Description:

This paper is an ethnographic study of the state-ordered demolition of a cherished local theater in a seaside Algerian village. While the study of ruins has become increasingly salient in anthropology, this paper focuses on how places are materially and affectively transformed before they are turned to ruin. It takes up the states of uncertainty, dread, anger and mourning that characterized the mood on the street as actors and their supporters awaited the arrival of the bulldozers.

Jane E. Goodman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University and holds adjunct appointments in the Departments of Anthropology, Folklore and Ethnomusicology, and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures as well as in the African Studies and Cultural Studies programs. Her scholarship and graduate teaching focus on issues of modernity, identity, and secularism as these are creatively articulated through performances, cultural texts, and public discourse.