Dance in Anthropological Perspective

Author(s): Adrienne L. Kaeppler

Source: Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 7 (1978), pp. 31-49
Published by: Annual Reviews
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Ann. Rev. Anthropol. 1978. 7:31-49
Copyright (D 1978 by Annual Reviews Inc. All rights reserved

DANCE IN .9606
ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE

Adrienne L. Kaeppler
BernicePauahiBishopMuseum,Honolulu,Hawaii96818

INTRODUCTION

In 1960 Gertrude Prokosch Kurath published her pioneering "Panorama"

of dance ethnology in CurrentAnthropology(22), which is partly responsi-
ble for the establishmentof the ethnographic study of dance as a formal part
of the discipline of anthropology. In this paper Kurath, the parent of dance
ethnology herself, set out what she felt to be the objectives of such a study
-"the subject matter, the scope, and the procedures of this emerging
discipline" (22, p. 234)-and concluded that the ethnographic study of
dance should be viewed "as an approach toward, and a method of, eliciting
the place of dance in human life-in a word, as a branch of anthropology"
(p. 250).
Evidently her article (and the poor "CA treatment" it received) failed to
make an impact, for even in 1974 at an international conference on the
subject it was found appropriate to invite only ten people,' including an
ethnomusicologist and an art historian.
A 1972 "review of the field" for the Committee on Research in Dance
(CORD), by Anya Peterson Royce (34), attempted to make the anthropo-
logical study of dance interesting and relevant to individuals in the wider
discipline of dance. Yet at the 1976 meeting of CORD only six papers
'Irmgard Bartenieff, Judith Hanna, Adrienne Kaeppler, Joann Kealiinohomoku, Gyorgy
Martin, Alan Merriam, Gabriel Moedano, Anya Royce, Allegra Snyder, and Robert Thomp-
son.

31
0084-6570/78/1015-0031 $01.00

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32 KAEPPLER

focused on dance ethnology. One, then, might question the propriety of a

paper on such an esoteric aspect of our subject for the Annual Review of
Anthropology.However, the aim of these volumes is a critical discussion of
the state of research in the various fields, and thus it is perhaps appropriate
to suggest that the study of dance has more to offer than most anthropolo-
gists are prepared to expect.
Dance is a cultural form that results from creative processes which
manipulate human bodies in time and space. The cultural form produced,
though transient, has structured content, is a visual manifestation of social
relations, and may be the subject of an elaborate aesthetic system-surely
the domain of anthropologists.
Anthropologists, when studying their chosen community or subject, for
the most part pay little serious attention to such things as dance or that
aspect of human behavior loosely called the arts-relegating these esoterica
in their classes to the never-reached end of a course, coupling them with
"play," and considering them the frosting on the cake of the more impor-
tant parts of culture. Occasionally an anthropologist will make a tape
recording of dance songs, photographs of costumes, or even motion pic-
tures, thinking that he has done his duty as far as these aspects of culture
are concerned. Although such recordings and photography may be of inter-
est as far as the sound organization or movement patterns of a society are
concerned, by themselves they can tell us little that is anthropologically
significant. At least from the point of view of the "new ethnography," an
adequate description of a culture should place the same emphasis on dance
as that given it by the members of that society-and in some parts of the
world this is indeed great. Anthropologists have been slow to recognize that
a study and understandingof dance-which is sometimes a very conspicu-
ous part of culture-may actually assist in an understanding of the deep
structure of a society and bring new insights into understandingother parts
of culture.
Even fewer anthropologists have addressed themselves to aesthetics or
the aesthetic experience, which, as a heightened state of consciousness, may
be related to trance. If we can accept a neutral definition of art as "cultural
forms that result from creative processes which manipulate movement,
sound, words, or materials" (11, p. 20), then aesthetics can be approached
as ways of thinking about such forms. Dance, as one of these cultural forms,
is anthropologically relevant for the study of structure, social relations,
ritual, and philosophy. However, the conclusion that can be drawn for the
study of dance research and anthropology so far is similar to the conclusion
of McLeod in her review of ethnomusicological research and anthropology
(29, p.1 14), that the potential is great, but unless anthropologists take
an interest in this area, the development of meaningful statements will be
slow.

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 DANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE 33

Much of McLeod's article on music is relevant for the study of dance,

for in many ways dance is simply a part of music, to which it is integrally
related. Like music, dance as a variety of human behavior is a highly
patterned activity. Dance has a relatively small number of movement con-
stituents organized into a relatively small number of larger pieces of move-
ment or motifs. On the larger order of form, dance is organized into a small
number of large forms (rather than into an infinite number of sentences and
paragraphs, as in language), each of which may be repeated. Dance, like
music, is a setpiece phenomenon, with a high level of redundancy [see (29,
p. 99) for a comparison of music with language].

