The Dance Identity of the Vlachs of Lailias Village and ITS Transformations Over Three Generations

Abstract

Dealing with the issue of identity—irrespective of any theoretical orientation—means dealing with the issue of difference in relation to the “other” and the social boundaries that define the “cultural stuff” within and between communities (Barth 1969:13; Gefou-Madianou 1999:192). “Cultural stuff can be described as referring, inter alia, to the collective memory, history, and origin of cultural groups (Smith 1991:32). However, social boundaries tend not to be hard and fast or specifically delineated idioms of identity, but flexible and negotiable, according to different socio-political environments and personal interests (Barth 1969; Jenkins 2002:122). Thus, identity is perceived as an open-ended and never-finalized process, always constituted within cultural representations and not irrespective of them (Avdikos 2003:333). Moreover, taking into consideration that so many of our most tenacious categories of identity are mapped into bodily difference … expanding through a continual slippage of categories to include ethnicity and nationality and even sexuality as well, we should not ignore the ways in which dance signals and enacts social identities in all their continually changing configurations. (Desmond 1997:49)

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