UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Why Music and Shamanism for Orangutans are Similar Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gc6x5qk Author Park, Hong-June Publication Date 2020 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Why Music and Shamanism for Orangutans are Similar by Hong-June Park A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Benjamin Brinner, Co-Chair Professor Terrence Deacon, Co-Chair Professor Jocelyne Guilbault Professor Daniel Fisher Summer 2020 Why Music and Shamanism for Orangutans are Similar Copyright 2020 by Hong-June Park Abstract Why Music and Shamanism for Orangutans are Similar by Hong-June Park Doctor of Philosophy in Music University of California, Berkeley Professor Benjamin Brinner, Co-Chair Professor Terrence Deacon, Co-Chair How do you get people to empathize with a species when you have no ability to get inside their heads? Today, orangutan conservation has become something that Indonesians do out in the forests. In service of these efforts, musicians and shamans have joined Sound For Orangutan, an annual music event held in Jakarta since 2012 with additional festivals in other locations in subsequent years. Within this frame of reference, I will argue that both music and shamanism exceed semantics that merely describes differences in things. On stage: musicians incorporate different primate “calls” in a single song that points to a location in which the orangutan and non-orangutan coinhabit. Through different styles (e.g., children’s song, rock, noise), they show a common interest in experiencing nonhuman emotions by singing like the primates. Backstage: shamans convince deities to prevent the rain from falling on the occasion. Through different religious orientations (e.g., Islam, Buddhism, Kejawèn), they conduct a similar set of rituals in which they produce smoke that looks like cloud movements. With likeness as my object of inquiry, I ask: Given the prevalence of non-linguistic logic, what is being communicated? What enables that communication, and thus the relations among people who take advantage of its analogies? In their senses of wonder and beauty by virtue of the recognition of likenesses, what develops the sequence that leads to the absence of attention to difference? For this project, I have collected a diverse array of information on: (1) Why musicians play music instead of verbalizing their emotions on stage; (2) How shamans convince deities with deeds rather than words; (3) A simulation technology that enables guitarists to reproduce the same sound across different venues and seasons; (4) A couple of musicians who no longer speak with each other but still sing with each other in sync at the same place at the same time for primates. 1 Using a field research design that detects when likeness becomes more apparent than differences, this study seeks to articulate the limitations of linguistic models of communication for musical and shamanic phenomena. This entails an examination of the more basic and direct role of iconic and indexical processes in communicating emotions, establishing empathy, and communicating despite lacking shared language, culture, religion, on behalf of nature or deities. By processing concrete empirical data through Peircean semiotic and emergentist views that are capable of capturing how thoughts show up in the world spontaneously, my goal is to understand why shamanism and music in these instances are similar. 2 To my parents, Jung-Hae Cho and Keun-Ho Park i Contents Contents ii Introduction 1 Methodology 6 Contributions to the Literature 10 Notes on Translation/Transduction 13 1 | Homogenizing Difference: How Different “Calls” Represent the Same Politics 14 Composing Simplicity on Behalf of the Orangutan 15 Enlarging the Harmonic Range as Enlarging the Visual Field 22 Calling Childhood through Music Recording 25 Revising “Orang Utan” (2017) in the Jungle 29 Semiotic Analysis 36 Concluding Remarks 41 2 | Believe It or Not: How Rain Shamans (Pawang Hujan) Constitute Festival Logistics 42 Venue Logistics 43 Tropical Spontaneity and its Challenges 47 Organizing Meaningful Coincidences 53 Concluding Remarks 60 3 | Exceeding Meaning: The Work of Rain Shamans at Festivals 61 My First Encounter with a Shaman 62 A Relativist View of Rain Shamanism as a Time-Honored Practice 65 A Semiotic Approach to How Shamanisms Work 72 Further Philosophical Reflections on Shamanism 83 Concluding Remarks 86 4 | Interactive Grounding: How to Keep Musical Communications Going 88 A Honeymoon with an Amp Simulation Technology 89 Why Simulate? 