Short Abstract

This panel is all about theatre, play, and performance. Hosted by the Theatre From The Field collective, we take you on a journey to explore how physical theatre, object theatre, dance, and other forms of multimodal storytelling can open more inclusive horizons for anthropology and anthropologists.

Long Abstract

This panel convenes anthropologist-theatre practitioners to explore how participatory theatre exercises can help ethnographers remain attuned to the affective intensities of the field, using these embodied experiences to critically reshape ethnographic practice. Historically, anthropologists have recognized how theatre can illuminate social dramas and interactions (Turner 1982; Goffman 1956). Yet, as Eugenio Barba has cautioned, writing about theatre without practicing it risks reducing it to lifeless text (1995, p11). Jeanne Favret-Saada similarly urges ethnographers to re-inhabit the affects of the field as they write (1980), while Michael Jackson defends the embodied emotions of ethnography as a form of William James' 'radical empiricism' (2010). This panel provides a space for anthropologists to use theatre as a conduit to access the embodied, affective intensities of fieldwork. Participants will dwell in the materiality of sensation, exposing themselves to a suite a different ways anthropologists have used theatre to both conduct research, and present their findings.

Affect theory has long encouraged us to attend to the embodied dimensions of knowledge, yet anthropology often struggles to recognize and utilize the knowledge embedded within our own bodies. Decolonial scholars have highlighted the ongoing reproduction of phallogocentric knowledge within what bell hooks aptly termed 'imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy' (Ahmed 2004; Tuck 2009; Todd 2016; Mignolo 2018). Theatre practitioners, actors, and dancers understand the generative potential of using the body as an expressive tool, a site of co-creation, and a source of alternative epistemologies. Practice-based research and embodied forms of knowing demand opportunities to cultivate these techniques (Spatz 2015).

To build a truly multi-epistemological anthropology, we must move beyond text to explore how embodied, collaborative practices can fundamentally reshape ethnographic knowledge production. Oh, and we also need to find more ways to have fun!

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