Genuine But Marginal: Exploring and Reworking Social Contradictions Through Ritual Dance Performance
Year: 1998
Type: article
Abstract: The article analyzes how ritual dance drama performances have become privileged sites for people in Cusco to explore and rework the ambiguities and paradoxes of their history and everyday lives. While focusing on the analysis of the Qollas dance drama and dance association in the town of San Jeronimo, the article studies the meanings of this dance in terms of both the regional and national contexts. The Qollas dance, one of the most popular and widespread in Cusco, embodies indigenous identity. It thus brings to light one of the main contradictions of this identity: it appeals to cultural belonging and legitimacy, but it also implies low status and social marginality.
Author: Zoila S. Mendoza
Institution: University of California, Davis
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2145005307