DOCTORAL THESIS Dance, Empowerment and Spirituality An

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

DOCTORAL THESIS Dance, Empowerment and Spirituality An DOCTORAL THESIS Dance, Empowerment and Spirituality An ethnography of Movement Medicine Kieft, Eline Award date: 2013 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 10. Oct. 2021 Dance, Empowerment and Spirituality. An ethnography of Movement Medicine. by Eline Kieft [BA, MA] A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Department of Dance University of Roehampton 2013 Dr. Andrée Grau, Director of Studies Dr. Anna Pakes, Co-supervisor “We should not lose the mystery and magic of dance, the anima mundi of our body in its continuity with nature, culture, and community.” (Sondra Fraleigh, 2000: 55) 3 Table of Contents Abstract................................................................................................................8 Gratitudes ..........................................................................................................10 Introduction .......................................................................................................13 Chapter 1: Research turned inside out: on theory, methods and representation ............................................................................................................................27 1.1 Research questions and design ....................................................................27 1.2 Anthropology of the Dance .........................................................................30 1.3 Related fields of dance research ..................................................................36 1.3.1 Therapy and Movement Education .......................................................36 1.3.2 Healing and Transformation .................................................................39 1.3.3 Leadership, Corporate training and Research........................................41 1.3.4 Mental Health.......................................................................................42 1.3.5 Discussion............................................................................................43 1.4 Symbolic and Sensory Anthropology ..........................................................45 1.5 Triple Hermeneutics....................................................................................48 1.6 The Multimodal Framework (MMF) ...........................................................51 1.7 Culture and the Field...................................................................................53 1.7.1. Anthropology at Home and the Researcher as Insider ..........................55 1.7.2. Advantages and Challenges of the Insider Position..............................59 1.8 From theory to practice: the research tools ..................................................64 1.8.1 Participant Observation ........................................................................64 1.8.2 Interviews.............................................................................................66 1.8.3 Newsletter ............................................................................................71 1.8.4 Other written sources............................................................................72 1.9 Qualitative Analysis....................................................................................73 1.10 Inclusion of the Subjective: on Autoethnography, Writing and Representation .....................................................................................................76 1.10.1 An experiment in embodied research and writing................................77 1.10.2 Representation and Choices: Writing as Weaving, Thesis as Tapestry 81 4 Chapter 2: Movement Medicine’s Cosmology and Framework....................... 85 2.1 Development of Movement Medicine.......................................................... 85 2.1.1 Personal background of the Founders................................................... 85 2.1.2 Shamanic Techniques .......................................................................... 86 2.1.3 Dance and Movement .......................................................................... 88 2.1.4 Environmental awareness..................................................................... 89 2.1.5 ‘Family Constellations’........................................................................ 90 2.1.6 Other influences................................................................................... 91 2.2 The Mandala............................................................................................... 92 2.2.1 ‘The Centre’ ........................................................................................ 94 2.2.2 ‘The 4 Elements’.................................................................................. 98 2.2.3 ‘The 5 Dimensions of Awareness’ ......................................................103 2.2.4 ‘The 9 Gateways’................................................................................104 2.2.5 Translation of the Mandala to Workshops...........................................106 2.3 The ‘School of Movement Medicine’ ........................................................109 2.3.1 Away from the 5Rhythms™ ...............................................................109 2.3.2 Marketing tools and advertising strategies...........................................112 2.3.3 Venues, Food and Holistic Presentation ..............................................114 2.3.4 Facts and Figures................................................................................117 2.3.5 Business Ethos....................................................................................121 2.3.6 Participants and Emerging Community...............................................123 Chapter 3: Internal Coherence of Movement Medicine and its Relationship to other Traditions................................................................................................127 3.1 Underlying Concepts and Resources..........................................................128 3.1.1 Nature, Interconnection and Technology.............................................128 3.1.2 Healing and Balance ...........................................................................130 3.1.3 ‘Medicine’ ..........................................................................................134 3.1.4 Altered States of Consciousness..........................................................136 3.1.5 Spirit World and Interaction with Spirit ..............................................137 3.1.6 Rituals, Initiations and Ceremony .......................................................139 3.1.7 Choice, Responsibility and the ‘Dancing Warrior’ ..............................140 3.1.8 Notions of Self and Identity ................................................................143 3.1.9 Metaphoric and Neuroscientific Language ..........................................143 3.2 Critical Observations and Comparisons .....................................................147 3.2.1 Postmodernism and Spirituality...........................................................147 3.2.2 Relationship to the mainstream and the New Age................................151 3.2.3 How Movement Medicine differs from (neo-)shamanism....................153 3.2.4 Uniting (too) many traditions? ............................................................154 3.2.5 Sectarian or Cultish movement?..........................................................157 3.2.6 A Personal Approach ..........................................................................159 5 3.2.7 Movement Medicine and Gender........................................................162 3.2.8 Relationship to (neo-)tantra ................................................................166 3.2.9 Spirituality, Sustainability and Social Justice......................................167 Chapter 4: The Ritual Space and the Dance...................................................171 4.1 Preparations and Pilgrimage......................................................................171 4.2 Arrival and Welcome ................................................................................173 4.3 Physical Features of the Dance Space........................................................175 4.3.1 The Altar and the Mesa.......................................................................176 4.3.2 The DJ Desk.......................................................................................180 4.4 The Teacher ..............................................................................................182 4.5 Creating a safe environment......................................................................184 4.6 The Music.................................................................................................188
Recommended publications
  • Abraham Maslow on Experiential and Conceptual Understanding T
    International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Volume 14 Article 2 Iss. 1-2 (1995) 1-1-1995 Abraham Maslow on Experiential and Conceptual Understanding T. Cleary S. I. Shapiro Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/ijts-transpersonalstudies Part of the Philosophy Commons, Psychology Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Cleary, T., & Shapiro, S. I. (1995). Cleary, T. S., & Shapiro, S. I. (1995). Abraham Maslow on experiential and conceptual understanding. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 14(1-2), 30–39.. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 14 (12). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/ijts-transpersonalstudies/vol14/iss12/2 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals and Newsletters at Digital Commons @ CIIS. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Journal of Transpersonal Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ CIIS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABRAHAM MASLOW ON EXPERIENTIAL AND CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING TOMS. CLEARY AND S. I. SHAPIRO DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF HA WAI'I AT MANOA HONOLULU, HAWAI'I, U.S.A. If you want to see the world. • . Make yourself into a good instrument of knowledge. -- A. H. Maslow (1966, p. 48) It is apparent from Abraham Maslow's biography (Hoffman, 1988) and from his published journals (Maslow, 1979) that he felt strongly about the importance of maximizing intellectual growth and maturation, and that he derived deep satisfac­ tion from his own intellectual activities. Indeed, Maslow's intellectual activities, in the form of theoretical and empirical contributions, helped to legitimize, develop, and sustain the humanistic and transpersonal psychology movements.
    [Show full text]
  • Rahm Uaf 0006E 10262.Pdf
    Deconstructing the western worldview: toward the repatriation and indigenization of wellness Item Type Thesis Authors Rahm, Jacqueline Marie Download date 23/09/2021 13:22:54 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/4821 DECONSTRUCTING THE WESTERN WORLDVIEW: TOWARD THE REPATRIATION AND INDIGENIZATION OF WELLNESS A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Jacqueline Marie Rahm, B.A., M.A. Fairbanks, Alaska December 2014 Abstract As Indigenous peoples and scholars advance Native histories, cultures, and languages, there is a critical need to support these efforts by deconstructing the western worldview in a concerted effort to learn from indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing for humanity’s future wellbeing. Toward that imperative, this research brings together and examines pieces of the western story as they intersect with Indigenous peoples of the lands that now comprise the United States of America. Through indigenous frameworks and methodologies, it explores a forgotten epistemology of the pre-Socratic and Pythagorean Archaic and Classical Greek eras that is far more similar to indigenous worldviews than it is to the western paradigm today. It traces how the West left behind this timeless wisdom for the “new learning” and the European colonial settlers arrived in the old “New World” with a fragmented, materialistic, and dualistic worldview that was the antithesis to those of Indigenous peoples. An imbalanced and privileged worldview not only justified an unacknowledged genocide in world history, it is characteristic of a psycho-spiritual disease that plays out across our global society.
