258. The Baseline Scenarios -- 34: The Migrants -- Culture

While aspects of P/B vocal style appear to have survived as a kind of "African signature" among indigenous groups in Southeast Asia, Southern China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, Island Melanesia, among certain Siberian, Inuit and Amerindian groups, as well as among certain "peasant" communities in various regions of Europe, it would appear to have a very different meaning for these peoples than it has for the Pygmies and Bushmen groups I've been using to construct my HBC model.

For one thing, the style tends to be watered down, lacking the complexity, subtlety, spontaneity and creative freedom so characteristic of almost all Pygmy and Bushmen music. The counterpoint is often more limited in scope, the degree of improvisation restricted, or in many cases non-existent. Performances tend to be planned in advance and often rehearsed, with a fixed rather than open-ended number of parts.

The social context in which this particular type of music is performed also tends to be far more restricted. In a great many cases, the style is reserved for special occasions, often associated with some of the most important rituals, as though this music were consciously associated with the oldest and most powerful ancestral traditions. In other cases, we find it, as in the "throat singing" of certain Paleosiberian and Inuit groups, characterized as a game (though as Nattiez has demonstrated, this "game" has decidedly shamanistic roots).

It's important to understand that such limitations do not apply among African Pygmies and Bushmen. While certain repertoires are reserved for special ceremonies, such as the girl's elima or the molimo ceremony among the Mbuti, or the Eland or Xhoma rituals among the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen, the style as a whole is a characteristic, spontaneously expressed, aspect of everyday life, as it very likely was for HBC. Whether the same applies to P/B as practiced by HMC is not completely clear, especially since we find "watered down" and contextually restricted forms of P/B among many African groups as well.

Only a very few, rather simple, musical instruments are native to either Pygmies or Bushmen. Most instruments now in use among these groups, such as the drum, the mbira and various string instruments are known to be borrowed from neighboring farming or herding peoples. In fact the only musical instrument commonly found among all three of our "feeder" groups, EP, WP and Bu, is the musical bow, an extremely important instrument that was undoubtedly a part of both HBC and HMC, and is widely found among a great many indigenous groups in many parts of the world.

Of special interest in the present context are the many polyphonic wind ensembles, of pipes, whistles, trumpets, horns or flutes, to be found among certain groups in Africa, organized in a manner very similar to the hocketed interlocking of parts so characeteristic of P/B vocalizing. Typically, each instrument has a single note to play, or in some cases, a repeated phrase, which interweaves with all the other parts to produce a resultant melody, rhythm or polyphonic texture. Since I've already discussed such ensembles at some length on this blog (see Post 38 et seq.), I won't go into detail on their organization here.

The Mbuti perform with hocketed ensembles of single-note pipes called Luma, tuned and kept for them by their Bantu "masters." The BaAka use the mobeke pipe, described as "a small whistle made from the stem of a papaw plant," for the same purpose. Among the Ba'Benzele Pygmies similar pipes are called hindewhu. In all cases, the pipes participate as equal partners with voices in hocketed/interlocked P/B style performances. I would have included pipe ensembles of this kind in HBC, except for the fact that they are not found, apparently, among Bushmen groups, and I've been trying to be as strict as possible with my "triangulation" method.*

Nevertheless, since such ensembles are so common in Africa, with very similar ensembles of pipes, panpipes and trumpets found outside of Africa, in many of the same parts of the world as P/B style vocalizing, it would be very difficult to explain such a link unless the tradition had been disseminated via HMC. Thus, despite the fact that it's not strictly speaking possible to attribute instrumental hocket/interlock to HBC, the worldwide distribution of this tradition can be explained only if it were a part of HMC. The vocal and instrumental forms of P/B are so close stylistically and structurally that the latter most likely developed from the former, possibly only after the proto-Bantu diverged from the ancestral proto-Pygmies and Bushmen.

Hocketed percussion, possibly a development from the very complex polyrhythmic interactions of P/B handclapping, is also an important tradition in many parts of Africa, with important echoes, once again, along the southern "Out of Africa" route. One of the simplest types, stamping tubes, is widely found in Africa, but also along the same southern "Out of Africa" route as so many of the other traditions I've been discussing. In this highly interactive type of music-making, each performer typically has a single tube in each hand, performing only one segment of an intricate melodic-rhythmic resultant pattern, usually repeated over and over.

Though commonly found among many African groups, stamping tubes are not reported among either Pygmies or Bushmen, though similarly interactive rhythmic effects are produced by them using sticks, a practice that could be regarded as prototypical. Since very similar types of stamping tube ensembles are found outside of Africa, and the complexities of the rhythms make independent invention unlikely, despite the simplicity of the instruments themselves, once again we have a musical tradition that could only have been transmitted via HMC.

Much the same could be said of a very simple type of xylophone, made from slabs of wood placed on the lap or legs of the performer, which once again is commonly found both in Africa and along the Out of Africa path, but not reported for Pygmies or Bushmen, thus most likely not directly associable with HBC.

Another instrument of great interest, with a very similar multi-regional distribution, is the slit drum, which is also, like stamping tubes, often played in hocketed/interlocked ensembles. Once again, the distribution of this very important instrument, often elaborately carved and with great ritual significance in certain cultures, can be explained only if it were part of a tradition disseminated via HMC.


*However, hocketed panpipe ensembles were reported among their close relatives, the Khoi-Khoi (Hottentot) cattle herders.