DANCE AND ANTHROPOLOGY BEFORE KURATH

The first publication about dance that had any real relevance to an-
thropology was Curt Sachs's Eine Weltgeschichtedes Tanzes, published in
1933 and translated into English in 1937 as World History of the Dance.
This book has been widely used, and indeed is still used today, as a definitive
anthropological study of dance. Although this book certainly has a place
today in the study of the history of anthropological theory, it has no place
in the study of dance in anthropological perspective. Its theoretical stance
is derived from the German Kultiirkreis school of Schmidt and Graebner
in which worldwide diffusion resulted in a form of unilineal evolution. But
just as modern non-Western peoples do not represent earlier stages of
Western cultural evolution, there is no reason to believe that non-Western
dance representsearlier stages of Western dance. Yet some anthropologists
find it possible to accept the latter without accepting the former [see (43)
for a detailed review].
Much more important for the study of dance in anthropological perspec-
tive, although he did not really address himself to the subject, was Franz
Boas, whose orientation offers scope for analyzing dance as culture rather
than using dance data to fit theories and generalizations. Boas felt that man
had a basic need for order and rhythm-a need which Boas used to help
explain the universal existence of art. By refusing to accept sweeping gener-
alizations that did not account for cultural variability, he laid a foundation
for the possibility of examining dance and responses to it in terms of one's
own culture ratherthan as a universal language. In spite of Boas and others,
however, the idea that dance (or art) can be understood cross-culturally
without understandingan individual dance tradition in terms of the cultural
background of which it is a part, is not yet dead, especially among artists
and dancers. Too often are creations of other cultures transformed into
"primitive art," treated as part of an early stage of Western tradition, and
subjected to Western concepts, categorization, structure, function, or aes-
thetics.

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34 KAEPPLER

The influence of Boas and his insistence on the collection of data without
attempting to fit them into generalized theories or a priori assumptions, is
evident in the early dance work of Joann Kealiinohomoku. The investiga-
tion of Boas's student, Herskovits, on the relationships between African
music and the music of American blacks was continued in the study of
dance by Herskovits's student Kealiinohomoku, "A Comparative Study of
Dance as a Constellation of Motor Behaviors Among African and United
States Negroes," which, although it was done in the 1960s, has only recently
been published (19).
Starting from Boas's characterization that,

Dance is a universal human phenomenon, but because the human body has ultimate
limitations in movement ability, and because there are relatively limited numbers of
group formations which seem to occur to human beings, similar patterns of dance are
found in widely separated and unrelated areas. Each culture, however, has a unique
configurationof dance characteristicsfor movement patterns, styles, dynamics, value and
raison d'etre of dance which are distinguished when comparing dances from one culture
with those of another [quoted in Kealiinohomoku (19, p. 17)]

and building on the earlier musical analysis of Herskovits and Merriam,

Kealiinohomoku concluded that not only is there a high degree of correla-
tion between the dance motor behavior of African and United States blacks,
but that an analysis of dance is a useful tool in anthropological research (p.
160). In addition, her study demonstrated that anthropological methods
were useful in the study of dance. The influence of Boas, as mediated by
Herskovits and Merriam, can be seen in her definition of dance:

Dance is a transient art of expression, performedin a given form and style by the human
body moving in space. Dance occurs through purposefully selected and controlled rhyth-
mic movements; the resulting phenomenon is recognized as dance both by the performer
and the observing members of a given group (p. 25).

Kealiinohomoku's study also exemplifies some of Boas's ideas on the

conservatism of certain aspects of culture. Her study,

presents evidence for the hypothesis that changes in function, form, meaning, context
and material culture do not necessarily insure comparable changes in learned behavior,
and that the dynamics of change do not necessarily include such things as posture, which
may be outside the ken of conscious awareness. In other words, a person can learn,
deliberately, to change the reasons for dancing, or the choice of who dances with whom,
or what one wears, but it is very difficult for him to change his "body dialect" especially
if he is not aware of it (19, p. 11).

