructed a scenario for the develop-
ment of transformative practices of coping with
violence located within forró’s cultural system.
Ethnomusicology emerges, in this context, as a
possibility for understanding and transforming
the social world in which asymmetric gender re-
lations are produced.
Collaborators
The manuscript was written by ES Feitosa. AVM
Brilhante contributed to the research, drafted the
methodology and prepared the final draft. AMF
Catrib carried out the intellectual review of the
manuscript. EC Feitosa worked in the intellectual
revision and in the final formatting.
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Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 26(Supl. 2):3581-3588, 2021
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Article submitted 02/06/2019
Approved 18/11/2019
Final version submitted 20/11/2019
Chief editors: Romeu Gomes, Antônio Augusto Moura da
Silva
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A violência contra a mulher é, antes de tudo, uma questão de valores culturais hierárquicos de gênero produzidos socialmente. Desse modo, esta pesquisa buscou compreender os sentidos atribuídos à violência sexual contra a mulher expressa nas letras de forró por rapazes adolescentes residentes na periferia de Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil. Partimos da etnomusicologia, cuja teoria considera que estudos de músicas regionais e suas performances transpõem o espaço geográfico de sua execução, na medida em que descortinam práticas universalmente disseminadas de legitimação de violências. A pesquisa foi realizada em escolas estaduais do bairro Bom Jardim, na periferia de Fortaleza. Esse bairro registra os piores índices de violências contra as mulheres do município. Foram realizados grupos focais com seis a oito participantes, em que foram debatidas três músicas de forró cujas letras remetiam à violência sexual. Os resultados demonstraram como as músicas reproduzem e influenciam ideologias patriarcais entre os jovens nordestinos. Observa-se nas falas o discurso do “estupro reverso”, que busca justificar a violência sexual por meio da inversão de papeis de gênero, ignorando assimetrias socialmente construídas. O forró se demonstra uma arena de gênero, onde gladiadores competem para registrar ideias de masculinidade, sexualidade e relações de gênero, replicando o sexismo dominante na sociedade contemporânea e contribuindo para a perpetuação da violência contra a mulher.
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