Tradition and Transformation in Mohiniyattam Dance

An Ethnographic History

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

1 329 kr

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Tradition and Transformation in Mohiniyattam Dance: An Ethnographic History demonstrates how Mohiniyattam, a form previously stigmatized, was reinvented as a sign of traditional Keralite womanhood. The book traces how the emergence of Mohiniyattam as a traditional form of dance based on a feminine aesthetic was synchronistic with the outlawing of polyandrous marriage practices and devadasi practices, as well as changes in matrilineal inheritance and the outlawing of and reforms in women’s dress customs in Kerala, India. These layers of history and cultural meaning permitted Mohiniyattam’s renaissance as a sign of female grace and tradition. Throughout, Lemos argues that practicing and learning movement is a gateway to understanding a system of semiosis. Danced movement itself can be a locust, a bellwether, and even an agent of social change.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2022-06-28
Mått161 x 227 x 15 mm
Vikt372 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor150
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN9781793650719

Tillhör följande kategorier

Genusvetenskap inom Samhälle och politik
Asiens historia inom Historia och arkeologi
Dansböcker inom Kultur

Tradition and Transformation in Mohiniyattam Dance tells the story of how being and knowing are embodied in the exclusively feminine classical dance tradition of Kerala, India. Lemos’ employment of C.S. Peirce’s “semeiotic” illuminates the movement culture of Mohiniyattam as a multi-faceted sphere of continuous meaning-making, exhibiting interpretive properties that move far beyond imitative modalities in complexity and sophistication. Deeply informed by decades of intensive study and performance, as well as oral historical research with master artists, Tradition and Transformation harkens back to Cynthia Novack’s classic historical ethnography, Sharing the Dance, weaving together themes manifest in both the “micro” patterning of body movement processes and the “macro” movements of historical and cultural change. The study merits a noteworthy place in the tradition of semiotic anthropology alongside such works as E. Valentine Daniel’s Fluid Signs, J. Lowell Lewis’ Ring of Liberation, and Diane Mines’ Fierce Gods.