Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology

Zoe Sherinian's Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology is a landmark study of how music can combat oppression. The book deserves to be read by all ethnomusicologists interested in social justice movements, applied ethnomusi-cology, South Asian musics, and global Christianity. * Ethnomusicology * Sherinian's book is of obvious interest to ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and other socially oriented scholars focused on South India and on Christianity, as well as being relevant for students of theology in a global frame (and liberation theology). . . . It also breaks ground as an ethnomusicological study of an individual, because it not only presents a musical biography but also structures its ethnomusicological analyses around the theoretical framework developed by that individual. * Global Forum on Arts and Christian Faith * [T]his book makes a huge contribution to knowledge of a socially significant genre just as neglected, until now, as the people who perform it. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice * Tamil Folk Music as Liberation Theology helps us to understand what is at stake for people making a transformative choice to reclaim local folk music in a particular community and liturgical setting. It powerfully and eloquently traces a complicated history of caste oppression, missionary activity, the internalization of hegemonic attitudes, and loss of identity. * Asian Ethnology * Sherinian's book offers a compelling account of Tamil Folk music (complete with transcriptions and links to online recordings); its social locations, and broader theological potentialand makes a number of important contributions along the way. * Journal of Hindu Christian Studies *

Zoe C. Sherinian is Associate Professor and Chair of Ethnomusicology at the University of Oklahoma. A percussionist and filmmaker, her ethnographic film on the changing status of Dalit drummers is titled This is a Music: Reclaiming an Untouchable Drum.

Preface List of PURL Audio and Video files Introduction: Singing The Lord's Prayer and Dalit Liberation in Tamil Nadu 1. Musical Style and Indigenization in Tamil Christian Music 2. Sharing the Meal: A Dalit Family's Dialogue with the History of Tamil Christian Music, 1850-1994 3. Parattai's Dalit Theology 4. Ethnography as Transformative Musical Dialogue 5. Reception and Transformation from the Seminary to the Village: 6. Performing Global Dalit Consciousness Appendixes Appendix 1: Music Transcriptions Appendix 2: Song Lyrics By J. Theophilus Appavoo (Parattai) Notes Bibliography Index