Marginalised Southern Iraqi Dances: Politics & Production in the 1980s

我的目标是进行一个民族志和历史项目，考察伊拉克的民俗产业，将其作为支持20世纪80年代民族国家叙事的工具。作为切入点，我的目标是观察伊拉克南部被边缘化的舞蹈形式，这些舞蹈形式在性别、等级、种族和民族方面尤其分层。尽管关于伊拉克被边缘化的舞蹈形式缺乏官方档案，但YouTube拥有大量可追溯到20世纪80年代的剧团和舞蹈聚会的“非官方”档案，当时人们在保护当地和地区的伊拉克民间舞蹈方面投入了更多资金。尽管如此，舞蹈经常被消毒掉它们被边缘化的根源。我的兴趣也在于这些视觉/档案形式的记录。我的目标是追踪将这些不同形式的代表分层的各种身份和权力动态，并着眼于结构被复制或可能被拆除。

I aim to conduct an ethnographic and historical project examining the folkloric industry in Iraq as a tool for upholding nation-state narratives in the 1980s. As an entry point, I aim to look at marginalised dance forms in southern Iraq which are especially stratified along gendered, classed, racial and ethnic lines.Although there is a lack of official archives around marginalised dance forms in Iraq, YouTube holds a vast collection of "unofficial" archives of theatre troupes and dance gatherings dating back to the 80s when there was a heavier investment in preserving Iraqi folkloric dances, locally and regionally. Nevertheless, the dances were often sanitised of their marginalised roots.My interests also lie in these visual/archival forms of documentation. I aim to trace the various identity and power dynamics that stratify these different forms of representation and look at structures being reproduced or perhaps dismantled.