Songs and dances in Zambia: different or the same

Songs and dances in Zambia: different or the same. I will use same and different to refer to Chibale qualifications of sameness and difference. And, ‘same’ and ‘different’ as qualifications based on observable characteristics of the songs.

People only refer to songs within one musango as different (-mbi or -aluka) when discussing their texts. In all other cases they are the same.
In general, the level of abstraction when regarding sameness is rather high. This means that two ‘different’ things can be called the same (cimo cine). Someone may acknowledge that ‘differences’ are obvious. For instance, when one of two same melodies rises at a certain point while the other falls. But this does not alter the qualification of sameness since they belong to the same musango.

For the concept of sameness¹For two other examples of this concept, see Possession rituals compared and Parallels between hunting and honey-gathering., song text, performative characteristics, purpose and context are far more consequential than the observable musical characteristics of the song.

Overview of sameness and difference

Songs and dances in Zambia: different or the same. It may be helpful to sum up the issues related to calling two songs the same or different.

Songs within one musango (root melody) may ‘differ’ on certain points but are the same, except for their texts.

Two songs that are ‘different’ may be the light and heavy version of the same song because of the way they are performed or the occasion at which they are sung.

Two songs that are ‘different’ may be the female or male performance of the same song.

The ‘same’ song performed by either a medium, a (non-possessed) specialist, or a layperson is classified in three ways.

Differences in the dancing – and, so, in at least the master drum patterns – may cause the ‘same’ song to be classified differently.