 The anthropology of dance.
Author: Royce, Anya Peterson Published: 2002 This pioneering book, first published in 1977 and here reprinted with a new introduction, is the first general introduction to dance anthropology. The author first explores the various meanings that dance has had over time for different peoples. Next she focuses on the place that dance has occupied in anthropological studies over the past one hundred years, and discusses techniques for studying and recording dance; the book then turns to structural and functional analyses, comparing them with reference to their different purposes and capabilities. The second part of the book presents three perspectives frequently used by anthropologists to view dance: the historical, the comparitive, and the symbolic; and in part three discusses two categories of research that will be significant in the future: creativity and aesthetics, and communication and meaning. | 
