10); Ritudl ~ n t l CI-r,ltive PI-actice in Clol~~l Contexts

of pri\.<~te nncl public spheres of cultural interactioi~ in relation to the pres- c~r\r,ltion of oral tr,iditions in the area, the political and social tensions ot' societi~>s in transitions ciiminish inc)re and inore the intercultural access to 5uil1 rich archives of fcAldoric ancl ritualistic past. In Roinanian culture, like in m05t Southeastern European countries, wonlen engage as active pc,rformc~rs ,inti pcirticipnts in connection to ancient traditions of lanlent 01- funcr,ll, hence preserving ancl ci>ntinuing to enact culturally the emo- tions of their commuiuties (Collins, 3003; Marin, 1995; McLaughlin, 2001).

bei'luse in Iiomani,~ dirge represents an iinportant cultural narrative tlwou~;l~ ~ ~ ~ l t i c h \vomen tell their stories about their conununities, friends, rt~l~ltionships with n'lture, and wit11 life and death experiences, tlus study c~xplores specific~illy n7onlen's role in continuing to perform the creation ,111d prc'serl,'~tion of oral traclitioils as inherent cultural components of thc cthnii narrati\.es of the area. Exploring in particular the relationship hcti\,ccil folkloric and ritualistic traditions as preserved by women in 1.loin'inia (Cc)llins, 7003; Migmai~, 1984, 1988; McLaughlin, 20011, this ii~\~estig.ltion features the role of women as "custodians of traditions" ( WJ tts, 1988, p. 44). For it is through ritualistic perforinances preserved in the rur'll areas that woinen inark their ancient contribution to preserving the n'ltion'il narrati\.es so iillportant to all cultural identities, as cultures in Southeastern Europe and throughout Europe continue to emphasize (Collins, 2003; Lengel, 2000; Lysaght, 1997; Marin, 1995; McLaughlin, 2001; L\kinb,l L I ~ , 700 1 ).

Aicordingly, examining i~lainly the role of wonlei1 as custodians of cul- tur'11 tr,lclitions in rel'ition to funer'd rituals, this chapter addresses dirge 01' l'lment bongs '1s an importCint cultural nexus where woinen contextu- ,~li /r ]?,~l;t and present narratives of iclei~tity while preserving ancient rit- ~1'11s 'lnd cultural v,ilues pertinent to national and global oral traditions for generations to coine. I11 particular, this cultural and critical perspective .irt,'~les for ~rvmen's relevant contribution preserved through performance of K ~ i n a n i ~ ~ n dirge, i\rhicl~ articulates a coinplex cultural and intercultural role in oral tr,~ditions froin Southeastern Europe, traditions threatened by L l b t transforn~~~tionss of the social, political, and cultural public arenas of Ii~im~ln interactions. First, the study exa~nines Ron~anian dirge as a major i u l t u ~ ~ ~ l \7enue for ivoinen to iinplicate creative performance witlun nar- rcl ti\.es of iclcnti ty located n t the boundary between archaic ritual and cc)ntc.i~~por.wy oral tradition. Second, this cultural perspective expands on the ~zv!~s Iiomc~ni;ln \vomen's performance of dirge and lanlent reinforce multiple i~'irrati\~es of n'l tional identity as powerful cultural contributioi~s in ionlempor,iry times.

D I R G E AS CULTURAL NEXUS

Sh,lring intc~rcultural characteristics, yet preserving national traits, Ro- rn,lni,~n dirge offers a clistinct exemplification of folkloric complexity,

Romanian Dirge 1 09

crossing the boundaries of different genres of folklore such as ballads, Byzantine chant and Greek ancient choir, pre-Christian rituals, improvi- sation, and oral performance. It is important to note that culturally the dirge or the lament songs in similar formats are part of the cultural nar- ratives of other cultures as well, such as Irish or Greek (see, for instance, Holst-Warhaft, 1992; Lysaght, 1997; Weinbaum, 2001).

Sharing similar traits with Irish, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, and other lament and funeral rituals in Europe, Romanian dirge represents a cultural ritual comprising popular customs and traditions that continue to incor- porate private and public oral traditions within rural and urban com- munities in the country. Preserved for the most part in northwest part of Romania, in particular in Maramures region, where rural coilununities managed to remain mostly outside of the communist political trends for rural life (Collins, 2002; Kligman, 1988; McLaughlin, 2001), dirge contin- ues to function as a cultural tradition characteristic for most of its geo- graphic territory.

Ancestral, yet contemporary folkloric enactment of powerful rituals that trace back to ancient Greece and the Thracian history on Romanian ter- ritory, lament or dirge (used interchangeably in the study) comprises a coinplex cluster of cultural performances enacted by women. Mostly elder women, members of the community, they make use of a large number of folkloric lnanifestations of collective life, rituals and traditions common to the entire Balkan area in order to assist communities in relation to grief and bereavement (Alexiou, 1974; Eliade, 1957; Kligman, 1988; Ochs, 1995; Parkes, Laungani, & Young, 1997). Focusing on the dirge as an important cultural locus for coexisting folkloric literature, music, and performance, Romanian women called bocitoarr utilize personal narratives, recitatives, and chant in order to engage their communities as active participants in the sacred ritual of passage into death. As Collins (2002) witnessed several years ago, the performance of dirge in every funeral procession and ritual demonstrates a solid continuity of oral tradition and folkloric irnprovi- sation in the social life of Romanian people.

