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of multiculturalism . . . reflectsa radical indi-vidualism that fails to take seriously the identi-ties and claims of goups as groups" (p. 279).

McConnell favored interviews and surveysover participant observation, a reasonable re-search strategy given the focus of his study. Asa consequence, he provides just two nu-anced portraits of individuals who appear inmore than one context. On the basis of his in-terviews and surveys, he focuses more onclassifying foreign assistants into a variety ofdifferent types, ranging from the "cynics" and"careerists" to the "missionaries/sensitivechange agents" and "Nipponophiles" (Japanlovers) (pp. 193-205). He classifies Japanesein terms of their attitude towards the JET pro-gram as "enthusiasts," "detractors," or "ambi-valents" (pp. 187-193). These classificationsindicate a complexity within the categoriesof foreign and Japanese. McConnell couldhave bolstered his own analysis by corn-par-ing the categories he derived from surveyswith a closer look at native systems of classi-fication.

The primary drawback of Importing Diver-sity is McConnell's failure to locate the JETprogram within a broader discussion of otherissues relevant to Japan's place in a globaliz-ing world. Implicit in the project of importingdiversity is the assumption on the part ofmany Japanese educators that japan is cul-turally and ethnically homogeneous.McConnell does not suf-ficiently problema-tize this assumption, one which ignores thenation-building projects since the Meiji pe-riod that established the institutional andideological frameworks that made the no-tion of homogeneous Japan so pervasive inthe postwar period. What does it mean thatJapanese can claim to have imported diver-sity when the foreign participants of JETcome predominantly from a handful of Eng-lish speaking countries? What relation doesthe internationalization effort embodied inthe JET program have to policies and atti-tudes towards the hundreds of thousands ofnew migrant workers from Asia and LatinAmerica who arrived in Japan in the 1980sand 1990s? How does JET relate to the Japa-nese government's handling of the persistentissue of reparations for Asian countries thatits military invaded during World War II?Grappling with such questions could havemade McConnell's book more appealing toa wider anthropological audience.

Let Jasmine Rain Down: Song and Remem-brance among Syrian Jews. Kay Shelemay.Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.xvii + 289 pp., glossary, index, discography,compact disc.

TIMOTHY RICEUniversity of California, Los Angeles

The last 20 years have seen an efflorescenceof book-length musical ethnographies—de-tailed studies of the musical culture of a par-ticular society or group. Among these, U.S.communities are reasonably well represented.Let Jasmine Rain Down forms part of a growingcorpus of books on Jewish music in the UnitedStates, a set of traditions that have become oneof the most we 11-documented kinds of Ameri-can "ethnic" music (p. 2).

Many studies of U.S. communities share aconcern for the obviously transnational char-acter of immigrant music. Whether the immi-grants have lived in the United States for nearly100 years, as have the Syrian Jews, or for amere decade, their musical life partakes of acomplex network of influences between thehome country and parallel diasporic locali-ties—contacts facilitated not only by travel butalso by such electronic media as cassettes andvideotapes. One of Kay Shelemay's many en-gaging stories is about a song, "Attah El Kab-bir," that Rabbi Rafael Taboush composed inNew York after he immigrated from Aleppo,Syria in 1912. The song subsequently traveledto Syrian Jewish communities in Mexico City,Jerusalem, and then back to Damascus. Suchsong movement testifies to the vitality, creativ-ity, and even central ity of immigrant locales fortransnational societies.

The Syrian Jews, whose stories Shelemayhelps to tell, began immigrating to the lowereast side of Manhattan in the early 20th cen-tury, moving later to the Bensonhurst and thenFlatbush areas of Brooklyn. What makes themparticularly interesting in the tense political cli-mate since the formation of the state of Israel istheir "dual Jewish and Arab identity" (p. 226),preserved, maintained, and expressed mostvividly in a genre of songs called pizmonim.They borrow most melodies for pizmonim frompopular Arab songs of the day that are well-known and loved by the Arabic-speakingmembers of the community. Some communitymembers are amateur singers and patrons ofprofessional Arab musicians who performfor important social events such as wedding

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anniversaries. The melodies of pizmonim thusreference, sustain, invoke, and emotionallytinge a deeply felt sense of Arab identity in thisotherwise American Jewish community.

