'Tempo and orchestration: Strategic actors in the Early Bourdieu' Resumo curto / Short abstract: Pierre Bourdieu’s early ethnography was replete with musical metaphors, and terms such as tempo, orchestration, delay, cadenc e, and temporal rhythms abounded. Mysteriously, the notion of tempo never occupied the spotlight shining on the more central ideas of social reproduction, domination, social fields, taste, or the habitus. Resumo longo / Long abstract: 7th CONGRESS OF THE PORTUGUESE ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION Lisboa, 4-7 de Junho de 2019 NOVA – School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade Nova de Lisboa Pierre Bourdieu’s ethnography in Algeria and rural France was replete with musical metaphors. Terms such as tempo, orchestration, delay, cadence, and temporal rhythms abound in two influential 1972 texts: ‘Marriage Strategies as Strategies of Social Repro duction’ and Esquisse d’une Théorie de la Pratique. Mysteriously, the notion of tempo never occupied the spotlight shining on the more central ideas of social reproduction, domination, social fields, taste, or the habitus. Like doxa and ilusio (in the infamous 1986 diatribe on the biographical ‘illusion’), tempo remained marginal. Rereading seminal articles on celibacy (1962) and time (1965) and the recent work of Reed-Danahay on the maestro’s early career, this musical vocabulary actually reveals a central concept of the individual as a strategic social actor. Somewhat Goffmanesque, these actors (later termed ‘social agents’) were indeed performers: those in dominant niches were akin to conductors, while those in dominated ruts always preserved a minimal degree of manipulation, as members of the s ocialsituation-as-orchestra. Far from being mechanistic, this musical discourse reveals an Action Theory inherent in the early stages of Practice Theory, particularly in the analysis of ritual contexts, such as marriage negotiations, agricultural ceremonies, and duels. Of the essence were parrying, extemporizing, concealing, faking, and improvising. ―――――― [ID

Organizers António Medeiros & Pedro Félix: Panel 67 - 'AdLib/Improviso: Possibilidades de Teorizar, Etnografias da Música e da Performance, e Transformações do Trabalho de Campo'; 6 de Junho de 2019.

Tempo,strategic actors,Pierre Bourdieu