How is the dirge an intrinsic part of Romanian funeral ritual, connected to women in particular? While there are a multitude of definitions of dirge or "laments" (Kligman, 1988; Watts, 1988) or "funeral songs" (Birlea, 1977) connecting Romanians to this rite of passage (Eliade, 1957,1971; Kligman, 1988), all reinforce the role of women as major participants and performers as enablers of important cultural traditions in the area. Dirges are part of the rites of passage tradition, as described by Turner (1982) in his anthro- pological study on ritual, as they are contextual and cultural intervention explicating the stages of separation, transition, and reintegration neces- sary for communities when dealing with such major moments in human life (p. 24). Through dirges, the lamenters, women kin to the deceased or just experienced widows from the collectivity, recite, lament, sing, and cry

I I 0 Kitu,~l , ~ n t l Cre'ltlve Practice in Global Contexts

ol7er the cleceased body throughout the tluee-day period of the funeral ritual. Bec'iusc. Roinanian oral belief is that a funeral without dirge is a sin, ~vhich might explain its contelnporary existence especially in the country sicle, la~nents become n~anclatory in funeral rituals, and with them, ~2r0111c.11 jwrformers as "custodians of traditions" (Watts, 1988, p. 41).

I'crtinent to women and their role as cultural performers, dirges have clu,il ciimensions: (,I) r.l;f~~r~:.r.l~rrti(zl, which brings into the chant and recitative the cosmogonic order; 'inel (b) irr~f~~sicizl, which refers to the pragmatic orcler, to the social relations ai~cl the interactive dialogue with thedeceased (Kl i~ rn~~n , lLj88). The 1'1ments are rhymed couplets generally of seven- or riglit-syll'ible lines that relate to both folkloric themes to be found in bal- 1,1cls, r f r l i r r r ~ [long songs of l,linei~tation and longing], and fairy tales and to imj>r~~vis~~tions that bring into the rhymed form personal stories about the clece'i~ed. The 1,lments are in repetitive form; they are invocations of na- ture, incantations ancl negotiations with the deceased to come back to life. 1 iere is one ex'~m jde: "But the life of man/Is like a wildflower/Today you .Ire voung ,incl strong/And by tonlorrow you are nothing" (cited in Klig- m,in, 1988, p. 150). The dual dunensions present in Romanian dirge en- comj3asses the cultuml pattern of grief and its importance in the social orc1c.r of everyday life of a family, 'I village, a neigltborhood.

And yet, ~vliile the repetitive forill and its contents are of major interest to the cultural community, it is the women's performative powers that take over the rite of passage, as Collins (2002) mentions in her account ,ibou t ix.itiiessing dirges in Maramures:

b\.l,lny CII thew \\,omen lament continuously for hours, sometimes pl~ilosophizing , )h)~~t c l e ~ t l ~ , sonieti~nes recounting in detail the events leading up to the death, a n c l sometime.; sending messages to those rvl~o l~ave already died about how ~ I I I I I ~ ~ , C I I - ~ , ~oing for the li~ving. These messages for the dead are often white lies, \vith tht, nlourner beseeching the recently deceased not to tell those in win lurnt lie\\. b a ~ l things recilly are. . . . Lanlenters also try to convince the dead person to iclmt. bail\ 11-om their journey tu i.i>iil I r ~ r r r c . , berating them for leaving their fanlilies ,111d fri~mds behind, giving survivors a chance to express their feelings of aban- clonmcnt. (p. S 3 )

Besicles the 1'1menting w7er the cleceasecl, there are two other mandatory elen1ent5 ot the ritual of burial: the giving of alms and the lighting of c,indles, the ilteai~ii~gs of which are con~plelnentary to the oral lamenting, sl~~ii~ting, and j7erturming the sorrow of the living for the dead. As Klig- man (lC)88) t.xj>l,iins, "These symbolic acts of comm~ul~ication satisfy the recluiremeiits of the clead as well as extend hospitality and reinforce social rel'itio~~s bet~veen the living and the clead" (p. 157). And because Roma- nicins hclieve in the power of exchange between the living and the dead, huih iu l tur~l interactions become coinn~unicative acts of negotiation in

Romanian Dirge 1 1 1

the forms of dialogues improvised or recited during the laments are ad- dressed directly either to the deceased or to Death as a feminine character. "May death burn in fire, Because you can't escape her, For she comes slowly, To the young and to the old" (Romanian funeral lan~ent, cited in Kligman, 1988, p. 175).

