Anthropology of Music Lecture Series 2018

Valuing Music 

Prof. Timothy Taylor, UCLA

This lecture is an attempt to theorize musical performance as a medium of value. Drawing on anthropological theories of value, mainly from Terence Turner and David Graeber, it argues that musical performances, and those that are caught up in broader contexts such as festivals, rituals, or ceremonies, play important roles in realizing, consummating, establishing, or reinforcing values held by those communities that engage in such performances. Timothy Taylor defines performance as something that takes place with an audience and that is something that is culturally and socially understood as a performance. Value is built up privately in preparations for performances, but is only realized or consummated in the moment of performance with the presence and interaction of audience members. 

Timothy Taylors second lecture, held at the Anthropology of Music Lecture Series 2018, on June 28