Thesis (Ph.D.)--Washington State University, 2007. / (UMI)AAI3264400. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-05, Section: A, page: 2023. Adviser: Jeannette-Marie Mageo.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Washington University, 2005. / (UnM)AAI3181181. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-07, Section: A, page: 2621. Chairperson: John Bowen.

<p> This study draws a rich, vivid portrait of a marginalized and hidden dance community and how it made a visible impact on the mainstream and in countries around the world. In the 1980s black and Latino teens in Los Angeles performed a street dance called pop locking. During this time dancing helped keep urban teens out of gangs and create positive identities. In the 1990s pop locking went underground, but less than ten years later returned in areas outside of Los Angeles. This allowed 1980s dancers to serve as teachers and mentors to new dancers. </p><p> Twenty-seven pop lockers who danced from the 1980s to the 2000s were interviewed from June 2010 to July 2013. These interviews capture the history of the dance that started on the streets of California. Participant observation was conducted at Homeland Cultural Center in Long Beach, which is a hub for pop locking in Southern California.</p>

Hundreds of thousands of Haitian agricultural laborers arrived in Cuba to cut cane as the Cuban sugar industry was expanding between the 1910s and the 1930s, and many settled permanently on the island. Historically, Haitian laborers occupied the lowest strata in Cuban society. Until relatively recently, the maintenance of Haitian traditions in Cuba was associated with rural isolation and poverty. Today however, the continuation of Haitian customs is no longer associated with isolation, but exactly the opposite. Cuba's Haitian communities are increasingly linked with cultural institutes, heritage festivals, music promoters, and the tourism industry. In Cuba's socialist economy, "folklore" is a valuable resource that demonstrates the unity of a multi-racial and multi-ethnic nation and attracts tourists. Music, dance, and rituals associated with Vodú have been re-imagined for the public stage. The "folkloric imaginary" creates new careers and opportunities for people of Haitian descent in Cuba. Haitiano-cubanos themselves have found innovative ways to transform the once abject into the now exotic, and are currently gaining a public presence in Cuba through folkloric performance. / African and African American Studies

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The thesis examines the phenomenon of nonverbal communication via dance from the perspective of anthropology of dance. The objective of the thesis is to analyze the dance environment of contemporary and ballroom dance, based on the point of view of the dancers as well as of the audience. I determine the differences in the ways these forms of dance communicate through dance performances. I examine how dance functions as a means of language, on which level the communication is processing and what meanings and messages the audience decodes within the dance performance. The phenomenon of dance in its natural environment is studied semiotically, as a form of language in certain context. The fieldwork method is based on participant observation and semistructured interviews with both dancers and audience. The research was conducted in the studio of Nová scéna - Lidé v pohybu in Prague, which teaches contemporary dance, and in the dance club Akcent Dobruška, which focuses on ballroom dance. Keywords: Anthropology of Dance, Nonverbal Communication, Contemporary Dance, Ballroom Dance, Semiology, Performance, Audience, Meaning.