Because Romanians do not believe in cremations-and there is a shared popular belief that h e is destructive for it burns not only the body but also the soul of the person, thus prohibiting the dead to become immor- tal-dirges mediate through textual and musical rituals the preparation of the community to cope with grief, bereavement, and the complex pro- cession of a funeral (Amzulescu, 1967). For example, most dirges incor- porate folkloric elements that are part of wedding ceremonies and songs that accompany the laments as invocations to Nature and elegies for the dead. The entire mourning setting is a folkloric combination of the two rituals of wedding and death, in a symbolic interaction to participate and properly prepare the dead for the last social ritual demanded by the col- lectivity. It is important to mention for cultural accuracy that most dirges that reconnect the funeral and the wedding through such elaborate per- formances refer mostly to unmarried young people. Otherwise, "fanuly and friends should remember that the deceased has lived a full life" (Col- lins, 2002, p. 3), and hence it is unnecessary to display suc11 excessive ritualized grief for those who had completed a "life cycle" (Kligman, 1988, p. 156).

The folkloric and religious traditions demand the performance of a sym- bolic wedding before the deceased is buried. The body is dressed in nup- tial attire; the gates of the courtyard are adorned with fir trees that announce to the community a marriage, and in this instance the wedding is between the deceased and Nature. The laments that are performed for the three days of funeral refer to the social status of the dead, to the syrn- bolic marriage, and try to negotiate with the dead to come back to life and perform a real marriage. The ritualized symbolic marriage is deeply rooted in Romanian folklore as one of the most important national ballads in Romanian folklore, Miuritza (other spelling, Miorita; see Babuts, 2000) car- ries its cultural inheritance to a funeral dirge when expressing the death of a young shepherd marrying Nature, syinbolically and metaphorically.

Say a star fell, bright For my wedding night; Sun and moon came down To hold my bridal crown, Firs and maple trees Were my guests; my priests Were the moun- tains high; Fiddlers, birds that fly, All birds of the sky; Torchlights, stars on high. (Snodgrass, 1993, p. 15)

In her analysis of the funeral rites in Transylvania, Kligman (1988) makes an important comment on the similitude of balladic themes in the laments as she brings into her study the most famous Romanian ballad

I I -I K~tu,tl ,~ntl Crrat~ve Prdct~~e ~n Glol~al Contexts

Collin> (21102) notes that Romanians have a strong sense of history that ,icio~np.ii~ies the cultural sense of life and death and that Romanian tra- ciition dict,~tes that female fainily il~einbers are the ones to acconlpany thc>ir lo\vci ones througli f'uneral songs to A~-c,ili lurne [that world], "pro- viciing '1 hensc. ol continuity between the living and the dead, perfornling n,~rr,tti\res of icicntity as clynail~ic ritualizeci interactions that articulate a cult~lre of grief" (p. 78). Romanians "~vrite poems to their dead, stage \\.edclings for unm;lrried youth w11o have died" in an attempt to preserve thc re1,itionship with the clece,~sed one, through ongoing memorial rituals, ,inti create ritua1ir.c.d songs suih as dirge (Collins, 3002, p. 57).

hlusicnlly, the iolk songs or melodies that accompany the laments rep- rc~c,nt ,>nother funjamental ch'lracteristic of Romanian folklore shared by b,>ll,ici> ,111~1 dirges, one t h ~ t is pertinent to the culture. Ballads are sung in ,I simil~ir ~vay to laments, m.henever the ballads narrate about the death of the hero or they bring in the cosn~ogonic elements of passage. The By~antine chant and the recitative, or 1~i7r.bt0, are major dominants in the 11111 sical forms o f the Romaniai~ dirges. Important to note for the purpose of this c~~ltur'il perspective is that while ballads can be performed by niale or ternale periom~er(s), dirge ancl laments call for the female performers '1s the orrl!/ .~iir~c~r.> in the ritual (Marin, 1995, p p 35-26).

Done in the saille 1nusic;ll style, yet clivided by gender, performers al- tt.rnn te melociic forn1ulas-/1~7rll7to-or recited on the san~e sound-lrclu- 1 I 1 1 lo-in '1 cull tin~lous in~lsical n~onoclic variation, ending with a chanted ~ o u n d that clelinc"~tes each dramatic episode. The inelody is directly re- 1'1tcci to the text and allows impruvisations. The psalmo~lic chant, the uni- son, unclcrlying the test through single soui~ds and the variations in voice mociu1,itions ,illo\\, ballads and dirges to be sung in the Byzantine n~usical st!.le. Thus, women performers chant, utter, or voice a long sound, invok- ins a ciialogue wit11 t l~e audience or with the deceased as part of the ritual. As I~larin aitd Snva (1988) point out, the musical characteristics of laments are once again sin~ilar to musical ballads as they con~prise musical forms of lietereopl~on~~, unisonic and monodic modulations, and in~provisatiom ot iiieloclic alternatioi~s. While the ritual of engaging textual and musical pe r fo r i~~~~ncc hy ~zroinen through dirge is shared interculturally the mu- hical features of typical Romanian folkloric singing demonstrates partic- u1,iritit.s ot the dirge as belonging to the Iiomanian interpretation oi Uy~antine i~~onoclic recitati\res through rituals of passage (Marin, 1995).

