Contested Performances

At the Crossroads of Local and Global Aesthetic Knowledge and Practice in "Modern" Urban Tamajaq (Tuareg) Theater in Northern Mali

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3008385
AutoresSusan J Rasmussen (autor de correspondencia), Susan Rasmussen (0000-0001-6408-0028)
Año2010
Volumen83
Número4
Páginas753-782
Fecha de publicación2010-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnthropological Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0003-5491 • E-ISSN: 1534-1518
EditorialProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/anq.2010.0017
OpenAlexW2045135774
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas14

This essay, based upon this author's cultural anthropological field research among the Tamajaq-speaking Tuareg in the town of Kidal in northern Mali, documents diversity even in local voices by examining local concepts of changing aesthetics in contemporary plays widely considered "modern" by Tamajaq-speaking residents, but which are also part of their local performing arts category called isatsa . Some plays emerged from recent NGO and media-directed theatrical programs, but others emerged from more longstanding poetry, songs, and tales. The data reveal a continued valuing of local cultural production, despite multiple factors integrated into its formation, suggesting more broadly that terms and labels in artistic production are always situated, negotiable, and interested. The essay contributes to wider efforts to translate local aesthetics of verbal art performance across cultural knowledge systems, and to explore how local art forms and those who practice them are situated and situate themselves in broader political contexts. Longstanding expressive forms are not simply shaped by local and/or global forces, but are reflected on, exploited, and adapted in a range of processes fueled by ideologies, current events, and political and economic interests

Aesthetics · Art · Diversity (politics) · Ideology · Literature · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Situated · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · African Studies and Ethnography · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Cultural Identity and Heritage · History · Law