War Dance Research Articles

War dance: Plains Indian musical performance

War dance: Plains Indian musical performance

A Renaissance War Dance: The Pyrrhic

twelve places, the town had been transformed to accommodate huge structures built with due attention to recently rediscovered laws of perspective. There was an obelisk; many statues; an arch showing (among other things) Mars, god of war, and Jupiter, king of the gods; a temple dedicated to Honour and Virtue and surmounted by a triumph drawn by elephants; and, in the Place du Change, Henry and his Court surveyed a replica of the city of Troy. After his triumphal entry and that of his Queen, Catherine de Medici, the royal couple and their entourage repaired to the theatre to see Bibbiena's Calandria, modelled on a play by Plautus. The play had been first performed in Urbino in 1513, and then at Rome in 1514; between its five acts were sung and danced scenes which are usually called interludes. They were familiar to Italian audiences, but as seen at Lyons they were (as far as our records go) the first signs of a genre that was to lead to the creation of both opera and ballet de cour. These novel events have received their fair share of critical

Pan-Indianism in Native American Music and Dance

In my 1955 paper on the subject (Howard 1955) I defined PanIndianism as the process by which certain American groups are losing their tribal distinctiveness and in its place are developing a generalized, nontribal Indian culture. Some of the elements in this culture are modifications of old tribal customs, others are reworkings of elements from the major White culture, while a third group of elements are innovations peculiar to Pan-Indianism itself. The content of that part of Pan-Indianism which is Indian-derived stems largely from the PrairiePlains culture area, though there are minor elements from the Northeast (certain costume items), the Southeast (the Leading or Stomp dance) and the Southwest (the Pueblo-style Eagle dance). Since 1955 Pan-Indianism has proceeded apace in its diffusion. The principal manifestations of Pan-Indianism that involve music and dance are the intertribal pow-wow in the secular sphere and peyotism in the religious sphere. In the pow-wow the principal dance forms are a modified version of the Hethushka or War dance (also known as Omaha dance, Grass dance, Hot dance and Wolf dance in various tribal settings), which has been stripped of most of its warrior society and religious features and has been opened to participation by both sexes; the Round dance; and, since 1970, the Gourd dance. It may be followed, depending upon the locale, by the Leading or Stomp dance, the Forty-nine dance, or the Owl dance as an after-pow-wow feature. All of these dance forms have an accompanying repertoire of music as does the Peyote religion. Before I discuss the spread of these forms in their Pan-Indian setting I would like to anticipate a criticism often leveled at the concept of PanIndianism, a criticism based upon a misunderstanding of the concept. This is that Pan-Indianism is nothing more than intertribal diffusion, and that Native Americans have always enjoyed giving and receiving new religious cults, dances, and musical forms and that many ceremonies such as the Sun dance, Midewiwin, and Drum religion, which enjoy a wide areal distribution, are hence Pan-Indian. I am quite aware of this sort of diffusion but I do not regard it as Pan-Indianism. In the days when cultures were more or less intact, the borrowing of a new warrior society

Batak Dances at Bolon-Simanindo (Sumatra) the Dayak War Dances in the Village of Bunuk (Sarawak)

Batak Dances at Bolon-Simanindo (Sumatra) the Dayak War Dances in the Village of Bunuk (Sarawak)

As We Supposed, the War Dance

As We Supposed, the War Dance

The meaning of meaningful

The Fiji Islanders, once a warrior people, developed elaborate war dances, the movements of which symbolized important aspects of their fighting operations. The dance movements were the meaningful symbols of the real battles. Today the wars have been abolished, but the dances have been preserved and are still performed in full costume and ritual. The movements of the dance are now meaningless with respect to the original purpose of battle. Whatever meaning the dances now possess must relate to something else, such as an interest in form for its own sake.

