Animating aphivoat: music, dance, and the politics of development in contemporary Cambodia
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Abstract
Following decades of conflict, contemporary Cambodia is experiencing large-scale socio-cultural and economic change often characterized by diverse transnational actors uniformly and uncritically as “development,” or aphivoat in the Khmer language. This dissertation illuminates the politics of development in contemporary Cambodia through analysis of music and dance practices which I argue function as means of “animating aphivoat:” articulating alternatives to hegemonic discourses and practices of development through embodied expressive practice. First situating Cambodian ideas about time, development, and the arts historically, I then present four contemporary case studies illuminating connections between music, dance, development, and nation. The first discusses development themes in the music and dance promulgated by the Cambodian state; the second explores the potentials and limitations for individuals and grassroots collectives to express alternatives to hegemonic development discourses; the third considers how women are negotiating and challenging local and global gender norms through engagement with music and dance; and the fourth explores youth civic and cultural engagement within a burgeoning “original song” movement. By exploring the ways in which diverse actors are using music and dance to animate hegemonic transnational discourses and practices of development, my dissertation contributes to ongoing debates in the fields of Ethnomusicology, Anthropology, and Development Studies while interrogating the potentials and limitations of music and dance to catalyze meaningful social change.