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Examining the role of music in the construction of cultural identity and ethnicity, this study explores the relationship between music and black identity, including the changing nature of ethnicity, cultural expressions of identity and musical styles as they reflect identity.

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CHOICE Review

This collection of 15 scholarly articles grew out of a conference of the same name held in January 1992. Its theoretical framework is ably summarized in Gerhard Kubik's "Ethnicity, Cultural Identity, and the Psychology of Culture Contact," in which he asserts that ethnicity is a "new consciousness about ethnic attachment" and a means of creating an "ethnic" identity in contradistinction to a majority (and often, oppressor) culture. He states that "black ethnicity" is by definition nonethnic, i.e., it is a contradiction in terms since "black" is racial, not ethnic. In consequence, "black ethnicity" is tinged with stereotypical, ideological, and separatist boundaries and suggests a coherence that is nonexistent. Kubik's study is flanked by broad studies of song (Anthony Seeger) and the "melodization of rhythms" in the Caribbean (Angel C. Quintero Rivera). Victoria Eli Rodriguez and Olavo Alen Rodriguez focus on their native Cuba; Martha Ellen Davis and Jorge Duany offer studies of the Dominican Republic, and Gage Averill of Haiti. Jose Jorge de Carvalho and Kazadi wa Mukuna look at Brazil; Egberto Bermudez's article focuses on Colombia, and Ronald Smith deals with Panamanians of African descent. Max Brandt's contribution concerns Venezuela; John Schechter and Raul Romero study Andean traditions. A few photos and musical examples illustrate the text. These are not articles about the musics of various places but rather about identity, especially black identity, as expressed through music. Upper-division undergraduate and above. T. E. Miller; Kent State University