ABSTRACT
Many ethnomusicologists work with low-status artists whose subordinate position in local social hierarchies is directly linked to their music-making activities. In contexts where performers and patrons (including ethnomusicologists) have radically different social positions, the decisions about where, when, how, why, and for whom to perform can be extremely complicated. As a way of aligning with musicians against oppressive practices, the ethnomusicologist might consider advocating against rather than for music-making, but the ethical choice is rarely clear-cut. Drawing upon my own fieldwork experiences in rural India, I examine how my privilege as a white, male, American scholar has informed my relationships with South Asian Dalit drummers. My access to drummers has only been possible through the mediation of high-status, upper-caste village patrons, but this mediation has also posed challenges to establishing rapport and trust with the drummers. At the same time, my sustained contact with drummers has resulted in my crossing many of the caste, class, and gender boundaries that my high-status interlocutors regard as sacrosanct. This chapter focuses on the ethical challenges that emerge for ethnographers who balance the goals of self-awareness, access, acceptance, advocacy, and research integrity, and who seek to be non-harming persons in fieldwork contexts that are inherently unequal.
