FIG. 66.—Bushman painting, representing the battle going
in favour of the Bechuana, who are trying to recover their stolen cattle.
(After R. Andree.)
Dancing.—The productions of the graphic arts charm the eye after completion; those of the musical arts are enjoyed only while being performed. But there is an art which combines these two modes of æsthetic enjoyment: it is dancing. Its plastic attitudes are so many pictures, and its movements have a rhythm like music.
FIG. 67.—Symbolic adze of
Mangaia Island (Hervey Islands or
Cook’s Archipelago, Polynesia),
Museum of Copenhagen.
(After Haddon.)
This art, sunk among civilised peoples to the level of a simple amusement, plays a large part in the life of uncultured peoples. Thus the great nocturnal festivals of the Australians, the “Corroborees” (Fig. [59]), celebrated in connection with important events, are only a succession of very varied dances, strictly regulated, and executed by young men trained a long time beforehand by the elders of the tribe for these choregraphic exercises. Men alone take part in them, as in all serious affairs; women are only there as spectators or musicians. It is by dancing alone that, among uncultured peoples, joy in common is expressed in regard to a happy event which affects the whole tribe. Let us also note that these dances are executed by a gathering of individuals who have given proof of their solidarity, having sacrificed part of their liberty by submitting to the discipline of the elders in order to afford pleasure to the people of their tribe. The joy, moreover, is mutual, for the performers “feel” the dance without seeing it, and the spectators witness it without experiencing the immediate effects of movement.
Dancing is then a great school of “solidarity” in primitive societies; more than any other act, it brings into prominence the benefits of sociality. But this favourable result is only possible in the smaller groupings, in which at least half of the society may take part in the dance; this condition no longer exists in civilised societies, numbering millions on millions of members: thus in these societies the choregraphic art is in a complete state of decay.