War Dance Songs of the Ponca

War Dance Songs of the Ponca

Studies in Blackfoot Indian Musical Culture, Part III: Three Genres of Song

In general, the Blackfoot musical style conforms to that of other Plains Indian tribes. The majority of songs belong to what we will call the Plains (Nettl 1954:24-29). This includes a tense vocal production with pulsations, singing in the high part of the range, a kind of structure in which the total rendition of a song includes modified repetition of the whole melody except for the beginning, descending and terrace-shaped melodic contours, and pentatonic and tetratonic scales. Taking the entire recorded repertory as a unit, the number of songs which actually conform to the typical Plains form is smaller than in the Arapaho and Teton Dakota repertories, and there seems to be more variety. The songs accompanying public social and ceremonial events conform most frequently to this model. The Medicine Bundle songs often conform also, but they exhibit greater variety and intricacy, smaller ranges, and a less flamboyant singing style. The Gambling songs are a distinct musical type altogether even though they share some characteristics of the typical Plains form. There is some evidence, based on examination of the earlier collections of Blackfoot songs, that those songs which conform to the typical Plains form were less prominent in the repertory around 1900 than now. In spite of the dearth of published materials on Blackfoot musical culture, a historical record of Blackfoot music from 1900 to the present exists in the many recordings available in archives. Accordingly, we can already draw certain conclusions, based on primary source materials, about changes in the style of Blackfoot music over a period of seventy years. The analyses, descriptions, and transcriptions in this and the following installment are based largely on collections made by myself in 1952 and 1966. In addition, collections made by several other field workers have been used.1 Songs no. 1 through 20, the War Dance and Gambling songs, were transcribed by Nettl. Songs 21-42, songs of the Medicine Pipe ceremony, were transcribed by Blum from recordings made by Nettl in 1966. In addition, Examples 1-5 are abstractions of the melodic material of songs 25 and 28-32. Perhaps a word regarding the transcriptions is in order. The methodological and conceptual problems regarding transcription are

St. Francis Indian Dances - 1960

On July 3, 1960, a 300th anniversary celebration was held at the St. Francis Wabanaki village of Odanak. One of the features was a pageant showing the Indians coming to this site, an island in the St. Francis River lying between the villages of Perreville and St. Francis in Quebec Province, after they were driven from Maine and New Hampshire during the French and Indian War. A program of tribal dances followed the pageant. At the rehearsal on July 2, the dance leaders seemed pleased to find the author interested in their program and willingly answered questions. The following facts were quickly ascertained: all Indian dances were forbidden at St. Francis by a local priest about 1925; no dances form any part of St. Francis ritual at present; St. Francis Indians have almost no contact with other Wabanaki tribes--neither of the leaders had attended dance ceremonies or programs at other Wabanaki reserves; one of the leaders had been taken to a program of Western Indian dances by A. I. Hallowell a number of years ago and the other had seen Iroquois dances. This information would lead one to conclude that the dances at Odanak would be a poor representation of what St. Francis ritual once was. However, the rehearsal produced a large repertoire: Snake Dance, Eagle Dance, Blanket Dance, Friendly Dance, War Dance, Tomahawk Dance and Calumet Dance. Dances similar to most of these are known to the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy and Malecite, the other members of the Wabanaki group. After the rehearsal the dance leaders listened to recordings made previously by the author of dance music by the other three Wabanaki tribes. Although the St. Francis dance leaders had not sung songs to their dances, they were able to understand the recordings and felt that their own dances should have had these songs also. But no one felt that his voice was good enough to sing the songs at the celebration. The music at the program consisted of drumming and impromptu yelling. The Snake Dance is an old dance originally used at the beginning of any ceremony which included dancing. When the festivities were ready to begin a dance leader would start out twisting and turning between the wigwams. Soon many merry-makers would join the serpentine line which would terminate at the dance place where the ceremony was to take place. William Mechling describes this dance (1958:151). Frank G. Speck recorded Jack Solaman, a Malecite, singing the Snake Dance song at the Tobique Point Reserve about 1913. Speck also describes the use of the Snake Dance by the Penobscot (1940:283-284). Dr. Walter J. Fewkes describes the use of the Snake Dance by the Passamaquoddy (1890:262-269). In all instances the dance is very similar and the Odanak performance was essentially the same as the description above. The Friendly Dance is called a Greeting Dance by the other Wabanaki tribes and is performed when visitors arrive. It resembles the Virginia Reel in that it begins with a line of men facing a line of women, and in other ways, as the following description by one of the dance leaders at Odanak shows:

Book Reviews

Book Reviews Get access THE NEW OXFORD SUPPLEMENTARY READERS, READERS, Grades 1 and 2. Isabelle Frémont. O.U.P. 1958. Grade 1, 7d. each; Grade 2, 1s. 0d. Grade 1: The War Dance, Huffing and Puffing, A Present for Mother, Town Rat and Country Rat, Shall We Meet the lion?, The Old Woman and Her Cock. Grade 2: The Dog and the Donkey, The Silly Little Mice. ELT Journal, Volume XIV, Issue 1, October 1959, Pages 50-a–50, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/XIV.1.50-a Published: 01 October 1959

Music for Strings

Music for Strings

Review of War dance: A study of the psychology of war.

