About the Book
The Routledge Companion to the Anthropology of Performance provides a cutting-edge, comprehensive overview of the foundations, epistemologies, methodologies, key topics and current debates, and future directions in the field. It brings together work from the disciplines of anthropology and performance studies, as well as adjacent fields. Across 31 chapters, a diverse range of international scholars cover topics including:
Ritual
Theater
Storytelling
Music
Dance
Textiles
Land Acknowledgments
Indigenous Identity
Visual Arts
Embodiment
Cognition
Healing
Festivals
Politics
Activism
The Law
Race and Ethnicity
Gender and Sexuality
Class
Religion, Spirituality, and Faith
Disability
Leisure, Gaming, and Sport
In addition, the included Appendix offers tools, exercises, and activities designed by contributors as useful suggestions to readers, both within and beyond academic contexts, to take the insights of performance anthropology into their work. This is a valuable reference for scholars and upper-level students in anthropology, performance studies, and related disciplines, including religious studies, art, philosophy, history, political science, gender studies, and education.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Performance as Anthropological Focus and Framework, Lauren Miller Griffith and David Syring; ; Part I: Histories, Theories, and Frameworks; 1. Body and Mind: The Making of the Anthropology of Performance, Anya Royce ; 2. In the Spirit of Experience, Reflexivity and Growth: Exploring the Ancestral Roots of Performance Anthropology, Pam Frese; 3. Performance & Aesthetics: Experiencing Expressive Events and Visual Arts, Helena Wulff; ; 4. Ritual as Performance, Bradd Shore; 5. Sport as Performance, Claire Conceison; 6. Weaving, Cloth, and Costumes as Vital Contributors to Performance, Andrea Heckman; 7. Ethnographic Comportment: A Performance-Based Framework for Research Design, Kwame Harrison; ; Part II: Performing as a Way of Knowing; ; 8. Anthropology and Laboratory Theatre: Opening Anthropological Orthopraxy to Different Ways of Knowing/Being, Caroline Gatt; 9. Miraculous Stories and the Re-enchantment of the World: Oral Hagiographies of Guru Bawa, Frank Korom; 10. Who’s Performing When the God Dancer Dances? Possession and Ritual Performance in South India, Sara Dickey; 11. Two Handed Ethnography: A Method for Performance Anthropology, Sara Delamont & Neil Stephens; 12. Traveling through Space-time in the Manaus Boi-bumbá, Marnie K Watson; 13. Construction with Varied Materials: Adventures in Global Performativity and Interconnection, Andrew Irving; ; Part III: Performance & Identity; 14. Propia de Saraguro: Performance in an Indigenous Andean Community Creating 21st Century Vitality, David Syring; 15. Music, Identity, and Performance in East Africa, Mwenda Ntarangi; 16. Embodied Cultural Knowledge in Practice: An Ethio-Modern Dance Case Study of የቡና ዓለም YeBuna Alem/A Coffee World, Ras Mikey Courtney; 17. Performed Identity: A Case Study in Irish Dance, Breandán de Gallaí; 18. Performing Women in Classic European Circuses, Julia Offen; 19. Performance in Practice: "American" Karate in the Heartland, Noah Johnson; ; 20. (Accidentally) Doing Whiteness: The Meanings of Performance in a Rural U.S. Music Scene, David Flood ; ; Part IV:: Performance and/as Cultural Critique; 21. Performance and Indigeneity: ‘Playing Indian’ in the Theater of Darkness, Bernard C. Perley; ; 22. On Trial: Law and the Performativity of True Stories, Laurie Frederik ; ; 23. Beyond the Stage: Anarcho-punks Performing Resistance in Bandung, Indonesia, Steve Moog; 24. On Carnivals and Capitalism: Performing Neoliberal Politics in Santiago, Dominican Republic, Sydney Hutchinson; 25. Egyptian Belly Dance IS Feeling: Intersubjectivity, Ṭarab, and Cross-Cultural Performance, Meg Morley; 26. #Capoeiristas for Black Lives: The Complementarity of Virtual and Embodied Performance Communities, Lauren Griffith ; ; Part V: The Future of Performance Anthropology; 27. Craftwork in Ethnographic Theater Making, Debra Vidali; 28. Performing the Past and the Present with an Eye to the Future: Optimizing the Potential of Land Acknowledgment Rituals to Help Ensure they Do No Harm, EJ Sobo, Valerie Lambert, and Michael Lambert; 29. Performance, Play and Resistance: Teaching and Learning at the Happiest Place on Earth, Stephanie Takaragawa; 30. A Sense-Able Partner, Andrea Conger; 31. Beyond the Aesthetically Neutral Body: Performing Disability Futures, Cassandra Hartblay; ; Appendix: Tools, Exercises, and Activities for the Anthropology of Performance; A Zone Approach to Studying the Social Implications of Performance; Lauren Miller Griffith and Evangeline Jiménez ; David Syring; Tuning in to Matizada: Attending to Micro-moments of Aesthetic Enculturation; Debra Vidali; Circle Warm Up ; Energizing Groups with Movement; Pass the Sound and Gesture; Name Passion; The Human Barometer; Human Statue Creation and Inquiry; Ras Mikey Cortney, Transmitting Embodied Knowledge of Traditional Ethiopian Dance; Andrea M. Heckman, Weaving, Cloth and Costumes as Vital Aspects of Performance ; Noah Johnson, Clothed in Practicalities; Andrea Conger, Voice-over Interviews; Cassandra Hartblay, Transposing Transcription Practice; Caroline Gatt, Defamiliarizing Reading; Helena Wulff, Writing Performance ; Julia Offen, Creative Ethnographic Prose: Guided Setting Exercise;
About the Author :
Lauren Miller is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Texas Tech University.
David Syring is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
