Dance and Authenticity in Israel and Palestine - Performing the Nation

"Dance and Authenticity" is an ethnography of dance performance and cultural form. It describes how "dabkeh," a type of dance performed at Palestinian weddings, became a model for the Israeli Jewish "debkah" as a means of affirming Israeli Jewish belonging and common society. The Palestinian "dabkeh," in turn, acquired nationalist meanings, especially after the 1967 war and the occupation of the West Bank. The book traces the history of these competing, and conflicting, dance forms, basing the argument principally on the ethnographic study of two Palestinian and one Israeli Jewish dance group conducted between 1998 and 1999. The result is a fascinating parallel ethnography, showing how the ethnography of dance forms contributes to evolving notions of collective national and political identity in a context of unequal power.

About the author

Elke Kaschl, Ph.D. (2002) in Middle Eastern Studies, University of Berne, is currently Researcher at the University of Fribourg and is working as project coordinator in the field of development in the Middle East.

Product details

• Authors: Elke Kaschl
• Publisher: Brill
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 29.07.2003
• EAN: 9789004132382
• ISBN: 978-90-04-13238-2
• No. of pages: 340
• Dimensions: 166 mm x 244 mm x 29 mm
• Weight: 798 g
• Series: Social, Economic and Political
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Interior design, design; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories