Dancing at the Thresholds

Tamara Dee Turner

ISBN 10: 0253075882 / ISBN 13: 9780253075888

Edité par Indiana University Press, US, 2026

Dancing at the Thresholds tells the story of a racialized community in Algeria that literally trance dances at the thresholds of consciousness. It also tells the story about how these communities negotiate and "dance" at thresholds of the sacred and profane, at the perceived clashes of Islam and animism or of sub-Saharan versus North African lifeworlds.Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork alongside archival sources, oral histories, and ritual analysis, author Tamara Dee Turner considers these dances through an affective, embodied lens to challenge mainstream assumptions of affect theory. The dance embodies centuries of traumatic histories haunting these communities: their ritual, diwan, coalesced over three centuries of the trans-Saharan slave trade. Embodying these tumultuous pasts, diwan rituals move painful feelings through the trancing body to the point of affective "ignition" and release. However, to accomplish this, ritual actors must cultivate specific atmospheres conducive to trance and transformation via a particular Algerian understanding of atmosphere called "hal."A much-needed ethnographic approach to the living family lineages, practices, and intimate epistemologies of diwan, Dancing at the Thresholds is a story about the nature of healing and how wellness depends on the respect of wider, affective ecologies beyond both the individual and the human. N° de réf. du vendeur LU-9780253075888

Synopsis :

Dancing at the Thresholds tells the story of a racialized community in Algeria that literally trance dances at the thresholds of consciousness. It also tells the story about how these communities negotiate and "dance" at thresholds of the sacred and profane, at the perceived clashes of Islam and animism or of sub-Saharan versus North African lifeworlds.

Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork alongside archival sources, oral histories, and ritual analysis, author Tamara Dee Turner considers these dances through an affective, embodied lens to challenge mainstream assumptions of affect theory. The dance embodies centuries of traumatic histories haunting these communities: their ritual, dīwān, coalesced over three centuries of the trans-Saharan slave trade. Embodying these tumultuous pasts, dīwān rituals move painful feelings through the trancing body to the point of affective "ignition" and release. However, to accomplish this, ritual actors must cultivate specific atmospheres conducive to trance and transformation via a particular Algerian understanding of atmosphere called "hāl."

A much-needed ethnographic approach to the living family lineages, practices, and intimate epistemologies of diwan, Dancing at the Thresholds is a story about the nature of healing and how wellness depends on the respect of wider, affective ecologies beyond both the individual and the human.

À propos de l'auteur:

Tamara Dee Turner is a psychological anthropologist and ethnomusicologist specializing in the utilization of ritual, music, and trance in mental health and healing, particularly in North Africa.

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : Dancing at the Thresholds
Éditeur : Indiana University Press, US
Date d'édition : 2026
Reliure : Paperback
Etat : New