Cette recherche vise à mettre en lumière comment, par une chaîne de performances, des individus effectuent une communication culturelle qui permet de tracer de façon dynamique les frontières entre groupes communautaires. La communauté se révèle alors ne pas être une réalité préexistante, s’imposant aux individus passifs, mais une construction performative dont l’identification s’effectue par la participation à la conga. Pour ce faire je mobiliserai une approche générative et processuelle et la notion de performance sera conçue, non pas comme une catégorie phénoménologique étanche mais comme une notion susceptible d’inclure plusieurs modes de participation (spectacle, jeu, théâtralisation, interactions quotidiennes) liés à différents registres d’attention exercés par l’individu dans l’action. Au sein de l’espace global de la ville de Santiago de Cuba, Los Hoyos est un « quartier » souvent cité par des individus comme leur lieu de résidence. La fréquence des contacts, l’importance des services réciproques, la dépendance interindividuelle liée aux risques de dénonciation, mais également l’intensité émotionnelle et le degré d'intimité des échanges, constituent un espace social aux mailles très serrées et habité par un sentiment revendiqué de communauté. La première partie de ce travail, le « Faire Monde », part à la recherche de cette communauté.Dans le chapitre 1 j’ai considéré le groupe Los Hoyos distinct dans le sens où il constitue une catégorie spécifique attribuée et identifiée par ses acteurs. Néanmoins cette catégorie ascriptive ne correspond à aucune zone administrative officielle liée à la planification socialiste. De plus, la circonscription de l’espace n’entre non seulement jamais en correspondance d’un individu à l’autre, mais présente également des variations d’une ampleur considérable. Los Hoyos est représenté (opérations de bornage) et figuré (sketch maps) comme un espace allant de 5 blocs sur 4 à 15 blocs sur 13 et associant d’1 à 7 zones de planification socialiste. Ni les réseaux collaboratifs, ni les liens de parenté, ni les représentations individuelles de l’espace ne permettent de reconstruire l’attachement à un ensemble territorial conçu comme identitaire. L'analyse fait apparaître à l'intérieur de Los Hoyos une pluralité d'ensembles qui sont en conflit de définition et simultanément les informateurs s'accordent pour reconnaître des totalités symboliques qui les unissent. Il ne s'agit pas alors d'endosser l'essentialisme spontané des informateurs qui s’inscrivent dans une communauté présentée comme une entité immuable, traditionnelle etc., mais réussir à rendre ces catégories opératoires pour l'analyse. Je n'ai alors pas envisagé le symbolisme sous l'angle de son contenu, mais pour la forme distinctive du style sur lequel il se construit. Style conçu comme la mise en relation spécifique par laquelle la conga construit une production symbolique dont le contenu est interprété comme particulier à la communauté de Los Hoyos. Cela fait apparaître deux relations cruciales :-Ces totalités se construisent par une mise en relation sous forme de renvois réciproques entre les domaines quartier et conga. La conga de los Hoyos, un ensemble de percussion musical dont le foyer se trouve à l’épicentre des représentations du quartier, constitue un paradigme significatif de l’organisation d’un répertoire symbolique signifiant pour le groupe. Les traits symboliques deviennent des véhicules autoréférentiels pour désigner un système de relations construit lors des performances. Le sentiment d’appartenance à la communauté de Los Hoyos se construit alors par la forme du contrepoint qui conjugue le sentiment unitaire et la variabilité individuelle. - La réalisation de plusieurs cartographies (sketch maps et développement spatiotemporel des performances) mises en relation, révèlent une correspondance directe entre les polarisations des représentations de l’espace communautaire et les parcours de la conga. Si les analyses... / This research aims to highlight how, through a chain of performances, individuals perform a cultural communication which allows to dynamically draw the boundaries between community groups. Community reveals itself not be a pre-existing reality imposing liability on individuals, but a performative construction whose identification is achieved by the participation to the conga. I will mobilize a generative and processual approach, and the notion of performance will be considered, not as an hermetic phenomenological class, but as a notion which may include several modes of participation (shows, games, drama, dramatization, daily interactions) associated with different registers of attention mobilised by the individual in the action.Within the global space of the city of Santiago de Cuba, Los Hoyos is a "neighborhood" often cited by individuals as their place of residence. The frequency of contacts, the importance of reciprocal services, inter-dependence related to the risk of denunciation, but also the emotional intensity and intimacy of trade and interactions create a very tight social space, inhabited by a strong sense of community. The first part of this work, "Faire Monde" goes to the quest of this claimed community.In Chapter 1 I considered the group Los Hoyos distinct in the sense that it is a specific category assigned and identified by its actors. However, this ascriptive category does not match any official administrative area linked to socialist planning. In addition, the division of space not only doesn’t match from one individual to another, but also presents variations of considerable magnitude. Los Hoyos is represented ( operations de bornage ) and figurated (sketch maps) as a space that goes from 5 blocks over 4, to 15 blocks over 13, and associating 1 to 7 areas of socialist planning. Neither collaborative networks nor kinship ties, nor individual representations of space allow reconstructing the attachment claimed as a territorial identity. The analysis reveals inside of Los Hoyos a plurality of settings that are in conflict of definitions and simultaneously informants agreed to recognize symbolic totalities between them. It is not then to endorse the spontaneous essentialism of my informants who represent themselves into a community presented as an unchanging entity, traditional etc., but to succeed in making these categories operational for analysis. I did not consider the symbolism in terms of its content, but for the distinctive shape of the style on which it is built. Style must then be understood as the specific relationship setting on which the conga build a symbolic production which content is interpreted as particular to the community of Los Hoyos. This reveals two crucial relationships:-These totalities are constructed by linking in the form of cross-references the domains” neighbourhood” and “conga”. The Conga of los Hoyos, a group of musical percussion whose house is the epicentre of the representations of the neighbourhood, is a significant paradigm in organizing a symbolic repertory meaningful for the group. Symbolic features become self-referential vehicles to designate a system of relationships built during the performances. Sense of belonging to the community of Los Hoyos is then constructed by the form of the counterpoint which combines the sense of unity and the individual variability. - The realization of several maps (sketch maps and maps of the spatiotemporal development of performances), once juxtaposed, reveals a direct correlation between the polarizations of the representations of the community’s space and the conga’s journeys. If the analyze of networks of sociability, economic activity and representations of space highlighted a valuation of "side by side", it is the conga, then both emblem and vector of the community which seems to allow, by the performance, to be "linked to".Chapter 2 goes in search of the sense of group identity through specific relationships to...