Department of Anthropology
San Diego State University

Publications

A. Book
Chant the Names of God: Music and Culture in Bhojpuri-Speaking India.
San Diego State University Press, San Diego CA 92182 (sdollent@mail.sdsu.edu) 1988.

Reviewed in numerous journals, including Ethnomusicology: ". . .presents a very clear and readable portrait of a richly heterogeneous village musical life. . . His intimate understanding of village life is clear. . ." [37 (2) Pp.295-298]; American Anthropologist: "Through the avenue of music, this book contributes to our further understanding of rural India. Chant the Names of God is an unusual study of local Indian music in its attention to the important links between the social and the musical" [93(3) Sept. '91, Pp. 761-2], and Journal of Asian Studies: ". . .quite possibly the best book on Indian folk music so far published in English." [50(1) Feb. '91, Pp. 184-6].

B. LP record
Chant the Names of God. Recorded in India in 1971-1972 and 1978. Documentary booklet includes photographs by the author, all translated texts, and contextual information. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Rounder Records. 1981. (Out of print)

C. Compact Disk
Women's Folk Songs from India. Recorded in India in 1995 & 1999. Documentary booklet includes photographs by the author, all translated texts, and contextual information. Cambridge Massachusetts: Rounder Records. April, 2000.

D. Articles and Chapters
l975 North Indian Wedding Songs: An Analysis of Functions and Meanings. The Journal of South Asian
Literature (l & 2): 62-93.

l976 The Variety of Music in a North Indian Village: Reassessing Cantometrics. Ethnomusicology 20 (l): 49-66.

l976 Vindicating Gali Songs: Insult Songs Which Promote Social Cohesion. The Journal of Social Research l9(l): l-l3.

1976 Encyclopedia entry: "Music and Chants." In D. Hunter and P. Whitten, Encyclopedia of Anthropology. New York: Harper and Row, pp.278-279.

l977 A North Indian Healer and the Sources of his Power. Social Science and Medicine 11 (5): 309-3l7.

1977 Music in the Thinking of North Indian Villagers. Asian Music 9 (1): 1-12

1977 The Ethnographic Analysis of Four Types of Music Performance in Bhojpuri-Speaking India. Journal of the Indian Musicological Society, June: 5-22.

1980 Non-participatory Music in a North Indian Village. In The Ethnography of Musical performance. Norma McLeod & Marcia Herndon, eds. Pp. 43-72. Norwood, PA: Norwood Editions.

1982 Changing Channels of Urban/Rural Music Interchange. Proceedings of the Twelfth Congress of the International Musicological Society: 590-595.

1983 The Mother Goddess Cult and Interaction Between Little and Great Religious Traditions. In Religion in Modern India (vol. V of main Currents in Indian Sociology). Giri Raj Gupta, ed. Pp. 174-195. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.

1985 Joe O'Dowd, Sligo Fiddler. Treoir (Dublin), December: 11-12.

1989 Institutions for the Promotion of Indigenous Music: The Case for Ireland's Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. Ethnomusicology 33 (1): 67-95.

1989 Social Structure and Music: Correlating Musical Genre and Social Categories in Bhojpuri-Speaking India. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 19 (2): 217-227.

1991 Jogis and Nirgun Bhajans in Bhojpuri-Speaking India: Intra-Genre Heterogeneity, Adaptation , and Functional Shift. Ethnomusicology 35 (2): 221-242.

1995 The Vitality of the Nirgun Bhajan: Sampling the Contemporary Tradition. In Bhakti Religion in North India, David Lorenzen, ed. Albany: State University at New York Press, Pp. 231-250.

1998 Bihar, North-Eastern India: A Ball of Snakes. Asian Thought and Society: An International Review 23(67), 77-83.

1998 Maithil Women's Song: Distinctive and Endangered Species. Ethnomusicology 42(3), pp. 415-440.

2000 Uttar Pradesh, in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South Asia, pp.660-676.

2000 Mithila, in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South Asia, pp. 677-680.

2000 Folk Song Genres and their Melodies in India: Music Use and Genre Process. Asian Music 31(2), 2000, pp. 71-106.

2001 India: Local Traditions: a 9,000 word survey, with music transcriptions and photographs of Indian folk musicians. In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol VII, pp. 237-245.

2002 The Rationalization of Intensity in Indian Music. Ethnomusicology, Volume 46, Number 1, pp. 33-55.

2002 Melodic Structure of the Khari Biraha of North India: A Simple Mode. Asian Music, Volume 33, Number 1, pp.105-124.

2003 The Jayamāla Rite in Eastern North India: Outsiders' and Insiders' Misunderstandings. Journal of Anthropological Research, Volume 59, pp. 511-530.

2006 The Purvi in Bhojpuri-Speaking India: Structure and Flux in a Disappearing Genre. Asian Music Volume 37 Number 2, pp. 1-33.