{"id":61,"date":"2007-12-20T10:16:12","date_gmt":"2007-12-20T15:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/blogs\/bmy1\/2007\/12\/20\/a-contrapuntal-look-at-punta-and-punta-rock-a-garifuna-cultural-mezclash\/"},"modified":"2007-12-20T10:16:12","modified_gmt":"2007-12-20T15:16:12","slug":"a-contrapuntal-look-at-punta-and-punta-rock-a-garifuna-cultural-mezclash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yeeality.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/20\/a-contrapuntal-look-at-punta-and-punta-rock-a-garifuna-cultural-mezclash\/","title":{"rendered":"A Contrapuntal Look at Punta and Punta Rock, a Gar\u00edfuna Cultural Mezcla(sh)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a paper about the punta. While the punta can be partially understood as a dance and music genre of a Central American people known as the Gar\u00edfuna, it is a complex element of culture existing both in space and time, which allows us to employ a variety of academic perspectives in our analysis, namely the recently popular theory of hybridity. The core push for my critical investigation will be from a number of loaded questions relating to traditional punta\u2019s child, punta rock.\u00a0 Is punta rock an evolution or devolution of the punta genre? Is it a natural continuation among and beyond the Gar\u00edfuna, or instead a commodified, diluted, and un-authentic product of capitalism? Should punta have been owned or regulated by the Gar\u00edfuna to preserve its innocence, purity, and sacred origin?\u00a0 Or should it, along with any other cultural element, be open and freely shared by anyone with an interest in them?\u00a0 Does a singular body have the authority to make these decisions?\u00a0 What are the consequences?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 In my discussion, I intend to unpack these questions not to extract specific answers for them, but to ride with them in a logical exploration through the hybridic flows in which I believe they move.\u00a0 From my current position, these flows seem to have always existed and continue to provide a progressive tool for interpreting what has happened prior to and during this age of globalization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The scope of the paper rests on a basic framework built around the following core areas, which in retrospect borrow from author Jan Nederveen Pieterse: a descriptive foundation for context (empirical), some ingredients in relation to punta for depth (theoretical), and a new understanding for clarity (normative?).\u00a0 The descriptive segment will serve to further introduce the Gar\u00edfuna, punta, and punta rock; the theoretical portion will reveal several issues that the punta naturally encounters; and finally, the clarity section will attempt to design a view of the information and differing notions that one can both understand and accept with minimal discomfort.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Context<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Garinagu have long been a source of interest for anthropologists and scholars of various other disciplines, not only because of their traditions of music and dance, but also due to their rich blend of ethnicities, rituals, languages, music, adaptability, etc, which have led to their inclusion among discussions involving nation states, race and culture dynamics, identity, and power dynamics (e.g. hegemony).\u00a0 While perspectives in these realms tend to have considerable friction, the historical background of the Gar\u00edfuna is generally consistent.\u00a0 For the purposes of his paper, much information collected and published in 2002 by Oliver Greene, an assistant professor of music at Georgia State University, aids in my consolidated description that serves well the preliminary purposes of this paper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe Garinagu, commonly known as the Gar\u00edfuna, are a people of West African and Amerindian descent who live along the Caribbean coast of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua and who share a common language, system of customs and beliefs, series of ancestor veneration rituals, and repertoire of music and dance. The word Garinagu refers to the people as a whole, whereas the term Gar\u00edfuna refers to the language, the culture, and a person in the singular form. The emigration of Garinagu during the past five decades has resulted in sizable populations in large urban centers in the United States, namely, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Although hegemony, acculturation, modernity, syncretization, and American popular culture have adversely affected the retention of indigenous Gar\u00edfuna customs in the United States (especially those related to ancestry veneration), the commodification of Gar\u00edfuna music, art, and dance has resulted in an increased interest in traditional media of cultural expression. The most celebrated of these media is punta, song genre that is a symbolic reenactment of the cock-and-hen mating dance. This couples dance features rapid movement of the buttocks and hips and a motionless upper torso, to the accompaniment of songs performed with hollow turtle shells that are struck with a mallet and conch shell trumpets. Since the mid-1980s, punta has experienced a revitalization through its immensely popular derivative, punta rock.