ANTHROPOLOGY 4850B
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF PERFORMANCE
SPRING 2006, Instructor: Alberto Guevara
WEDNESDAY 3:00-5:50 pm, Room TH 333
Office #: TH 204, Phone #: 329-2521
Office Hours: 2-5, Mondays or by appointment alberto.guevara@uleth.ca
Forum Theatre Performance-Janakpur, Nepal: 2004 (Elysee Nouvet)
Overview
This course will deal with the concept and the politics of performance from an
anthropological vantage point. As the focus of anthropology shifted in the last two
decades from abstract knowledge to embodied knowledge, “performance” gained an
important position as a site for social/cultural anthropological inquiry. As a focus point in
the study of culture “performance” has become a remarkable process to reflect on:
1. the politics of cultural knowledge, memory, action, and agency
2. cultural and intercultural communicative relations and its embodiments
3. cultural manifestations and different ways of being in the world in various
contexts
4. the presentation of ethnographic experiences
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The course will have particular emphasis on the relationship of performance and
cultural/social knowledge, performance and politics, and performance and ethnographic
inquiry (anthropology), The course will be conducted as a seminar and will comprise
several activities that will take place inside and outside the classroom.
Objectives
The main objectives of the course are:
A) to grasp the significance of performance in culture and society
B) to become acquainted with some of the central principles of the anthropology of
performance through the analysis of particular case studies
C) to familiarize ourselves with the anthropology of performance as a contemporary
anthropological method and writing emerging from the critique of ethnographic
representation
D) to further develop our critical readings of anthropological/ethnographic
developments on cultural, historical, political and textual grounds.
Texts required
Readings will be placed on reserve at the anthropology office.
(See class schedule)
Methodology
The course will be based on presentations, assigned readings, films, class discussions,
exercises, and a group ethnographic production. These will be facilitated by group
deliberations on issues relevant to that week’s readings and other sources (documentaries,
films, exhibits, etc.)
The course will be divided into two sections. The first component will be theoretically
driven while the second will be more practical. The first component of the course will
provide students with an overall understanding of performance and the anthropology of
performance. To do so, the following themes will be addressed and discussed;
1.What is performance?
2 What is the anthropology of performance?
3. What is the relationship between performance and culture, performance and
politics, and performance and social action?
The second component will be based on group work. It will facilitate the student to look
at performance as an anthropological process (method and writing) in a cultural or
intercultural dialogue. This practice will allow the student to develop her/his own vision
of performance as an anthropological method/theory through a practical exercise.
Students will be asked to reflect on the following: What should be included in an
ethnographic performance? Which ethnographic method and writing style is more
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appropriate to specific topics of research? What are the political, theoretical,
methodological and ethical implications of that particular choice? The class will choose
the general topic and small groups will choose subtopics.
Requirement and evaluation
Students are expected to read all assigned course materials in advance, attend all classes
and activities. Class discussions and film viewing are essential components of the course.
This point is very important because it will facilitate us in having a dynamic, interesting
and inspirational course (seminar style). The ability to think critically about all the
material covered is one of the main objectives of the course. I anticipate students' input
during classes. Students' original and researched ideas and analysis will be valued in the
marking process. Remember twenty percent of the grade will be allocated to attendance
and participation.
There will be two article summaries to be presented in class (15 marks each). Students
who are not presenting that week will need to come to class prepared with questions on
the readings for that week. These questions will be handed in for attendance and/or
participation points. The second assignment will be a paper synthesis of one of any of the
week’s topics (6 to 8 pages, double space). A guideline will be handed in around the
second week of classes. There will be also a practical component (performance) worth 25
percent. The entire class (around the third week of classes) will select a topic to be
researched in the community (racism, intercultural relations, youth culture, etc). The class
will be subsequently divided into groups to work on a specific aspect of the topic
(subtopic). Reflecting class readings, class discussions, preliminary library research,
and the particular fieldwork in the community the group will start discussing and
putting together a ‘scripted scene” of the ethnographic experience. These will be
subsequently discussed in class with input from all students. These scenes will be
analysed (in terms of methodology and theory in the anthropology of performance),
presented in class (performed), and handed in one week after the presentations.
