Department of Music Studies, University of Athens, Panepistemiopolis, Athens 157-84, Greece.
papamaria@music.uoa.gr
Maria Papapavlou is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology – Music of the Mediterranean at the Faculty of Music Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athnens. She was born in Switzerland in 1970 and studied piano and music theory at the National Conservatorium of Athens. She graduated from the Department of Philosophy and Social Studies of the University of Crete (1994) and she continued with postgraduate studies at the Department of Social Sciences and Anthropology of non-Western Societies at the University of Leiden - the Netherlands. She holds a Ph.D in Anthropology from the Institut fűr Ethnologie of Leipzig Universität in Germany (2000). Her thesis is about flamenco, Gitanos and their relations to the local society. She conducted fieldwork among Gitanos and non Gitanos flamenco artists in Andalusia. She also conducted fieldwork in the city of Rethymno (Crete-Greece) investigating the relations between emigrants and the local community, as well as the role of carnival music and dance in the construction of identities. Her research interests are in the fields of cultural anthropology, anthropology of music in the Mediterrenean, anthropology of senses and sentiments, phenomenology.
Abstract: Recent studies on performance theory have turned their attention to the process of constructing social identities. This article proposes to examine the case of Gitano and non-Gitano relationships under this light. The field research in Jerez de la Frontera of Andalusia, has shown that 'objective' differences between the two groups seem to be minimal, although the members of the two groups recognize and present themselves as different. Relevant literature on Gitanos and their relationship to flamenco argues for a biological affinity of Gitano 'race' with flamenco singing and dancing. In a similar vein the indigenous discourse among Gitanos and among non-Gitanos justifies one group or the other as cultural owners and natural heirs of flamenco. Thus flamenco becomes a contested measure of social identity. This research attempts to reveal the power of the emic discourse on flamenco debate and to understand it under a constructivistic point of view. Based on the modern turn of Gypsy studies the present article re-examines the Gitanos/non-Gitanos relationship by focusing on the ways people negotiate their differences from the other group. Moreover, it attempts to observe and understand how these negotiated identities are performed on the social stage either on everyday life occasions or festivities.