DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232021269.2.24102019 3581 Possibilities of ethnomusicology applied to the field OF PRACTICES IMPLEMENTATION POLICY, HEALTH of public health Aline Veras Morais Brilhante (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3925-4898) 1 Elaine Saraiva Feitosa (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3006-4710) 1 Epaminondas Carvalho Feitosa (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3563-9651) 2 Ana Maria Fontenelle Catrib (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2088-0733) 1 Abstract This article analyses methodological possibilities of ethnomusicology in the field of public health, starting from an experience that triangulated ethnomusicological theories with discourse analysis (DA). After an introduction to applied ethnomusicology, it is followed by a de- scription of methodological aspects of the experi- ence in question. Subsequently, the conduction of the ethnomusicological step and the triangulation process was described. Results show that the musi- cal systems are situated in power structures, influ- encing the construction of subjectivities. Applied ethnomusicology emerges, therefore, as a possibil- ity for analyzing the structures on which the mu- sic is rooted in. From a research on the relations between forró and the perception of young peo- ple’s perception about sexual violence, ethnomu- sicology presented itself as a theoretical possibility for the study of violent social performances and about the effects of music in identity building, be- sides providing elements for the confrontation of violence inside the cultural system itself. Its trian- 1 Programa de Pós- gulation with DA contributes for an ethnograph- Graduação em Saúde ic-discursive research, as possibility of analysis of Coletiva, Universidade de Fortaleza. Av. Washington social practices. Soares 1321, Edson Queiroz. Key words Music, Methodology, Public health 60811-905 Fortaleza CE Brasil. [email protected] 2 Programa de Pós- Graduação em Direito e Gestão de Conflitos, Universidade de Fortaleza. Fortaleza CE Brasil. 3582 et al. Introduction lence against women held in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brilhante AVM AVM Brilhante Brazil, which triangulated ethnomusicological The phenomenon of violence, in its different theories with discourse analysis (DA). manifestations, is not ahistorical or devoid of subjectivity1. Analysing violence against wom- en implies understanding how these process- Methodology es permeate societies and their mechanisms of naturalization and legitimization2, including its This article is based on the report of the expe- relationship with cultural discourses and perfor- rience of a study that used ethnomusicology as mances3 and with different social technologies4, a theoretical framework, triangulating it with which act in the continuous process of cultural DA. The data of the study in question will not identity formation3 and gender performativity5,6. be replicated because they are already available in Thus, the need to analyse its relationship with the another publication. They will, however, be ref- naturalization of violence against women emerg- erenced to guide the discussion about the possi- es based on the premise that historicity is pivotal bility of applying ethnomusicology to the field of to the construction of identity processes7. Public Health. Music acts as an artefact8 being “performa- To support the discussion, the theoretical tively interpreted by a range of hierarchising and framework, i.e., ethnomusicology, is presented selective procedures [...] subservient to various next. powers and interests, of which the ‘subjects’ and agents [...] are never sufficiently aware”7. Given Ethnomusicology studies that associate musical performances with elements that nurture gender violence9-13, the fol- Originating from the purely musical18 Berlin lowing question emerged: how does music con- school, ethnomusicology evolved into various tribute to the perpetuation and legitimization of variants19. Its anthropological prespective20,21 violence against women? understands music as an expression of human This question guided the study “Gender, sex- sociocultural behaviour. This strand considers uality and forró: a historical social study in the that music has no meaning in itself and that sub- Northeastern context”14, which analysed the dis- jects add – to its meaning – conceptualized and courses of forró music from 1940 to the present. referenced meanings that do not exist in verbal Immersion in thematic and musical theory led language22. The understanding of music as a re- to the expansion of the methodological scope in vealing expression of the human being gave new subsequent research, bringing it closer to ethno- impetus to ethnomusicological research23. In this musicology. context, some ethnomusicologists sought, from Understanding the violent behaviour and mi- Clifford Geertz, the necessary theorisation to metic performances of violence as part of a co- transpose the analysis of musical experience24. herent system loaded with cultural significance, Similar to Geertz, ethnographers do not study the a strand of the so-called applied ethnomusicol- experience itself but the structures by which ex- ogy seeks to understand the performative abil- periences occur25,26. Ethnomusicologists should ities of violence and the meanings that violent deepen the structures on which music is based performances have to victims, perpetrators and and its role in the continuous construction and witnesses15. From that emerged a study anchored support of this structure. Musical performanc- in the epistemological assumptions of applied es are situated and inserted within structures of ethnomusicology that sought to understand the power and influence, being in themselves politi- relationship between the ritualistic performances cal acts. Where they are performed, by whom and of forró and youth perception about sexual vio- for whom, as well as the rituals that permeate and lence16. sustain them, reveal much about the cultural and Considering that ethnomusicology has im- social status in which they are inserted27. portant potential in the field of Public Health, Studies by researchers such as Timoti and we present an experience report on its use in the Rice provided important elements for the con- 7th Ibero-American Congress on Qualitative Re- struction of the theoretical relationship between search17. In this context, the present article anal- music and identity28-31. Rice organizes the theo- yses the methodological possibilities of the use risation of this strand of ethnomusicology into of ethnomusicology in the field of Public Health, two perpendicular axes. One axis focuses on the starting from the experience of a study on vio- community: (1) geographically focused stud- 3583 Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 26(Supl. 2):3581-3588, 2021 2):3581-3588, 26(Supl. Coletiva, & Saúde Ciência ies on nations, regions, cities, towns or villages; egies. They transpose the geographical space of (2) ethnic, racial and minority groups; (3) the their execution, insofar as they analyse universal musical life of institutions such as schools, pris- practices of legitimization of violence, tied to its ons and clubs; and (4) the social life of musical principles of body management and life manage- genres. The second axis includes the themes spe- ment. cific to musical theory: music and politics; the teaching and learning of music; concepts about music; gender and music; among others28. Un- Results derstanding the role of music in identity build- ing brought ethnomusicology closer to other The results are organized into three stages. The branches of the social sciences, such as cultural first addresses the methodological aspects of the studies and Marxist theory32. In this context, Rice experiment in question, which will be thorough- describes six themes that the author grouped un- ly described, including references to previous der the moniker of ethnomusicology in times of studies, the reasons that led to the use of ethno- difficulty: (1) music, war and conflict; (2) music, musicology and its triangulation with DA. In the forced migration and minority studies; (3) mu- second and third stages, an ethnomusicological sic, disease and healing; (4) music in particular study and the process of triangulation will be de- tragedies; (5) music, violence and poverty; and scribed, respectively. (6) music, climate change and the environment15. The approximation to critical approaches of Methodological aspects of the experiment difference (feminist theory, minority discourse etc.) well established in ethnic studies, feminist The forró (genre of music that originated in studies, studies of popular culture and literary Northeast Brazil) is not only musical style but is studies32 culminated in new epistemological pos- in fact an important phenomenon in the creation sibilities for ethnomusicology. The Brazilian re- of the idiosyncratic image of a single and timeless searcher Samuel Araújo and his colleagues at the Northeast that, although it never existed40-42, has Laboratory of Ethnomusicology of the Federal been introjected, including by Brazilians from University of Rio de Janeiro based their research the Northeast region43, giving forró a status of on the ideas of Paulo Freire to conduct a study on a Northeastern cultural symbol. In this context, violence in Rio de Janeiro. They started from the forró and its relationship with social gender roles understanding of funk as a territory, both from a have become our object of study. functional and symbolic perspective and from its A previous DA of forró songs provided im- relationship with