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In his article, Green considers \u201cpunta (including its derivative punta rock) as iconic of Gar\u00edfuna ethnicity and modernity . . . Punta rock was born out of the need to create a new and exciting genre of Gar\u00edfuna music based on a fusion of elements of culture and music that express indigenous and urban social ideals. As such, it maintains its popularity because it incorporates the traditional (the old) and the contemporary (the modern). Modernity-used here as a metaphor for change-functions as the contextual canvas of contemporary musical society on which the sounds of the indigenous punta are retooled or colored through a mosaic of popular American and Caribbean music, namely reggae, calypso, and soca. Through the birth and subsequent metamorphosis of punta rock, punta has remained constant as a strong yet pliable expression of ethnicity through music in Gar\u00edfuna history.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, punta and punta rock are companions that have helped Gar\u00edfuna to survive, according to the optimistic viewpoint at least.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition to this base layer of description, it is helpful to absorb a first-hand account from of the \u201cfather\u201d or \u201cking\u201d of punta rock, Pen Cayetano. His statement below provides an understanding of the positive intentions he had when creating punta rock.
\nPunta Rock is the creation of myself, and it started in the year of 1978 in the Artist Studio at 5 Moho Road in Dangriga, Belize . . . Cultural music like the Punta was only performed at a Beluria (ninth night) or celebrations. A big change came with the migration of many Garinagu to the USA to achieve higher education, which resulted also to leave the children in the care of grandmothers. Only a few kids were able to speak the native Gar\u00edfuna and that effected the youth in that way not to understand the meaning of the traditional songs from the old folks. So during the celebration time around the 19th of November when the Garinagu celebrated their first landing to Belize, I remember this following incident. It was the 13 November 1978 when the Garinagu gave their annual tribute to T. V. Ramos their cultural leader; the two generations clashed together. Isabel Flores was leading with his drummers and singers a group when some young folks started to sing vulgar songs in Gar\u00edfuna. Nobody could stop them so the old people with Isabel and Mr. Hiberto took their drums and left the youth doing their own thing. From then the youth were banned from the other celebrations. For me it was sad to watch what had happened, but at the same time it opened my eyes and mind that something got to be done for the younger generation. Instinctively I knew that the Garinagu culture had reached the time for a change. I studied the old songs and started to write my own songs and played the Gar\u00edfuna drums and also discovered how to use different sizes of turtle shells as a percussion instrument. Usually after I worked on my paintings during the day, I began making music in the late afternoon. First, I practiced all by myself until later some friends joined in. We did only cultural music because I didn’t tolerate imitating of hit records…\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite Cayetano\u2019s and other founding punta-rockers\u2019 deliberate efforts to develop a new genre that would catch the interest of a new generation of Gar\u00edfuna and revive a genuine cultural appreciation, the wave of changes that has swept punta rock over punta has been unexpected, extreme, and has produced a negative opinion amongst a substantial group within the Garinagu.\u00a0 Unfortunately, a number of issues to be addressed in the next segment of this paper have minimized the voice of this group.\u00a0 Thus, Cayetano\u2019s anecdotal incident in 1978 described above seems to provide us with an ironically relevant microcosm for the current state of this dance and music genre in 2007.\u00a0 The older generation is getting older, and with them, the traditional punta could be reaching its end.\u00a0 The younger generation is losing touch with the original elements that make the culture unique, and although the culture may breathe a more adaptable version of itself, something must be done if the original is to be recognized.\u00a0 A quote from Kwame Anthony Appiah, a Ghanian-American culture theorist, brings us to a similar point, \u201cCultures are made of continuities and changes, and the identity of a society survive through these changes. Societies without changes aren\u2019t authentic; they\u2019re just dead.\u201d\u00a0 What now?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Theoretical<\/strong><\/p>\n