    [Show full text]
  • Planetary Challenges & Spiritual Evolution
    Planetary Challenges & Spiritual Evolution – Citizen Summary Planetary Challenges & Spiritual Evolution Summary For Citizens of Planet Earth Written by Susan Joy Rennison, B. Sc Hons (Physics & Geophysics), June 2011 (Editorial Revision), Olten, Switzerland Copyright © 2011 Susan Joy Rennison Planetary Challenges & Spiritual Evolution – Citizen Summary Planetary Challenges & Spiritual Evolution Citizen Summary Table of Contents Table of Contents i Illustrations ii Foreword iv Introduction vii Our Sun, A Variable Star 1 The Extraordinary Quiet Solar Minimum of Solar Cycle 23 2 Space Weather & The Delivery of Evolutionary Energies 4 The Precession of the Equinoxes 5 Extreme Space Weather 6 The Gamma & Cosmic Ray Blitz From Across the Galaxy 8 The Global Warming Controversy 9 Atmospheric Change: New Electrical Manifestations 10 Extreme Physics right here on Earth 12 Asteroids, Comets & Meteors? “We’re living in a bowling alley” 13 Heavenly Phenomena: Strange Fireballs 16 The Geological Response 17 Strange Atmospheric Cloud Emissions 19 The ‘Orb’ Phenomena & ‘Diamond’ Rain 20 Earth’s Shadow Biosphere 21 The Planetary ‘Refresh’ 27 i Copyright Susan Joy Rennison Sunday, June 05, 2011 Planetary Challenges & Spiritual Evolution – Citizen Summary The ‘Upgrade’ of the Planetary Grid 31 Space Weather Drives Biological Changes 32 The Choice: Spiritual Evolution or Devolution? 33 Rapid Evolutionary Change 34 Conclusion 38 References 39 Illustrations The White House i Medieval Engraving of Gioacchino da Fiore (Joachim of Fiore) vi Space Weather Turns Into an International Problem vii The Sun −Earth Connection viii Aurora over Southern New Jersey (1989) ix Exploration of Near Earth Objects Workshop Poster x The Eventful Universe Workshop Poster xi Massive Coronal Mass Ejection Proceeding X45 Solar Flare.
    [Show full text]
  • Razorcake Issue #82 As A
    RIP THIS PAGE OUT WHO WE ARE... Razorcake exists because of you. Whether you contributed If you wish to donate through the mail, any content that was printed in this issue, placed an ad, or are a reader: without your involvement, this magazine would not exist. We are a please rip this page out and send it to: community that defi es geographical boundaries or easy answers. Much Razorcake/Gorsky Press, Inc. of what you will fi nd here is open to interpretation, and that’s how we PO Box 42129 like it. Los Angeles, CA 90042 In mainstream culture the bottom line is profi t. In DIY punk the NAME: bottom line is a personal decision. We operate in an economy of favors amongst ethical, life-long enthusiasts. And we’re fucking serious about it. Profi tless and proud. ADDRESS: Th ere’s nothing more laughable than the general public’s perception of punk. Endlessly misrepresented and misunderstood. Exploited and patronized. Let the squares worry about “fi tting in.” We know who we are. Within these pages you’ll fi nd unwavering beliefs rooted in a EMAIL: culture that values growth and exploration over tired predictability. Th ere is a rumbling dissonance reverberating within the inner DONATION walls of our collective skull. Th ank you for contributing to it. AMOUNT: Razorcake/Gorsky Press, Inc., a California not-for-profit corporation, is registered as a charitable organization with the State of California’s COMPUTER STUFF: Secretary of State, and has been granted official tax exempt status (section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code) from the United razorcake.org/donate States IRS.
