Improvisation and Hybrid Genres: Reading Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

ABSTRACT

In the first section I ask two questions: what sort of a poem is Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, and what is the immediate experience of reading it in sequence? These two questions are the practical equivalents of the main terms of my title. I try to answer them by reconstructing a first reading of the poem in the light of my own experience and the imagined one of the first readers of the poem. I suggest that two terms—accretion and elimination—are helpful here and that, in some ways, the structure and sequential experiencing of the poem resemble the structures of extended nineteenth-century musical forms. In the second section, I reverse perspective and take a position at the end of the poem. From such a point, it is easier to find what the poem has included and eliminated and this, in turn, suggests the kind of poem that it is. In the third section I tackle the terms “improvisation” and “hybrid genres” directly, link them with my earlier arguments, and engage with some theorists, especially Bakhtin. In particular, I argue against the view that Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage dissolves genre but argue that genres are nevertheless “open categories.” My conclusion is less definite. I confess to difficulties that still bother me.     

Social decision-making driven by artistic explore–exploit tension

We studied social decision-making in the rule-based improvisational dance There Might Be Others, where dancers make in-the-moment compositional choices. Rehearsals provided a natural test-bed with communication restricted to non-verbal cues. We observed a key artistic explore–exploit tension in which the dancers switched between exploitation of existing artistic opportunities and riskier exploration of new ones. We investigated how the rules influenced the dynamics using rehearsals together with a model generalized from evolutionary dynamics. We tuned the rules to heighten the tension and modelled nonlinear fitness and feedback dynamics for mutation rate to capture the observed temporal phasing of the dancers' exploration-versus-exploitation. Using bifurcation analysis, we identified key controls of the tension and showed how they could shape the decision-making dynamics of the model much like turning a ‘dial’ in the instructions to the dancers could shape the dance. The investigation became an integral part of the development of the dance.     

Post-colonial heritage conservation in Africa: perspectives from drystone wall restorations at Khami World Heritage site,Zimbabwe

Abstract

Before colonialism, heritage sites such as Khami were considered resting places for ancestors, valued more for the spirit of place than their monumentality. In this context, local custodians hardly intervened with the fabric of the site. With the introduction of modern conservation principles, which persist to this day, vegetation control and wall restorations became part of routine conservation measures. This paper discusses drystone wall restorations carried out at Khami between 2000 and 2015 focusing on the disjuncture between indigenous and local concepts of heritage, concerned with access and preserving the spirit of ancestors, and ‘western’ principles of restoration. It argues that while ignoring the structural disintegration of Khami would have resulted in possible delisting from the World Heritage List, the ‘neglect’ which Khami experienced was in tandem with its local social context; being a resting place for ancestors. While the reconstructions interfered with an acceptable physical context of local beliefs, restorations maintained the integrity of the site as a tourist destination with positive local economic benefits. Although compromises are by their nature unsatisfactory, modern heritage conservation in Africa must adapt and improvise to achieve a mix of local and international practices to reflect changed and changing realities.     

Three Boasian Women: Margaret Mead,Ruth Benedict,and Ruth Landes

Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Ruth Landes each made significant contributions to American anthropology that have been obscured by enemies and by time. Recent reappraisals of their work suggest that these women and their ideas are of much more than antiquarian interest. They either prefigured or provided sophisticated visions on a variety of issues including processes of embodiment, cultural selection, and improvisation in the face of power. A reexamination of these women's work and times may yet provide anthropology with a cautionary yet useful past as well as revivify the greater Boasian project.