Yorùba Bata Goes Global

"Based on profound experiences with Yoruba drumming and masquerading families begun over a decade ago, Debbie Klein deftly presents stories of fathers and sons following and breaking with tradition, of brothers fighting over status and funding joint enterprises, and of women as daughters and wives standing their ground with grace or fierceness. From an exquisitely-realized close ethnography of the lives of traveling performers, Klein pulls back to theorize global connections by expertly examining the discourses and politics of collaboration, placing Africa in the world in a way that no other ethnography does. Her work is rigorous and imaginative, critical and reflective."

"Klein's writing is fresh and clear and she has a deft eye for detail. What makes her approach so compelling is the developing focus on the concrete relationships, performance genres, transactions, and elements of cultural style which bring together the global dimensions of the study. There is an ethnographic grounding here through which the theoretical debates are addressed and illustrated that is both rare and refreshing. This is a highly commendable book."

"Notably, this work revitalizes the importance of anthropological research through careful attention to the quandaries surrounding anthropological collaborations. Rather than surrender under the weight of the most recent critiques of anthropology, Debra Klein perceptively builds from these challenges to offer a thoroughly engaging study of Nigerian Yoruba performers and the social life of their art form within the grip of late capitalism. Her study is at once accessible to wide ranging audiences while at the same time it tackles many of the urgent concerns of cross-cultural research."