The Interface of Scholar and Subject: Studying Basque Dance

Abstract

“Pathways to Historical Knowledge” was the title of the CORD regional conference where these papers were first presented (California State University, Northridge, December 8, 1979). In this conference, two disciplines – dance ethnology and criticism – and one genre – the personal memoir – were looked at in relation to what they could contribute to the study of dance history. In the session “Historical Process and Ethnic Dance Research,” these papers and the ensuing discussion made it clear that the dance ethnologist may be as concerned with process through time as the dance historian. The ethnologist however, working in the field and in social relationships with informants, almost inevitably influences the development of the dance complex under study – a well known phenomenon in any research involving living human subjects. The nature and amount of this influence seems from these accounts to depend on the extent to which the researcher has or develops such social relationships with members of the community whose dance is being investigated. The community may even go so far as to consider the researcher or the written results of research as its authority when making judgments or decisions about its own dance. Understanding the change and the continuity in seemingly traditional dance cultures thus becomes a difficult task: the researcher is a part of the dynamic process and yet must try to interpret it objectively and keep his own influence to a minimum.