Boas was concerned most of all with the collection of information, and
he insisted that such things as dance must be looked at in the context of
the society of which it is a part, rather than from the observer's point of

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 DANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 35

view-except as the latter pointed out the differencebetween other societies

and our own. In an article on Kwakiutl dance he concluded that:
... song and danceaccompanyall the eventsof Kwakiutllife, and that they are an
essentialpart in the cultureof the people.... Althoughthereare expertperformers,
everyoneis obligedto takepartin thesinginganddancing,so thattheseparationbetween
performance and audiencethat we findin our modemsocietydoes not occurin more
primitivesocietysuch as that representedby the KwakiutlIndians(2, p. 11).
Although a few derivative trends in the study of dance and culture can be
traced to the influence of Boas, it is this empirical tradition that still per-
vades most anthropological works that either focus on or give lip service
to dance, whereas in "mainstream anthropology" modern studies in the
Boasian tradition have not simply retained this character of a frozen slice
of time. Much of Merriam's study, The Anthropology of Music (31), is
directly relevant for the anthropological study of dance. A companion
volume, The Anthropologyof Dance (not yet available at this writing) by
Anya Royce, which promises elaboration on historical, comparative, and
symbolic approaches to dance, may be a first step toward modernization of
the Boasian tradition in the field of dance.

GERTRUDE KURATH AND THE SCIENCE

OF CHOREOLOGY
Gertrude Kurath, a dancer, with degrees in art history, music, and drama,
has been hailed as the parent of dance ethnology. Yet there is really very
little that one can point to in her work that is anthropological from a
theoretical point of view. She has collaborated with some of the leading
anthropologists of her day, especially William Fenton, usually analyzing the
content of dance and, in the Boasian tradition, relating dance in general
terms to its cultural background. Kurath has summarized the methodology
and procedure that she has used over the years (24), but unlike the test of
the pudding being in the eating, the test of writing about dance is in the
ability of someone else to read it. Kurath, writing (she hoped) for an-
thropologists, attempted to devise a way to make reading about dance
palatable to an anthropologist. Her 1952 choreographic questionnaire was
meant to answer the question, "What does a field worker record during the
study of native dances?" (20, p. 53). Her advice that observation should be
directed toward the ground plan, the style of body movement, and the broad
structure of the dance, and her delineation of what could and should be
included in these three general categories, was (and is) good advice. One
wonders whether anyone actually took it.
In 1954 in a symposium on "Contributions of Music and Dance to
Anthropological Theory" at the Central States Anthropological Society

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36 KAEPPLER

meeting, Kurath set out her ideas on choreology, which she defined as "the
science of movement patterns" (21, p. 177). This "science" involved the
breaking down of "an observed pattern in order to perceive the structure"
and the synthetic process of choreosocial relationships" (p. 178). Such
descriptions and analyses could then be pressed into use for "attacks on
space and time" involving "area study, intrusion and diffusion and prob-
lems of change" (p. 179). Although such statements appear to be outdated,
even at that time, in terms of anthropological theory, in the sense that
American diffusionist theory and area classifications had by then been
outdated, Kurath was not looking for grandiose schemes. Kurath's "areas"
in which she herself looks for intrusion, diffusion, and change, are small and
circumscribed such as Tewa Pueblos, or Seneca Longhouses.
Kurath's "procedure"deals preeminently with the content of dance (24,
pp. 36-37):
1. Field work-essential observation with descriptions and recording (not
necessarily with films and tapes).
2. "Laboratory study" to discern structure and style.
3. Explanation of styles and varieties with the help of a well-informed
native.
4. Graphic presentation.
5. Analysis into basic movements, motifs, and phrases.
6. Synthesis of formations, steps, music, and words into complete dances.
7. Conclusions, theories, and comparisons. As an example of "theory,"
Kurath cites her observationsamong the Tewa that "patternsfor one sex
occur in the most sacred dances, while increasing complexity and min-
gling of the sexes comes with increasing secularization." As this same
observation was made by Ljubica Jankovic among the Serbians, they
"have a theory for further intercultural testing."
Although Kurath's "procedures"are simply a variation of anthropologi-
cal research techniques, and her theory is more properly a hypothesis
dealing with context sensitivity, she has at least demonstrated that an-
thropological techniques are relevant to the study of dance. Kurath's tech-
nique, evolved in more than 20 years of research, mainly on American
Indian dance but also on jazz and rock and roll, is to study the context of
the dance by these procedures, to place the dance into its ceremonial con-
text, and describe the cultural symbolism as reflected in choreographic
patterns. Perhaps her most successful study and presentation was in her
Music and Dance of the Tewa Pueblos (25). That this detailed comprehen-
sive description of Tewa music and dance is actually readable can only be
because of the skill of the author and her dedication. The descriptions,
analyses, and notations presented could be as tedious for the reader as they
certainly must have been for the writer. As I have noted elsewhere (10), this