The interyret;rtion of the clirge is a inoving experience, as the audience experiences the '~ctive emotional performance reinforced by the ritual. The chorus of f'emininc. voices gives a powerful interpretation of laments as the i\rc)inm xroicc the collective opinions, social order, and traditions as ~ \ ~ c l l '1s the clr,im'~tic communicative enactment of the dialogue between the li~ring 'mcl the ciencl. Siinilar to the instance of ballad performance, the interprc>t,~ tion of l,~meiits presupposes a public who knows the repertoire.

Romanian Dirge 115

The public consists of the villagers who come to mourn the deceased and participate in the ritual next to the family of the dead. All the participants are aware of the forms of the rite of passage, and they take active part in expressing the sorrow enacted by the lamenters. As Anizulescu (1967, p. 77) notices in his study of Roil~anian folk songs and ballads, the songs, the laments, the ballads, and the manner of performing them are trans- mitted orally by participation in the ritual. The apprentice might be a wonian related to the deceased who is helped and directed by the other performer women in her effort to lament in the proper manner. Watts (1988) explains how the women performers actually learn their perfor- mance slulls:

. . . the oral poet has no choice but to create his whole song out of a reservoir of formulas in which commollly recurring ideas have been tailored to fit the verse. . . . Every time a song is heard it is different and the young singer cannot therefore memorize it in a fixed form. Instead, the emphasis is on learning enough formulas and well enough until they become part of the singer's poetic thought, thus en- abling him to sing a song. . . . The picture that emerges is "one of the preservation of the tradition by the constant re-creation of it." (p. 35)

The women sing in uiuson, on monodic Byzantine chants, modulating their voices to tune the singing wit11 the folkloric verses they utter. From the herrneneutic perspective, the performer women become interpreters as they literally and musically translate both their own sorrow in their laments and the collective views on the negotiation between the Living and the dead, the necessity of ritual and the importance of social order.

Ong (1988), in Brfurr Textcmlity: Ornllt!y orlri l~ztrrprt~tiltiorl, reinforces the textual interpretation as the hermeneutical model for other interpreta- tions. As Ong claims that all texts are "interwoven with other texts in the most elusive ways," explaining the textualization that builds all texts into each other and consequently, dirges as texts become salient as cultural intertextual discourse, where musical, discursive, and cultural texts con- cur in order to assist communal experience of grief in Southeastern Europe (p. 262). Ong (1988) states

. . . oral habits of thought and expression are essentially interweavings with each other, deeply repetitive, built on formulaic expression, co~~~monplaces, epithets, responsive to the total context in which they come into being, and supported in the formal art of rhetoric by the doctrine of im~tation, which is repetition of sorts, a lund of interweaving of art and nature. (p. 265)

Ong analyzes oral utterance that calls for interpretation and he enipha- sizes the "climate of interpersonal negotiation in which meaning is brought into being and sustained and changed through discourse between persons set in a . . . context" (p. 267). For him, meaning is not assigned in oral

I I 0 Ritual ,~ncl C~.e,ltive Pl.dctice in Globdl Contexts

tr,lditii)n, but negotiated. Accordingly, the ritual of passage is a continuous negotiation betxveen the living and the dead; the lamenters talk to the clece,i~ecl ili~cl try to make them leave the mortal status and rejoin the ic>lleitivity ,ind tlieir ddily duties in the world of the living. The interpre t,~tion that contempor,~ry oral tradition focuses on is this shared set of ine,~iiiiig~a~lcl cc~mmunicative acts that enable the interpreters and the p ~ ~ b l i i to interact in the process of textual participation in the ritual comn- muniw tion. The rnactnlent of dirge combines the ballad verses, the rhyrnic monodic musiwlity, ancl the feminine chorus as interpreters that voice the > ~ r r o \ \ ~ of the family and of the comm~unity. Romanian dirges reinforce the powerful interaction c)f ancestral cerenlonies and the contemporary oral tr'idition in Romania.

