Anthromusicology

Throughout its history, the question of whether the field of ethnomusicology should be renamed, abolished, or combined with other fields has periodically re-emerged. The most common reason given for this is scholars' discomfort with the prefix "ethno-". From a lay perspective, ethnomusicology gives the immediate impression of the study of music as it relates to ethnicity or to "the Other", giving an incorrect and problematic view of what it is ethnomusicologists do. This article argues for a reframing and expansion of the field as "anthromusicology," not defined as "the study of people making music", but more broadly, as the holistic study of the place music, broadly defined, holds in human life, in all its diversity.