Not Exactly Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Whether it’s Avatar, Pocahontas, or The Lion King, we are all aware of the notion that we, as people -- as a planet-- are connected to one another. Be it the simple fact that we are human beings or something more complicated, the idea still remains. Try as we might, we all have similar personality traits/habits that we would never imagine anyone else having, for example, everyone has experienced a moment right after finishing an amazing book and not knowing how to proceed with your life, knowing full well what you have just experienced or something more simple like writing novels in our heads because we are battling with insomnia. It has nothing to do with culture – these things are just universal and I wholeheartedly believe that it is because we are all humans and are interconnected. One of the most interconnecting things that we as humans have is music. 

After reading that you might be thinking one of several things; first – wow I didn’t know she could be so creative, two – wow I never thought of things that way, or three – what does this have to do with Belize?

And seeing as I'm not psychic, I can only answer the third. 

In our class last week, we watched a documentary about the Garifuna people of Belize; they are the descendants of Carib, Arawak, and West African People.  The documentary gave the basic details about their culture, heritage, and a traditional ceremony known as Dugu that brings the community together in honoring the ancestors. I was very amazed and quite impressed that the Garifuna people strive so hard to preserve their ancient ways and seek to not only educate but also impact the importance of their culture on their children. 

Throughout the video, there was examples of Garifuna drumming. Here's a sample video 

For me, there is something very raw and...natural for lack of a better word about drumming. It seems to elicit a kind of response in me that no other music type can bring to life. I can get on a whole rant on how amazing music is and its invention but I won't bore you with that...for now. 

Recently, I've started watching a TV mini-series called Into The West. The mini-series takes place in the 1860s and tells the story of the Lakota and several frontier men.  

So, whilst watching the video in class, Native American music and language was stuck in my head, and I realized just how similar Garifuna and Native American drumming is. (I'm more then sure that there are a lot of drumming types which are similar as well, but these two are the ones that I thought of that connected). 

I've tried to figure out how two cultures which potentially never got a chance to interact have very similar musical styles, and for that matter spiritualistic values. I've had a few thoughts but none seemed full enough. 

My first thought that I've stuck with was that because these practices originated in a time when people were very in tuned with nature and their surroundings and not so much concerned about the latest pop gossip (hmm that makes me wonder if there was any pop gossip in those days). 

The fact that drumming is seen in many ancient cultures is most likely due to the fact that it is extremely similar to the beating of a heart, which, in essence, is the source of life. Well, depending on which therapeutics professor you talk to. 

I won't dwell too much on the subject because then this blog would turn into something else, so for sake of time and subject I'll say this:

It really boggles my mind to think that, several hundreds of years ago, cultures were alive which got the basics of human nature to such a "T" that they were able to simply 'bang' on an object and not only have people react to it, but become so entranced by it that it became their culture and way of life.