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 DANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGICALPERSPECTIVE 37

study is a mine of information on similarities and differences in a specific

cultural complex within a circumscribed area and will be as useful in the
years to come for dance ethnologists as the works of Speck are for the
ethnomusicologist.
In short, the contribution of Kurath to the study of dance ethnology, or
as some would have it "ethnochoreology," is in her amassing of the same
kind of empirical detail as did Fenton and Speck, with a smattering of the
influence of the traditions of Boas and Kroeber. Much of the detail is so well
presented that other researcherscan use her information in additional ways
and develop her ideas and pioneering work to further plateaus. One such
development can be found in the study of dance of Taos Pueblo by Donald
N. Brown (3). Familiarity with Kurath's work and notation of ground plan
is evident in Brown's 1958 study, but he developed an aspect of dance that
Kurath did not emphasize-dance classification from the point of view of
the participants themselves. Rather than a classification from an outsider's
point of view, Brown's presentation represents "A cultural reality for par-
ticipants in the Taos cultural system" (p. 186). Although today such investi-
gation might be considered de rigueur, 20 years ago classificationaccording
to native opinion was not at all usual, especially for dance. Brown's presen-
tation of what is Taos and what is not is as relevant today as it was in 1958
and can stand proudly with similar work done since.
Kurath's contributions have also been the starting point for the work of
Kealiinohomoku, who has used and developed some of the significant as-
pects of Kurath's procedures, namely her system of notation, her work on
definitions, and her broad approach to the analysis of dance and its use in
comparative studies. Kurath's system of glyph notation was intended to be
a quick method for recording dance movements that could be used for
analysis and for graphic presentation in published works. Once it has been
mastered, which is not very difficult, Kurath's publications can be appreci-
ated empathetically from the point of view of movement, as well as in their
narrative and musical aspects. But, as Kurath notes, it is not meant for
reconstruction. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate some of the steps used in Iroquois
dance and how they have been combined with musical notation and stick
figures in the graphic presentation of the Iroquois feather dance (23, pp. 94,
98). The system and its usefulness has been well demonstrated in Kurath's
Tewa study (25). Kurath's notation system has been developed and elabo-
rated by Kealiinohomoku in her study of motor behavior in the dance of
African and United States blacks (19, pp. 28-36). Kealiinohomoku uses
glyph notation to demonstrate similarities between African dance and the
dance of blacks resident in the United States, and to show the differences
between these dance traditions and those of Scotland/Ireland. Although the
dances cannot be reconstructed, the system adequately demonstrates simi-
larities and differences in an easily understandable form.

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38 KAEPPLER

Stomp Type Fish Dance Type

LINE OF DIRECTION LINE OF DIRECTION

L, Stamp right foot

Walk forward left foot _| A'
Flex kcnee
Walk forwardright foot L
J. Left foot step to right

Flex knee
Torso erect, shoulder level B
L_ - Right foot drag to right Flex knees slightly

_ > Flex
Flex knee
kcnee Both feet turn in, heel
~~~accent
J Left foot shuffle back
Flex knees slightly
Flex knee
Both feet turned out, (
L.. Right foot shuffle back right foot in back /
Flex knees slightly )
Torso erect, shoulders level
Both feet turn in, heel
accent /
3 4
Flex krnee Flex knees slightly

Left foot shuffle forward, to Bohfetunu,

heel
right
right heel |Both feetinturn
frontout,
~~~~right

Torso slightly forward bent,

right shoulder forward I A
and down Weight on left foot _

Flex knee forward Left foot forward pat

Right foot shuffle forward Weight on right foot

Right foot forward pat L
Man face center of circle

Woman face center of m

circle Couple crossover
ML Male leader face ahead Woman
Woman t
.L. Man face ahead

4 Female leader face ahead

6!;> Womanface ahead

LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT

FigureI Stompand fish dancetype steps.

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 DANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 39

DanceI. 3. do
4 9Y~~~~~~~~~~4.1.i

f*ns , L

.3~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~.j U ~~L.

.gf
C' "W LZ ~ t

,, Q~~~~~~.
4 % >:

7.

r- J - rFL

p a

Figure 2 Feather dance.

Both figures reprinted by permission of the Smithsonian Institution Press from Iroquois
Music and Dance.:CeremonialArts of Two Seneca Longhouses, G. P. Kurath, Part 1, Figures
16 and 20 in the Bureau of Ethnology Bulletin 187. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1964.