Policies
The final grade will be calculated as follows:
In class presentations
Synthesis
(March 22)
Group performance (and analysis) (April 12)
Class participation and attendance
30%
25%
25%
20%
Official evaluation scheme
A+ 95-100
B+ 80-84
C+ 65-69
D 50-54
A 90-94
A- 85-89
B 75-79
B- 70-74
C 60-64
C- 55-59
F 49 and below
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SCHEDULE:
(This is a general guideline and is subject to changes at the instructor’s discretion).
WEEK ONE: JANUARY 11
Introduction to the course
What is performance?
What is he Anthropology of Performance?
Why performance?
WEEK TWO: JANUARY 18
Performance in everyday life
Goffman—The presentation of Self in Everyday Life—Introduction
Goffman—Presentations
Hare and Blumberg --- Dramaturgical Analysis of Social Interaction
Video “Couple in the Cage”
WEEK THREE: JANUARY 25
Dramaturgical analysis: Performance 1
Kapcham --- Performance
Bauman --- Verbal Art as Performance
Beeman—The Anthropology of Theatre and Spectacle
Heritage --- The Promise of Performance
WEEK FOUR: FEBRUARY 1
Dramaturgical analysis: Performance 2
Schechner--Victor Turner’s Last Adventure
Turner --- Images and Reflections, pp. 21 – 32
Turner --- Social Dramas in Brazilian Umbanda, pp. 33 – 71
Turner --- The Anthropology of Performance, pp. 72 – 98
Topic Selection
WEEK FIVE: FEBRUARY 8
Anthropology of performance I
Turner --- Liminality and the Performative Genres, pp. 99 – 122
Turner --- Dionysian Drama in an Industrializing Society, pp. 123 – 138
Schieffelin --- Performance and the Cultural Construction of Reality
Palmer and Jankowiak—Performance and Imagination: Toward Anthropology of The
Spectacular and the Mundane
Video TBA
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WEEK SIX: FEBRUARY 15
Performing Cultural Memory: Race, Identity, Ethnicity and nation
Taylor---Acts of Transfer
Taylor—Memory as Cultural Practice
Guss---Performance of Ethnicity
Rusmussen—Between Ritual, Theatre, and play: Blacksmith Praise at Tuareg Marriage
FEBRUARY. 20 TO FEBRUARY. 25, READING WEEK, NO CLASSES
WEEK SEVEN: MARCH 1
Performance and social change
Kershaw—Fighting in the Streets: Performance, protest and Politics
Conquergood---Health Theatre in A Hmong Refuge Camp
Boal --- Poetics of the Oppressed
Taylor --- Theatre and Terrorism
Workshop I
WEEK EIGHT: MARCH 8
Crossing Boarders: Intercultural performance
Soyinka --- Theatre in African Traditional Cultures
Steadman --- Race Matters in South African Theatre
Gomez-Pena --- Dangerous Border Crossers
Deak --- Yaqui Easter: A reflection on Cross-Cultural Experience
Workshop II
WEEK NINE: MARCH 15
Anthropology in Performance
Turner --- Performing Ethnography
Fabian --- Power and Performance
Allen and Garner—Condor Qatay (Two presenters)
Workshop III
WEEK TEN: MARCH 22
Performing the Body and/or Embodying Performances
Heath --- The politics of Appropriateness and Appropriation: Recontextualizing
Women’s Dance in Urban Senegal
Schneider--- After the Savage Goddess
Barucha—Towards a Politics of Sexuality: Critical Notes on Spider Woman and Fire
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Farnell—Moving Bodies, Acting Selves
Video TBA
Workshop IV
WEEK ELEVEN: MARCH 29
Performance and Globalization
Gomez-Pena---Culturas-in-Extremis
Endesor and Kothari—Sweetening Colonialism: A Mauritian Themed Resort
Sav1gliano—From Exoticism to Decolonization
Workshop V
WEEK TWELVE: APRIL 5
WORKSHOP (REHEARSALS)
WEEK THIRTEEN: APRIL 12
Class performances (Time and location to be discussed)
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