Music Therapy Portraits of Globalized Indian Identity Sangeeta Swamy Lesley University
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Lesley University DigitalCommons@Lesley Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences Expressive Therapies Dissertations (GSASS) Summer 7-29-2011 Temple of Ancient Knowing: Music Therapy Portraits of Globalized Indian Identity Sangeeta Swamy Lesley University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_dissertations Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Swamy, Sangeeta, "Temple of Ancient Knowing: Music Therapy Portraits of Globalized Indian Identity" (2011). Expressive Therapies Dissertations. 76. https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_dissertations/76 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences (GSASS) at DigitalCommons@Lesley. It has been accepted for inclusion in Expressive Therapies Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Lesley. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RUNNING HEAD: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN 1 IDENTITY TEMPLE OF ANCIENT KNOWING: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN IDENTITY A DISSERTATION STUDY Submitted by SANGEETA SWAMY In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy LESLEY UNIVERSITY July 29, 2011 RUNNING HEAD: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN 2 IDENTITY RUNNING HEAD: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN 3 IDENTITY STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at Lesley University and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. RUNNING HEAD: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN 4 IDENTITY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The path to completing a dissertation is a long and arduous journey. I certainly could not have done it alone and will forever be grateful for the mentors, friends, and family members who helped me through it. I want to especially thank Michele Forinash, my advisor, for her unconditional support, encouragement, and acceptance of my process every step of the way; Carolyn Kenny for her keen interest in my work, interdisciplinary mentoring, and warm support; and Vivien Marcow-Speiser for taking the time to read my work while serving as acting Dean, her international perspective and nurturing presence since the beginning of my program. I am eternally grateful for the support of my parents, P. Narayan and Vijaya Swamy, for always believing in me and helping me to keep my dreams alive; for my father, for paving the way as the first PhD in our family; and to Keren Brazilay-Schecter, Sunhee Kim, Yousef Al-Ajarma, and Michael Franklin, my fellow doctoral students, for bonds of friendship that will forever remain in my heart. Despite my own personal journey in this process, to be a researcher is a privilege, drawing upon the lives of others in what is often a vulnerable state. There are no words to sufficiently show my gratitude for the five participants in this study who agreed to take risks, explore new territory, share their thoughts, emotions, history, and insights, and give me license to interpret and analyze their experiences and stories. RUNNING HEAD: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN 5 IDENTITY TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………8 Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………9 Chapter 2: Literature Review…………………………………………………………….20 Ethnic Identity ……………………………………………………………………21 Music Evoked Imagery…………………………………………………………..54 Music As Culture………………………………………………………………...70 Chapter 3: Method: Portraiture………………………………………………………….96 Chapter 4: Results………………………………………………………………………107 “Anjali”…………………………………………………………………………111 “Purnima”………………………………………………………………………129 “Maya”…………………………………………………………………………140 “Siddarth”………………………………………………………………………162 Saravanan Chidambaram……………………………………………………….187 Summary………………………………………………………………………..211 Chapter 5: Discussion ………………………………………………………………….215 References………………………………………………………………………………240 Appendix A……………………………………………………………………………..262 Appendix B……………………………………………………………………………..265 Appendix C……………………………………………………………………………..277 RUNNING HEAD: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN 6 IDENTITY LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Nine Functions of Music……………………………………………………….73 Table 2: Music Analysis for Purnima’s Session……………………………………….266 Table 3: Music Analysis for Anjali’s Session………………………………………….268 Table 4: Music Analysis for Siddarth’s Session……………………………………….270 Table 5: Music Analysis for Maya’s Session…………………………………………..272 Table 6: Music Analysis for Sarav’s Session……………………………….………….273 RUNNING HEAD: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN 7 IDENTITY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Mandala drawing by “Anjali”………………………………………………..116 RUNNING HEAD: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN 8 IDENTITY Abstract This dissertation study assessed ethnic identity in adults of Indian origin through Culturally Centered Music & Imagery (CCMI), an arts-based, psychotherapeutic technique. The purpose was to examine how Indian music, in the context of CCMI, could evoke identity-based imagery and assess Indian identity in a globalized context. Five Indian men and women participated in CCMI sessions, and the qualitative methodology of portraiture was used in this study. The results provide support for the cultural or ethnic unconscious and suggest the potential for CCMI to access this internal, collective space. Results also indicate that CCMI may be used in a clinical and non-clinical context to help men and women from the Indian Diaspora to gain awareness of their ethnic unconscious and understand how it impacts their external life. The research also suggests that CCMI may be effective in assessing and emotionally and psychologically supporting adults who are going through the process of immigration or acculturation. RUNNING HEAD: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN 9 IDENTITY Chapter 1 Introduction The motivation for this research originally came from my own life experience as a bisexual, Indian-American woman growing up in the United States during the post-1965 immigration years. In sharing my own autobiographical background and experiences, my hope is to give the reader an understanding about how my own lens and worldview informs my research decisions and interpretations. I was born in a small neighborhood in Nagercoil, India, where bony cows, petrol taxis, barefoot cyclists, and hungry children all shared the same dirt road to the temple. It was a town where sweltering temperatures seared your skin, but women with toothless smiles melted your heart. The day was July 21st, 1969, twenty-two years after India’s independence from British colonization. As I emerged from my mother’s womb, Neil Armstrong made the first momentous steps across the surface of the moon. Little did I realize how symbolic that historic day was for me, that at six months of age I, too, would leave the only home I knew and embark upon my own adventure—a journey to an unknown and unfamiliar land, in search of music, self-knowledge, and ethnic identity. My family immigrated to a small, middle class, university town in southern Illinois, where only a handful of other Indians resided. Although we identified as Brahmin, caste and regional differences seemed less important in our little Indian community, with only one other family speaking Tamil, our native language. While I understood the Tamil that was spoken to me, however, as a child I could not bring myself to respond in kind and only spoke English. Likewise, at the age of nine, I began playing American folk songs and European classics on the violin in the public school, as I had an RUNNING HEAD: MUSIC THERAPY PORTRAITS OF GLOBALIZED INDIAN 10 IDENTITY unusual love and inclination for music since my early childhood days. As I grew up, my parents encouraged me to listen to Indian classical music, learn to speak Tamil, and attend Indian karnatic music concerts. However, I was not interested. My parents assumed that my interest in Western music would transfer to the music of our mother country, but they were mistaken. I was already conditioned by the cultural norms of a small, mid-western town. As a result, I found the expressive slides and nasal quality of Indian music strange and sometimes felt embarrassed by its foreign flavor. In contrast, my passion for Western classical music grew, and I devoted my adolescent years to the study of European masters. I fell in love with the romantic harmonies, refined tones, and emotional expression of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. As one of the few teenagers of color in town, performing this music with my American peers gave me a sense of confidence, belonging, and community that I desperately needed. In 1987, I was accepted to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and went on to complete my Master of Music degree with one of the most renowned teachers in the country. By early adulthood, I was steeped in the European classical music tradition, performing with my string quartet across Europe, Canada,