Authors

The program of the lecture course is based on the interdisciplinary approach to research of traditional music that is regarded in connection with mythology, folklore, axiology and world view, ethnic historical memory, rituals, transformation practices, ethnic pedagogy, processes of ethnic-cultural identification of peoples through music in the modern world. This approach is based on years of experience reading a course of lectures on traditional music of the peoples of the world at the Department of Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, Moscow State University. Thematically the course is divided into three units. The first unit covers the theoretical foundations of the course and methodology of comparative music culture study. The set of lectures of the second unit is dedicated to traditional music of peoples of Russia, India, China, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Scotland, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, USA, Canada, American and African indigenous musical cultures and others. In lectures of the third unit the role of ethnic music in the modern world and the developing potential of musical ethnic instruments in actual cultural, pedagogical and art-therapy practices are considered. Throughout the text, traditional music of peoples of the world is delineated in a unifying culture study perspective, from autochthonous traditions to modern ethnic culture.

The article focuses on the research of the sources, artistic distinctiveness, symbolism and functions of humorous play imagery of Death in Mexican and Mexican-American cultures based on mythology, folklore, music, traditional food, crafts and different forms of mass culture (caricatures, advertisement, internet, puppet installations). The concept of “La Muerte Sonriente” is regarded as a synthesis of the following historical and cultural components: the ancient Mesoamerican tradition of veneration of the Death as a deity and the idea of duality; the traditions of Medieval Europe (carnival forms, the macabre dance and Catholic traditions of All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day); the art of J.G. Posada and its development in Mexican folklore. The author comes to the conclusion, that the humorous play imagery of Death being a key “expression of Mexican spirit” has the following functions in Mexican and Chicano cultures: the transmission of the traditional worldview and values, the actualization of family and historical memory, establishing live connection with ancestors, as well as educating, ritual, entertaining, advertising and identity functions. The concept of “La Muerte Sonriente” has a special significance for Mexican-Americans in the process of their ethno-cultural identification, in marking borders of Chicano world in the national culture of the USA and in the actualization of a cultural dialogue with the motherland.

The development of modern civilization is characterized by information society and by the growing influence of media culture filled with different kinds of ethnic discourses — artistic works and contexts of ethnic cultural nature based on oral language and on traditional system of values. The paper focuses on the representation of Baffy Saint-Marie’s musical, educational and social activism work in media culture space. On the basis of internet-sources analysis, the author singles out the following conceptual blocks of modern aboriginal ethnic discourse in the works of the Canadian musician: axiology of Native American cultures in music episodes of children’s TV show “Sesame Street”; the authors’ educational Cradleboard Teaching Project for Native Americans on the basis of aboriginal cultures and languages support; authorial songs as the expression of the Canadian peace-making axiology; turning to aboriginal and ecological issues through participating in protest movement Idle No More, through public speeches and lectures. Ethnic musical art of Buffy Saint-Marie in media culture space serves as a support of aboriginal education, as a way of manifesting the main ideas of protest movement of Native Americans in Canada, as a means of live dialogue and unifying people sharing the same views of life and attitudes for protecting traditional values.

The academic program of the course is based on the author’s many years of experience in theoretical and field research on ethnic cultures of Russia and in teaching the course “Cultures of the peoples of Russia” to students of the Department of Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies of Moscow State University. The interdisciplinary and comparative approaches served as the theoretical foundation of this course. Thematically, the material is grouped according to the types of cultures of the peoples of Russia: semi-nomadic hunters and fishermen of the north; nomads of the steppes and mountains; settled mountaineers of the Caucasus; settled inhabitants of the plains; diasporas of the peoples of the near abroad, far from their ancestral homelands. To create a comprehensive picture of the studied peoples, the main attention is focused on the continuity of culture in the following way: from autochthonous traditions to modern professional art (ethnic literature, music, painting, and cinema). Different types of ethnic art and literature are regarded in the context of the processes of cultural identification of peoples in the context of globalization.

The article focuses on the study of the peculiarities of interpretation of Greek myth in the Afro-Brazilian cultural space using the material of the film “Black Orpheus” directed by M. Camus, based on the play “Orfeu da Conceição” by Vinicius de Moraes. The author traces the origins of the appeal to the image of Orpheus in the works of Camus and Moraes, and reveals the connection with the French dramatic tradition and cinema. M. Camus transforms the Greek story through the prism of the culture of the Afro-Brazilian population of Rio de Janeiro — the inhabitants of the favelas. The film brings to the fore the musical component of the myth, with the help of which the originality of the Afro-Brazilian tradition and carnival practices of Latin America are revealed. Orpheus in the film appears as a tram driver, singer and leader of a samba school. His image combines the Dionysian principle (the carnival tradition into which Orpheus is “inscribed”) and the Apollonian (expressed in lyrical songs and cultural codes of bossa nova). The carnival “building” of mythological reality allows us to touch the spiritual layers of the Brazilian tradition — the syncretic cult of Candomble. The space of the Macumba ritual symbolizes the Kingdom of Hades, in which dialogue with Eurydice is carried out through musical magic that opens doors between the worlds. The passage through the Kingdom of the Dead represents a rite of passage in which the hero dies and is reincarnated in a new form: in the finale, Orpheus “transfers” his musical gift to the boy, symbolically gaining new life in him. The interpretation of the ancient Greek plot in the space of Afro-Brazilian carnival practices helps to reveal the civilizational specificity of Latin America and Orfeus as an “eternal image” that embodies the divine gift of love, the magic of music, and eternal existence through a change of forms.