Marina Liontou-Mochament's doctoral research investigates how metric improvisation practice can enhance inspiration in improvisation and creation of composed works. By employing a variety of... Show moreMarina Liontou-Mochament's doctoral research investigates how metric improvisation practice can enhance inspiration in improvisation and creation of composed works. By employing a variety of methodological tools (intensive listening to recordings and videos of live and studio performances, music transcription and analysis, ethnographic research (interviews), participatory observation, improvising and composing), and by focusing on the work of carefully chosen figures (Marko Melkon, Udi Hrant, John Berberian, Ara Dinkjian, Tamer Pınarbaşı and Kyriakos Tapakis), this research proposes ways of enriching melodic and rhythmic vocabulary, and substantially developing skills in structuring metric improvisations and composed works. Show less
A mere day after his first footfall in the Americas, Columbus notes the broad foreheads of its inhabitants. These cranial shapes are deliberately created by applying pressure to the infant’s head... Show moreA mere day after his first footfall in the Americas, Columbus notes the broad foreheads of its inhabitants. These cranial shapes are deliberately created by applying pressure to the infant’s head after birth. Facing Society studies indigenous identities through head shaping practices against the backdrop of broader social developments in Caribbean communities before and after 1492 through a multi-disciplinary approach combining archaeology, (ethno)history, anthropology, and sociology. The first evidence of intentional cranial modification comes from the Early Ceramic Age, however by the Late Ceramic Age it was found across the Caribbean. Different regional patterns emerge in conjunction with diverging social developments. For example, the relatively homogeneous pattern of cranial modification seen in the Greater Antilles indicates a collective identity fostering social cohesion in expanding communities and connecting distant villages within the interaction sphere. The Early Colonial Period was transformative for indigenous communities and identities, and consequently caused a decline in head shaping practices. An unexpected revival was seen among the Black Carib, a community of free African descendants on St. Vincent. Traces of head shaping practices can still be found to this day demonstrating the lasting importance of indigenous social practices in the cultural mosaic of the current Caribbean. Show less
This dissertation examines the transformations of “Taiwanese cuisine” under three different political regimes. In the Japanese colonial era, “Taiwanese cuisine” emerged as food for the elite and as... Show moreThis dissertation examines the transformations of “Taiwanese cuisine” under three different political regimes. In the Japanese colonial era, “Taiwanese cuisine” emerged as food for the elite and as the “food of the colony.” However, the arrival of the Nationalist government and migrants from mainland China transplanted a condensed Chinese culinary map to Taiwan, while Taiwanese cuisine became a regional cuisine which was placed at a much lower level in the culinary hierarchy. After the establishment of the Democratic Progressive Party government in 2000, Taiwanese cuisine was imbued with symbolic meanings and began to be viewed as a “distinctive national cuisine.” The exploration of Taiwanese cuisine shows that “national cuisine” is a relational and performative concept, as well as a commercial product. Nationhood, in the context of food, can render itself perceivable only to those who perceive the symbolic meanings of cuisine or those who embed meanings in particular dishes. It thus suggests that there are three stages leading to the embodiment of nationhood in food consumption and which together form a circle. First, specific cuisines are symbolized and performed as “national.” Second, the symbolized cuisines are commodified. Finally, only when consumers perceive and practice these cuisines as national, nationhood can be embodied in these particular cuisines. Show less
