“Don’t Go Changing to Try and Please Me”: Combating Essentialism through Ethnography in the Ethnomusicology of Autism

Abstract

Abstract Abstract. Ethnomusicology is the study of how people make and experience music, and of why it matters to them that they do. Building from the epistemological foundations of the autistic self-advocacy and neurodiversity movements, as well as from the musical, ethnographic, and relativistic priorities of ethnomusicology itself, this article advances the position that our field, thus defined, is inherently well suited to the task of creating and sustaining vital, neurodiverse musical communities. The focus is on one such community, the Artism Ensemble, which serves as the basis of a case study featuring transcripts of dialogue with a child member of the group diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.

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