Genres Nonsecular musical genres within the Garifuna culture stem from a fusion of West African ancestral worship and
Amerindian shamanism. Examples of Garifuna music rituals include
Adügürühani (also known as
dügü), a healing ceremony;
Arairaguni, an invocation to determine illness;
Amuyadahani, a ritual in which family members make offerings to their ancestors; and
Achuguhani (Chugú), "feeding the dead".
Dügü (Feeding the Dead) The Garifuna tradition of
Adügürühani is a ritual that takes place when a Garifuna individual becomes ill and must consult a shaman in the hopes of restoring their health. The shaman will consult with the ancestral spirits (
gubida) that have inflicted the illness upon the individual. Drums are played during the
dügü, which is thought to have a calming effect on the individual who is possessed by the
gubida. The drumming is performed in
triple meter and is accompanied by song and dance. Often there are two to three drums, and the ensemble of drummers is called
dangbu. The drums are constructed using mahogany or mayflower wood and animal skins (usually deer, goat, or peccary). During construction, the drums are rubbed with a
cassava wine and then subsequently blessed with the smoke of buwe—a sacred herb. These techniques suggest the presence of both African and Amerindian influences in drum construction, indicative of a fusion of African and Amerindian culture in Garifuna sacred music. The gender roles documented in the musical performances of
dügü suggest that traditional Garifuna society emphasizes
matrilineality and
matrifocality. "The texts of most
dügü songs refer to ancestors as female (grandmother or great-grandmother, even if the
dügü is being given in honor of a man)… It may also be a reflection of gender-based empowerment, because older women predominate as organizers, ritual participants, and composers of ritual songs." Gender roles are often portrayed in music. "Music performance can and often does play an important role in inter-gender relations, for the inequalities or asymmetries perceived in such relations may be protested, mediated, reversed, and transformed, or confined through various social/musical strategies." The matrilineatlity demonstrated in the Garifuna
dügü ritual demonstrates an authentic (non-westernized) aspect of West African and/or Amerindian culture, which remained unaffected by Spanish (and subsequently, British) colonization. ==Secular music==