The Anthropology of Cultural Performance

195 Pages·2013·1.02 MB·English

by  J. Lowell Lewis (auth.)

The Anthropology of
Cultural Performance
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The Anthropology of
Cultural Performance
J. Lowell Lewis
the anthropology of cultural performance
Copyright © J. Lowell Lewis, 2013.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-34398-7
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United
States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New
York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of
the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan
Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above
companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United
States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-46592-7 ISBN 978-1-137-34238-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137342386
Earlier versions of some sections of the book were previously published
as, Toward a Unified Theory of Cultural Performance: A Reconstructive
Introduction to Victor Turner. In G. St. John, ed., 273–9 1. Victor Turner
and Contemporary Cultural Performance. New York: Berghahn (2008);
and Afterword: Theoretical Reflections. In G. McAuley, ed., 41–5 8. Unstable
Ground: Performance and the Politics of Place. Brussels: P.I.E. Peter Lang
(2006).
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
First Edition: August 2013
Design by Scribe Inc.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To all students of performance,
past and future.
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Contents
List of Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Special Events and Everyday Life 1
2 Play as Performance: Exploring P/p Relations 21
3 Rituals and Ritual- Like Genres 43
4 Performative Processes: Types of P/p Relations 65
5 Embodiment, Emplacement, and Cultural Process 93
6 Problems in Performance and Cultural Theory 123
Notes 151
References 165
Index 183
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Tables
Table 2.1 Special events (Performance) versus everyday
life (performance): a mediated opposition 32
Table 3.1 Criteria for distinguishing types of events on
a continuum 58
Table 4.1 Fundamental relations between special events
(Performance) and everyday life (performance) 76