Citro, Silvia “The circular song-dances among the Toba and Mocoví of the Argentine Chaco: creativeness and cultural resistance in the indigenous performances” 18th World Congress on Dance Research. International Dance Council (CID-UNESCO). Argos, Greece, 3-7 Noviembre del 2004 (versión en CD).

Abstract:

This report summarizes the outcome of my historic and ethnographic research on the transformations of the circular song-dances among the Mocoví and Toba, two indigenous peoples of the Argentine Chaco. Starting from these cases, I examine the theoretical and methodological consequences of a dialectic perspective on the cultural performances, which explore the capability of these performances to represent and also, to constitute certain aspects of social life. Thus, I analyze how the esthetic transformations in the corporal, verbal, musical and visual expressions that integrate the Toba and Mocoví song-dances condense some characteristic features of the historical process of construction of identities lived by each group, and especially, how these expressions have been a means to produce, and hence, to change, and/or to use strategically, these features. Linked with the last point, I propose to consider the creative practices of the indigenous performers as a way to embodied cultural resistance that emerged in the post-colonial contexts.