"Widely practiced in ancient times during such major events of life as initiations, puberty, marriage, and burial, sacred dances frequently served as emotional outlets for the performers. They were also a means of communicating with deities or the dead, securing a good harvest, and an integral part of many other rites and ceremonies important to man in ages past." --BOOK JACKET.
First published in 1923, this book presents a discussion of 'the part played by the Sacred Dance among the peoples of antiquity'. Chapters include 'The origin and purposes of the sacred dance', 'Dances in celebration of victory' and 'The sacred dance as a marriage rite'. The text was written by the well-known theologian and biblical scholar W. O. E. Oesterley (1866-1950). This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in perspectives on anthropology and religion.
Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance is the first book to explore women's spiritual expression through a study of dance. It shows how dance came to be excluded from worship and reveals how dance is once again being integrated into spiritual practices.
"Widely practiced in ancient times during such major events of life as initiations, puberty, marriage, and burial, sacred dances frequently served as emotional outlets for the performers. They were also a means of communicating with deities or the dead, securing a good harvest, and an integral part of many other rites and ceremonies important to man in ages past." --BOOK JACKET.
The relationship between religion and dance is as old as humankind. Contemporary methods for studying this relationship date back a century. The difference between these two time frames is significant: scholars are still developing theories and methods capable of illuminating this vast history that take account of their limited place within it. A History of Theory and Method in the Study of Religion and Dance takes on a primary challenge of doing so: overcoming a conceptual dichotomy between “religion” and “dance” forged in the colonial era that justified western Christian hostility towards dance traditions across six continents over six centuries. Beginning with its enlightenment roots, LaMothe narrates a selective history of this dichotomy, revealing its ongoing work in separating dance studies from religious studies. Turning to the Bushmen of the African Kalahari, LaMothe introduces an ecokinetic approach that provides scholars with conceptual resources for mapping the generative interdependence of phenomena that appear as “dance” and/or “religion.”
The most pervasive gods in ancient Rome had no traditional mythology attached to them, nor was their worship organized by elites. Throughout the Roman world, neighborhood street corners, farm boundaries, and household hearths featured small shrines to the beloved lares, a pair of cheerful little dancing gods. These shrines were maintained primarily by ordinary Romans, and often by slaves and freedmen, for whom the lares cult provided a unique public leadership role. In this comprehensive and richly illustrated book, the first to focus on the lares, Harriet Flower offers a strikingly original account of these gods and a new way of understanding the lived experience of everyday Roman religion. Weaving together a wide range of evidence, Flower sets forth a new interpretation of the much-disputed nature of the lares. She makes the case that they are not spirits of the dead, as many have argued, but rather benevolent protectors—gods of place, especially the household and the neighborhood, and of travel. She examines the rituals honoring the lares, their cult sites, and their iconography, as well as the meaning of the snakes often depicted alongside lares in paintings of gardens. She also looks at Compitalia, a popular midwinter neighborhood festival in honor of the lares, and describes how its politics played a key role in Rome’s increasing violence in the 60s and 50s BC, as well as in the efforts of Augustus to reach out to ordinary people living in the city’s local neighborhoods. A reconsideration of seemingly humble gods that were central to the religious world of the Romans, this is also the first major account of the full range of lares worship in the homes, neighborhoods, and temples of ancient Rome.
This volume presents an academic yet non-technical introduction and overview of ancient Greek dance. Dance was very important to the ancient Greeks, associated with music, verse, and the theatre. Processions, games, and performances involving dance were popular and widespread in Greek culture. Lawler lists seven types of sources for her work: literary, metrical, musical, archaeological, epigraphical, linguistic, and anthropological, and explores the forms, occasions, and participants involved with ancient Greek dances. Literary sources are numerous and rich and Lawler suggests reading them will give more insights into ancient Greek dance. Metrical sources include actual treatises on metrics as well as actual lines of verse used for dance. Much of the metrical material is fragmentary, while musical sources include discussions of music by writers as well as mostly fragmentary musical remains.
Maternal Grief in the Hebrew Bible explores the stories of biblical mothers who were placed at key junctures in Israel's history to renegotiate the destinies not only of their own children, dead or lost, but also those of larger communities, i.e. family lines, ethnic groups, or entire nations. These women used the circumstance of child loss as a platform for a kind of grief-driven socio-political activism. As maternal bereavement is generally understood as the most intense of all types of loss and was seen as archetypal of all mourning in the ancient Near East, Israelite communities in crisis deemed sorrowing motherhood as a potent agent in bringing about their own survival and resurgence back to normalcy. Book jacket.
Achieve balance, connect to Spirit, and tap into the sacred power of dance with 365 daily movement meditations. Throughout human history, people all over the world have recognized dance as an age-old yet timeless connection to Spirit. In celebration, to mark moments of change, and in times of despair, dance has been used to seek the Divine, connect with the Earth, and call into being the sacred energy we each possess within ourselves. In Sacred Dance Meditations, Carla Walter, PhD, offers readers 365 dances--one for every day--rooted in traditions from around the globe. From Polynesia to Peru, each dance is different in origin and technique but connected in common purpose: as sacred conduits for hope, love, connection, community, and spirituality. Walter provides a theme each new day, drawn from mystical and spiritual principles that originate from pre-colonial religious traditions. Descriptions, video links, accessibility modifications, and invitations for deeper reflection allow the reader to engage their Spirit fully with the sacred power of dance, carrying it in their heart as they move throughout each day. Readers who want a more active style of meditative practice will discover powerful regenerative healing and a new way to awaken. Broken up day by day and month by month, Sacred Dance Meditations makes it simple and gratifying to practice each day's dance and fulfill its intended theme. Readers can begin at any "point of entry" section, and work their way throughout the year with a time commitment of just ten to twenty minutes a day. Importantly, each dance is designed to supplement any existing (or non-existent) religious or spiritual practice, allowing all to tap into the Divine through the spirit of dance.