92 Amp Simulation Explored through Metal à la Jacques Cousteau 101 How do Simulators Compare to Real Amps? 107 How to Keep Musical Interactions Going 114 ii Thermodynamic Remarks on the Efficiency of Amp Simulation 117 Concluding Remarks 118 5 | Ungoverning Words: How People Sing Duets After Words Tore Them Apart 120 Conceptual Framework 122 Putri and the Women at the Forefront of Primate Justice Festivals 123 Sound For Orangutan, its Birth, Successes, and Challenges 132 Living a Biblical Lifestyle through the Jungle 143 Ungoverning Words 148 Concluding Remarks 154 Conclusion 156 Bibliography 162 iii Acknowledgements I was fortunate to be with many people in the right place and time before everyone on the planet is confronted in isolation by their own mortality in 2020. Sitting at home thinking about mortality brings to my mind four names. I am indebted first to Indra Made (1982-2018), a bassist who headlined a festival I studied in Indonesia. Made was one of the few musicians with whom I spent time outside research. We would often meet up with no agendas and just hang out with his partner, Afriana Dewi (1993-2018), in her hometown Yogyakarta. The world lost them both at once as the result of a car accident on March 26, 2018. I am also grateful to Jeff Hadler (1968-2017), my history professor at Berkeley. Early versions of my dissertation proposal were improved based on several suggestions Jeff made at his seminars. This final draft still has parts that reflect what Jeff has taught me. Further, I owe so much to Gunawan Peh (1949-2019), my father-in-law. Until his last days he has never stopped working, and never stopped being the kindest and most loving father anyone could ever ask for. His birth certificate that my wife and I found issued in an erstwhile colonial European language taught us to keep going even in dire situations. Thinking about mortality makes me appreciate the fact that I can still thank many people before it’s too late. My project would not have seen the light of day without unending inspiration from my dissertation committee. Benjamin Brinner has been my mentor for almost 7 years. Ben opened my eyes to the joy of interaction studies without collapsing music production and interpretation into a single artifact. Ben’s focus on live music performance led me to be on high alert about the limitations of linguistic models of communication for all musical phenomena. I thank him for that, and not only that, for patiently helping me organize my racing thoughts. Sitting in Terrence Deacon’s lectures was the most thought-provoking experience I have ever had. It is Terry who introduced me to Peircean semiotics and emergentism, which laid the foundation for my study of the primary role of non-linguistic processes in communicating emotions and establishing empathy. There was never a time I felt more daunted by the enormity and breadth of intelligence than during his office hours. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to sit with Terry and brainstorm ideas for many, many hours almost every week, ever since I had walked into his office in 2015. I wish to express gratitude to Jocelyne Guilbault, who never ceased to be critically open-minded about what must certainly have seemed like an unorthodox project. I have many times wished I were as brave as Jocelyne was, when looking at my own life in contrast to others and noticing a possibility of making things politically changeable. My work also substantially benefitted from feedback from Daniel Fisher, who perhaps unknowingly forced me to write the last two chapters of this dissertation. What he told me at the prospectus meeting on the generative linkages between people’s use of audio technology and imagining mediation prompted me to explore guitar amp simulation and a youth conservation camp. Many scholars and visiting professors trained me in my formative years. Bonnie Wade gave me a broad overview of the history of ethnomusicological ideas. As a result, I was able to iv summarize and bypass conventional approaches to try something different. The year that I came to Berkeley, Steven Feld arrived from New Mexico as a visiting professor. I was fascinated by everything he taught me in his seminar, so much so that I came to want to find missing pieces to his puzzle. The first half of my Berkeley days was then spent delving into his interests in language and philosophy. Although my project largely escaped from his framework, I still consider him a rock star academic who forever changed the way I write dialogue in a story. A special thanks goes to Eduardo Kohn, who told me the importance of becoming thoroughly familiar with the positions of my colleagues in the relativist camp. I also wish to express my gratitude to Paul Rabinow, who guided me through my foray into continental philosophy. I am grateful for the wisdom Elizabeth Tolbert, Michael Birenbaum Quintero, Andrew Talle, and Ildar Khannanov have dispensed during my Peabody/Johns Hopkins days. I thank all of my Berkeley music colleagues, especially Ofer Gazit, for many short conversations we had during my early stages of understanding relativistic thinking; Ian Goldstein, for sending me his prospectus for reference; Kendra Van Nyhuis, for sharing ups and downs of the similar process as part of a cohort; John Walsh, for keeping my guitars safe while I made short visits to Indonesia; Sarah Plovnick, for teaching my course while I was away for an emergency.