Book review of "Dancing from Past to Present: nation, culture, identities" by Theresa Jill Buckland, University of Wisconsin Press, USA

[Extract] In this collection of absorbing case studies on dance, the authors aim to reveal how ethnography might fruitfully be combined with history to better understand the social significance of dance in particular cultural contexts. Each contributor draws on long term field experience, as well as on archival and oral history. Significantly, the authors reflect up their own histories of research and the various approaches that they have used to investigate dance as cultural practice. As such, the collection is informed by the reflexive turn in anthropology. In focusing on dance in relation to power and nationalist agendas, the volume also provides a welcome addition to a burgeoning anthropological literature on the performative dimensions of political power in relation to the state.

Australian Journal of Anthropology

Australian Journal of Anthropology

19

1757-6547

N/A

2

3