Indigenous America and Africa

 Hey y'all! I am back with some new content for you, Indigenous American and African music traditions! I found a few things that really interested me, did some research, and now I am bringing it to you. So take a seat, grab a snack, and put in your headphones, because we've got some good stuff this week!

1. My first fascination was how Native Americans use animals as symbols in almost all of their rituals, especially their music and dances. As we saw in class, some of the fancy dances resemble movements of animals and regalia having similar qualities to said animals. The most popular dances involving animal symbolism are the Buffalo Dance, Turkey Dance, and the Eagle Dance. Now if I remember correctly, we saw an example of the Eagle Dance in class, but I am most intrigued by the Buffalo Dance. Commonly used for manifesting a good hunt, Native Americans on the Great Plains performed the Buffalo Dance as a way to show their appreciation to the spirit of the buffalo and bring the herd closer to them. In my research, I found a very cool website that explains the Buffalo Dance: https://www.aaanativearts.com/buffalo-dance. Here is a video of the Buffalo Dance being performed by professionals!


2. Now I have a bone to pick here, why is it that women get more conservative dances in the Native American culture while men get to wear loud regalia and perform crazy dances? This was my first thought when we started talking about traditional Native American dances in class. Yeah, yeah, fancy dances are cool and all, but can we get a hand for the ladies??? 

Anyways, after doing some digging, I discovered that I am not the only one with this annoyance. Native American women undoubtedly face more sexual trauma and violence in the United States than anyone wants to talk about. So, in an effort to retake their power as women, the Flower Dance celebrates the young women of the community, like a "coming of age" ceremony. The Flower Dance is typically a sort of celebration with food, more dancing, music, and socialization between community members. The link here (https://uplift.love/indigenous-culture-reasserts-womens-power-through-dance/) explains this wayyyyy further if you are just as compelled to learn as I was. 


3. While I'm on my feminist tear, the Moribayassa is a dance in West African countries that traditionally is performed by women asking for the spirit of Moriba Yassa, usually for help with pregnancy or healing from an illness. What is very unique about this dance is the way the woman performing the dance is dressed. She wears rags and battered clothing, messes up her hair, and moves erotically to the beat of the drum. After the dance, she buries the rags and prays. The blog I found talks a little bit more about the history of this dance and includes some really cool videos of it being performed! https://www.mamalisa.com/blog/moribayassa/

Thanks for learning with me on this fine Saturday, see y'all on Tuesday!


Comments

  1. Luis Rios BrenaMarch 14, 2022 at 4:22 PM

    i found your post very intresting grace becasue i did one similar to this and how native americans use animals as symbols. i liked how you explained how africas negative sides and then positive side.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ansley RobersonMarch 17, 2022 at 9:29 AM

    I'm so glad you wrote about the Flower Dance. I have never heard of that but was excited to learn about it from your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Caitlin MichelangeloMarch 19, 2022 at 10:19 AM

    I am glad I wasn't the only one annoyed by the women not getting a fair amount like the men do but am happy to see that they did end up creating the flower dance! I also think it's so cool how all the dances they have all represent something different and it's amazing how they all remember these dances. I wonder how long it takes them to learn the dances... 

    ReplyDelete
  4. JulianneMarch 22, 2022 at 10:11 AM

    I also found it very interesting how the Native American culture uses animals as symbols in most of their rituals. I am also very intrigued by the buffalo dance. I know we talked about the Native American rituals a lot in class, but I loved getting to read in depth about the rituals and animal significance in their culture.

    ReplyDelete

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