Martha Ellen Davis is an emeritus professor from the University of Florida, anthropologist and ethnomusicologist known for her multifarious work on African diasporic religion and music.

Professor Davis' research has defied conventional tenets about Haitian and Dominican folk music, and her cultural preservation projects has raised awareness of the significance of the Samaná Americanos' enclave.

Davis' book, La otra ciencia, earned the National Nonfiction Award of the Dominican Republic.

2003 Davis has spent most of her time in the Dominican Republic as honorary researcher of the Museo del Hombre Dominicano (Museum of the Dominican Man) and oral-history expert and researcher of the Archivo General de la Nación (The National Archives), offering lectures, advising young scholars, and writing.

According to Peter Manuel from CUNY, she convincingly suggested "that if there is any rightful 'national' music of the Dominican Republic, it would be not the Merengue, with its specifically regional origin in the Cibao, but rather the various types of salve, which have flourished throughout the country.