5.1 Recognising and Naming the Instrument or Object

An instrument or performance object is more than a physical thing. It may produce sound, transform a performer, identify a character, carry ritual authority, organise movement or become significant only in a particular performance or ceremony. The proposed framework, therefore, links instruments and other material objects to Art Form, Artist, Performance and Space.

The central question of this section is: How do we understand, document and describe an instrument or object through its material form, the people who make and care for it, and the cultural practices that give it life? Begin with the people who know the object, the names they use, the ways they handle it, and the circumstances in which it becomes meaningful.

The proposed technical forms are most detailed for musical instruments: a General Instrument Record and separate measurement sheets for membranophones, idiophones, aerophones and chordophones. Costumes, masks, puppets, props and ritual objects also belong to material documentation, but do not have equally specialised forms. Apply the same principles without forcing them into an instrument classification or measurement sheet.

Begin with the local name, not with a technical label

Ask what the instrument or object is called by the people who make, use, carry, wear, safeguard or recognise it. Record the preferred name exactly as it is given, including in the local-script form where possible. Ask whether another name is used in a song, ritual, neighbouring village, different region, older generation or another community. A single object may have several names, and those differences can show how it moves across contexts.

Do not standardise variation. If two people use different names, record who uses each name and in what context. If a practitioner distinguishes between a general category and the name of this particular object, preserve both. If a name is uncertain, say so. The purpose is not to create a neat label at the expense of local distinctions; it is to make the naming history sufficiently visible for another person to understand how the record was created.

Ask what kind of thing people understand it to be

A fieldworker may see a drum, mask, staff, costume piece or puppet and immediately assign it a familiar category. First, ask how the people concerned would describe it to someone who had never seen it. What does it do? When is it used? Is it ordinary equipment, sacred property, a sign of office, a character-making device, an heirloom, a crafted tool, a ritual object, or several of these at once? One material form may carry more than one role.

Establish the object’s primary associations. Which Art Forms uses it? Is it associated with a particular community, lineage, troupe, locality, temple, festival or ritual office? Is it used regularly or only on a particular occasion? Link corresponding records where they exist, but do not replace people’s explanations with a database category.

Use technical classification as a secondary description

For sound-producing instruments, organological classification can make records comparable and guide the use of specialised forms. The General Instrument Record forms asks the fieldworker to identify a primary family - membranophone, idiophone, aerophone, chordophone, or composite/uncertain - before using the relevant Form 2 recording the measurements of the instruments. Treat this as a secondary layer of description. It does not replace the local name, the practitioner’s own way of grouping instruments, or the cultural explanation of use.

Do not force an instrument into a category when the evidence is unclear. Record composite or uncertain where appropriate, and add a note explaining the difficulty. For non-instrument objects, do not borrow Hornbostel-Sachs categories simply because the manual contains them. A classification is useful only when it clarifies the record without erasing the object’s locally recognised identity.

Before moving on, the fieldworker should be able to answer the question, “What is this called?” Who uses that name? Are there other names? What kind of instrument or object is it in local understanding? What Art Form, people, place or occasion is it associated with? Which technical classification, if any, is useful? This establishes identity before the team begins measuring, photographing, or digitising.