Dancing through history and ethnography: an inquiry into Bharata Natyam's performance of the past

This essay is part of a volume of contributions by dance anthropologists. It reflects critically on the research methods discussed in submission 2, those derived from history, ethnography, and choreographic analysis, and considers how the complex social, cultural, and political investments of bharata natyam challenge any attempt to study it through a single discipline. Specifically, the essay argus that a dance form like bharata natyam in which practitioners have frequent recourse to history, staging, reflecting on, and critiquing their understanding of history challenges the conventional assumptions of both anthropology and history. Through this process, a critique of conventional anthropology through historical concerns is provided, through the analysis of live performance, as well as through insights gained from ethnography itself.