Professional Documents
Culture Documents
World Dance Cultures From Ritual To Spectacle 1st Edition Ebook PDF Version
World Dance Cultures From Ritual To Spectacle 1st Edition Ebook PDF Version
Glossary
Index
Figures
1.1 Aparna Ramaswamy depicting Shiva on Nandi, the bull that is the bearer
of truth
1.2 Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Tamil Nadu is dedicated to the
goddess Parvati and her consort, Shiva
1.3 The dancing hall of Tirumalai Nayak Palace in Tamil Nadu
1.4 Two devadasi, circa 1920
1.5 Uday Shankar
1.6 Aparna Ramaswamy in a mudra portraying a deer
1.7 Alarmél Valli expresses beauty and joy using a tambracuda mudra hand
gesture.
1.8 Hari Krishnan’s inDance performs Quicksand
1.9 Kathak dancer Mahua Shankar, a disciple of Pandit Birju Maharaj,
performs with the Maharaj Kathak Dance Ensemble
1.10 Legendary Birju Maharaj, guru of the Lucknow gharana
1.11 Kathak performer Arushi Nishank wears three hundred ghunghru
1.12 Akram Khan combines kathak and contemporary dance in Gnosis, his
2010 work inspired by a Mahabharata tale
1.13 Theyyam (a ritual folk dance) performed at Vilangad Bhagavathi Temple
in Kadavathur village near Thalassery, Kerala, India
1.14 Kalamandalam Gopi as Bhima, disemboweling Dussasana, played by
Padnamabhan Nair, in “Dussasana Vadham” (The Annihilation of
Dussasana) from The Dice Game
1.15 Kerala Kalamandalam actors as the Pandavas and Kauravas, playing a
fateful game of dice
1.16 Kalamandalam Manoj as a pacca king
1.17 R.L.V. Gopi as Shiva, disguised as the hunter Kattalan, in Kiratham, with
Guru Radha Mohanan and Troupe
1.18 Kalamandalam Manoj as the mythological half-man, half-lion
Narasimha, an avatar of Vishnu and killer of Hiranyakashipu
1.19 Kalamandalam Manoj as a disturbed king of the katti type in a revealing
“curtain look”
2.1 Gunung Agung, Bali’s sacred volcano
2.2 Pura Besakih on the slopes of Mount Agung is Bali’s holiest temple
2.3 Ida Bagus Putrus Kenaka performs kebyar duduk (seated kebyar) with the
Children of Bali Ensemble
2.4 Balinese children of the village of Sanur, learning the agem position
2.5 Baris gede dancers, bodyguards of the gods
2.6 I Made Basuki Mahardika performs baris tunggal with the Children of
Bali Ensemble
2.7 Two girls possessed by celestial spirits in the purifying ritual of the
sanghyang dedari
2.8 Legong dancer Anak Agung Sri Utari in an agem stance, backed by the
gamelan orchestra
2.9 The congdong, or maidservant in the legong, also portrays a fierce crow
2.10 The beloved Barong Ket, who brings blessings to the Balinese
2.11 Rangda, known also as the calonarang, is a vexing witch
2.12 Dancers perform for Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X at the court of
Yogyakarta in the “Harjuna Wijaya” bedhaya
2.13 Bedhaya dancers in a trio formation
2.14 Court dancers of the Sultan’s Palace in Yogyakarta perform a straight-
line formation signifying unity in the bedhaya
2.15 A low, introverted gaze is characteristic in Javanese dance
2.16 A bedhaya semang dancer in sembah, a salutation of prayer
2.17 Indonesian choreographer and dancer Sardono Kusumu performs
Passage Through the Gong with the Sardono Dance Theater
3.1 Apsara Mera (Chap Chamroeunmina) and Prince Kambu (Chen
Chansoda) of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia in The Legend of Apsara
Mera
3.2 The Hindu temple Angkor Wat
3.3 Meng Chan Chara of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia in a “flying position”
3.4 Royal Ballet of Cambodia dancers in the battle between the gods and the
giants in The Legend of Apsara Mera
3.5 Classical dancers as Sita and Ravana in the Reamker, the Cambodian
version of the Ramayana
3.6 The Royal Ballet of Cambodia in The Legend of Apsara Mera
3.7 King and chou characters
3.8 The Peking Opera Company of Hebei perform Havoc in Heaven
3.9 Qi Shu Fang in “The Battle at Calabash Gorge,” an excerpt from The
Women Generals of the Yang Family, performed by the Qi Shu Fang
Peking Opera Company
3.10 The characters of King Xiang and Concubine Yu in Farewell My
Concubine
3.11 Huguang Guildhall, an old jingju theater
3.12 Mao promotes his Little Red Book, first published in 1964, which became
required daily reading for all Chinese
3.13 The National Ballet of China performing The Red Detachment of Women,
a condoned dance drama during the Cultural Revolution
3.14 Wu Qionghua, played by Zhang Jian, joins the Red Detachment
3.15 Zhang Jian as Wu Qionghua in a liberating “pointing to the mountain”
pose
4.1 Katayama Kuroemon, Living National Treasure of Japan, (left) performs
with Urata Yasuchika in Koi no Omoni (The Heavy Burden of Love)
