Performing folklore : ranchos folclóricos from Lisbon to Newark /

Ranchos folcloricos are associations of regional folk musicians in Portugal and the Portuguese diaspora who use traditional regional dress, instruments, and dance in their performances. Holton (Portuguese and Lusophone world studies, Rutgers Univ.) describes her search to uncover the secrets of the survival and performance of age-old regional folklore and discusses its persistence, revival, and reinvention after Portugal's 1974 revolution. Based on field research ranging from musicology to anthropology, the book describes the changing meanings of folk performance during and after Antonio de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo--whether performances were meant to reinforce regional identity in Portugal, capture Portuguese memory in reenactments overseas, or offer an authentic national calling card (e.g., in performances before audiences in the European Union or beyond). Holton grounds her study in theory of changing dynamics of traditional performance across cultures, particularly those involved in empire, emigration, and diaspora. The Portuguese diaspora in Europe, the US, Brazil, and South Africa provides a very broad canvass for the role of performance in constructing individual and collective identity in a context of social, temporal, and cultural changes. Holton concludes with a discussion of regional Portuguese folklore in the Ironbound district of Newark, NJ. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. K. D. Jackson Yale University