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40 KAEPPLER

The system is particularly useful for those who are nonliterate in dance
notation, that is, most anthropologists and even most dancers. Kurath's
system, however, is confusing to the dance notation reader,because Kurath
has borrowed symbols and terminology from Labanotation, but has reorga-
nized the writing staff so that constant reorientation is necessary. Labanota-
tion (or Kinetography Laban as it is known in Europe), an international
system for notating dance similar to music notation, has been availablesince
1928. In contrast to the study of phonetic notation, however, kinetic nota-
tion has not been considered of sufficientimportance to be studied by many
anthropologists. Labanotation is not difficult to learn to read (it is more
difficult to learn to write) and the terminology is as useful as a special
terminology is to the study of social organization, for it can be applied to
any human movements, not only to dance. When dealing with the content
of dance, certainly the first prerequisite should be a tool for notating it.2
The notation, however, should never be considered an end in itself, but only
as a tool for analysis. Although Labanotation was developed to record pure
movement rather than style (that is, it is a kinetic notation), it can be
adapted in the study of emic grids in a way similar to adapting phonetic
notation into phonemic grids (8). Kurath used Labanotation in her study
of the Dances ofAnahuac (26), but quickly abandoned it for the sake of the
nonliterate.
Neither glyph notation nor Labanotation even considers the problem of
the use of energy which, although this may not be as readily observable as
the movement per se, is important in dance training, aesthetic philosophy,
and the deep structure of the culture concerned. "Effort-shape"notation
has been developed to cope in part with this problem and will be discussed
below. Recording of dance content may be necessary before meaningful
statements can be made about context. Kurath's early attempts in recording
and publishing dance content are instructive to analyze in terms of their
successes and failures in communication with anthropologists.
Kurath's attempt to deal with definitional problems appears to be aimed
primarily toward eliciting the sympathy of anthropologists to the study of
dance and giving "choreological tips" for what to look for when observing
dance and how to describe it. Kurath's use of the term "ethnic dance" as
the subject matter of scientific inquiry in the study of ethnochoreology was
later rethought, and Kurath attempted to cope with all those problem terms
such as folk dance, ethnic dance, ethnologic dance, theatrical dance,
commercial dance, ballet, court dance, and art dance (22, p. 235).
Kealiinohomoku elaborated the arguments presented in two articles "An
2Two other notation systems are also useful. Benesh notation was originally devised for
notating ballet but is applicable to other dance forms. Eshkol, based on the measurement of
angles, is applicable to studies using computers.

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 DANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE 41

Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance" (14) and "Folk

Dance" (17), both of which conclude that trying to cut dance into pieces
and categorize it hinders our understanding of the nature of dance and its
varied functions in varied societies.
Following Kurath's introductory instructions for gathering dance data,
Kealiinohomoku developed a checklist in an effort to obtain information for
comparison. After several reworkings she published her "Dance Data
Guide" (16), an 11-page checklist of material traits associated with dance
and "dance compendium questions." This guide can serve as a reminder to
all who might witness a dance performance, whether in the field or on the
stage, and would be extremely useful for cross-cultural research if anyone
would use it. By 1972, 15 years after its first version, Kealiinohomoku states
that it had been "notablyunsuccessful," and apparentlyother similar guides
have met the same fate. Evidently the preparationand distribution of guides
has made little impact on the motivation for recording or analyzing dance.
A dislike of the term "dance ethnology" by Kealiinohomoku is probably
owing to her early exposure to Kurath's "science of choreology" and to her
own work on body postures as learned behavior, which is usually not
thought to be the domain of ethnographers. The use of the term
"choreology" by Kurath, Kealiinohomoku, and later by Royce (34), to
mean "the study of dance" would seem anthropologically unfortunate be-
cause it appears to put the emphasis on dance content rather than on the
contextual elements of social relations and the philosophical associations
with a culture's deep structure and aesthetics. Although I would have to
agree with Kurath, Kealiinohomoku, and Royce that "the subject of
choreology is the dance" (34, p. 49), I would venture further to suggest that
the potential contribution of dance in anthropological perspective is what
dance can tell us about society and the human behavior that has generated
diverse cultural systems.

MODERN TRENDS
It was not until the mid-1960s that dance in anthropological perspective
took its next step. A number of new people appeared upon the scene who
were apparently little influenced by Sachs, Boas, Kurath, or anyone who
had dealt with the phenomenon of dance before them. Williams, Snyder,
Singer, Royce, Kaeppler, and Hanna, along with Kealiinohomoku, are
juxtaposed across an impassable barrier to Lomax.

Choreometrics-Dance as a Measure of Culture

Alan Lomax, apparently a man of more grandiose schemes than even Curt
Sachs, set out to amass data for an "evolutionary taxonomy of culture." His
data so far are based primarily on song styles and dance styles, with lan-

