How does musical instruments relate to social structure and organization? Analysis of musical instruments mirroring social organization and social structure in South Ethiopia

Abstract

Studies of traditional musical instruments try to explain how they are made, from what they are made, and how they are used in musical repertories. However, there are few studies explaining how traditional musical instruments mirror or reflect social organization and structure of a society. This research aims describe how traditional musical instruments reflect the social organization and structure of a society by taking the Gamo, D’irasha, and Ale culture from south Ethiopia. The study took an ethnographic research design and data is gathered and analyzed qualitatively. The study found that, there are multiple musical instruments reflecting the social organization and structure of the society in the Gamo, D’irasha and Ale culture. The study found Diitha, Baqqaa, Lule, Darebe, Dinkye, and Gondale from Gamo; Fila, Shonqa, and Tarba from D’irasha; Ip’aaree, and Timbo from Ale as some of the instruments reflecting the social organization and structure of the society. Traditional musical instruments reflected social hierarchy, leadership positions, family structure, and organization of the society in three different ways: through symbolic representation, referring instruments morphology (body part) such as the order of strings, association of the sound to social position, and the context in which they are used.