Dance and Authenticity in Israel and Palestine : : Performing the Nation / / Elke Kaschl.

• Superior document: Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia ; 89
• VerfasserIn: Kaschl, Elke,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden; , Boston : : BRILL,, 2003.
• Year of Publication: 2003
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia ; 89.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (359 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Performing the Nation
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• ISBN: 1280467746; 9786610467747; 1423714369; 9047402510
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Elke Kaschl.

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.