“舞蹈是一个强大的、经常采用的象征人们看待自己的方式。“所以总结这开创性的书的作者,第一个跳舞的一般介绍人类学。包括西方人类学以来扩大了视野,工业化,和城市社会,舞蹈文化的研究,以同样的合法性,观察芭蕾舞,夏威夷草裙舞,伯拉塔的古典传统诸那Natyam,鸽子的翅膀和波尔卡舞曲加州淘金热的矿工,和殖民Virginaia种植园主的顺利进行。跳舞使其独特贡献社会和文化由于其形式和表达;同时它与宗教的元素关系密切,亲属关系和社会组织、政治和经济。跳舞是离不开其表达方式在时间和面积意味着人体制造模式,它不能脱离它的社会和文化背景。作者首先探讨了不同的含义,不同民族舞蹈已经随着时间的推移。下她关注的地方跳舞已经占领了人类学的研究在过去的一百年里。技术研究和记录舞蹈进行了讨论,包括符号系统、现场指导、电影,和人类学的参与者——观察。这本书然后转向结构和功能分析,比较他们参照不同的目的和功能。 Part Two presents three perspectives frequently used by anthropologists to view dance: the historical, the comparative, and the symbolic. Extended and fascinating case studies based on the author's research illustrate each of these perspectives: American colonial dance, North American Indian urban powwow dancing, and Zapotec dance of the Mexican isthmus. Part Three discusses two categories of research that will be significant in the future but which have not yet been carefully explored. They are creativity and aesthetics, on the one hand, and communication and meaning, on the other. The author concludes by pointing to some fruitful directions for future research in dance anthropology. ANYA PETERSON ROYCE is Chancellor's Professor of Anthropology and Comparative Literature at Indiana University. She is the author of The Anthropology of Dance; Ethnic Identity: Strategies of Diversity; Movement and Meaning: Creativity and Interpretation in Ballet and Mime, and the forthcoming Anthropology of the Performing Arts: Artistry, Virtuosity, and Interpretation in a Cross-Cultural Perspective. Her former career in classical ballet and her thirty-five years of ethnographic research give her a unique perspective and authority with which to speak about the performing arts as ritual and as theatre.
