Upon reading Lynda Roper's chapter on Sabbaths one of the many things that stood out to me was the mention of dancing. Although many view dancing as a time of joy and happiness and even Roper mentions that dances punctuated social life. She mentions how dances celebrated weddings, the birth of children, and other festivities throughout the village. Yet there is another tone given to dancing as Roper goes on. Women accused of witchcraft most often "flew" to Sabbaths and confessed to dancing with/for the devil. During this time dancing seemed to have gone from an act so joyous to something sinister. Roper mentions certain authors and their take on dancing at that time. The most common theme among these authors was that dancing was associated with fighting, adultery, murder. Even Jean Bodin condemned the dances that made "people wild and raging, and women to miscarry." Dancing was seen as an anti-fertility rite. Yet mentioned before it also celebrated the birth of children.
It's interesting how these things in life, dancing, feasting, playing music, are simple acts yet during the witch hunts many of these activities were suddenly viewed as sinful.
Just a fun side note: the whole time I was reading about this I was thinking "Footloose" this sounds exactly like the plot of the movie Footloose.
So, the plot thickens. Analyzing the six degrees to Kevin Bacon, he is now associated to the characters of the witches sabbaths in the medieval times. That said, it sure does have the undertone that dancing itself is an evil act that can lead to drugs and children out of wedlock. While this is a exaggeration, it does seem to serve a purpose of cautionary tale that is passed from authoritarian figures to the masses as you pointed out. A strong Protestant Biblicism of guilt and shaming of sinful nature in the act(s).
ReplyDeleteI wonder what kind of dancing was going on in both the villages and at the Sabbath. In the villages, were the dances civil and delicate? Were the dances at Sabbaths wild and orgy like? One has to wonder what the thinking was back then to declare dancing as an evil act of sin (just like in the movie Footloose) if the villagers were merely dancing because of good fortune. Good post. Now if you will excuse me, I have to take my son to dance class.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good post, and I too was thinking about Footloose. Its funny how we relate things in "modern" culture to historical events. I was also wondering about the point you made when you said that these simple things in life were all of the sudden viewed as sinful, especially how dancing and feasting was done at the birth of children and yet was seen in a bad view and thought to cause infertility in other situations. I wonder if this has to do with the parameters set by religious beliefs. By this I mean that some things have been seen as acceptable within religion but only if done at the appropriate times. And whenever these said acts are committed outside of the set time it is frowned upon. Just one example that came to my mind would be feasts or Feast Days dominantly celebrated within the Catholic tradition. I am not 100% sure about my accusation here but I hypothesize if one was to celebrate a certain saint on a day other than its predetermined feast day then it would be seen as outside of the normative behavior, which may or may not be frowned upon.
ReplyDeleteGeorge--funny! Think Elvis: everyone did it, but it's dangerous. Or channel Hairspray, with divergent opinions on dancing. Channel splits in elite and popular culture that divide the sixteenth century increasingly. Dancing was definitely part of culture. But there were worries about it, just as there are today. For instance, a high school dance without lyrics in the chosen music . . . personal experience, 2014, SGF.
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