La danza selvaggia: Claude Lévi-Strauss e la metodologia di ricerca di Katherine Dunham

Abstract

In 1950 Claude Lévi-Strauss wrote the preface to the French edition of Katherine Dunham’s book Vodu. The dances of Haiti. Anthropologist, dancer, choreographer, Dunham conducted her field research in the same years in which Lévi-Strauss began his ethnographic expeditions among the Caduveo, Bororo and Nambikwara. The two anthropologists’ approach to fieldwork uses methodologies which are polar opposites: Dunham conducted the research alone, for long periods and following an immersive strategy, while Lévi-Strauss carried out short stays, characterized by team work. Despite these profound differences, Lévi-Strauss shows that he appreciates his colleague’s research both for her original - and for the time extraordinarily innovative - approach, and for the conclusions she draws regarding the form and function of the Haitian dances.