Date:
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Time:
12:00-1:00pm
The Zār ceremony is a ritual healing ceremony as carried out throughout the Persian Gulf. This ceremony is mirrored by similar practices throughout North and East Africa, suggesting that the Zār may have resulted from cultural diffusion along historical trade routes. The Zār practitioners, the bābā and the māmā, must cultivate extensive skills in musical performance, movement and coordination in order to provide palliative relief for persons affected by spirit ‘winds’ that inhabit them, causing physical and emotional distress. The Zār ceremony is an important method of non-allopathic treatment for emotional disorders that might elsewhere be treated through psychiatry in clinical settings. Practitioners see it as compatible with Islam, though not a strictly Islamic practice. This talk will explore the ritual, performative and curative aspects of the practice. See flyer here.
William O. Beeman is Professor and past-Chair of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He also holds courtesy appointments in Music and in Theatre Arts and Dance. He is a linguistic anthropologist and a professional opera singer. He received his academic training at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and the University of Chicago, and his musical training with specialization in opera performance at The Boston Conservatory. His extensive writings on music and performance traditions both in Western and non-Western settings have been widely cited. His latest book is Iranian Performance Traditions. His co-authored book with Daniel Helfgot, The Third Line: The Singer as Interpreter, is widely used for singer training. He has also written numerous scholarly articles on the relationship between music and emotion, based both on human physiology and on cognitive structures. He is currently writing a new book tentatively titled: Music, Emotion and Human Evolution. In his other work, he is best known as a specialist in the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia and East Asia, where he has conducted research for more than 40 years. In addition to his writing on music and performance, he is the author or editor of more than 100 scholarly articles, 500 opinion pieces and 14 books on topics ranging from Middle Eastern politics, linguistics and the culture of art history.