INDIGENOUS ART AND PERFORMANCE

The course is among the non-compulsory teaching activities of the MA course in Anthropology Ethnology and Anthropological Linguistics.

The course has the objective of introducing students to the ethnographic study of Oceania from and historical as well as through the study of recent monographs. The key themes of the course will be: the appropriation and re signification of Christianity, the production, circulation and consumption of Pacific art, and the recent debates on the environment and climatic change

The course aims to provide students with knowledge and tools:
1. to learn the main themes and debates in the study of Oceania in Cultural Anthropology
2. to acquire the ability to identify l.e. limits of theoretical approaches in the light of more recent critiques
3. to acquire an ability to synthesize ideas and articulate complex theoretical approaches

Attending class and participation in the course training activities (face-to-face lectures, class presentation, written exam essay) together with individual preparation of the compulsory readings will allow students to:
1. Knowledge and comprehension
- to know the main themes and debates in the Anthropology of art and performance, and Indigenous Studies in relation to art and performance
- to know theoretical approaches applied to contemporary realities (challenges of new reproduction technologies)
. to know the main theoretical approaches characterizing the history of anthropological thought
2. Ability to apply knowledge and comprehension
- to interpret a case study in the specific theoretical frameworks
- to apply theoretical notions to specific case studies from a comparative perspective
3. capacity for evaluation
- be able to formulate and express complex ideas by comparing and contrasting different theoretical and methodological perspectives
- to develop a critical approach to the literature (identify contributions and limits)
4. Communicative abilites
- To be able to summarize and present complex ideas orally (class presentations) and in writing (final exam essay)
- to develop the ability for synthesis and knowledge of the technical language (expressions and terminology)
5. Learning capacity
- Specialized knowledge in structuring and writing a scientific essay
- the capacity to develop research autonomy in the interpretation of data

No prerequisites. Students who approach for the first time a course in Cultural Anthropology, are invited to come to talk to the lecturer in order to arrange for a specific program.

The course explores Indigenous arts and performances as tactics of survival and resistance, as well as their role in decolonisation: modalities of acquiring, transmitting, sharing and renewing Indigenous knowledge, critical re-readings of colonial history and archives, and diplomatic arenas to negotiate Indigenous autonomy in neocolonial contexts. In addition, Indigenous arts and performative practices will also be considered as methods and theoretical innovative frameworks to articulate relational Indigenous onto-epistemologies at the basis of Indigenous sovereignty claims and political presence. Finally, the course will consider how the participatory and engaged knowledge characterising Indigenous arts and performances have been challenging the tyranny of vision, the hegemony of textualism and the primacy of referential meanings dominating analysis in the social sciences. Particular attention will be given to the emergence of a “performative ethnography” (Fabian 1990) or “artful anthropology” (Gretchen and Peterson 2017) in the growing number of experimental projects and forms of collaborations between Indigenous and non indigenous artists, scholars and activists.

PROVISIONAL REFERNCE LIST TO BE COMPLETED

Butler, Judith 2010 Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street https://transversal.at/transversal/1011/butler/en
Casagrande, Olivia, Claudio A. Lincocopi e Roberto C. Martinez 2022. Performing the Jubled City. Subversive Aesthetics and Anticolonial Indigeneity in Santiago de Chile. Manchester University Press.
Deger, Jennifer et al. 2024 Curatorium. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 35,1 https://www.curatorium.au/journal
Dufrenne M. 1953, La phenomenologie de l'espérience esthétique, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris.
Fabian J. 1990, Power and performance. Ethnographic explorations through proverbial wisdom and theatre in Shaba, Zaire, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Flynn, Alex and Jonas Tinius eds. 2010 Anthropology, Theatre, and Development. The Transformative Potential of Performance. Palgrave Macmillan.
Gell, A. 1998 Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Hallam, E. and T. Ingold. 2007 Creativity and Cultural Improvisation, E. Hallam and T. Inglold eds., Berg, Oxford and New York pp. 1-24.
Gilroy, P. 1990, It Ain’t Where You are From, It’s where You’re At … The Dialectics of Diasporic Identification, Third Text 5,13:3-16.
Graham, Laura R., and H. Glenn Penny, eds. 2014 Performing Indigeneity: Histories and Contemporary Experiences. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Gretchen, Bakke and Mariana Peterson, eds. 2017 Between Matter and Method: Encounters in Anthropology and Art. New York: Bloomsbury.
Lea, Tess and Elizabeth Povinelli 2018 Karrabing: An Essay in Keywords. Visual Anthropology Review, 34, 1, pp. 36–46.
Shea Murphy, J. 2016 ed. Indigenous Dance Today, Dance Research Journal 48, 1
Schneider, Arndt, Cristopher Wright eds. 2010 Between Art and Anthropology. Contemporary Ethnographic Practice, London, Routledge.
Schneider, Arndt, Cristopher Wright eds. 2013 Anthropology and Art Practice, London, Routledge.
Tamisari, Franca 2005. Writing close to dance. Reflexions on an experiment, in Aesthetics and experience in music performance, a cura di E. Mackinlay, D. Collins and S. Owens, Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Press, pp. 174-203.
Tamisari, F. e F. Di Blasio (a cura di) 2007. La Sfida dell’arte. Tradizione, contemporaneità e
innovazione nell’arte indigena australiana, Milano, Jaca Book.
Taussig, Michael. 2012 I’m So Angry I made a Sign. Critical Inquiry 39: 1-21
Taylor, Diana, 2016 Performance. Duke University Press
Taylor, Diana.2003. The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Teves, N. Stephanie 2018 The Theorist and the Theorized. Indigenous Critiques of Performance Studies. The Drama Review 62, 4: 131-140
Wilson, Shawn.2008. Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Black Point,Nova Scotia: Fernwood.

