Performance as a Vehicle for Social Change
Catherine Dolber
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Abstract
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This paper explores the role of performance as a vehicle for social change, drawing on theoretical perspectives from cultural anthropology and performance studies. It critically examines how contemporary performance, specifically through the South African group Die Antwoord, challenges societal norms and empowers individuals, particularly in relation to cultural rituals. By employing the concept of thick description, the author argues for a deeper understanding of performance beyond surface-level interpretations, suggesting that such art forms can facilitate significant cultural dialogues and transformations.
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Performance, Anthropology of
International Encyclopedia of Anthropology
Recent anthropology is permeated with terms and notions relating to performance: Persons are often referred to as 'social actors'; research envisioned as 'performing the field'; traditional practices reimagined as 'cultural performances'; social life reconceptualised as improvisational and all sorts of political situations, from conflict to political campaigns, understood as dramatic. The profusion of performance tropes today emerged relatively recently as part of a theoretical shift from structure to process and later the crisis of representation, both of which movements can be said to have characterised anthropology in the second half of the 20 th century. In this entry I outline the turn towards performance in anthropology, key themes and debates in the anthropology of performance, and highlight emerging trends and future directions.
Ritual, Performance and Children’s ”Play-drama”
Barn, 2000
To what IDPLO\ of cultural phenomena do the the cultures of ritual, performance and children's play-drama belong? I place them in the "cultural performance family". They are all varieties of cultural performance. And what features does the family of "cultural performance" have which we may find in various combinations in its family members? I will be looking for the visible features of the family members, as well as for their more hidden, common cultural "gene pool". A comparison of cultural features places my discussion in the discourse of cultural (social) anthropology. Although the parameters of the topic are vast, I will attempt to draw up a cluster of thoughts which can serve as a thematic introduction. Cultural performance The concept of performance, as understood by the social anthropologist Victor Turner, has its etymological root in the French SDUIRXUQLU-to "accomplish completely". Turner derives from this understanding the theory that, "Performance does not necessarily have the structuralist implications of manifesting form, but rather the SURFHVVXDO sense of "bringing to completeness" or "of accomplishing". In this sense, to perform would mean to complete a more or less involved process rather than to do a single deed or act" (Turner 1988a: 91). This is supported in the Oxford Dictionary (1933-1955), where we find: "to carry through to completion (action, process), to complete by adding what is wanted, to bring about, to go through and finish". In anthropological terms, performance does not necessarily mean performing for an outside spectator, but can also mean playing for and with the enclosed cultural collective of SHUIRUPHU VSHFWDWRUV (see Sutton-Smith 1979), or participant-spectators. &XOWXUDO performance, as defined by John MacAloon, is: the occasion LQ which as a culture or society, we reflect upon and define ourselves, dramatize our collective myths and history, present ourselves with alternatives, and eventually change in some ways while remaining the same in others. (Carlson 1996: 23, my emphasis) Turner defines cultural performance as an DHVWKHWLF family which includes such JHQUHV as folk-epics, ballads, stage dramas, ballet, modern dance, the novel, poetry readings, art exhibitions, and religious ritual. In these genres 5LWXDO 3HUIRUPDQFH DQG &KLOGUHQ ¶V ´3OD\GUDPD) DLWK *DEULHOOH *XVV
The (Musical) Performance at Stake: An Ethnomusicological Review
2020
I have always considered the observation of a musical manifestation more or less as the analysis of a musical "performance." My recent interrogations and research about what is, in fact, a "performance"? have led me to formulate an observation. While looking for an answer in the performance studies literature, it is quite clear that music is not included as a subject of analysis but appears more as an object or a pretext to the analysis of the meaning(s) hidden behind the music, the best example being theater. A simple Internet search for "performance studies" only shows a few titles on music. Even The Cambridge Introduction to Performance Theory (2016) presents performance with keywords like "Drama and Theater" and "Literature." Also, looking to different performance studies programs and courses syllabi from American universities like New York University, Brown, Northwestern, University of California, Davis, etc., it is quite clear that the notion of "performance" is widely associated with communication. 1 Though it surely is, this understanding appeals to a very particular intellectual lineage, characterized by the writings of eminent authors like philosophers John L. Austin (1962) and John R. Searl (1969), cultural anthropologist Victor Turner (1982, and drama theorist Richard Schechner (1988), for whom the performance is at first a way to observe language, ritual, and everyday life interactions.
