ABSTRACT
The ritual narrative illustrates the “mythology of a social group,” their conception in sound of how they believe the world operates or, alternately, how they wish it would. Even when one becomes a party to a set of rituals that does not necessarily constitute entry into or an understanding of the community from which they arise. Yet, the effort must continue to be made to widen one's repertoire and enter into unknown spheres with unfamiliar, perhaps even unfathomable, practices. Otherwise, we remain myopic and single-minded, cut off from and alien to any sphere other than the one into which we were born. Rituals can serve as one of the most potent markers with which that process of social osmosis can proceed, and music often acts as a particularly effective passport between disparate territories. Citing the work of Christopher Small, Albert Murray and Ken Burns, the chapter refers to Mike Bloomfield and Wynton Marsalis in its exploration of enculturation and acculturation in popular music narratives.
