While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Dance. Nature is prodigal of life and energy. The dance
is universal and instinctive. Primarily the dance expresses the joy of biotic
exaltation, the exuberance of life and energy; it is the ready physical means of
manifesting the emotions of joy and of expressing the exultation of conscious
strength and the ecstasy of successful achievement the fruitage of well-directed
energy. Like modern music, through long development and divergent growth the
dance has been adapted to the environment of many and diverse planes of culture
and thought; hence it is found among both savage and enlightened peoples in many
complex and differing forms and kinds. But the dance of the older time was
fraught with symbolism and mystic meaning which it has lost in civilization and
enlightenment. It is confined to no one country of the world, to no period of
ancient or modern time, and to no plane of human culture.
Strictly interpreted, therefore, the dance seems to constitute an important
adjunct rather than the basis of the social, military, religious, and other
activities de signed to avoid evil and to secure welfare. A contrary view
renders a general definition and interpretation of the dance complex and
difficult, apparently requiring a detailed description of the various activities
of which it became a part. For if the dance is to be regarded as the basis of
these activities, then these ceremonies and observances must be defined strictly
as normal developments of the dance, a procedure which is plainly erroneous. The
truth appears to be that the dance is only an element, not the basis, of the
several festivals, rites, and ceremonies performed in accordance with
well-defined rules and usages, of which it has become a part. The dance was a
powerful impulse to their performance, not the motive of their observance.
Among the Indians N. of Mexico the dance usually consists of rhythmic and not
always graceful gestures, attitudes, and movements of the body and limbs,
accompanied by steps usually made to accord with the time of some form of music,
produced either by the dancer or dancers or by one or more attendant singers.
Drums, rattles, and sometimes bone or reed flutes are used to aid the singers.
Every kind and class of dance has its own peculiar steps, attitudes, rhythm,
figures, song or songs with words and accompanying music, and costumes.
The word or logos of the song or chant in savage and barbaric planes of thought
and culture expressed the action of the orenda, or esoteric magic power,
regarded as immanent in the rite or ceremony of which the dance was a dominant
adjunct and impulse. In the lower planes of thought the dance was inseparable
from the song or chant, which not only started and accompanied but also embodied
it.
Some dances are peculiar to men and others to women. Some dances are per formed
by a single dancer, others belong respectively to individuals, like those of the
Onthonrontha (one chants) among the Iroquois; other dances are for all
who may wish to take part, the number then being limited only by the space
available; still others are for specified classes of per sons, members of
certain orders, societies, or fraternities. There are, therefore, personal,
fraternal, clan or gentile, tribal, and inter-tribal dances; there are also
social, erotic, comic, mimic, patriotic, military or warlike, invocative,
offertory, and mourning dances, as well as those expressive of gratitude and
thanksgiving. Morgan (League of the Iroquois, i, 278, 1904) gives a list
of 32 leading dances of the Seneca Iroquois, of which 6 are costume dances, 14
are for both men and women, 11 for men only, and 7 for women only. Three of the
costume dances occur in those exclusively for men, and the other 3 in those for
both men and women.
In general among the American Indians the heel and the ball of the foot are
lifted and then brought down with great force and swiftness in such wise as to
produce a resounding concussion. Usually the changes of position of the dancer
are slow, but the changes of attitude are sometimes rapid and violent. The women
employ several steps, sometimes employed also by the men, among which are the
shuffle, the glide, and the hop or leap. Holding both feet together and usually
facing the song altar, the women generally take a leap or hop sidewise in
advance and then a shorter one in recoil, so that after every two hops the
position is slightly advanced. They do not employ the violent steps and forceful
attitudes in vogue among the men. They keep the body quite erect, alternately
advancing either shoulder slightly, which gives them a peculiar swaying or
rocking motion, resembling the waving of a wind-rocked stalk of corn. Indeed,
among the
Onondaga,
Cayuga, and other Iroquois tribes, one of the names for "woman" (wathonwisas,
she sways or rocks) is a term taken from this rocking or swaying motion.
Among some tribes, when the warriors were absent on a hunting or war expedition,
the women performed appropriate dances to insure their safety and success. Among
the same people in the dances in which women may take part, these, under the
conduct of a leader with one or more aids, form a circle around the song altar
(the mat or bench provided for the singer or singers), maintaining an interval
of from 2 to 5 feet. Then, out side of this circle the men, under like
leadership, form another circle at a suit able distance from that of the women.
Then the two circles, which are usually not closed between the leaders and the
ends of the circles, move around the song altar from the right to the left in
such manner that at all times the heads of the circles of dancers move along a
course meeting the advancing sun (their elder brother), whose apparent motion is
conversely from the left to the right of the observer. In the Santee Dakota
dance a similar movement around the center of the circle from right to left is
also observed. Among the
Muskhogean tribes, however, the two circles move in opposite directions, the
men with the course of the sun and the women contrary to it (Bartram) . Among
the Santee the women may dance only at the meeting of the "medicine" society of
which they are members; they alone dance the scalp dance while the warriors
sing. Rev. John Eastman says that in dancing the Santee form 3 circles, the
innermost composed of men; the middle of children, and the outermost of women.
According to Le Page Du Pratz, these circles, among the Natchez, moved in
opposite directions, the women turning from left to right, and the men from
right to left. This movement of the circles from right to left seems designed to
prevent the dancer in the entire course around the song altar from turning his
back to the sun.
The
Mandan and other
Siouan tribes dance in an elaborate ceremony, called the Buffalo dance, to
bring game when food is scarce, in accordance with a well-defined ritual. In
like manner the Indians of the arid region of the S. W. per form long and
intricate ceremonies with the accompaniment of the dance ceremonies which, in
the main, are invocations or prayers for rain and bountiful harvests and the
creation of life. Among the Iroquois, in the so-called green-corn dance, the
shamans urge the people to participate in order to show gratitude for bountiful
harvests, the preservation of their lives, and appreciation of the blessings of
the expiring year. The ghost dance, the snake dance, the sun dance, the scalp
dance, and the calumet dance (q. v.), each performed for one or more purposes,
are not developments from the dance, but rather the dance has become only a part
of the ritual of each of these important observances, which by metonymy have
been called by the name of only a small but conspicuous part or element of the
entire ceremony.
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