WOMEN'S PERFORMANCES OF DIRGE A S CULTURAL NARRATIVES

Dirges as or,d perfumances and narratives of the community remain hest preserved in Maramures, as mentioned, in part due to the inability o f cunlmunist policies to be put into practice in the northwestern part of 12om,lni,1. Here is McLaughlin's account, in 3001, on the reasons for this '~re'l's int'lct cultural connectioi~ to ancient rituals and traditions:

\Yc, clibcoverrti t h t 1-t,rt,iin \.illages lin Mara~nuresl had never bee11 collectivized durlng the C't.ausCx-u regime. The villagers claimed it was because their soil was t c ) o t)twr 'inel the terrain too hilly. Hence, 1 believe these villages maintain greater pc~r.;on,ll txidt- in their iirlds because i)f their continuuus autonomy from the tinles oi thcis ~ r t ~ ~ t - ~ r a ~ ~ c l t ' ~ t l ~ e r s . Their ~111hn)ken c~)iitact with tlieir ancestral land helped to i t .n l~>nt their traclitions. (p. 8)

After 1989, with the fall of coil~mulusm in Eastern and Central Europe, the plc>thc>ra of studies on the Balkans, cultural traditions and interests conncctecl to the area arise in particular in relation to women and the soci'il, political, ancl econnn~ic changes that countries like Romania, Bul- glria, Hungary, or Polancl engage in, as societies in transition (Draga- Ale\,inJr~~, 3000; Eglitis, 3000; Harsanyi, 1994; Lengel, 3000; Roman, 2001). I'ertinent to the cultural, social, and political transformation of everyday life in Suutheastern Europe, the women's active and equal engagement in [he ii~ultiple contests of daily life dei~lonstrate the necessity to create criti- c,ll ;~ncl cultural perspectives focusing on the role of women and their i~)ntributions to public ancl private spheres, part of these countries' past ,111cl 1.7'~>~11 t.

LVomen 1,imenters are usually older women, renderers of the facts of the com~l~unity, facilit'ltors o f the communication between the living and the LICALI. Similarly to the Greek women, Roi~~anian lainenters perforin the

Romanian Dirge

, laments by narrating stories or singing folk songs altogether with express- ing their own feelings-anxiety, sorrow, fear, and anticipation-in their laments (Alexiou, 1974). In Romanian tradition, these Abocitmre [women lamenters] improvise, link folkloric texts, and bring in elements of speci- ficity with general cosmogonic themes of death and life, marriage a i d separation, in a coi~tinuous chant interrupted mainly by crying, sobbing, or shouting to emphasize the sorrow. Mirroring almost identical perfor- mative tasks of elder women in rural communities of Ireland, Lysaght (1997) describes m detail how the "performance of public improvised PO- etic lamentations by women over deceased persons" represents a "part of the fabric of Irish life" (p. 66).

WMe contemporary research on the role of women and their active participatory role in the area is on the increase, the cultural readings on the role of women as traditional participants in major ritualistic nar- ratives such as rites of birth, wedding, and death are scarce, mostly covering ethnograpluc, anthropologic, or folkloric traditions (Kligman, 1988; McLaughlin, 2001; Verdery, 1999). And yet, in rural Romania the performative role of women as contributors to the preservation of cultural traditions shared throughout Eastern Europe reinforces their role as "de- positories of "compassion, love and care" (Harsanyi, 1994, p. 32). By en- gaging and performing the dirge as a complex cultural narrative, women actively reenact cultural roles as performers and cultural narrators con- necting the past and the present, observing old cultural rites of passage whde reinforcing oral traditions of the area, so important to cultural iden- tity and intercultural awareness in global times.

In conclusion, the performance of dirge in Romanian tradition repre- sents an act of negotiation between the living and the dead, an act of expressing the sorrow and pain, an act of liberation for both the deceased

' and his/her fandy as the soul of the dead reaches immortality. Signifi- cantly, in Romanian rural communities the ritual of passage is still a very strongly observed rite that preserves most of its folkloric tradition. The Romanian folkloric and religious beliefs support the mandatory quality of ritual in the observance of the traditional funeral ceremony. The ele- ments of Dacian and Byzantine ceremonies combine with the contempo- rary national characteristics in the Ronlanian funeral rite of passage.

Romanians continue to preserve the dirge and the ritual of death very sinularly to the ancient tradition as their beliefs need to accomn~odate the immortality of the souls of the deceased through the appropriate obser- vance. Therefore, the Romanian dirge becomes one of the best-preserved folkloric traditions in Romanian contemporary oral tradition.

Coi~sequently, Romanian women's cultural contribution to rural com- munities represents through performances of dirges and laments one of the most important locations of oral tradition, featuring women as the major participants in the preservation of such cultural traditions within

Ritu,ll ,jncl Creat~ve Pr'lct~ce ~n Global Contexb Rornanlan D~rge

tht. f'ibric of national narratives of identity in Southeastern Europe. The role. of lvomen 'lint1 their culturcnl coi~tribution to the rites of passage in communities by preserving anciei~t traditions becoines a tascinating and intriguinji multicultural interrogation on the relationship between oral traclition ,nnci women in the contemporary global village. Women's active lVoicr c l l ~ c l voicing of oral traditions of Southeastern Europe, their cultural rc.rldinss of grief and bereavement through yoematic songs and perfor- in~~~ncc~b, all empl~asize the iinportant role women play as social and cul- tural c-ontributors to preserve dncl continue oral traditions needed to be he,,> re1 t hroug11ou t the ~vor ld .