Horanyi, Rita. "Performance and performativity." The Routledge Handbook of Social and Cultural Theory. Ed. Anthony Elliott. London: Routledge, 2014.
Performance and performativity have emerged as key concepts in social and cultural theory. The recent rise of the interdisciplinary field of performance studies has shifted our understanding of performance as mere entertainment to performance as ‘a way of creation and being’ (Madison and Hamera 2006: xii, original emphasis). As a result, the concept has expanded to encompass everyday action and interaction, as well as ritual and cultural events beyond the stage, influencing a wide range of academic fields. At the intersection of cultural studies, theatre studies, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, gender studies and psychology, studies of performance and performativity clearly grapple with questions about the complex interrelation between the individual, culture and society.
Anthropology-of-performing-10-1-14
Performing may be defined as a process of the unfolding of that which is performed. Among the issues often debated in philosophical and theoretical works treating performative practices is the question of whether a performative action (performing of a dramatic role or a piece of music) is an event in itself; whether such action is an event in the context of its actualization, or whether such practice resides in a subsidiary repetition of a "text," thus having no meaning of its own. Jacques Derrida, for example, understands performative actualization as the effect of an excited consciousness contaminated by idealized, metaphysical aspiration. Conversely, for Gilles Deleuze, a performative act, while preserving the genetic link to being and existence, goes beyond existence and turns out to be an event. We shall attempt to map these different attitudes to the anthropology of performative procedures in the works of Derrida and Deleuze in order to find out how the link to the event triggers theatricality.
Performance Studies as New Anthropology of Events
The question of relations between performance studies and new anthropology of events within the open cultural field directly points to the internal interventionist practice of performance and event as the agent of generative and constitutive roles in terms of initiating social processes and situations. An analysis of Turner's dramaturgical patterns in the development and solution of social crisis, as well as Goffman's social roles, in direct relation with performance studies, indicate that there is an original connection of these two theoretical platforms and point to their integral importance in terms of actualization and critical thinking related to current social situations. The basic theoretical and social transformations, connected to globalism and interculturalism, led to a redefinition of the aims and range of anthropological knowledge. Global anthropology of the contemporary in current, mediatized society is connected to the question of event, i.e. the event as performance, including different aspects of presence and behavior in a wide spectrum of human activities, along with their consequences.
A THOUGHT OF PERFORMANCE
In this article I attempt to trace the path of my artistic research, which began from the application of schizoanalysis in performance and which now explores the possible limits of thought in order to regard how performance thinks in specifically different ways from discursive forms of thought, such as philosophy. The main argument starts from the notion – borrowed from French thinker, François Laruelle - that philosophical thought does not tell us more about the Real than any other gestures of thought. I begin from a speculative relationship between the apparatus of cognitive capitalism. I conclude by superpositioning the post-humanist thought of Laruelle and Karen Barad with the concept of ‘non-standard’ performance as fictioning. As a whole, the article aims to propose a performative approach to artistic research in these terms.
