Martha Ellen Davis

Martha E. Davis

Presenting a paper in Santo Domingo
Occupation Anthropologist, Ethnomusicologist
Awards Charles Seeger Prize (1970),[1] Chicago Folklore Prize (1976),[2] Premio Nacional de Ensayo Pedro Henríquez Ureña (1985)[3]

Martha Ellen Davis is an emeritus professor from the University of Florida, anthropologist and ethnomusicologist known for her multifarious work on African diasporic religion and music. Professor Davis' research has defied conventional tenets about Haitian and Dominican folk music, and her cultural preservation projects has raised awareness of the significance of the Samaná Americanos' enclave.

Education and early work

Davis received her B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) in Anthropology from the University of California and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. Her graduate field work took her to various Caribbean islands, of which she has published,[4] but it was in the Dominican Republic where early on in her graduate career she established her reputation as an iconoclast, critic and dedicated scholar to Black culture. In 1972, she arrived at the island of Hispaniola with the suspicion that Dominicans owned more to the Afro-Caribbean culture than what had been documented yet. In an article published in a leading Dominican newspaper, Xiomarita Perez wrote candidly about Davis' style and links to the country: "Martha works from the heart and with the heart... Her job is essential to the country's social memory" (Spanish:«Martha trabaja de corazón y con el corazón... Su oficio es delicado e importante para la memoria social del país»).[5]

Institutional involvement

Part of Davis' legacy includes co-founding the Committee of Applied Ethnomusicology within the Society for Ethnomusicology in 1998,[6][7][8] writing four seminal books,[9] producing documentaries,[10] and writing numerous scientific articles. She has been considered an authority in Afro-Caribbean music and is quoted extensively in the literature. Davis' book, La otra ciencia, earned the National Nonfiction Award of the Dominican Republic. While continuing as an affiliate professor at the University of Florida, since ca. 2003 Davis has spent most of her time in the Dominican Republic as honorary researcher of the Museo del Hombre Dominicano (Museum of the Dominican Man) and oral-history expert and researcher of the Archivo General de la Nación (The National Archives), offering lectures, advising young scholars, and writing. In November 1, 2012, the Museo celebrated her 40 years of research in the country.[11]

Scholarly contributions

Davis' long-standing interest in the Dominican and Haitian cultures derives from her belief that "The island of Hispaniola—the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo and first colony in the New World—was the initial diasporal crucible and cultural bridge of the Americas."[12] In 1976, Davis, who rivals Fernando Ortiz in years of research into Afro-Caribbean culture, challenged the Dominican cultural establishment. According to Peter Manuel from CUNY, she convincingly suggested "that if there is any rightful ‘national’ music of the Dominican Republic, it would be not the Merengue, with its specifically regional origin in the Cibao, but rather the various types of salve, which have flourished throughout the country."[13][14] Her work has also crossed into the realm of religion, and here she also suggested that what is commonly called Dominican "Folk Religion" is more accurately described as folk Catholicism of which one component is "Dominican Vodou."[15]

Select publications

References

  1. ↑ "Charles Seeger Prize". Society of Ethnomusicology. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Chicago Folklore Prize". American Folklore Society. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  3. ↑ Díaz, Rossy (December 20, 2013). "Conoce a nuestros miembros: Martha Ellen Davis". Dominican Society of Musical Studies. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  4. ↑ The Editors (January 1972). "Back Matter". Ethnomusicology. 16 (1): 16.
  5. ↑ Pérez, Xiomarita (October 31, 2012). "Folcloreadno: Martha Ellen Davis". Listín Diario. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  6. ↑ Todd Titon, Jeff (2015). The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 27. ISBN 0199351708.
  7. ↑ "Applied Ethnomusicology Section". Society of Ethnomusicology. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Invested in Community: Ethnomusicology and Musical Advocacy". Brown University Library Center for Digital Scholarship. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  9. ↑ Davis, Martha (1987). La otra ciencia: el vodú dominicano como religión y medicina populares. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Editora Universitaria (UASD).
  10. ↑ "Film and Video Reviews". Ethnomusicology. 50 (1): 172. 2006. JSTOR 20174439.
  11. ↑ Díaz, Rossy (October 15, 2012). "Celebración a etnomusicóloga Martha Ellen Davis". Blog. Museo del Hombre Dominicano. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  12. ↑ Davis, Martha Ellen (2012). "Diasporal Dimensions of Dominican Folk Religion and Music". Black Music Research Journal. 32 (1): 161–191.
  13. ↑ Manuel, Peter (2007). "El Merengue: Musica y Baile de la Republica Dominicana, and: El Merengue en la Cultura Dominicana y del Caribe: Memorias del Primer Congreso Internacional "Musica, Identidad, y Cultura en el Caribe"". Latin American Music Review. 28 (1): 172. doi:10.1353/lat.2007.0020.
  14. ↑ Bars, Karoline (2011). "El origen de sones afroantillanos: perspectivas dominicanas con respecto a "Son de la Ma' Teodora"". Latin American Music Review. 32 (2): 233. JSTOR 41348253.
  15. ↑ Mapril, Jose (2013). Sites and politics of religious diversity in southern Europe: the best of all gods. Brill. p. 39. ISBN 90-04-25523-0.

External links

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