On Dreams, Innovation and the Emerging Genre of the Individual Artist

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2144658
AutoresKatie Glaskin (0000-0003-0703-0635, Central Glass (Japan), autor correspondente)
Ano2010
Volume20
Fascículo3
Páginas251-267
Data de publicação2010-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAnthropological Forum (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00664677.2010.515293
OpenAlexW2101377912
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas19

Amongst Bardi of north-west Western Australia, ilma is a genre of dreamt material that has three interrelated components: song, dance and ‘totem’ (a string and plywood object carried during the dance). These constituent parts, along with the whole, are referred to as ilma. This article considers the social tensions surrounding the commodification of one of these elements, the ‘totem’, as art. The production of ilma for the art market largely precludes the development of associated songs and dances, and their integration into group repertoire, giving rise to tensions between social expectations about such dreamt material and those of the person who dreams them. These tensions reflect Bardi understandings of the provenance of this dreamt material, as ancestrally revealed: hence dreamt songs, dances and objects belonging to this ritual genre are not considered as creative works produced by a person or persons. Contestations over ‘tradition’ and ‘culture’ in this context highlight the tensions between the forces of convention and those of innovation in times of social change, in which the emergence of persons as creative individuals may be understood as signalling broader societal transformation

Aesthetics · Art · Commodification · Context (archaeology) · Dance · Literature · Musical · Repertoire · Sociology · Totem · Visual arts · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History