The Performative Context: Song–Dance on Rhodes Island

Abstract

A theoretical concern for Greek cultural “performance” must link both the singer anddancer to the dance. Ethnographers concerned with “performance” have suggested thisthrough the study of song. In order to further develop the study of song-dance theprocessual anthropology of Victor Turner will be introduced. A theoretical considerationfor “process” can create a portal to look into the ritual study of Greek song-dance throughthe “performative genre” (Herzfeld, 1981). This concern will be explicated ethno histori -cally through an analysis of the Dodecanesian dance called sousta,as it was performedduring the ritual ceremony of ghamosor wedding before Independence (1947).