R E F E R E N C E S

2Ale\iclu, M. ( lL)7-i). 7'1113 rit11i11 111rr11~11t ill Grc,ik tri1riitiotr. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- \,t.rsitv I'ress.

i\nl/ulecu, A. 1. (lL)h7). Introclucere. In A. 1. Amzulescu (Ed.), Bizln~ie poplrhrt2 ru- I I / I ~ I I ~ Y / ; [K~m,lnian folk ballacisj (pp. 5-95). Bucharest, Romania: Editura

. .

pt'ntru literatura. Ii,lbuts, N . (1000). ""bliorita": A Romanian ballad in a Hu~ileric perspective. Syrrr-

/105;llrrl, -7-15. L3irlea, 0. ( 1977). lio~rri~rrii~ ~irril tlrc~ Rorrlrlrriiirls. Los Angeles: American Romanian

Ac.ldt.my I'uhlic,ltion. Ca~.lx~n, t i . I<., Iohnston, A., I.iice'~nu, A., Vintila, C., & Harvey, J. H. (2000). Les-

wns in the p~ychology ot loss: Accounts of middle-aged Romanian \vomen. 101lr1li11 o f fc.1~011111 rlriii I~~tc'~./~i~riorrr~l LLIS, 5(2, 3), 183-203.

C'iuc-hindt'l, C. (Ed.). (lL)cJO). Fiilclor ilc'chi ,vtrrarlc*sc lOld Romanian tolklorel. Bu- ih,lrt%st, I:om,inia: Eclitura Pvliner\a.

C'ollins, 1.. (1002). "Ceia Lume": The Komaninn way of death. Tllr Miiiulest Qlrar- tt,r/,~/, 44 I ), 7ti-S7.

Ilirncl, A. (1')S2). l'irilrrlcrl cosrrria1 1 1 1 / J ~ I L ' Z ~ I I rvirri111a7sn1 [Cosniic vision in Romanian poetry1 (pp. 7h-tic)). Iasi, I<ommiia: Editura Junimea.

Dlaga-r \ l t .~ ,~~~~iru , M. S. (2000). Exiles iron1 power: Marginality and the femaleselt in p o s t c ~ ) ~ ~ u ~ n ~ n i s t and ~.'ostt'uloninl spaces. Elrro/rt,[lr~ /ourtlal of Wotrlc~nS Slrrlli~~2, i(3), 3.55-367.

Lglitib, [I. 5. (2000). Mother Country, nation, and politics in the Balkai~s and Ro- m'lni,~. Elrst L ' I I ~ C ) ~ L ~ I I I I Politics 1111il Sociiltit,s, 14(3), 693-703.

tliaclc,, M. (1957). TIIC si~cri,d ilrrrf tht. prc,fi7rrt9: T11c. nritlrrc~ o j rc'ligio~z. (W. R. Trask, T'lans.) (pp. 185-713). New York: Harcourt Brace.

L~li.ldc, hl. ( 1971 ). 7711. rrr!/tll L I ~ tlrt, c'tc~rrrol rr+~rr~l or, Cosrrlo,s arr~i Iristor!/. (W. R. Trask, T~-,lns.) ( p p 21-103). I'rinceton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

t l ~ , ~ c i ~ > , M . ( IL)L)2), 5,1/11111ol;sr1r, t11c s[~crl,ii 111r~i t11c 11rts (pp. 38, 151-155). New York

I-IoIbL-WLlrhatt, C;. (IL)l)2). @ilrl;;c7rolis i'c~ici's: Worrrcrr's latrrc~r~ts arl~i Cr~?'l; litzrntrrrc. L.ondon: Routledge.

I lonko, I>. (lL)74). Balto-Finnic lament poetry. Stlrclir~ Filrrri~,r1, 17, 9-61.

Kligman, G. (Speaker). (1984). Oral /iortr!/ and i~lcology irr s ~ ~ i a l i z n t i ~ ~ t r of pcasnllt women in Rornanir~ (Cassette recording, CSWS Speaker series). Corvallis, Oregon: University ot Oregon Center for the Study of Women in Society.

Kligman, G. (1988). The wed~lirlg of the dead. Berkeley, California: University of California, Berkeley Press.

Kriza, 1. (1994). The rural form of death dirges in Hungary. Jiihrbucll fiir Volks l i~d- forschung, 39, 110-1 16.

kngel, L. (2000). Culture and technology in the new Europe. In L. Lengel (Ed)., Culture nnd technology irl tile tlt,il] Eirrol~c: Cizlic discimrse itr tratrsfc~rrrrnti~)n it1 post-cornnlunist notiorls (pp. 1-23). Stamford, Connt~ticut: Ablex.

Lysaght, P. (1997). Caoineadh os cionn coirp: The lament for the dead in Ireland. Folklort., 108, 65-83.

Marin, C., & Sava, 1. (1988). Constellztin Madrigal [Constellation "Madrigal"] (pp. 77-94). Bucharest, Romania: Editura Muzicala.