EXAM PROGRAM

PROVISIONAL LIST of 'COMPULSORY READINGS', see below. READINGS WILL BE AVAILABLE in pdf format in pdf in MOODLE

Conquergood Dwight 2002 Performance Studies Interventions and Radical Research. The Drama Review 46, 2: 145-156.
Deger, Jennifer, V. Baskin Coffey, C. Kingston, S. J. Lowe, L. Stefanoff 2024 Epistemic Attunements: Experiments in Intermedial Anthropology, The Australian Journal of Anthropology 35:3–19.
Fabian, Johannes 1990 Reflections on Ethnography, in Power and performance. Ethnographic explorations through proverbial wisdom and theatre in Shaba, Zaire, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.pp. 3-20.
Firmino Castillo, María Regina 2016 Dancing the Pluriverse: Indigenous Performanceas Ontological Praxis, Dance Research Journal, 48, 1:55-73.
Tamisari, F. 2021 Creating Your Vision and Understanding. The Musical Legacy of Wirrinyga Band Within and Beyond Northeast Arnhem Land, L’Uomo Società Tradizione Sviluppo, 11,1:113-148.
Tamisari F. 2010, Dancing for Strangers. Zorba the Greek Yolngu Style. A Giullarata By the Chooky Dancers of Elcho Island, La Ricerca Folklorica, 61:61-72.

written and oral

17 FAIL
18-20 PASS
Limited comprehension of notions, limited skill of exposition and reflection, no critical capacity
21-23 SATISFACTORY
Sufficient comprehension of notions presented in an unclear and reflexive manner; difficulties in elaborating, and synthesizing ideas
24-26 GOOD
Good comprehension of notions but limited capacity of exposition, reflection, and synthesis
27-28 VERY GOOD
In-depth comprehension of notions that are presented in a clear and articulated manner; remarkable synthesizing capacity and critical reflection
29-30 VERY GOOD
Broad and in-depth comprehension of notions that are presented in an articulated and sophisticated manner. Excellent ability in exposing ideas synthetically, and critical ability
30 CUM LAUDE EXCELLENT
Broad and in-depth comprehension of notions showing an advanced knowledge of broader disciplinary and interdisciplinary debates, a mastery of academic language, and a capacity for original and critical thinking

Students' learning will be verified through an individual or group class presentation, a written essay, and an oral exam.

The written final essay must present and discuss a theme dealt with during the course and in the study material gathered in Moodle and in the list of 'furhter readings'. The essay topic must be approved by the lecturer. The essay must be well written and structured and the issue identified int he introduction must be demonstrated with ethnographic examples and theoretical approaches discussed during the course and in the course readings. The essay is not a simple summary of the readings but an opportunity to reflect on specific approaches in order to develop one own critical capacity. The written essay (22.000 characters including spaces and references must be printed (Times New Roman 12), with a 1,5 line spacing and with 2 cm margin. All ideas quoted directly or indirectly in the course and further readings (monographs, articles, book chapters) must be attributed to the author indicating the author's name, publication date and page number. The author-date method is preferred but must be completed by a list of references at the end of the text (in alphabetical order).

Students are asked to submit the written essay on time in order to be able to sustain the exam. Students should regularly check the lecturer's messages posted in Moodle and/or on her personal page. For further information write to Prof. Franca Tamisari: tamisari@unive.it

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development