Investigation of the Philosophical Background in the Process of Documenting and Archiving Dances by Hungarian and Ethiopian Scholars as a Means of Facilitating Intercultural Dialogue

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the philosophical background in the process of documenting and archiving dances by Hungarian and Ethiopian scholars as a means of facilitating intercultural Dialogue. By doing so, the dissertation will introduce a new body of knowledge:-, a philosophically unified knowledge of dance-in-intercultural dialogue as opposed to traditional practices and theories of “Dance diplomacy”. This is done by considering the hermeneutical ideas of the contemporary philosophers such as the German Hans-Georg Gadamer, the Canadian Charles Taylor and the Russian Mikhail Bakhtin whose conceptions of dialogue presupposes dance as an inclusive mode and medium for facilitating intercultural dialogue, which may serve as a response to the conceptual problems of dance diplomacy and its hegemonic position in world politics and international relations. However, these philosophers’ propositions do not fully explain under what circumstances and criteria dance should be a medium of intercultural dialogue. Their ideas will, therefore, be enriched with reference to the concrete example, that is, the dance mediated philosophical beliefs communicated between the scholars of Hungary and Ethiopia. Finally, I answer the question; whether dance can serve as a medium for fostering and facilitating intercultural dialogue between cultures and nations of the world, particularly between Hungary and Ethiopia.