The Sound of Navajo Country: Music, Language, and Diné

The Sound of Navajo Country: Music, Language, and Diné Belonging (Critical Indigeneities)

In this ethnography of Navajo (DinÃ©) popular music culture, Kristina M. Jacobsen examines questions of Indigenous identity and performance by focusing on the surprising and vibrant Navajo country music scene. Through multiple first-person accounts, Jacobsen illuminates country musicâ€™s connections to the Indigenous politics of language and belonging, examining through the lens of music both the politics of difference and many internal distinctions DinÃ© make among themselves and their fellow Navajo citizens.

As the second largest tribe in the United States, the Navajo have often been portrayed as a singular and monolithic entity. Using her experience as a singer, lap steel player, and Navajo language learner, Jacobsen challenges this notion, showing the ways Navajos distinguish themselves from one another through musical taste, linguistic abilities, geographic location, physical appearance, degree of Navajo or Indian blood, and class affiliations. By linking cultural anthropology to ethnomusicology, linguistic anthropology, and critical Indigenous studies, Jacobsen shows how Navajo poetics and politics offer important insights into the politics of Indigeneity in Native North America, highlighting the complex ways that identities are negotiated in multiple, often contradictory, spheres.
Country USA
Manufacturer The University of North Carolina Press
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2017-02-22
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	The University of North Carolina Press
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2017-02-22
Format	Kindle eBook

The Sound of Navajo Country: Music, Language, and Diné Belonging (Critical Indigeneities)