4.2 Kankuro and Tomijuro perform Bo-Shibari, a kyogen in which two
servants attempt to drink their master’s sake, despite being tied up
4.3 In the kiri-mono play of Tsuchigumo, a man transforms into a spider.
Umewaka Rokuro (left) as the spider and Kakuto Naotaka as Lord
Minamoto Raikou
4.4 In noh, the simple lifting of the hand to the eye signifies weeping.
Katayama Shingo performs as Lady Rokujo in Aoi no Ue (Lady Aoi) by
the Kashu-Juku Noh Theater of Kyoto, Japan
4.5 Katayama Shingo as Lady Rokujo transforms into a demon in Aoi no Ue
(Lady Aoi) by the Kashu-Juku Noh Theater of Kyoto, Japan
4.6 A seventeenth-century print of a kabuki stage in Edo by Toyokuni III
4.7 Japanese Living National Treasure Danjuro XII displays his mie as
Kagemasa, an aragoto character, in Shibaraku (Wait A Moment!) with
the Grand Kabuki of Japan
4.8 World-famous onnagata Bando Tamasaburo V performs a dance in
Kanegamisaki (The Cape of the Temple Bell)
4.9 Ebizo Ichikawa Danjuro XII in the title role of Narukami, performed by
the Grand Kabuki of Japan
4.10 Ebizo Ichikawa Danjuro XII as Mitsukuni and Utaemon VI (right) of the
Grand Kabuki of Japan as Kisaragi/Princess Takiyasha in a fight scene in
Masakado
4.11 Japanese Living National Treasure Shoroku as the Earth Spider in the
kabuki version of Tsuchigomo with the Grand Kabuki of Japan
4.12 Legendary butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno, at age 93 in 1999, performing his
Dance of Jellyfish: There is a Universe in a Single Flower
4.13 Japanese butoh troupe Dai Rakuda Kan (The Great Camel Battleship)
perform Universe of Darah – Return of the Jar Odyssey
4.14 Ushio Amagatsu, founder and choreographer of Sankai Juku, performs in
Umusuna: Memories Before History
4.15 Eiko and Koma in Raven
4.16 Eiko Otake performs her project, A Body in Places, in Fukushima after
the tsunami and the ensuing nuclear disaster
5.1 Hula performers with Western stringed instruments, circa 1892
5.2 Members of Hālau Hulu Ka No’eau perform hula kahiko
5.3 The Kanaka’ole sisters, Nalani (left) and Pualani of Hālao O Kekuhi,
chant and play the ipu
5.4 Members of San Francisco-based Hālau o Keikiali’i perform hula kahiko
5.5 Dancers from Hālao O Keikiali play the feathered gourd rattle
5.6 The Māori Chief Tarra, also known as “George,” at a war dance
5.7 Māori chief with full facial moko, or tattoos, in 1784. When missionaries
arrived in 1814, they deemed moko to be “heathen”
