Rethinking the Canon: Genealogies for the Present in American Anthropology

Rethinking the Canon: Genealogies for the Present in American Anthropology (Helen A. Regis, Session Chair) Charlotte Jones. (Louisiana State University) Creolization, Transculturation, or Ethnogenesis?: Exploring Theories of Identity, Integration, and Deviation in Cultural Anthropology. Twentieth-century anthropology bore several reconfigured concepts regarding the transformation or diffusion of cultural groups and identities. This poster examines three different theories around cultural change; it seeks to answer these questions: How have anthropological theories involving the medley, transformation, and integration of two or more cultures into new cultural phenomena changed over time? Which of these theories (if any) is the most appropriate term for developing theoretical frameworks in cultural anthropology? For whom and by whom? To answer these questions, this poster presents the history and uses of three anthropological theories that are intertwined yet fundamentally different: creolization, transculturation, and ethnogenesis. Kashif Rustamani. (Louisiana State University) Dancing a Life: Katherine Dunham. This research poster considers the life and work of Katherine Dunham and her contributions to the history of anthropology – specifically focusing on her fieldwork, her innovations in dance practice (i.e. the Dunham Technique combining African-based movement with ballet and modern dance) and contributions to dance scholarship, and her role in experimenting with different forms for sharing and circulating research products. Training in Anthropology at the University of Chicago, Dunham employed dance and performance to challenge racial inequality and influenced Black freedom movements in the US and abroad. Latasha Valenzuela-Hernandez. (Louisiana State University) Aris Clemons: Native Anthropologist and Rising Star. In light of the historic marginalization of interdisciplinary scholarship by Black scholars, this poster reframes “Native Anthropology” through the boundary-crossing work of Aris Clemons at the intersections of language ideologies, race, and educational policies, Hispanic Studies, and Anthropology. It makes an argument for the need to be interdisciplinary, the ongoing relevance of research on racism and linguistic practices, and call for contributing to a more expansive understanding of Blackness. Danielle L. Honeycutt (Louisiana State University) Material Culture and Clothed Bodies: Anthropological Thought and Theory through Colonial and Post-Colonial Dress Research. To explore how the field of anthropology has examined colonial clothing and clothed bodies during colonialism, a genealogy of notable academic contributions was researched and investigated. Through the lens of French colonial and post-colonial dress, theoretical conversations about material culture, dress practices and clothed bodies within Anthropology were examined. The findings revealed how French colonialism influenced and changed the material culture landscape of the communities it colonized, how colonial clothing was used as a symbol of power, how indigenous dress was often victim to external design piracy, and how dress conventions experienced hybridization during post-colonial periods. Tiffany R. Smith. (Louisiana State University) Zora Neale Hurston: Misunderstood Genius Zora Neale Hurston has been called a genius. Trickster. Victim. Emancipator. Misunderstood. Feminist. An embarrassment to the race. Pioneer. Since Alice Walker’s 1975 piece on “In Search of Zora”, Hurston’s books that were once out of print or never published, are being reprinted and sold as her popularity rises again. There has been a resurgence of interest of her life and works. Hurston is most well-known as a novelist with her most popular book being, “Their Eyes were Watching God”. Conversely, she was criticized by Black scholars and activist because of some her political stances in the early 1950s. This poster will explore the complexity of Hurston’s work and life. We will examine her life as novelist and playwright but also as a researcher and anthropologist. Jacopo Aldrighetti. (Louisiana State University) Is Anything Really Missing? The “Complexo de Vira-Latas” in Brazil. Often referred to as ‘mongrel’s complex’, the ‘vira-lata complex’ is a unique, prominent concept in Brazilian cultural studies. In the words of the creator of this neologism, Nelson Rodrigues, vira-latismo stands for “The inferiority in which Brazilians put themselves . . . compared to the rest of the world” (Rodrigues, 1993: 62). Exclusive to Brazil, it provides an interesting contrast to the much more popular and discussed ‘mestizaje’. In fact, these two concepts appear to be polar opposites. While mestizaje is a term that originally aims to elevate the social realities of Latin America and lead to the creation of the myth of the ‘raza cosmica’, a vision of a stage of humanity that overcomes racial differences by encompassing and appropriating all races, vira-latismo serves a radically different purpose in that it relegates anything Brazilian to a lesser role when compared to North American and European countries. Ultimately, a discussion of vira-latismo in the frame of postcolonial studies could be useful in terms of providing an additional tool for the analysis of social and racial phenomena in Latin American countries other than Brazil