Review of War dance: A study of the psychology of war.

Samuel James Guernsey

American AnthropologistVolume 39, Issue 1 p. 135-137 Free Access SAMUEL JAMES GUERNSEY A. V. KIDDER, A. V. KIDDER Cambridge, MassachusettsSearch for more papers by this author A. V. KIDDER, A. V. KIDDER Cambridge, MassachusettsSearch for more papers by this author First published: January‐March 1937 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1937.39.1.02a00110AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Bibliography 1916 Notes on Explorations of Martha's Vineyard (American Anthropologist, Vol. 18, pp. 81– 97). 1919 Archaeological Explorations in Northeastern Arizona (Bulletin, Bureau of American Ethnology, 65). [A. V. Kidder, joint author.]. 1920 Notes on a Navajo War Dance (American Anthropologist, Vol. 22, pp. 304– 307). 1921 Basket-maker Caves of Northeastern Arizona. Report on the Explorations, 1916–17 (Papers, Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 8, No. 2). [A. V. Kidder, joint author.]. Peabody Museum Arizona Exploration, 1920 (Proceedings, National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 7, pp. 69– 71). [A. V. Kidder, joint author.]. 1922 A Basket-maker Cave in Kane County, Utah. By J. L. Nusbaum, with notes on the artifacts by A. V. Kidder and S. J. Guernsey ( Indian Notes and Monographs, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, Misc., No. 29). 1929 Archaeological Field-work in North America during 1928. Arizona (American Anthropologist, Vol. 31, p. 340). [Edward Reynolds, joint author.]. 1931 Explorations in Northeastern Arizona. Report on the Archaeological Fieldwork of 1920–23 (Papers, Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 12, No. 1). 1933 An Ancient Arizona Cliff-dwelling (Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 22, pp. 600– 601). Volume39, Issue1January‐March 1937Pages 135-137 ReferencesRelatedInformation

Notes on a Navajo War Dance

American AnthropologistVolume 22, Issue 3 p. 304-307 Free Access Notes on a Navajo War Dance† S. J. Guernsey, S. J. Guernsey Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass.Search for more papers by this author S. J. Guernsey, S. J. Guernsey Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass.Search for more papers by this author First published: July‐September 1920 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1920.22.3.02a00150Citations: 1 1 Cp. Franciscan Fathers, An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language, St. Michaels, Arizona, 1910, pp. 366–376; E. C. Parsons, American Anthropologist, n.s., vol. xxi, no. 4 (1919). AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume22, Issue3July‐September 1920Pages 304-307 RelatedInformation

Note onNavajoWarDance

American AnthropologistVolume 21, Issue 4 p. 465-467 Free Access Note on Navajo War Dance Elsie Clews Parsons, Elsie Clews ParsonsSearch for more papers by this author Elsie Clews Parsons, Elsie Clews ParsonsSearch for more papers by this author First published: October‐December 1919 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1919.21.4.02a00170Citations: 1AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume21, Issue4October‐December 1919Pages 465-467 RelatedInformation

THE OSAGE MOURNING-WAR CEREMONY

The material for the following account of this interesting Osage ceremony was collected in April of this year, while the writer was engaged in work, among certain tribes in Oklahoma, for the Field Columbian Museum. On only three of the four ceremonial days were observations made; whatever is here recorded of the other ceremonial day or of events after the ceremony, was obtained largely from Charles Michell, an English-speaking Osage who took an active part in the performance. It must be admitted at once that the present account is, at best, incomplete and fragmentary, and may be regarded of value only as an introduction to a more exhaustive study, which shall give due justice to this interesting rite and curious survival of ancient Osage ceremony. The spirit of a dead Osage must be avenged, whether the dead be a child, woman, warrior, or old man; this is done by the sacri. fice of the scalp of an enemy over the grave. The fulfilment of this obligation is in the immediate charge of a very near relative of the decedent. But before the scalp of an enemy may be obtained, it is necessary that certain rites be performed; in other words, there must be a war dance or ceremony. When, therefore, an Osage by the name of Nahashk6shr lost a favorite son, he became a mourner and it fell to his lot to make provision for the war ceremony. But as there is considerable expense attendant upon the performance of this ceremony, Nahashk6shr was assisted by other mourners, who also wished to satisfy the demands of their deceased relatives. These other mourners were Wainashie and his wife, and William Fletcher. As Nahashk6shI, however, 404