Power and Performance: Ethnographic Explorations through Proverbial Wisdom and Theater in Shaba, Zaire (New Directions in Anthropological Writing) - Softcover

Fabian, Johannes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299125149 ISBN 13: 9780299125141

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990

Synopsis

In 1985 Johannes Fabian, while engaged in fieldwork in the Shaba province of Zaire, first encountered this saying. Its implications&;for the charismatic religious movements Fabian was examining, for the highly charged political atmosphere of Zaire, and for the cultures of the Luba peoples&;continued to intrigue him, though its meaning remained elusive.  On a later visit, he mentioned the saying to a company of popular actors, and triggered an ethnographic brainstorm.  &;Spontaneously, they decided it would be just the right topic for their next play.  On the spot they began planning&;suggestions for a plot were made, problems of translating the French term &;pouvoir&; were debated, several actors cited sayings and customs from their home villages. . . .&; 

Power and Performance examines traditional proverbs about power as it illustrates how the performance of Le pouvoir se mange entier was created, rehearsed, and performed. The play deals with the issue of power through a series of conflicts between villagers and their chief. Both rehearsal and performance versions of the text of this drama are included, in Swahili and in English translation.

About this title

About the Author

Johannes Fabian is professor in the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Non-Western Sociology at the University of Amsterdam.  His many publications include the influential Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Object

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0299125149
• ISBN 13: 9780299125141
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336