5.8 Tukukino, a land activist and leader of the Ngāti Tamaterā, with
elaborate facial tattoos
5.9 Haka performers show their fierce demeanors
5.10 A Māori battalion in Egypt during World War II performing a haka
5.11 A Bosavi girl helps her mother prepare mumu, a roasted pig feast. Girls
learn how to keep their younger siblings fed and happy
5.12 A longhouse can house several families and is made from durable
rainforest wood that lasts fifty years
5.13 The solemn entry of the gisalo performers
5.14 Resting between dancing, singing, and being burned for his poignant
performance
5.15 The burning of a performer
5.16 The scars of a seasoned Bosavi are badges of honor
6.1 A Wodaabe man attending the Geerewol Festival
6.2 Men gathering in the circular ruume dance, surrounded by curious
women who closely observe them
6.3 Wodaabe man in yellow yaake make-up
6.4 Men are judged for their charm as they dance in the yaake
6.5 When performing the geerewol, the men face into the sun so that their
beauty may be better seen
6.6 Wodaabe female judges pick the most beautiful men
6.7 Èmna of the awa masking society prepare all dama costumes and masks
in secret
6.8 Masked dama dances honor the deceased, appease wandering spirits, and
mitigate the negative effects of the release of nyama – the soul, or life
force
6.9 Èmna bounding into the performing space
6.10 Tingetange èmna represent birds, and is one of the most difficult dama
dances
6.11 Two èmna in hunter masks
6.12 The arrival of gur-wando masks at a Mossi funeral
6.13 The face of a karanga mask represents an antelope, while the plank
represents the yaabe sooba, the pathway of the ancestors
6.14 A wan-zega and a yali arrive at a funeral ceremony, whips in hand
6.15 A wan-zega dances
6.16 Three Egungun take a break
6.17 An aggressive Egungun tears through an awed yet apprehensive crowd
7.1 The Central Sudan village of Sennar is an important center for zār
7.2 Drums are essential in drawing zār spirits
7.3 A woman possessed by her zār spirit
7.4 During the sema, the internal gaze of a semazen helps lead to his union
with the divine
7.5 Mevelvi dervishes from Konya performing sema
7.6 In sema, the sheikh represents the sun, the center of the universe
7.7 The Akram Khan Company in Vertical Road, a 2010 work inspired by
the Sufi tradition and the Persian poet, Rumi
7.8 Ursula Lopez (in white) and Elena Algado as two sides of Carmen Amaya
in La Leyenda, performed by the Compania Andaluza de Danza
7.9 Bailaora Belén Maya deftly manipulates her magnificent bata de cola
train
7.10 Carmen Cortés, an innovative bailaora, executes a fusillage of zapateado
footwork in Duende Flamenco
7.11 Since El Farruca’s death in 1997, his grandson Farruquito is the heir to
the Farruca Gitano dynasty in Seville
7.12 Akram Khan and Israel Galván merge traditions of Indian kathak and
flamenco in their collaboration, Torobaka
8.1 A member of the Lakota Sioux Indian Dance Theatre
8.2 Sitting Bull, Chief of the Hunkpapa Sioux, refused all treaties. When
asked how Indians felt about giving up their land, the exasperated holy
man yelled, “Indians! There are no Indians left but me!” Circa 1885
8.3 Arapaho Ghost Dance, circa 1890
8.4 Big Foot’s band of Minniconjou Sioux in costume for a dance in 1890.
Most died in the Wounded Knee massacre
8.5 Native American dancer Hanobi Smith performs a “Men’s Fancy Dance”
in Cokata Upo! (Come to the Center) by the Lakota Sioux Dance Theatre
8.6 Every June, Vodouisants make a pilgrimage to the sacred grotto of Saint
Francis d’Assisi to pray and make sacrifices to Vodou spirits
8.7 During the annual Sucre ceremony, Vodouisaints bathe in a sacred pool
on the river. A priest douses devotees with klerin, Haitian moonshine
8.8 A devotee of the lwa Damballah at a Vodou festival in Jacmel, Haiti
8.9 A possessed man during the St. Jacques festival in Plaine du Nord.
Vodouisants immerse themselves in sacred mud, believing that the lwa
Ogou dwells within
8.10 Katherine Dunham’s photo of Vodou possession, taken during her
anthropologic fellowship in Haiti in the 1930s
8.11 In the grotto of Saint Francis, three worshipers are “mounted” by Vodou
spirits. The papers behind them convey prayers and wishes
8.12 Roberto and Guillermina performing at TangoFest ‘97
8.13 Argentinian tango dancers Milena Plebs and Miguel Angel Zotto
perform in Tango X 2
8.14 Tango dancers Nannim Timoyko and Nelida Rodrguez perform
Milongueras from Tango Argentino
8.15 Junior Cevila and Mariana Parma perform in Tango Noir
