Mobilizing Bodies in Syria: Dabke, Popular culture, and the Politics of Belonging

Silverstein, Shayna Mei (2012) Mobilizing Bodies in Syria: Dabke, Popular culture, and the Politics of Belonging. UNSPECIFIED.

Text (Thesis) SilversteinSM-Mobilizing-Diss2012.pdf - Published Version Restricted to RUG campus Download (3MB)

Abstract

This dissertation examines the formation of the secular modern nation-state of Syria in relation to historical and contemporary perspectives on popular culture and the body. Through archival, discursive, and ethnographic analysis based on fieldwork conducted in Syria since 2004, I explore the performance tradition of dabke, a social dance music typically performed at festive and ritual events. Engaging with the body in motion, this ethnography illustrates how embodied interactions in dabke performance suspend hierarchies and collapse differences of class, ethnicity, gender, and religion between participants. These public intimacies attribute dabke with the power to blur identities otherwise axiomatic to public life in Syria in contexts ranging from wedding rituals and piety practices to expressive culture. The status of dabke as a “popular art” is a twentieth-century construct that emerged in the nexus of colonial modernity, nationalist ideologies, and regional politics. Approaching the material and discursive body as a site for the contestation of the popular, or al-shaʿb, I trace the formation of a popular (shaʿbiyya) dabke subject linked to feminine, rural, and secular expressions of nationhood. Even as it establishes a cohesive Syrian identity, dabke also reinforces distinct ethnic, regional, and religious communities in ways that align with Baathist state ideology. These intertwined discourses position shaʿbiyya as a space for authenticity in which the premodern signifies and is signified by dabke. By tracing the paradoxical meanings of the popular body in cultural production and everyday life, I demonstrate how the popular signifies that which is non-modern at the same time that it particularizes Syrian experiences of modernity. By relating embodiment to power and performativity, I demonstrate how individuals and groups use dabke practice to mobilize and resist social formations and political alliances in contemporary Syria. In particular, dabke practice constitutes an act of public assembly in a state that monitors public life and censors expressive culture. The broader implications of this dissertation suggest that transformations in the body politic of the Arab Spring may be embedded in the performative practices and historical processes by which dabke has come to represent collective movement in public life.

Item Type:	Thesis (UNSPECIFIED)
Additional Information:	Thesis. - UMI Number: 3513514
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Syria, populair culture, dabke, dance music
Status:	Published
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Syria, populair culture, dabke, dance music
Date Deposited:	21 Feb 2024 14:04
Last Modified:	21 Feb 2024 14:04
URI:	https://ebooks.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/409

Actions (login required)

View Item