This course analyzes cultural performances as sites for the formation, expression, and transmission of social identity. Students will read ethnographies, critiques, and reports of performance genres including ritual, theater, music, dance, art, and spoken word, with a particular focus on Native American and Indigenous arts and expressions. Topics include: expressive culture as survivance; debates around authenticity and invented traditions; public identity and sexuality; political resistance; the effects of globalization; transnationalism and hybridity; cultural appropriation; and the transformation of folk performances in the wake of modern media.