8.16 Argentinian tango dancers Gachi Fernandez and Sergio Cortazzo
perform in Tango X 2
Acknowledgements
Writing this book has been a sojourn, and I am fortunate to have been helped
by the generosity of so many along the way. I give profound thanks to my
editor, Ben Piggott, who gave me this opportunity, as well as to Kate Edwards,
Autumn Spalding, and the Routledge editing staff. The brilliant and invaluable
Ann Jacoby – who cheerfully read every word – has my eternal thanks and
friendship. Going to look for photos in the huge archive that Linda and Jack
Vartoogian have amassed over years was always a magical experience. Their
superb work graces so much of this text, and they have my deep appreciation
and fondness. Much gratitude goes to Deborah Jowitt, who introduced me to
global dance on a deeper level, and to Susie Linfield, who taught me to write
about what matters. Kay Cummings, James Martin, Catherine Turocy, Julie
Malnig, Pedro Alejandro, Gay Smith, Seán Curran, and Hari Krishnan have all
been integral to my career, and I am thankful for them, as well as for all my
colleagues, past and present, at NYU and Wesleyan.
The publishers would like to thank all those included in World Dance Cultures
and acknowledge the following sources for permission to reproduce their
work in this volume:
Exploration 2.5 (p. 51): Republished with kind permission of Ron Jenkins.
Excerpt from “Fratello Arlecchino: Clowns, Kings, and Bombs in Bali” by Ron
Jenkins.
Exploration 2.6 (p. 60): Rachmi Diyah Larasati, “Introduction: Dancing on the
Mass Grave” from The Dance that Makes You Vanish: Cultural Reconstruction
in Post-Genocide Indonesia. Republished with kind permission of University of
Minnesota Press. Copyright 2013 by the Regents of the University of
Minnesota. All rights reserved.
Exploration 3.4 (p. 90): Richard Glasstone, excerpt from The Story of Dai
Ailian (Dance Books, 2007). Reprinted with kind permission of Dance Books
Ltd.
Exploration 5.3 (p. 143): Extract from Jack Gray, “Ko Mitimiti Ahau, I Am
(of) the Place, Mitimiti,” Dance Research Journal, Volume 48(1), pp 33–36,
(2016). Republished with permission of Cambridge University Press.
Exploration 5.4 (p. 151): Extract from Edward Schieffelin, The Sorrow of the
Lonely and the Burning of the Dancers (2005), Palgrave Macmillan US.
Reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan.
Exploration 6.2 (p. 164): Extract from Mette Bovin, Nomads Who Cultivate
Beauty (2001), republished with permission of The Nordic Africa Institute.
Exploration 8.3 (p. 239): Extract from Karen McCarthy Brown, “Afro-
Caribbean Spirituality: A Haitian Case Study” in Vodou in Haitian Life and
Culture: Invisible Power ed. by Claudine Michel and Patrick Bellegarde-Smith
(2006), Palgrave Macmillan US. Reproduced with permission of Palgrave
Macmillan.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders. Please advise the
publisher of any errors or omissions, and these will be corrected in subsequent
editions.
An introduction to World Dance
Cultures
As far back as the fifteenth century, European pursuit of colonies in the New
World, Africa, Oceania, Southeast Asia, and Asia was a highly competitive
and rapacious endeavor. In their zeal for new territories and treasures,
colonialists were largely blind to the ancient wisdom, religions, and cultural
practices of the peoples they were invading and/or enslaving, and solipsistic in
their view that Christian society was the best. In their “civilizing missions,”
colonial governments and missionaries regularly targeted cultural traditions,
especially dance, as pagan. A conspicuous and disturbing commonality
between most of the dances discussed in World Dance Cultures is that they
were irrevocably altered or damaged through colonial domination; the
societies in which they developed often had to fight to survive. In Custer Died
for Your Sins, the late, great Native American rights activist and scholar Vine
Deloria offered a mordant joke that could serve as one for many indigenous
peoples. Two Indians are watching Columbus’s fleet land. One turns to the
other and says, “Maybe if we leave them alone, they will go away.”1 In light
of what we know about history, the colonists didn’t go away, nor did they
leave the inhabitants alone. The fragility of cultural traditions, and in some
heartening instances, their resilience, is an important theme throughout this
introductory textbook, which delves into the historical, political, economic,
and artistic factors that shaped both these cultures and their dances.