To make a pizmon from an Arab song, com-posers—often rabbis and cantors—createnew, religiously inflected texts in Hebrew, thusmaking the secular song holy within the Jewishtradition. A new pizmon is usually composedto commemorate an auspicious occasion in aperson's life (a birth and circumcision, barmitzvah, or wedding) and contains the nameofthe person, his father, and grandfather. In sub-sequent family events, its performance memo-rializes male family members and calls vividlyto mind memories of deceased relatives andprevious special occasions. The religious na-ture of the texts links them to other aspects ofJewish tradition and makes them useable insome liturgical and paraliturgical contexts,thus planting them deeply within the Jewishexperience. Song, with its dual channels of textand melody, is thus the ideal medium to articu-late the dual sense of identity of Syrian Jewishculture. Claiming that the study of music andmemory is underthematized in ethnomusicol-ogy, Shelemay positions her book as a contri-bution to that subject, noting that "the songsare intentionally constructed sites for the long-term storage of conscious memories from thepast" (p. 6).

Let Jasmine Rain Down is based on researchconducted mainly in the 1980s by the author,her students at New York University, and asmall group of community research associateswho were dedicated singers and composers inthe Syrian Jewish tradition. "The interpretivefocus of the book seeks to convey insider per-spectives" (p. 12); indeed, extended quotesfrom community members are sprinkled forthat purpose on practically every page. Theirwords give the book a welcome grounding inethnographic detail, more such detail than per-haps in any other recent book of this type. But itsometimes seems that the interpretation stopsjust when the reader wants to know more. Forexample, Shelemay tells readers of a distinc-tion between "light" and "heavy" songs (p.133), but not what features make up that dis-tinction. When the book's performers borrow aEuro-American tune, as they sometimes donowadays, they "put a little twist on it" (p. 127)to make it Syrian; but what is the twist? At an-other level, it would have been a mitzvah fornon-Jewish readers if all tradition-specific terms

(Halebi, mohel, and brit mila, to name a few)had been interpreted at their first use.

Shelemay structures the narrative in a wayanalogous to how the community structuresmusical performances, which consist of a suitethat alternates improvised preludes with a sub-sequent fixed composition in the same me-lodic mode. Her six preludes each contain adescription of a particular pizmon—its musi-cal characteristics, often a description of a spe-cific performance of it, and the history of itscomposition. The particular theme, first men-tioned in a prelude, then leads Shelemay tomore normative and interpretive reflections onit in the following chapter. Her first reflectiondeals with the way pizmonim texts preservethe memory of individuals, which yields pro-files of some of the most important composersin the tradition. In the next chapter Shelemaylinks the history of the community's migrationto the migration of song tunes. In the thirdchapter, she details Syrian Jews'use of the Arabmusical tradition, particularly its melodicmodes. Readers learn, amongotherthings, thatdifferent modes are linked to different readingsfrom the Torah and thus come to have mean-ings within the Jewish tradition. In the fourthchapter, Shelemay details the uses of piz-monim in life-cycle rituals, liturgical contexts,and family celebrations. Here a chart of musi-cal genres and maqam (Arab melodic modes)used in a service or even an entire Sabbath daymight have aided the interpretation. In chapterfive Shelemay reveals the gap between indi-vidual and community preferences and theireffects on song transmission. A particularly ef-fective table shows that oi the 560 pizmonimrecorded in the community's self-constructedanthology, only 178 are in "active transmis-sion," defined by Shelemay as being known bytwo or more people (p. 201). Another 115 piz-monim are known by one person only and arepresumably destined to disappear from theperformed repertory. The last chapter, pre-ceded by a well-known pizmon memorializ-ing Moses Ashear, another important figure inthe tradition, is meant to function as a conclu-sion, though some new ideas are introducedabout the cultural references in the Hebrew texts.

Shelemay's themes of memory encoded insongs, identity formation through song, newmusical meanings through new contextual as-sociations, and musical migration and trans-mission have all been important to ethnomusi-cologists and are engagingly treated here.