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42 KAEPPLER

guage and textual analysis to come. Using available filmed resources,

Lomax and his assistants compared "dance to everyday movement in order
to verify the hypothesis that danced movement is patterned reinforcement
of the habitual movement patterns of each culture or culture area" (27, p.
xv).
One of the "verifications"of this hypothesis dealing with the association
of work and dance comes from the extensive film footage by Allison Ja-
blonko shot among the Maring of New Guinea in 1963-64. After returning
from the field with her films and discussions with Lomax and Bartenieff,
Jablonko analyzed her film using two choreometric rating parameters,body
part use and trace form complexity. Asking the questions "What formations
occur in dance and daily life?" and "What pathways are traced by move-
ments of these formations?"(7, p. 75), Jablonko made a "frame oriented"
film analysis in order to scrutinize the dynamic links between frames (p. 68).
Although she concluded that her study confirmed Lomax's contention that
"dance is a formalized and repetitious use of movement patterns that are
frequentand important in the everyday life of the Maring" (p. 117), she goes
on to tell us how dance is differentiated from everyday movement (pp.
118-20). My reading of her evidence, however, would tempt me to conclude
that dance movements among the Maring are not based on movements of
everyday life, but rather are elaborated forms of movements usually used
to project hostility and especially movements used in warfare. In addition,
her thesis appears to demonstrate that dance among the Maring is a surface
manifestation of a cultural deep structure based on equivalence, which is
instructive to contrast with the very different deep structure manifested by
dance in Tonga (13).
A second hypothesis was also boldly stated by Lomax, "Already we know
that dance style varies in a regular way in terms of the level of complexity
and the type of subsistence activity of the culture which supports it" (27,
p. xv). To say nothing of the inadequate data bases that are being compared
-cross-cultural data from the EthnographicAtlas (Murdock, 1962-67) and
200 films to cover the world (only 50 of which were viewed in detail)-the
method of looking for analogies and then finding cultures that verify the
analogies (with little reference to those that do not) seems a bit question-
able.
A distaste for grandiose schemes aside, the same two problems that
reduce the validity of the musical part of Lomax's study (29, p. 109) are
equally applicable to the study of dance styles. First, each culture is viewed
as having only one dance style and a master choreometric profile is pre-
pared. Imagine trying to code the waltz, square dancing, rock and roll, and
ballet from the United States into one profile, or even worse, to use only
one of these to characterize the dance style of the United States. Yet the

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 DANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 43

same kind of dance complexity can (and does) exist in other parts of the
world where the social and diffusion information is not so well known.
Random films cannot give quantifiableinformation. Second, the analysis is
subjectively done from the analyst's point of view. Much of the analysis is
based on the effort-shapeaspects of Laban analysis, yet many elements that
go into this analysis cannot be understood from looking at a two-dimen-
sional film. In addition, the distinctive features that are said to characterize
"style," used in the choreometrics profiles are not necessarily the kinds of
components that most dance anthropologists would use to characterize
"style."
Lomax concludes one of his sections with the following statement: "As
with song style, the first contribution of dance analysis is to point to histori-
cally significant families of movements. Now we turn to individual parame-
ters of the choreometric systems to see whether they arrange dance styles
in an evolutionary sequence" (27, p.235). Can it be an incarnation of Sachs
at the computer?3
If we forget about the theoretical aspects of choreometrics, especially the
hypothesized correlationbetween dance style and subsistence activity, there
are positive aspects of the study. For example, the delineation and definition
of elements of movement that can be compared, or even used for descrip-
tion, are contributions to the comparative study of dance content. Using
effort-shape concepts, such components as type of transition, dimensional-
ity of movement path, body attitude, and the use of the trunk in one or two
units, have been brought to the attention of many. It is likely that many of
the concepts will be useful for circumscribed study of dance movements
within a society or between closely related ones. Irmgard Bartenieff, who
was responsible for much of the delineation of movement parameters and
coding, has now moved on to "field work" where these parameters can be
seen in three dimensions and in cultural context. Others, such as Judy Van
Zile, have combined effort-shapemethods and concepts with electromyog-
raphy in order to describe and analyze the use of energy as a distinguishing
element of dance form (40).

Linguistic Analogies in the Study of Dance

Anthropology students of the mid-1960s were exposed to the methodologi-
cal and theoretical techniques widely used in linguistics and increasingly
used in the so-called "new ethnography." Field work during the 1960s
attempted to apply these techniques to a number of cultural forms such as
social structure, color categories, and dance. One such study which used
"etic/emic" distinctions based on analogies with structural linguistics was
3For other reviews of choreometrics see Kealiinohomoku (18) and Williams (41).

