 With training as an anthropologist, Merriam was a member of the anthropology school of ethnomusicology.Along with the musicology school, these two factions of ethnomusicology make up a large population in the world of ethnomusicology and they are often at odds.His heavy association with the anthropology school of ethnomusicology had resulted in his views on the various issues plaguing ethnomusicology to considered representative of the attitudes and views of the anthropology school.