During almost two decades of teaching global dance studies at New York
University’s Tisch Dance, finding a comprehensive textbook has been
challenging. By writing one myself, I hope to rectify this problem. World
Dance Cultures includes a current trends section on each topic, as well as
sixteen explorations offering the viewpoints of dancers, anthropologists, and
scholars. Photographs enliven each section. For clarity, the chapters are
arranged regionally, but are also issue based. Chapter 1 examines
bharatanatyam, derived from dance that was originally practiced by
devadasis in Hindu temples and courts of South India; kathak, originally
entertainment in Hindu and Muslim courts in North India; and kathakali,
which was performed by male warriors in the courts of Kerala. With the onset
of British rule in the mid-nineteenth century, all were altered due to a variety
of sociopolitical factors. Chapter 2 focuses upon the dance and the entwined
political histories of two Indonesian islands, Bali and Java. In Bali, dancers
serve as bodyguards to Hindu-Balinese gods and as spirit-mediums in healing
rituals, and perform in dance dramas to keep a community in balance. In Java,
the royal bedhaya dancers pay tribute to the ruler. In the violent aftermath of
a 1965 military coup d’état in Indonesia, socialist folk dancers were
slaughtered, while Javanese palace dancers were exploited to glorify the
militaristic New Order regime.
1.1 Overview
After India’s long-sought independence from Britain was achieved in 1947,
several indigenous genres of dance became institutionalized by its new
government and received “classical” designation. In this chapter,
bharatanatyam of Tamil Nadu, kathak of Uttar Pradesh, and kathakali of
Kerala will be explored. Bharatanatyam was historically practiced by
devadasis – a term that may be translated as “female devotees of god.” As a
profession, they performed ritual duties in temples and danced as entertainers
in royal courts in South India from the sixteenth to the early twentieth
century. Similarly, kathak derived from the hereditary tradition of tawaifs,
women who were professional entertainers at the North India courts of Hindu
and Muslim rulers during the Mughal Empire. Kathak combines Hindu
elements with Islamic influences from Persia, Afghanistan, and Turkey. Many
parallels to kathak can also be seen in the footwork and expressive arms
inherent in flamenco, a form that many speculate was influenced by Gypsies
from North India who migrated to Spain.1 When kathakali originated in the
seventeenth century, it was traditionally performed as a dance drama by men
and patronized by nobility and wealthy families. Its practitioners were
members of a warrior caste, who were highly trained in a martial art that is
still currently practiced in kathakali institutions.
In all three of these dance forms, royal patronage was crucial in supporting
the tradition and profession of the performers. With the onset of British rule
in the mid-nineteenth century, the ability of Indian rulers to financially
maintain patronage of artists at their courts waned considerably. By the early
twentieth century, tawaifs and devadasis became viewed as “nautch” dancers
– a pejorative term for a common street dancer and prostitute – and were
persecuted in an anti-nautch campaign. Although male kathakali performers
did not suffer disdain, their professions were also affected by the loss of
aristocratic support. By the beginning of the twentieth century, all three of
these forms were altered or reconstructed due to a variety of sociopolitical
factors. Today, bharatanatyam, kathak, and kathakali have become
systematized and designated as “classical” Indian dance, and what was once a
hereditary profession, passed between generations, is apt to be learned in an
academic institution. These genres are global and continue to evolve through
the innovations of vital artists who are honoring the cultural specificity of
their respective discipline, yet transcending its boundaries in myriad ways.
Case study: British interests and rule in India
In Hindu mythology, deities are like normal people: they can feel
jealousy, anger, and passion, and have spouses, lovers, and enemies. In
order to facilitate their missions among mortals, they may be incarnated
as avatars into other gods, goddesses, children, or animals. Some gods
who appear frequently in mythology are Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, and
Krishna. Brahma is known as the Creator, while Shiva, the Destroyer, is
also known as Lord of the Dance in his incarnation as Nataraja. In this
guise, he destroyed the old world through his forceful dancing called
tandava, allowing Brahma to create a new one. Vishnu is the Preserver
and has ten avatars – incarnated beings that help him in his role as
protector. Krishna, Vishnu’s eighth incarnation, is one of the most widely
worshiped gods in the Hindu pantheon. Stories abound of his antics as a
butter-stealing child and as heartthrob of the gopis – the milkmaids he
enchants by his flute playing.
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.