The questions posed in my introduction construct responses that tend to fall into either one category or another (binary).\u00a0 Yet a major piece of what this paper aims to assert is that essentially everything we know is not pure \u201cblack or white,\u201d especially when observed from varying angles, and that the application of classification systems is often harmful.\u00a0 One could even argue that when classification systems are advantageous or objectively necessary (e.g. identifying poisonous objects), they can never be equally beneficial.\u00a0 At this point therefore, a deeper reflection beyond a \u201cthis or that\u201d assumption must be engaged in hopes of finding a new outcome through change, curiosity, and respect.\u00a0 In this course, we have looked at an onslaught of topics such as modernity, post-modernity, cultural imperialism, capitalism, active audience, power, soft-power, movement, music, style, desire, identity, privilege, class, race, nation-states, networks, adaptability, authenticity, copyright, and many more.\u00a0 Although punta, along with multiple other Gar\u00edfuna related issues like language, ethnicity, religion, etc, could be easily tied to all of these, what I find most challenging and relevant here is the relationship between the punta, punta rock, and authenticity and ownership.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To begin, how do we define authenticity?\u00a0 It means different things to different people and within different contexts and fields of study.\u00a0 Simplistically, we could say that authenticity is a quality that gauges truth or credibility.\u00a0 It allows us to determine if what we are sensing and experiencing in our environment has real value.\u00a0 The inherent difficulty with the term is that it falls within the realm of subjective matter.\u00a0 One way to see this problem is hopeless — to determine what can and cannot be deemed authentic is impossible as no person, source or controlling body is without flaw and able to define anything as authentic.\u00a0 Another way to see it is na\u00efve — whatever a source (e.g. family, school, TV, the Bible, the Internet, etc.) deems authentic is.\u00a0 Some might reference the clich\u00e9 generally used in reference to truth: it is in the eye of the beholder.\u00a0 I would have to admit or welcome uncertainty.\u00a0 Authenticity ties right into the debate around punta rock, because punta rock is a cultural genre of expression built from another cultural genre of expression (punta), which is recognized as authentically Garifuna. But what if anything about the rhythms, drum sounds, hip movements, or religious association is \u201coriginal\u201d to this culture specifically?\u00a0 Gar\u00edfuna after all is a combination of many other peoples and cultures itself, so how far back must we go to find the beginning?\u00a0 I say this cyclical direction of thought would need to change course towards more substantive material.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Critics of punta rock would call it an unauthentic devolution — irrespetuso (disrespectful), superficial, and even vulgar.\u00a0 Some Garinagu purists would place punta rock outside the borders of Gar\u00edfuna culture altogether and charge that it threatens Gar\u00edfuna tradition and identity.\u00a0 Arguably, the simple rhythmic sound is injected with the electric guitar, and the drum is sped up and altered to a louder noise level.\u00a0 While the dance remains similar, they are exaggerated and therefore increasingly sexual.\u00a0 Instead of hip movements implying a physical celebration often connected to a pair\u2019s reunion, they turn to more of a provocative exhibition.\u00a0 But perhaps the more explicit qualm with the message exuded by punta rock is in the lyrics.\u00a0 From sacred punta, with subjects related to social etiquette, generally sung by older women with accurate Gar\u00edfuna enunciation to depthless punta rock, with lyrics like \u201cpelame la yuca\u201d (peal my yuca) performed by younger male groups (Los Rolands de la Ceiba), many of which included only a token Gar\u00edfuna member (i.e. mestizaje), the American notion of transformation occurs in multiple dimensions.\u00a0 The good intentions behind punta rock gave way to the motivations of profits within the community and a push from \u201ccultural imperialism\u201d and fame from a broader audience as well.\u00a0 Intuitively, a considerable segment of the Garinagu population would side with this feeling; however, the amount of published material available in opposition to punta rock is scarce.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the other side, supporters of Gar\u00edfuna evolution nearly praise the invention of punta rock.\u00a0 Most sources, while acknowledging several fundamental differences between punta and punta rock along with the profitability of the new genre, tend to highlight its importance as a \u201cform of cultural retrieval, maintenance, and survival,\u201d and especially its ability to engage a younger generation of Garinagu.\u00a0 Definitely, punta rock was born from traditional punta, and it is a creative, cultural, and possibly political expression.\u00a0 It is adaptable, free of controls by the elder generations, and lyrics can be sung or rapped in Garifuna, Spanish, or English.\u00a0 The Gar\u00edfuna identity claimed by punta rock artist is based on the argument that this dance and music genre provides a platform through with Garinagu can remember and express who they are; however, due to the influence of other genres in the U.S., Latin American, and the Caribbean (i.e. rock, reggae, soca, etc.), it becomes apparent that something hybrid is at play (i.e. creolization). While struggles in terms of classification and identification are inherent in this genre, its commodification and mass appeal to varying audiences adds to the complexity in which it exists.\u00a0 As highlighted, we have found opposing viewpoints in regards to punta rock and its perceived contribution or injury to traditional punta and Gar\u00edfuna culture overall, which leads to additional issues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a cultural element originating with the Garinagu,\u00a0 if it were owned by the group, would punta rock exist and be a potential threat or savior?\u00a0 As author Michael Brown reports, \u201cMany advocates for native rights would like to see the integrity of indigenous cultures ensured by laws that treat heritage as an inalienable resource.\u201d\u00a0 Despite the sympathy that can be given to cases of cultural marginalization, I would agree with Brown that ownership of a culture or culture elements is not desirable.\u00a0\u00a0 With this question, he also offers a binary structure with respect to how critics see the creolization of art, one positive \u201c\u2026the interweaving of two distinct cultures expresses a genuine effort to bring together natives and settlers in a bi-cultural society based on mutual respect,\u201d and he other pessimistic, \u201c\u2026that native styles can move to the mainstream only when natives themselves have been neutralized and pushed to the margins.\u201d In the case of the Gar\u00edfuna punta, regulation of this kind would not be possible and would not serve to preserve the culture.\u00a0 Instead the expected result would be a controlling body extracting some benefit from a dominant position.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