Maoilearca Ó., Cull Laura and Lagaay Alice, eds., The Routledge Companion to Performance Philosophy (Routledge, 2020), xxv + 463 pp., 36 b&w illus., $236.64 cloth
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2021
EMBODIED ACTS: BOOKS ON PERFORMANCE edited by Tanya Mars, Johanna Householder, Peta Tait, Petra Kuppers, Midori Yoshimoto, Marquard Smith and …
Art History, 2008
A Thought of Performance: performance lecture
Presented in different forms at the following venues: 7th Annual Conference on the New Materialisms, September 21-23 2016. Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences. Liikelaituri, September 30, 2016, Tampere. How To Do Things With Performance Kick-Off, October 4, Theatre Academy, Helsinki. Theatre.now, October 19, 2016, Kiasma, Helsinki. The performance is for two turntables and Theremin. The vinyl records played has the presentation read by me and pressed on vinyl acetate records. The lecture performance is bilingual, in English and Finnish
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The New State of Play in Performance Studies
Music and Letters, 2017
In an essay published in 2004, 1 John Rink characterised the field of 'Performance Studies' in music as consisting of 'three overlapping domains': historical performance practice, the psychology of performance, and analysis and performance. Within these he found a series of problematic biases: towards Western art music, solo piano repertoire, and the study of tempo and dynamics. Of these, historical performance practice (or HIPhistorically-informed performance) is much the oldest, dating back at least as far as the work of François-Joseph Fétis in the 1830s, and gaining in prominence later that century. At the time of Rink's essay, the field was already starting to embrace the study of historical recordings, building on the pioneering work of Robert Philip, has been labelled as a subdiscipline in its own right: 'phonomusicology'. 2 (I prefer to see recordings and videos more simply as a sourcetype for the study of musical performance, with only limited application for the previous century, and almost none for earlier periods.) The study of historical performance practice now includes historical instruments and techniques, performance style and normative practices in specific times and places, and selfreflection on methodological and aesthetic considerations appertaining to the field in general. 3 The psychology of performance emerged from the early 1980s onwards, not least through the important work of John Sloboda and Eric Clarke. Analysis and performance came to the fore in the 1990s, stimulated by a debate following the publication of Wallace Berry's Musical Structure and Performance in 1989, 4 and has been notable for major contributions from Rink, Jonathan Dunsby, and Nicholas Cook. 5 The field has spawned subdisciplines since Rink's essay, and I would identify a further important domain already established at that time-critical, philosophical, and theological reflection on performance, which sometimes draws upon wider
Introduction: the archaeology of performance
Traces of past performances are abundant in the archaeological record. The events that captured and held the attention of audiences in the past continue to fascinate archaeologists. Performances had significance in political, social and cultural spheres of past societies, full of potential not only to transmit established meanings, but also, through time, to transform them. Excavating the remains of theatres, plazas, stages, masks and costumes, portable objects, as well as investigating a rich iconographic record (depicting past performances), researchers have sought to understand the significance of these dramaticand often costlyundertakings. Beyond the spectacles of ancient states, the rituals and other face-to-face interactions that characterized smaller-scale societies are also amenable to analysis from a 'performance' perspective.
Ritual, Performance and Children’s ”Play-drama”: A comparison of cultures from the perspective of family resemblance
Barn – forskning om barn og barndom i Norden, 2022
To what IDPLO\ of cultural phenomena do the the cultures of ritual, performance and children's play-drama belong? I place them in the "cultural performance family". They are all varieties of cultural performance. And what features does the family of "cultural performance" have which we may find in various combinations in its family members? I will be looking for the visible features of the family members, as well as for their more hidden, common cultural "gene pool". A comparison of cultural features places my discussion in the discourse of cultural (social) anthropology. Although the parameters of the topic are vast, I will attempt to draw up a cluster of thoughts which can serve as a thematic introduction. Cultural performance The concept of performance, as understood by the social anthropologist Victor Turner, has its etymological root in the French SDUIRXUQLU-to "accomplish completely". Turner derives from this understanding the theory that, "Performance does not necessarily have the structuralist implications of manifesting form, but rather the SURFHVVXDO sense of "bringing to completeness" or "of accomplishing". In this sense, to perform would mean to complete a more or less involved process rather than to do a single deed or act" (Turner 1988a: 91). This is supported in the Oxford Dictionary (1933-1955), where we find: "to carry through to completion (action, process), to complete by adding what is wanted, to bring about, to go through and finish". In anthropological terms, performance does not necessarily mean performing for an outside spectator, but can also mean playing for and with the enclosed cultural collective of SHUIRUPHU VSHFWDWRUV (see Sutton-Smith 1979), or participant-spectators. &XOWXUDO performance, as defined by John MacAloon, is: the occasion LQ which as a culture or society, we reflect upon and define ourselves, dramatize our collective myths and history, present ourselves with alternatives, and eventually change in some ways while remaining the same in others. (Carlson 1996: 23, my emphasis) Turner defines cultural performance as an DHVWKHWLF family which includes such JHQUHV as folk-epics, ballads, stage dramas, ballet, modern dance, the novel, poetry readings, art exhibitions, and religious ritual. In these genres 5LWXDO 3HUIRUPDQFH DQG &KLOGUHQ ¶V ´3OD\GUDPD) DLWK *DEULHOOH *XVV
