Journal Article
| Bharatanatyam and Identity Making in the South Asian Diaspora: Culture through the Lens of Occupation Author: Kumar, Anita Published: 2010 |
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| Culture, when def ined as those activities that bring meaning to people’s lives, has many parallels to
occupation, also an exploration of meaning making. This article examines the relationship between
culture and occupation through bharatanatyam, a South Indian classical dance. Based on f ieldwork
carried out in Los Angeles with the Shakti Dance School and Company, this article explores
bharatanatyam’s role in racial, ethnic, and religious formation (real and imagined). What does it mean
that Lena, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian is more Indian than her South Asian American
classmates? What is the signif icance of Samira and Hasseem, two Pakistani- American Muslim students,
choreographing an Islamic song to bharatanatyam when Islam prohibits any form of dancing, let alone
its interpretation through a Hindu art form? I demonstrate how bharatanatyam is a cultural
occupation. Additionally, in contesting traditional notions of culture as homogenous, cohesive and
pure, I reconf igure culture as a creative process of meaning making, always in a state of emergence,
always needing to be ‘worked at’. Thus, I argue for culture itself as a form of occupation.
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Article: Kumar_EO.pdf  | |