    [Show full text]
  • Yoga, Psychedelics and American Mental Health Lucas Richert,1 Matthew Decloedt2
    Original research Med Humanities: first published as 10.1136/medhum-2017-011422 on 30 March 2018. Downloaded from Supple bodies, healthy minds: yoga, psychedelics and American mental health Lucas Richert,1 Matthew DeCloedt2 1Faculty of Humanities and ABSTRact in a postmodern world: “We’re stuck now in our Social Sciences, University of Much discussion about mental health has revolved own culture…stuck in a silly world which makes Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK 5 2Central European University, around treatment models. As interdisciplinary scholarship all sorts of unnecessary problems”. Mental health, Budapest, Hungary has shown, mental health knowledge, far from being a by many accounts, suffered as a result. Thus, tran- neutral product detached from the society that generated scending the present was one means of coping. Correspondence to it, was shaped by politics, economics and culture. By Eastern religion, experimentation with yoga and Dr Lucas Richert, Faculty of drawing on case studies of yoga, religion and fitness, psychedelics seemed a useful alternative to Amer- Humanities and Social Sciences, ican capitalism, conservatism, militarism, racism, University of Strathclyde, this article will examine the ways in which mental Glasgow G4 0LT, UK ; health practices—sometimes scientific, sometimes violence and the prospect of nuclear war. Not only that, the experimentation seemed a useful alterna- lucasrichert@ yahoo. co. uk spiritual—have been conceived, debated and applied tive to other mental health strategies (Sessa, p. 99; by researchers and the public. More specifically, it will Accepted 27 February 2018 Sacks, p. 90ff; Osto, p. 41–207).4 6–8 ii Yogis and interrogate the relationship between yoga, psychedelics, drug takers were after the same thing: an expe- South Asian and Eastern religion (as understood and rience that reframed the way they looked at the practiced in the USA) and mental health.
    [Show full text]
  • Evolutionary Leadership Toolkit
    E v o l u t i o n a r y Leadership To o l k i t A Project of Evolutionary Leaders: In Service to Conscious Evolution Created by Katherine Woodward Thomas Edited by Vanessa D. Fisher Designed by Evolving Wisdom Special Thanks to: Claire Zammit & Craig Hamilton Kit Thomas & CircleOfWisdom.com Michele Early Susan Beggerow Diane Williams Deborah Moldow Table of Contents A Toolkit for Evolutionaries 1 1. Don Beck- Spiral Dynamics: An Evolutionary Perspective on Self and World 2 2. Michael Beckwith- Beginner’s Mind 5 3. Jack Canfield- Activating the Law of Attraction 7 4. Scott Carlin- Engaging Conscious Conversation 10 5. Andrew Cohen- Aligning with the Evolutionary Process 12 6. Wendy Craig-Purcell- The Art of Asking Questions 14 7. Barbara Fields- Practicing Non-Violence 16 8. Ashok Gangadean- The Integral Holistic Mind 18 9. Craig Hamilton- Evolution Beyond Ego 20 10. Jean Houston- Becoming a Social Artist 22 11. Barbara Marx Hubbard- Evolutionary Communion 25 12. Judy Martin- Raising Consciousness by Exalting the Human Spirit at Work 27 13. Fred Matser- Working with our Emotions and Fears 30 14. Deborah Moldow- The Peace Pole Project: Accelerating the Evolution of Humanity 32 15. James O’Dea- Creative Atonement: Healing our Social and Collective Wounds 34 16. Ocean Robbins- Embracing Diversity 36 17. Peter Russell- Returning to Stillness 39 18. Elisabet Sahtouris- Following Nature’s Guidance 42 19. Lynne Twist- Finding Sufficiency in our Lives 44 20. Diane Williams- Evolutionary Leadership: Being in Service to Conscious Evolution 46 21. Katherine Woodward Thomas- Finding our Life Purpose 48 22.
