Sweers & Ross/Cultural Mapping and Musical Diversity, 1. Kulturkreise, Culture Areas and Chronotopes: Old Concepts Reconsidered for the Mapping of Music Cultures Today

The idea of cultural mapping has often been associated with the “culture area concept”, formulated before World War II by Franz Boas, Alfred L. Kroeber and, most of all, Clarck Wissler. Since then, the sonic profile of our planet has considerably changed, and it could be argued that this old concept of “culture area” is quite inadequate for contemporary ethnomusicology. While not ruling out the usefulness of coming up with new concepts, this chapter thus suggests that the “culture area” concept has often been interpreted and applied in a more restrictive sense than Clark Wissler originally intended, and even the older and nearly forgotten concept of “Kulturkreis” still has something to offer. This is especially the case if it is used in conjunction with the modern knowledge about migrant and transplanted traditions, as well as about cultural change more generally.