Marin, N. (1995). Romanian dirge: A ballad in its own right. In J. Porter (Ed.), Bullads n t~d bourrdaries: N r ~ r r ~ ~ t i z ~ ~ ~ s i ~ l g i t r ~ ill 1111 itrternationn/ contcst (pp. 21- 28). Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles.

Matley, I. M. (1970). Rortmnin: A profile (pp. 223-255). New York: Praeger. McLaughlin, K. L. (2001). A contactful life: The peasants of Maraniures, Romania.

Unpublished master's thesis. Virginia Commonwealtl~ University [On-line]. Retrieved September 21,2003, from http://www.leafpile.com/P1~otography/ Thesis/Thesis.htm

Ochs, D. J. (1995). Cotlsolrltory rlretoric: Criej, symbol, urrd ritual in the Grcco-Rorliarl era. Colun~bia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press

Ong, W. J. (1988). Before textuality: Orality and interpretation. Oral Tradition, 331, 259-269.

Papahagi, T. (1967). Poezin lirica populnru [Romanian lyrical poetry]. Bucharest, Ro- mania: Editura pentru literatura.

Parkes, C. M., Laungani, P., & Young, B. (1997). Dcatll '2nd L.crmve~ncrzt across c d - tures. London: Routledge.

Roman, D. (2001). Gendering Eastern Europe: Pre-feminism, prejudice, and East- West dialogues in post-communist Romania. Wonlerl's Strrdies Otterr~atiorlnl Forurn, 24(1), 53-67.

Rusu, L. (1967). Viziuilccn lunrii in poezia noastra populnra: Strrrlii de folclor [World vision in our folk poetry: Folklore studies]. Bucharest, Romania: Editura pentru literatura.

Scarlat, M. (1982). Istorin pocziei rornnni,sti [History of Romanian poetry] (Vol. I). Bucharest, Romania: Editura Minerva.

Snodgrass. W. D. (1993). Cirrci balnde popularc~ [Five folk ballads]. Bucharest, Ro- mania: Cartea Romaneasca.

Stoicescu, N. (1983). The continuity of t l~e Rornar?iarl people. Bucharest, Romania: Editura stiintifica si enciclopedica.

Suter, A. (2003). Lament in Euripides' "Trojan Women." Mtrcmos!/lrc, 56(1), 1-28. Tdorescu, B., & Paun, 0 . (1967). Folclor litcrar ronlallrsc [Romanian literary folk-

lorel (pp. 117-170). Bucharest, Romania: Editura didactica si pedagogics. Turner, V. (1982). Front ritiral to tl1eah.e: The hr~marl scriousr~ess of play. New York:

PAJ Publications.

I.!() Ritual anti CI-e,ltive Practice in Glul~al Contexts

Clr~;rzli~~, 1'. (IL)7h). Po~*tic'~~ fc~l~.loriii~ [Folkloric poetry]. Iasi, Romania: Eclitura lu~iimcv.

Lclr~lty, K. ( IL)<W). / . / I < , i~olitiiiil lii*~,s oi [icizli lwilic~s: Rcbrrrinl nrlri p~stsacinlist cllurrgc.. N t ~ t . YIJI-L: Colunlbia U n ~ ~ ~ e r s i t p Press.

L'rclbit,. G. ( IL)7S). R~,lor.ic.ir ~r~l~-lorrrlrii-~~oozii [Folkloric rhetoric: Poems]. Bucharest, l i o ~ n ~ ~ n i ~ i : Ed~tur,l Miner\.a/Universitas.

\,\'aLt>, N. ( IcJNIC;). I ' l i ~ v Grldi folk- so~l,ys. Bristol, England: Bristul Classical Press. l \ ' c ~ ~ ~ ~ h , i ~ ~ n l , B. (2001 ). I-,~ment ritual transformed into literature: Positing women's

i.'r<~ytt" '1s cmwrstone in Western clas>ical literature. jolrr~lnl oj A~rlericr~r~ i'cJ//~/OI'c', 1 /J(A?l ), ?[k3L).

CHAPTER 8

The High Cost of Dancing: When the Indian Women's

Movement Went after the Devadasis

Teresa Hubel

On the other side of patriarchal histories are women who are irrecoverably elusive, whose convictions and the examples their lives might have left to us-their everyday resistances as well as their capitulations to author- ity-are at some fundamental level lost. These are the vast majority of women who never wrote the history books that shape the manner in which we, at any particular historical juncture, are trained to remember; they did not give speeches that were recorded and carefully collected for posterity; their ideals, sayings, beliefs, and approaches to issues were not painstakingly preserved and then quoted century after century. And pre- cisely because they so obviously lived and believed on the underside of various structures of power, probably consistently at odds with those structures, we are eager to hear their voices and their views. The problem is that their individual lives and collective ways of living them are im- possible to recover in any fornl that has not already been altered by our own concerns. In making them speak, by whatever means we might use (archives, testimonials, court records, personal letters, government pol- icy), we are invariably fictionalizing thein because we are integrating them into narratives that belong to us, that are about us.' Given the inevitability of our using them for our own purposes, we cannot justify taking that all- too-easy (and, as this essay will suggest), middle-class stance that posits us as their champions, their rescuers from history. It falls to us to find other motives for doing work that seeks them.