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44 KAEPPLER

carried out in Tonga (8, 9). Although it has been said that this study used
the terminology, assumptions, and frameworkof Birdwhistell'skinesics (30,
p. 20; 38, p. 381), even a cursory reading of Birdwhistell (1) and Kaeppler
will show that their aims, assumptions, and techniques have little overlap.
Whereas Birdwhistell's kinesics is meant to study "body motion as related
to the nonverbal aspects of interpersonal communication" (1, p. 3), Kaep-
pler's kinemic/morphokinemic study was an attempt to elicit an inventory
of small pieces of movement, kinemes (with the allokine variants), and their
combinations into morphokines. The analogy with phonemes and mor-
phemes was not simply fortuitous, because the system was derived by
contrastic analysis in the field based on linguistic analysis as set out by
Kenneth Pike (32).4 Further analogies with language, such as lexemes or
units of meaning, were not found to be useful in the analysis of dance
structure. Instead, morphokines (which have meaning as movement but do
not have lexical meaning) were found to be organized into a relatively small
number of motifs or dance phrases, which, when ordered (or choreo-
graphed) chronologically, form dances.
Similar studies of other Polynesian dance traditions show similarities and
differences-in kinemic inventory, in ways in which kinemes are combined
into morphokines and used in motifs, and in how they are ordered into
dances. These similarities, and differences, are manifested in the various
dance styles found in Polynesia.
Independently, a similar methodology was being developed in Eastern
Europe (33). Here, too, the researchers found that methods derived from
structural linguistics were useful only at the lower levels. Although the
terminology is different, the component levels derived from a structural
analysis of Eastern Europeans analyzing their own dances from their own
(emic) point of view, are remarkably similar to Kaeppler's. The smallest
pieces of movement in the Eastern European study were called "elements
or dansemes" which were combined into "cells" and organized into larger
motives, phrases, stanzas, and sections (33, p. 138; also personal communi-
cation)-the latter two depending on the dance genre-levels also found
appropriateby Kaeppler in analyzing larger forms. Earlier work in Eastern
Europe, especially that of Gyorgy Martin on Hungarian dance, also ana-
lyzed movement into basic elements and their combinations into motifs and
larger forms (28).
An entirely different use of linguistic analogies in the study of dance
comes from the use of concepts found useful in transformationalgrammar.
The two studies (with which I am familiar) that attempt to use this genera-
tive device are those of Williams and Singer-as different from each other
4A system and a method of elicitation of which even Marvin Harris might approve (5).

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 DANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGICALPERSPECTIVE 45

as they are from etic/emic analysis. Drid Williams, influenced by Ardener

and Crick, as well as borrowing from Chomsky, insists that dance (and
indeed anthropology) is a "language based, rather than a behavioural
science" (42, p. 16). In a set of papers called "Deep Structures of the
Dance," Williams attempts to provide "an analytical framework for exam-
ing human action signs ... which sets out rules for transformationalgenera-
tive grammars for dance idioms" and "deals with the conceptual space of
the dance, i.e. the larger context of the transformational,syntagmatic rules"
(42, p. 123). Williams proposes "seven basic transformational rules for
sequential realization in space" which she claims "are universal transforma-
tional rules which underlie any dance or ritual idiom anywhere in the
world" (p. 128). Whether or not one agrees that these are universal rules
or even that they are useful, Williams has opened another door to potential
understanding of dance and society through analytical techniques.
Alice Singer, more closely following Chomsky and the linguistic analyses
of poetic meter by Jakobson, Halle, and Keyser, attempts to develop a
theory of metrics that will contribute toward a generative grammar of the
metrical structure of dance (38). Singer proposes "that dance forms are
generated by the encoding of abstract metrical patterns into an organized
sequence of movements" (p. 383) and suggests "some possible correspon-
dence rules which relate dance movements to the abstract metrical pat-
terns" (p. 390). Like many first statements on a subject, Singer's analysis
raises more questions than it answers. Nevertheless, her study will surely
be influential in further applications of linguistic analysis-especially in the
development of generative statements, and perhaps eventually even gram-
mars.

DANCE-A REFLECTION OF CULTURE OR PART

OF A HOLISTIC DISCIPLINE
The relationship between dance and the sociocultural system in which it is
embedded remainsa central concern to anthropologists who have dealt with
this cultural form-a form that results from creative processes which ma-
nipulate human bodies in time and space. Much of the anthropologically
relevant work on dance that has been published to date views dance as a
reflection of culture, that is, that dance is somehow separable from other
parts of culture and of which it can be considered a mirror. For example,
studies of the symbolic aspects of dance by Snyder (39) and Hieb (6), and
the study by Kealiinohomoku of Hopi dance as a microcosm of Hopi
culture (15), take this stance. Although this view is perfectly acceptable
both from the viewpoints of dance and of anthropology, it tends to mask
the integral association of this cultural form with others.