Korom, Frank J. (ed.). The anthropology of performance: a reader. viii, 296 pp., illus., bibliogrs. Oxford, Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. £23.99 (paper)
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2015
Retrospective volumes risk contributing more to disciplinary nostalgia than to the reinforcement of original insights. Not so this collection, however,
Extended Review: in-between anthropology and performance
Sociological Review, 1999
Play in Performance Philosophy
It is difficult to grasp the relationship between performance philosophy and play in one short chapter. The main reason for that difficulty lies in the character of the concepts involved. When studied individually, performance, philosophy, and play are described variously as ambiguous , p. vii), amphibolous (Spariosu 1989), as essentially contested concepts Hopkins 1990, as referenced in Carlson 2018, p. 1), as concepts with unclear meaning and definition , and as having incredible structural complexity (Sutton-Smith 1997, p. 195) or a wide range of significance . In other words, we do not know exactly how to define or delineate "play", "philosophy", and "performance", although we use these terms, perform them, link them together, and explain one in terms of another. Apart from our central focus here on the composition of "performance philosophy", there are also many other conceptual constellations in existing sources, such as the philosophy of play described by Ryall, Russell, and MacLean (2013), McConachie's performance play (2011), play and performance as explained by Lobman and O'Neill (2011), Gerstmyer's play performance or play as performance (1991), Schechner's term performance as play (2006, p. 89), and the ludic performance theory mentioned by Sutton-Smith (2001, p. 192), to name but a few. The goal of this chapter, however, is not to give a general account of the relationship between play, performance, and philosophical thinking, but to investigate the function of play within the performance philosophy field. Performance philosophy already offers a particular perspective not only on how to interpret, but also how to invent and perform the relationship of performance and philosophy. In accordance with this perspective, I understand performance, philosophy, and play as conceptual agents whose meaning is generated in their relational constellation, through their use, and in their impact. I am not interested so much in explicating the essence of play, but in reflecting on how performance philosophy acts if regarded through the lens of play. We may also ask: how does philosophy change through the ludic experience in performance? These issues must be investigated within the act of play, rather than from an isolated, distanced position. However, they also require a certain positioning within the problem, a sort of clear attitude, in order to avoid arbitrariness, a play with words, or a philosophical spectacle. But this makes the whole task even more intriguing -it becomes ethical. What sort of attitude should we adopt in this situation of multiple degrees of freedom if we want to
The Ubiquity of Performance: Theory and Practice in Expressive Genres
Performance and performativity occupy a significant place in anthropological analytics. In this review, I examine recent publications that address, document, and analyze how different performance genres and practices, enacted across a variety of sociocultural domains, can be productively mined to establish how pervasively they contribute to our understanding of human behavior. These publications, moreover, range across anthropological fields as well as multiple societies and historical periods, further underscoring that performance has been crucial for human cultures and in our own discipline.
Expression, Collaboration, and Physicality: Reconceptualizing Traditional Performance Principles
Because the term can technically represent both an act or discipline and a measurement of efficiency or success, performance has been analyzed and defined in disciplines ranging from dance to finance, humancomputer interaction to engineering, and everything in-between. As a tradition, whether within the formally academic humanities or more experimental art movements, performance has embodied political, cultural, and artistic climates, often as a vehicle for revolution, and has been studied accordingly. Admittedly, there are a plethora of viewpoints regarding what performance is and how it is realized, from the abstract to the formulaic, but within the scope of this paper I will be looking very briefly at three broad categories of historical approaches to performance studies: cultural, corporeal, and cognitive. I will focus on these diverse categories as they have occurred mainly in academic and research capacities, as and their roots, deep in the fields of cognitive science, psychology, ethnography, and anthropology, shape the humanities-based performance studies field that we engage with today.
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