New Look<\/strong><\/p>\n

The discussions of helpful or hurtful and owned or shared are what seem to be attached to punta and punta rock.\u00a0 Punta rock can be seen as both good and bad, but there is an option to see it as an imperfect extension of a traditional genre, which will lead to additional extensions, all of which will retain roots with the Garinagu.\u00a0 Definitely these genres are mixtures.\u00a0 Seen through gaze of creolization, boundary crossing is valued, whereas through the concept of the mestizaje, the feeling is detrimental.\u00a0 By looking at it from a new standpoint, these points are not as crucial if the concern is Gar\u00edfuna survival and appreciation, and hopefully given the large-scale attention from UNESCO, the efforts of small activist groups, and the collective input of families and individuals, it does not appear that the Gar\u00edfuna culture will fade away in the near future.\u00a0 One of Brown\u2019s fundamental points is that we should not be asking “who owns native culture?” but rather “how can we promote respectful treatment of native cultures and indigenous forms of self expression [and cultural elements and genres] within mass societies?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hybridity helps us to investigate with new vocabulary, examine links, and think about complex topics beyond essentialized theories and across discourses.\u00a0 Its anti-structure surpasses modernity, post-modernity, and allows it to adapt.\u00a0 Thinking of hybridity as a process or a flow, I do not believe we have to defend it from being deemed a mask of capitalism.\u00a0 Capitalism is real. Homogenization occurs.\u00a0 Neither are the same as globalization.\u00a0 It is all too complex.\u00a0 Hybridity opens doors of thought, but as it evolves, I would point to Douglas Kellner\u2019s evaluation and agree that to make use of its recent popularity, potential, and provide an anchor for a critical theory of globalization, it would not hurt to include a stronger grasp of oppression and social struggles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the end, the questions and discussion about punta and punta rock are numerous and surely extend beyond the scope of this paper, but what I hope can be taken from this brief analysis is that there are more than two viewpoints on this subject.\u00a0 This subject will change.\u00a0 These viewpoints will change.\u00a0 Uncertainty is uncomfortable, but embracing it seems to be the most direct route for progress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Works Consulted<\/strong><\/p>\n

ANDERSON, Mark David. Gar\u00edfuna Kids: Blackness, Modernity, and Tradition in Honduras. PhD Dissertation. University of Texas Austin. 2000.APPIAH, Kwame Anthony. Toward a New Cosmopolitanism. New York Times Magazine. January 2006.<\/p>\n

BONNER, Donna Maria. Gar\u00edfuna Town \/ Caribbean Nation \/ Latin American State: Identity and Prejudice in Belize. PhD Dissertation. University of New York at Buffalo. 1999.<\/p>\n

BROWN, Michael F. Who Owns Native Culture? Harvard University Press. 2003.<\/p>\n

GONZALEZ, Nancie L. Gar\u00edfuna Settlement in New York: A New Frontier. International Migration Review, Vol. 13, No. 2, Special Issue: International Migration in Latin America. 1979. pp. 255-263.<\/p>\n

GORDON, Edmund T; Anderson, Mark. The African Diaspora: Toward an Ethnography of Diasporic Identification. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 112, No. 445, Theorizing the Hybrid. 1999. pp. 282-296.<\/p>\n

GREENE, Oliver N., Jr. Ethnicity, Modernity, and Retention in the Gar\u00edfuna Punta. Black Music Research Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2. 2002. pp. 189-216.<\/p>\n

HARVEY, David. The Condition of Postmodernity. Blackwell. 1990.<\/p>\n

JOHNSON, Paul Christopher. Migrating Bodies, Circulating Signs: Brazilian Candombl\u00e9, the Gar\u00edfuna of the Caribbean, and the Category of Indigenous Religions. History of Religions, Vol. 41, No. 4, Essays on the Occasion of Frank Reynolds’s Retirement. 2002. pp. 301-327.<\/p>\n

KRAIDY, Marwan M. Hybridity, or the Cultural Logic of Globalization. Temple University Press. 2005.<\/p>\n

NEDERVEEN PIETERSE, Jan. Globalization and Culture: Global M\u00e9lange. Rowman and Littlefied. 2004.<\/p>\n

*Additional Sources: conversations with a Honduran born Gar\u00edfuna woman living in New York, class discussions, Wikipedia.com, Garinet.com, GariTV.com<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction This is a paper about the punta. While the punta can be partially understood as a dance and music genre of a Central American people known as the Gar\u00edfuna, it is a complex element of culture existing both in space and time, which allows us to employ a variety of academic perspectives in our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hybridity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeeality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeeality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeeality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeeality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeeality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yeeality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeeality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeeality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeeality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}