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Introduction
A new virtual symposium on "Gestures, Rituals and Memory" will be inaugurated by a live symposium to be held at the University of Toronto (Victoria College), May 6-8, 2004. The position papers listed in the program below will be put online at a later date and will serve as starting points for comments and discussions. Further submissions by interested scholars are welcome. Please send your position papers to paul.bouissac@utoronto.ca
Announcing a new virtual symposium
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A MULTIDISCIPLINARY SYMPOSIUM ON PATTERNED HUMAN MOVEMENT
ACROSS TIME Sponsored by the Emilio Goggio Chair of Italian Studies
with the cooperation of Toronto, May 6-8, 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, May 6 Marcel Kinsbourne (New School University, New York) Paul Bouissac (University of Toronto,Victoria College) Marion Blute (University of Toronto) Lunch: 12:30-1:30
Michael Chazan (University of Toronto) Alexandra Sumner (University of Toronto) Discussion
Dinner hosted by Professor Paul Gooch, President of
Victoria University ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, May 7 Morning session: 9:00-12:00 Robert Yelle (University of Toronto) Andrea Vianello (Sheffield University)
Afternoon session: 2:00-6:00 Domenico Pietropaolo (University of Toronto) John H. Astington (University of Toronto) Dinner: 7:00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday May 8 "Gestures and cultures: theorizing continuity and
change in patterned human movement"
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Gestures, Rituals and Memory: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Patterned Human Movement across Time.
The ways humans express themselves and interact with each other and with their environment through gestures have been extensively studied from a synchronic perspective. The description of patterned human movement in skills, rituals and every day life transactions has been an important part of ethnography since its inception. Various recording methods have been created to meet the challenge of translating these flowing patterns into repertories of body postures, hand and head motions, and modes of perambulation, often in relation to verbal utterances. Attempts have been made to construe such dynamics as systems expressing the technological level and cultural ethos of social groups. However, little is known about how these neuromuscular processes and their meanings have evolved, how they have been preserved or transformed over time, and how they relate to changing cultural norms. The purpose of this symposium is to explore the possibility of studying gestures and rituals across time, and to probe the memory resources of the human brain which can account for their continuity and change. The symposium will address the issue of how technical skills and communicative gestures, rituals and magic, theatrical acting and dances, for instance, are transmitted vertically from generation to generation and often spread horizontally from population to population. Particular attention will be paid to the transformations which occur during this process not only in the forms of the movement but also in their symbolic meanings. A full understanding of these processes, which are at the core of the cultural specificity of humans, requires the inputs of a wide array of disciplines, from the cognitive neurosciences to cultural anthropology, and including the history of religions, the study of manual techniques and social gestures, the ethnography and history of rituals and dramatic performances, the psychology of face-to-face interactions, and the representation of such behavior in literature and the visual arts. This symposium will endeavor to explore some of the directions mentioned above and to lay the basis for a large-scale conference on this topic to be organized in 2005.
Anybody interested in contributing a position paper relevant to the issues addressed by this symposium should contact Professor Paul Bouissac at: bouissa@attglobal.net
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