In the case of this essay, the therr~ are the detialirzsis or temple dancers of what is now Tamilnadu in southern India (the term drzmdnsi literally trans- lates as "female servant of God"), especially those dancers who were alive during the six decades of the nationalist movement. This movement was

Intercultural Communication and Creative Practice

Music, Dance, and Women's Cultura I lden tity

Edited by Laura Lengel

Thc I ~ t t , N in ,~ Fichttxr (lef~/front) and Krissy Keefer, who broke new ground by crc\,~tin:; and t7erfornling ciance relating to \\ramen's issues.

PMGER Westport, Connecticut London

Contents

I. Theoretical Issues

1 Intercultural Communication and Creative Practice: Resistance, Convergence, and Transformation Laurtr Leizgel

2 Voicing the Unspoken: "Interculturally" Connecting Race, Gender, and Nation in Women's Creative Practice Lliane Loots

3 Moving Contexts: Dance and Difference in the Twenty-first Century Arilz Cooper Albright

4 Creation, Recreation, and Re-creating Identities: Performance and Interculturality in a Global Context Victoria Atzn Nrwsorn uizri Ako Inr~zuXr?

11. Ritual and Creative Practice in Global Contexts

5 Dance of the Red Dog: N R Wahine Klrr~lzi Hula as Protectors of Hawaiian Culture Fizy Yokornizo A k i d e s

6 R ~ d n n l i (The Crier): Performing the Music of Mourning Priyn Kapoor

7 I<on~ani,tii Dirge: Women's IGtualistic Narratives of Life and Dca th as Cultural Constructions of Iclentity in Southeastern Europe> , U ~ I ~ ~ I I I ~ A ~ ~ I I . ~ I I

S The High Cost of' Dancing: When the Indian Women's Mn\.ement \Vent 'liter the @r>iaii[lsi~ K'~.i'.ii~ H I I / ~ ~ > /

111. Popularizirig and lilternationalizing Women's Politics

) Thc~ Constri~ction of Gender, Genre, Race, and Identity in B~irb~idi~in Female Musicianship L 7 r i ~ I L CI~TII I

10 Vic.tn,imese Womci~ Perfornling Artists: Making a Song and D'inie of Patriarchal Submission L,i/ tillllllLy V~1L~llilll

I I Marriage Customs 'IS Creative Practice among Yemeiu \Von~en 1:. ~ . I ~ I I . : ; ~ I I . [ ~ ~ Cl~/.tis-Hoir~c~

I Z Shifting the Perf~rm~~tive Characteristics of Opera and the St'i t us Quo for Women in China X ~ I ~ ~ , I / I I Xiilo I I I I ~ P. f<o!/ Hc2isc!/

IV. Production, Representation, and Appropriation

I .3 Corpore'ility ancl Discipline of the Pertorming Bocly: I<t~prese~~ta tions of Intern'itional Bdllet Conlpanies l'tli;:~~ I! t:llli3y I I I ~ I ~ G~IISCI. Rilul

I4 MCin Creates, Woman Plays: (Re)Claiming the Creative Process in Ballet and Opera iZ.lil1~111.i.t Lirr~il[~!/

I5 Man'iging Cre,~tive Practice: An International Study of LYc)men in Arts Ivlanagemmt 9[11rc1/r Folly

l h Shiftins M,itriarcl~al Traditions to the Mainstream: Articulating Gender, Ethnicity, Nation, and Identity through Crca tive Practice l1111nr L.i'll~l~l

Preface

It started innocently enougll-taking piano lessons at age seven. I learned that "all cows eat grass" and that "music" meant compositions (or a t that point simple adaptations thereof) of the "Masters" of Western music. At that early age, I didn't know to ask to learn how to play compositions by women or musical works from outside Western Europe and the United States.

It got more complex--embarking upon graduate studies in interna- tional communication. I explored how women's music, dance, and other forms of creative practice were an articulation of identity. I read the cri- tiques of how women have been marginalized as composers and perform- ers throughout history. I sought to read more--particularly about women's role in creative practice outside places like the United States and Europe. At the time, there was little scholarly work that highlighted women's per- formance and creative practice, particularly so in Global South regions like North Africa, where women's role and status in Arab-Islamic societies provided a unique context to example performance and creative practice.

It was daunting-since there was little scholarly work in this area, I set out to conduct a critical ethnography of women and inusic in North Af- rican Tunisia. Armed with the awareness that ethnography was a ~0111-

plex, potentially disruptive enterprise, I went-traveling halfway around the world to discover how women's creative practices shape their lives and the lives of those around them. The year in Tunisia, particularly those dis- coveries, friendships, and collaborative relationships I made with women musicians, performance artists, filmmakers, and media professionals, has certainly shaped my life.