BODY, PERFORMANCES AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION PROCESSES (Project PICT 00273, 2008-2010)

Director: Dra. Silvia Citro

Researchers: Lic. Patricia Aschieri, Lic. Silvia Benza, Lic. Adriana Cerletti, Prof. Lucrecia Greco, Lic. Gabriel Lewin, Lic. Elina Matoso, Lic. Yanina Mennelli, Lic. Adil Podhajcer, Lic. Rodolfo Puglisi, Lic. Marina Sepúlveda, Prof. Soledad Torres Aguero, Lic. Manuela Rodriguez. Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas, Sección Etnografía / Etnología, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UBA.

In the context of globalization and multiculturalism processes, it is possible to appreciate the spread of body, drama and dance techniques linked to non-Western performance traditions –Asian, African or Amerindian. We propose an anthropological study of the dissemination and practice of these performance traditions in different regions of Argentina, comparing urban centers that concentrate a great part of the production in the field of performing arts (Buenos Aires and Rosario) with outlying cities with important Amerindian performance traditions (Humahuaca and Formosa).

In this way, we evaluate the different consequences of globalization processes in their interaction with local traditions. Our general hypothesis states that, although the studied performances come from different historic and cultural traditions, when incorporated to the cultural global market and the politics of "Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage", they are reconfigured like fields that operate with a similar logic: the relations among the actors are articulated around the disputes of a symbolic capital defined by the legitimacy of each practice according to the fidelity to their origins and early practitioners. Thus, within these fields, the tension between two types of forces can be found: between the legitimacy of conservation and innovation in local traditions, and between the hybridation and normalization induced by globalization. The specific hypothesis states that these tensions also are manifest in the bodies of urban performers because, on one hand, they are generally resocialized in body uses and holistic cosmologies that differ from their own habitus and redefine their body-world experiences; but on the other hand, in their daily life they still are subordinated to both body disciplinary practices promoted by the institutions of Modernity and the normalization practices induced by the postmodern consumption.