Materiality and biography

Argentine Tango is investigated by scholars of various disciplinary backgrounds: cultural studies, sociology, gender studies, medicine, (historical) musicology etc. From a methodological point of view a broad range of empirical methods is used in this research, from quantitative experiments to qualitative interviews to participant observation and multi-methodological ethnographic approaches. But little attention is paid to the artifacts which are used in the life-world of Argentine Tango. Following the programmatic claims of the “practical turn”, that has been announced in the social sciences and in cultural studies recently, practices are always linked with the materiality of the practicing bodies and of the artifacts participating in practices. Thus materiality is indispensible for the analysis of any practice. How materiality can be included into the generating of data and the analysis is little discussed in practice theories. From a methodological point of view participant observation and ethnography is proclaimed to be the king’s way. The view of the observer is the external view, the gaze to observable and reconstruct-able practices. From this perspective the process of the incorporation of (corporal) practices is not accessible.  As Loic Wacquant showed in his investigation of boxing auto-ethnographical self-observation, the application of the researcher’s body as a research instrument can deliver useful insights.

Based on these considerations the presentation will demonstrate the necessary application of various qualitative research instruments to investigate the role (effects, participation) of high-heels in the practice of Argentine Tango. Biographic narratives of how women became “tangueras” (tango dancers) include manifold episodes of getting used to high heels. They are an important topic in talks at the dancing events and of course, high-heels are highly visible in the tango life-world. Nearly all dancing women are wearing them. Their performative, symbolic and socio-economic effects will be in the center of the talk.