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The Body Unbound

Kumina and Ancestral Return

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2025

Deborah A. Thomas
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Abstract

The term “embodied knowledge” is often used as if its meaning is evident, and as if there is clarity about the relations it brings into view. The bodies in motion of the kumina festival Tambufest tell us about the forms of collective world-building that exist outside of but in relation to the juridical structures of sovereignty that govern modern Western political and social life.

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TDR , Volume 69 , Issue 3: Performance, Possession, and Automation Brown University TDR Consortium Issue , September 2025 , pp. 16 - 35
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of New York University Tisch School of the Arts

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