    [Show full text]
  • High Performance Magazine Records
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt5p30369v Online items available Finding aid for the magazine records, 1953-2005 Finding aid for the magazine 2006.M.8 1 records, 1953-2005 Descriptive Summary Title: High Performance magazine records Date (inclusive): 1953-2005 Number: 2006.M.8 Creator/Collector: High Performance Physical Description: 216.1 Linear Feet(318 boxes, 29 flatfile folders, 1 roll) Repository: The Getty Research Institute Special Collections 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles 90049-1688 [email protected] URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref (310) 440-7390 Abstract: High Performance magazine records document the publication's content, editorial process and administrative history during its quarterly run from 1978-1997. Founded as a magazine covering performance art, the publication gradually shifted editorial focus first to include all new and experimental art, and then to activism and community-based art. Due to its extensive compilation of artist files, the archive provides comprehensive documentation of the progressive art world from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy . Language: Collection material is in English Biographical/Historical Note Linda Burnham, a public relations officer at University of California, Irvine, borrowed $2,000 from the university credit union in 1977, and in a move she described as "impulsive," started High
    [Show full text]
  • Archons (Commanders) [NOTICE: They Are NOT Anlien Parasites], and Then, in a Mirror Image of the Great Emanations of the Pleroma, Hundreds of Lesser Angels
    A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES WATCH THIS IMPORTANT VIDEO UFOs, Aliens, and the Question of Contact MUST-SEE THE OCCULT REASON FOR PSYCHOPATHY Organic Portals: Aliens and Psychopaths KNOWLEDGE THROUGH GNOSIS Boris Mouravieff - GNOSIS IN THE BEGINNING ...1 The Gnostic core belief was a strong dualism: that the world of matter was deadening and inferior to a remote nonphysical home, to which an interior divine spark in most humans aspired to return after death. This led them to an absorption with the Jewish creation myths in Genesis, which they obsessively reinterpreted to formulate allegorical explanations of how humans ended up trapped in the world of matter. The basic Gnostic story, which varied in details from teacher to teacher, was this: In the beginning there was an unknowable, immaterial, and invisible God, sometimes called the Father of All and sometimes by other names. “He” was neither male nor female, and was composed of an implicitly finite amount of a living nonphysical substance. Surrounding this God was a great empty region called the Pleroma (the fullness). Beyond the Pleroma lay empty space. The God acted to fill the Pleroma through a series of emanations, a squeezing off of small portions of his/its nonphysical energetic divine material. In most accounts there are thirty emanations in fifteen complementary pairs, each getting slightly less of the divine material and therefore being slightly weaker. The emanations are called Aeons (eternities) and are mostly named personifications in Greek of abstract ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • The Truth About Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming... and What Astral Experience Can Do for You, Today!
    Ultimate Astral Experience Book I The Truth About Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming... And What Astral Experience Can Do For You, Today! by William Ember Ultimate Astral Experience Book I - The Truth About Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming... And What Astral Experience Can Do For You, Today! Introduction Part I - Basic Questions 1. What is Astral Projection? 2. What is Lucid Dreaming? 3. What about OOBE's and NDE's? 4. What is the nature and function of Sleep and Dreams? 5. Is Astral Experience safe for everyone? Introduction This eBook is written in light of many books on these subjects, to which I have added my own insights. It is intended to give the essence of the more important and interesting considerations regarding Astral Experiences. I have chosen a progressive format to provide the relevant background information for later practical application. To my knowledge it is the most in-depth introduction to these subjects, covering of the most interesting philosophical points and questions about Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming. Its value is thus in preparing you by informing about Astral Experience, and so it is a necessary and integral part of the course. This knowledge is the basis from which your experiences will spring. Sometimes just reading about these subjects can trigger an experience, and I wish that good fortune upon you! (It will help to imagine what it would be like and wonder about the possibility of doing it.) Whether it does happen spontaneously or not (or perhaps it has and that's why you're reading this...), for consistently good results we still need to practice.
