Columbia University graduate student Matthew Sakakeeny, supervised by Dr. Aaron A. Fox, will undertake an ethnomusicological study of local cultural practices in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Jazz funerals, Mardi Gras Indian ceremonies, and parades called "second lines" have occurred in predominantly African American neighborhoods for more than a century and are structured around performances by marching bands and other musical groups. By tracking the role of these events in the city's recovery, this dissertation project will contribute to the anthropological understanding that musically organized sound is inseparable from social practice. The research will be based primarily on interviews with musicians and other practitioners and observation of cultural practices. This ethnographic data will be interpreted to answer the questions: How will New Orleans culture be reconstituted, what cultural changes are occurring in the aftermath of Katrina, and how should this crisis be situated within a larger history?
The practices of local culture resonate beyond the local level and inevitably connect to governmental policies that create patterns of vulnerability. Despite public discourses of racial equality, class lines in New Orleans generally reflect racial lines. Systemic poverty in the neighborhoods where the jazz funerals and parades take place left African American residents vulnerable to disaster, and made Hurricane Katrina one more tragedy intensified by a system of unequal power relations. The discourse of African American cultural practitioners will be the basis of this field research, including individuals' motivations and reasoning for returning or not returning home. The dissertation will analyze the multiple meanings of New Orleans culture, locating correspondences and discrepancies in governmental discourse, media coverage, and the actual experiences of New Orleanians attempting to rebuild their lives.
