Self-representation of the bimusical Khanty

• Main Author: Triinu Ojamaa
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: khanty
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.514.4504; http://www.marcocosta.it/icmpc2006/pdfs/59.pdf

The quasi-assimilated Khanty try to "modernize " their tra-ditional music by changing it according to the standards of Western music. They are educated in Russian schools and have thus become bilingual and bimusical. The aim of this study is to investigate how the Khanty im-plement their double-identity via music making. The Khanty double-identity is not the same as hyphenated iden-tity (they do not live in diaspora). Despite of that their identity can be characterized as a kind of "inclusive and open-ended notion of belonging " (Stokes 2003: 303). The Khanty double-identity is predominantly a result of inter-play between the Western school system and traditional living practices still maintained to some extent. The Khanty female singers have been observed in their natural setting. They demonstrated their music-making abilities by singing Khanty improvisational songs and a Russian song learnt at school. Their performance was videorecorded and then showed to the singers who gave comments to their singing. According to their comments, the singers considered their group singing in "modernized manner " an unsatisfactory musical product both in the traditional context where group singing was not practiced, and in the context of "higher " musical culture because their unison was not per-fect.