Thanks for your excellent reply. I thought I'd put some counter arguments to what you've said (more as a devil' advocate than in the interests of an argument).
""There are some early records of map makers, adventurers and other relatively lone travelers who did not remain in the area to teach or convert but did document some aspects of the culture in a "by the way" or more observant manner."" How accurate and reliable are these reports? I'm thinking here how difficult it is to describe music accurately without reference to other music known to the reporter which could then give the wrong impression to a third party who only knows the comparison music.
""Early field recordings and drawings/photographs of ethnic groups people can be compared with later recordings and drawings/photographs/videos."" This is certainly true for the past 100 years or so but is the rate of change (if any) in the last 100 years indicitive of any possible changes in the preceding 150 years?
""Furthermore one can ask people was things were like before. We use interviews with informants to find out information about other folk cultural offerings. Why not African music?"" I agree, but again this is surely applicable only to the most recent generations, what was learnt at their grandfather's (or mother's)knee or perhaps great grandparents. After that it becomes hearsay i,e, my granddad told me his granddad's father did it this way. How reliable is this evidence?
""The West African musican class {called by the French word 'griot' but also known by the name/title "Jali"} are trained for years to accurately remember generations after generations etc."" A compelling argument on the face of it but how reliable is this method of transmission? Is there any way of knowing?
""One other thought-anthropologist can also study the societies created by Maroons {runaway slaves} in Jamaica, Brazil and more isolated African American peoples like the Gullah people of the Sea Isles of Georgia to get an idea of what music, religion, and other cultural practices were like in West Africa"". Surely this would depend on the make up of the Maroons? Did they run away as newly arrived, first generation slave or were they second or third generation slaves? Are all the slaves from the same tribe or cultural entity who had, for the purposes of this discussion, the same music?
""The first boy born to a Bushman family is named for his father's father... "" This is interesting as this is almost an identical practice to what happens (or at least did do until recently) on the Greek islands. Coincidence or cultural interchange? A whole new discussion for someone!
I wasn't using the terms native or bush in a prejorative manner (is that the right word?), I've certainly heard of people being discribed as native New Englander or native New Yorker. I wouldn't say someone from western Europe was from the bush when I meant rural as the terms rural, countryside or from the country indicate to me that these areas are, in essence, man-made. By which I mean I feel at home in them whereas the African bush (or the outback in Australia or the jungle in Burma) are places I wouldn't feel at home in (rightly or wrongly).