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46 KAEPPLER

It is commonplace to separate dance, along with music, from other forms

of human behavior (29, p. 107), and label it "art." Once it has been so
separatedit is often felt that it need not be dealt with. This ethnocentric view
does not take into consideration the possibility that dance may not be "art"
(whatever that is) to people of the culture concerned, or that there may not
even be a cultural category comparable to what Westerners call "dance."
Much social or religious ritual manipulates human bodies in space and time.
But is the cultural manipulation of bodies among the Maring or Kaluli of
New Guinea, for example, at all comparable to the Tongan manipulation
of bodies in a formal lakalaka? Is participation in rock and roll in any way
comparable to watching ballet? Indeed, should "dances of participation"
and "dances of presentation"be classed as the same phenomenon either in
our own or other cultures, let alone cross-culturally? Are cultural forms
performed for the gods considered at all in the same categories as cultural
forms performed for a human audience, performed as a social activity, or
even as a "social duty"? For example, there is little anthropological reason
for classing together the Japanesecultural form called mikagura performed
in Shinto shrines, the cultural form called buyo performed within (or sepa-
rated from) a Kabuki drama, and the cultural form commonly know as bon,
performed to honor the dead. The only logical reason I can see for catego-
rizing them together is that from an outsider's point of view all three
cultural forms use the body in ways that to Westernerswould be considered
dance. But from a cultural point of view either of movement or activity
there is little reason to class them together. Indeed, as far as I have been
able to discover, there is no Japanese word that will class these three
cultural forms together that will not also include much of what from a
Western point of view would not be considered "dance."
Mikagura,5 performedby Shinto priestesses, is basically bilaterally sym-
metrical. The performer's foot and leg movements are straight forward
much like walking (especially the walking of priests in procession). When
moving from standing to sitting positions, the knee is often placed at a right
angle. The facing is straight on forward, back, or to the side. Physically, the
movements are not subtle or difficult to do and the movement flow is slow
and continuous. Buyo, performed by an individual after long training in a
specific "school" (each of which has its own subtle individualized move-
ment traditions), is seldom bilaterally symmetical. The directional move-
ments are basically diagonal, the stage facing is seldom straight on, the body
stance incorporates wide angles at knees and hip joint. The shoulders are
often in a different plane than other body parts and the head is moved in

5Thisdiscussion is based on the movements of a female dancer-including female imperson-

ators.

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 DANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE 47

a series of three-first to one side and then twice to the other side. The feet
are toed inward and there are frequent poses during which no body part is
moving. Bon, performed by anyone, moves in a circular pattern, knees are
lifted upward and forward, the body is often bent forwardfrom the hips and
there is considerable movement of the hands and wrists. These three cul-
tural forms are not simply genres, as Tonga lakalaka, or ma'ulu'ulu are
two different performing genres, they are simply the movement dimension
of three entirely differentactivities. If outsiders want to class them together
by some sort of Western criteria that is one thing, but anthropologically
they are not even part of the same activity systems. They are not "art" or
"reflection," and anthropologically they should be looked at as the move-
ment dimensions of separate activities. And in order to understand that
activity, the movement dimension must be recognized as an integral part,
described, analyzed, and used in formulations about the form, function,
meaning of the activity, as well as in constructs about cultural philosophy
and deep structure.
As with music (29), it is bewildering that it is almost impossible to define
dance as something apart from other structured movement systems. Maring
warfare uses the same movements as Maring dance, but is is not considered
dance. The Mikagura is "danced," yet is it dance? Trance or other altered
states of consciousness are often associated with structured movement sys-
tems, yet they usually are not dance. If only native categories can define
what is dance in a particular society, then how can it be universal? The
Tasaday of the Philippines do not have this cultural form, so it cannot even
be universal from an outsider's point of view. The concept of "dance" may
actually be masking the importance and usefulness of analyzing human
movement systems.
Can we consider social change or aesthetics in Western society without
consideration of ballet, modem dance, and rock and roll? Are they cultural
"reflections" or simply part of different activity systems? How are they
related to social movements or to other concerns more commonly dealt with
by anthropologists? But in spite of this rather gloomy picture, there are
promises of things to come. Kealiinohomoku has talked about the "non-
art" of dance. Hanna claims "that dance is linked to the life of a society
by affecting cultural patterns, tension management, goal attainment, adap-
tation, and integration" (4, p. 96). Royce has investigated the social and
political aspects of dance in plural societies (36) and dance as an indicator
of social class and identity (35). Kaeppler has examined dance as an integral
part of social structure (12) and as a surface manifestation of deep structure
(13). Others have recognized the importance of dance in ritual, and studies
in progress on the ethnography of performance and on event analysis also
promise new insights. Probably the best anthropological study of dance so

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48 KAEPPLER

far is that of Schieffelenamong the Kaluli of New Guinea (37), where dance
in its cultural context becomes a "cultural scenario"-an analysis that will
not fit with Western concepts of dance. We must set our sights as high (or
as deep) in order to eventually attain philosophical understanding, from
diverse cultural points of view, of the various activities and cultural forms
that manipulate human bodies in time and space.

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