Society and the Dance: The Social Anthropology of Process and Performance - Brossura

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0521315506 ISBN 13: 9780521315500

Casa editrice: Cambridge University Press, 1986

Riassunto

Dancing has its place in all societies; yet the phenomenon of dance has been oddly neglected by most anthropologists. This volume is intended to further anthropological awareness of its critical relevance. It is claimed that, in a very important sense, society creates the dance, and it is to society and not just to the dancer's experience that we must turn to understand its significance. Performance has meaning within social process. The anthropological analysis of dance can be approached in a variety of ways. These are identified in the introduction to the volume, and then illustrated by seven case examples drawn from Africa, Southeast Asia, Melanesia, and Oceanis. In successive chapters, dancing is presented as a controlled emotional outlet whose form reflects cosmology; as a creative experience that draws adolescent girls into the adult world; as an extension of speech and gesture that adds further levels of meaning to formal occasions; as a strategy for orchestrating the climax of a successful exchange; as a challenge to the power of elders that generates an alternative reality; as a communial response to crisis that recreates order out of confusion; and as a sequence of transformations that periodically resolves an inherent social dilemma. The volume concludes with an assessment of the relevance of the work by a dance scholar. By revealing dance as an aspect - often the most spectacular aspect - of ritual behaviour, this work is intended to stimulate more anthropologists and those in related disciplines to realise the full potential of its study. It also offers insights to those who are principally interested in dance itself, as well as appealing to any reader who shares a curiosity about the ways in which the spectacle of dance can be interpreted.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"...effectively demonstrates the importance of social context in understanding dance (and other forms of art), and provides many brilliant insights into a difficult subject." -- Journal of Asian Studies

Descrizione del libro:

Dancing has its place in all societies; yet the phenomenon of dance has been oddly neglected by most anthropologists. This volume is intended to further anthropological awareness of its critical relevance and to offer insights to those who are principally interested in dance itself.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Cambridge University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0521315506
• ISBN 13: 9780521315500
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 242
• Redattore: Spencer Paul