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In naming particular individuals, foreground- the length and breadth of the island landscape,ing their views, and elucidating the history of Women perform ritual as community priest-the tradition, Shelemay is continuing what are esses (k'a) who claim to inherit ritual positionsbecoming increasingly important practices in that existed during the largely autonomous,ethnomusicological writing. What readers just seafaring Okinawan Kingdom; as lineage sisterbegin to glimpse in the final chapter is a thicker priestesses (bunai) who return to natal homesinterpretation of how these songs and their per- presided over by a brother to officiate in ritualsformances participate in a contemporary cul- to memorialize and placate their lineage an-tural system that allows to males the joys ot cestors; and, finally, as shamanesses popularlysinging (documented in some vibrant perform- called Knowers (munuci)who are hired to per-ances on the accompanying CD) and to fe- form a variety of divinatory and other rites formales the joys of cooking while "struggling to individuals (or lineages),preserve bonds of family, community, and tra- As intermediaries with the island spirits, thedition" (p. 212). duties of all three varieties of priestesses de-

mand that they cultivate a familiarity with theisland's landscape and place names. This

Goddesses, Priestesses, and Sisters: Mind, knowledge is a crucial element in producingGender, and Power in the Monarchic Tradi- the particular style of impromptu invocatorytionoftheRyukyusMrneffo/c/cum. Oslo: Scan- recitation (usutui) that is a sign of a priestess'dinavian University Press, 1998. xi + 281 pp., prowess and is considered to be essential forphotographs, illustrations, appendix, glossary, establishing a successful rapport with the an-bibliography, index. cestral spirits. Only by being conversant with

E LESLIE WILLIAMS island place names can a priestess effectivelyClemson University invoke particular spirits in order to accomplish

ritual objectives. Rokkum claims that priest-Arne Rokkum bases Goddesses, Priestesses, esses in Dunang serve as the interface between

andSisterson ethnographic research spanning the local community and the human and agri-17 years. Rokkum's monograph is an enlight- cultural fertility that comes from ancestral spir-ening window on the varied aspects of ritual its inhabiting the landscape,life on Dunang, the southernmost of the Of particular interest is Rokkum's focus onRyukyu Islands. Rokkum's work is impressive the cross-sibling relationship that serves as thefor the broad approach that he takes in expli- social ideal, designating women (sisters) aseating the structure and significance of ritual priestesses in the island's ritual lifeandrelegat-practice on this island. He relates the structure ing men (brothers) to the secondary role of rit-of Dunang shamanistic ritual to the political ual assistant, oreven as patron of the female rit-structureofthe Okinawan Kingdom in the 15th ual specialist. Priestesses are considered onand 16th centuries, and to the structure of that Dunang to assume the status of goddess whilekingdom's relationship to its East Asian neigh- in the midst of performing their ritual duties. Abors, China and Japan. Rokkum argues that lineage sister-priestess is identified by her pa-while ritual life in the Ryukyus is steeped in this tron and brother as his own, personal tutelarypolity's relations to its neighbors, at the same goddess. This sister-brother relationship ontime the rituals exhibit patterns unique to the Dunang influences ritual life, patterns of mar-region and that continue to inform present day riage and kinship, and serves as a template toritual practice on Dunang. structure the collective perception of the island's

Rokkum provides excellent contextual in- natural life forms and landscape. Rokkum ar-formation that acquaints the reader with the gues that the brother-sister bond constitutes aphysical topography of the island, salient as- vital aspect of traditional society and is morepects of kinship, historical memory, and the in- pervasive in its social ramifications than evenhabitants' social and individual relationships the conjugal husband and wife relationship,to the landscape. He links the ways these fac- Traditional ritual life on Dunang involvestors combine to inform the local ritual life. In managing spiritual forces originating fromparticular, Rokkum analyzes the prominent Spirit Trails (kan-nu-miti), house sites, familyroles played by women who mediate for com- heirlooms, and individual human bodies. Themunities, families, and individuals with ances- tripartite female priesthood maintains thetral spirits (kan) that are considered to inhabit spiritual, familial, and community solidarity of