• Date: July 19 - July 23, 2014
• Venue: Conference Room 4, National Museum of Ethnology
• Language: English
• Sponsors: International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) "Music and Minorities" Study Group，National Museum of Ethnology
• For information, contact the local organizing committee at: ictm2014 at idc.minpaku.ac.jp
  *Please replace 'at' with @ and send.

Purpose

The “Music and Minorities” Study Group of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) will hold its 8th International Symposium at the National Museum of Ethnology between July 19 and July 23, 2014. Ethnomusicologist Ricardo Trimillos (Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii) will deliver the keynote lecture. The symposium is literally international, featuring 28 paper and film presentations by colleagues from 16 countries. The presentations will be given in four themes selected for the symposium.

1. Cultural Policy and Minorities: The link between a minority and a majority is an essential one: a minority presupposes a majority. Minority-majority interaction is therefore inevitable. Cultural policy governing minority music, dance, and expressive culture in general is one result of that interaction. This theme seeks to explore the ways in which such policy comes to being, is enacted and shapes cultural life as a whole.
2. Tourism and Minorities: Music and dance of minority groups are an important component of tourism in many countries. They are used to promote the idea of "Authenticity" and "cultural diversity" in many places. This theme should examine the effect of tourism on the music and dance of minorities that are required to present their culture to foreign audiences in staged and artificial situations. The dynamics of the relationship between ethnography and tourism -- marked by complementarity, compromise, or conflict -- illuminates possible effects on cultural practices, musicians' employment, and local reappraisal of music and dance traditions.
3. Gender and Sexual Minorities: Gender has been a popular topic in ethnomusicology for many decades, but for the concerns of our study group, it needs to be recontextualized. Sexuality, on the other hand, has been one of the least researched topics in our study of music and minorities and we need to include this hitherto unexplored dimension in our attempt for general theorization of the minority concept. While gender and sexuality have important differences, they also share many common features and are frequently inseparable. This theme treats gender and sexuality as one unit of inquiry as the intersection of these two identities is often crucial in understanding the complexity of the issue.
4. New Research: For the first time in the history of the Music and Minorities study group, we have added the theme, "new research". With the growing importance of the category, minorities, and the dramatic increase in the world population of those who fall under the category, this theme seems particularly apt. Innovative and experimental approaches to the study of music and minorities will be particularly welcome.

For more information about the ICTM and the study group, please refer to the following websites.
http://www.ictmusic.org/
http://www.ictmusic.org/group/music-and-minorities

Apart from paper and film presentations, two special events are being planned:

1. Concert (July 20):
   The concert Over the Arirang Pass: Zainichi Korean Music Today will feature three groups of musicians from Tokyo and Osaka to introduce the diverse musical styles practiced in the Korean community in Japan. The music presented will include the pansori (a traditional narrative genre) performed in a special style for those not conversant in Korean language, songs about Korean minority experiences performed in eclectic musical styles; and music played on modified traditional Korean instruments.
2. Excursion (July 22):
   An excursion has been organized to bring the symposium participants to the buraku minority community in the Naniwa section of Osaka city. After a guided tour of the Osaka Human Rights Museum to provide an overview of the history and culture of minority groups in Japan, we will visit the TaikoMasa Co., the largest taiko (drum) manufacturer in Osaka, to observe drum making, one of the traditional occupations of the buraku community. We will then join the annual summer festival at the local Naniwa Shrine where Ikari, the prominent drumming group of the area, will perform.

Program

Saturday, 19 July 2014

Sunday, 20 July 2014

Monday, 21 July 2014

Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Wednesday, 23 July 2014