    [Show full text]
  • Detailed Reporting from Closing Survey (English)
    Detailed Reporting from Closing Survey (English) Index Ship 1 Embodied/Thoughts 24 Beings 52 Past Experiences 62 Ship ● I saw colored lights behind Mark during the meditation. Also, a round moving light behind him. - Austin, Texas, USA ● I saw a little moving green and orange double-helix on the screen of the live-stream from the Day 10 culminating meditation (that’s actually the only part I ended up participating in). - Austin, Texas, USA ● I had my eyes open during the livestream, watching Mark and the sky on TV. I saw a definite revolving rainbow to Mark’s right in the sky about five minutes into the stream. If you video copied it look. - Waimea, Hawaii, USA ● Lights in the sky. - Lake Shore, Minnesota, USA ● I dreamed last night that I watched a ship being attacked by smaller vessels over the city. The ship was hit critically and fell into the ocean and caused a tidal wave. Then something in my room was knocked off of my dresser and woke me suddenly. - Carlsbad, California, USA ● I saw some amber lights that faded in the sky, they didn’t look like airplanes. - Coconut Creek, Florida ● We had a sighting on Sunday night. - Dallas,TX ● Beautiful Light Beings playing on the surface of the ocean. Two in particular last night that were green. - Oceanside, California, USA ● I saw a blinking light like from an aeroplane, but at random intervals it got really bright. - Lovelock, Nevada, USA ● A bright object flashed and moved about 6 times and changed colors. - Salt Lake City, Utah, USA ● We did our CE5 meditation on Monday, July 13th at 9 PM and as we were looking up to the sky during the quiet time after the meditation, we saw a bright, white-light orb appear from the south coming past Altair/Aquila and then it suddenly turned and went East.
    [Show full text]
  • Jacaber-Kastor 2019.Pdf
    Jacaeber Kastor: Psychedelic Sun By Carlo McCormick In turns perplexing, disorienting, wondrous and utterly beguiling, Jacaeber Kastor’s drawings make you look, look again and then still more, trying to find your way in their miasmic magic until at last, well, you discover the special pleasure of being truly lost. And when you think you’re done, when you’ve decoded the esoteric and abstract, conjured all the forms and meanings from these oceans of latency, answered the call of otherness as if it were the sphinx’s riddle- turn the work or flip your head, around and around, because there is no single perspective to read Kastor’s psychedelic topography: it is an entwined and constantly unfolding omniverse that has no right side up or upside down. If, in the course of your wanderings through Kastor’s meandering poetics of line and space, you come across the unexpected, the oddly familiar or the impossibly alien- for indeed you surely will, quite possible all at once with overwhelming simultaneity- and you ask yourself how did you even come to get here, you might also ask how indeed did this artist arrive at just such a place him- self. Make no mistake about it, Jacaeber Kastor is an intrepid voyager of body and mind, an adventurer without destination or designation, a man without return for even when he has somehow been there before he understands it as different, everything nuanced with the subtle shifts of impercep tible change, actuality always just beyond the tiny grasp of appearance, reason or replication. His art, like the convolutions of a restless mind guiding the inspired hand of uncertainty, is the tracings of a mind- traveler, a map to the nowhere that is everywhere, something so personally idiosyncratic that it marks a shared commons where likeness meets in a zone of compatible dissimilarity.
    [Show full text]
  • The Commune Movement During the 1960S and the 1970S in Britain, Denmark and The
    The Commune Movement during the 1960s and the 1970s in Britain, Denmark and the United States Sangdon Lee Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of History September 2016 i The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement ⓒ 2016 The University of Leeds and Sangdon Lee The right of Sangdon Lee to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ii Abstract The communal revival that began in the mid-1960s developed into a new mode of activism, ‘communal activism’ or the ‘commune movement’, forming its own politics, lifestyle and ideology. Communal activism spread and flourished until the mid-1970s in many parts of the world. To analyse this global phenomenon, this thesis explores the similarities and differences between the commune movements of Denmark, UK and the US. By examining the motivations for the communal revival, links with 1960s radicalism, communes’ praxis and outward-facing activities, and the crisis within the commune movement and responses to it, this thesis places communal activism within the context of wider social movements for social change. Challenging existing interpretations which have understood the communal revival as an alternative living experiment to the nuclear family, or as a smaller part of the counter-culture, this thesis argues that the commune participants created varied and new experiments for a total revolution against the prevailing social order and its dominant values and institutions, including the patriarchal family and capitalism.
    [Show full text]