Anthropology of performance: drama, aesthetics and ritual

• Grant number: 06/53006-2
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2008
• End date: June 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Theory of Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: John Cowart Dawsey
• Grantee: John Cowart Dawsey
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Pesquisadores principais: Regina Aparecida Polo Muller
• Associated research grant(s): 12/01337-6 - Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music 2012, AR.EXT

Abstract

This proposal for a thematic project has a story. It is the outcome of the history of the Anthropology of Performance and Drama Center (Núcleo de Antropologia da Performance e do Drama - Napedra) - one of the research groups of the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology of the University of São Paulo (USP). At a moment in which various research groups, in Brazil, are demonstrating increasing interest in the development of performance studies in Anthropology, special mention should be made of the recent inclusion of professors and students of the Art Institute of Unicamp as members of Napedra. From this encounter-between, on the one hand, researchers of the Art Institute (Unicamp) interested in developing their dialogue with anthropology, and, on the other, professors and students of anthropology (USP) in the pursuit of knowledge associated with performance studies - emerges a proposal for a thematic project. The interdisciplinary process involved in the elaboration of this proposal may evoke the very beginnings of the Anthropology of performance, during the 1960s and 1970s. At this time, Richard Schechner, a theater director who was in process of also becoming an anthropologist, was taking some of his cues from the work of Victor Turner, an anthropologist who, as a result of his relations with Schechner, was developing his own knowledge of theater. Here lies one of the affinities between researchers of the Art Institute and the first members of Napedra: the development of a bibliography rising, as a constellation, from the studies carried out by Victor Turner and Richard Schechner. The individual projects which compose this thematic project may be considered as the creative echoes coming from the dialogue between Schechner and Turner. Given the manner in which they bring together the different threads of drama, aesthetics and ritual, they are conceived in a braid-like (Schechnerian) fashion. The thematic project itself is seen in these terms, as a proposal which emerges from these three threads, or lines of investigation. These, in turn, are seen as different perspectives for the analysis of performance phenomena. The individual projects certainly reveal particular strategies in their approaches to their subjects of inquiry. Choices are made regarding ways of bringing together different lines of investigation and theoretical perspectives. Empirical domains are defined and categories are selected in respect to specific questions set forth by the projects. What calls attention is the particular braid which each project develops in its discussion of performance. These choices say something about the way in which performance studies have emerged over the years. A movement "from ritual to theater" ("and back"), with ongoing discussions about social drama, here finds expression. Perspectives dealing with ritual aspects of performance possibly find greater visibility, as a whole, in the projects presented. The notion of social drama also appears with emphasis, indicating the importance of this theoretical perspective in the configuration of the field. Questions regarding aesthetic performance, which inspire both classical and recent studies, point to some of the most interesting horizons of contemporary discussion. Ropes are that the interdisciplinary debate which is here proposed may contribute do the formation of a field of research. The Anthropology of performance may certainly be seen to be relevant to the study of the various forms of symbolic action in Brazil. At the same time, these forms may be just as relevant to rethinking questions of the Anthropology of performance. (AU)