Diffusion and syncretism: The modern jazz tradition

and Media Studies Program at Tufts University. He specializes in the sociology of cul-ture, art, and mass media. ABSTRACT: This article presents an analysis of the musical syncre-tism involved in the development of a modern jazz tradition in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. It shows how a professional ethos among popular musicians during this period guided their reinterpretation and reinvention of folk, popular, and classical music practices in the creation of this music tradition. It fur-ther argues that this ethos led them, in their low-status positions as popular musicians, to affirm their legitimacy through the creation of a high-art aesthetic. In general, this study shows how the social con-text in the diffusion of jazz practices affected the transformation of these practices in value and form in this century. at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 20, 2016ann.sagepub.comDownloaded from 26 O NE of the most commonly stud-ied aspects of diffusion in music is syncretism. A term developed in anthropological studies of accultura-tion, &dquo;syncretism&dquo; refers to the pro-cess of forging together elements from different cultures (Merriam 1964). It entails changes in value and form-a process of reinterpretation and reinvention in cultural diffusion. For anthropologists, this meant rein-terpreting and reinventing elements from two or more distinct cultures, as in the syncretism of American in-digenous cultures, African cultures, and European cultures in music of the Americas. Initial studies of diffusion in music focused on syncretism in folk or ethnic music. In contemporary scholarship, however, studies addressing syncretism focus on a wide array of music that includes popular commercial music as well as classical music in countries such a