I. Types of Totem Dance
1. Animal Totem
Animals are the closest companions of human beings, and were also the support for early human beings to survive. From this, we can appreciate the special status of the dance that imitates animals. "The Ludubrious Dance is a Latin American dance of the Tala'u'u'lla people, who believe they were inspired by the movements of the turkey to dance the Ludubrious Dance. Dance, the tribal leader to the front of the dance team, like a long-legged turkey like jumping around, other male dancers follow the imitation, and make the queue along the zigzag, female dancers in the male dancers behind the light jumping, and sometimes catch up, and male dancers with jumping and turning; and sometimes feet stomping, pause to let the male dancers to go up to the front.
The object of animal totem worship dance can be divided into beasts (including reptiles), flying birds, aquatic and the synthesis of the three. In the Chinese dance history data, beasts only Dongba dance has a lion, tiger, elephant, deer, porcupine and so on. The Naxi people even attribute the origin of the Dongba Dance to frogs. In the primitive beliefs of the northern peoples, in addition to deer, wolf totem worship, the tiger is also a sacred animal. Usually hunters do not take the tiger as the hunting target. Hunting is often avoided when encountering tigers, in order to prevent some offense. Hezhe hunters out to hunt when they encountered the tiger, often far from kneeling, praying, honoring the tiger as "king" or "official", or "grandfather"; there are tigers regarded as the mountain god, that he can give The tiger is also regarded as the god of the mountains, and it is believed that he can bring prey to the hunters. Meet the folk dance still have "jump tiger god" dance. Mongolian folk sorcerer "Bo amount" also sacrificed to the tiger god, in the jump in the spirit of the tiger god spirit "Ba Ri Aung Dao", and imitation of the tiger form of teeth and claws of the mighty action, in order to show reverence.
"Three in one" animal totem is the most powerful, so it is called "beast" "beast". It is a new totem that has been fused and evolved from the original totem. In China, such as dragons, phoenixes, unicorns and so on. "Dragon" can be regarded as the highest level of worship of this new totem. Summarize what all the schools say: the prototype of the dragon is a reptile, and the closest relationship with snakes, crocodiles and lizards. Water and water note": "deep water has a different fish, according to the first year of Zhengguang May 5, the weather is refreshing, heard the pool in the Chuangchuang if gongs and drums, the pool water surprised and boiling, a moment of thunder and lightning obscurity, there are five-color snake from the pool belongs to the sky, for a long time to be extinguished. Wave on the water fixed, only to see a fish in, one of which turned into a dragon."
As soon as the dragon's identity is elevated, its function is also increased. After the Han book? Ceremonial Zhi" contains: "Whenever there is a drought, the dragon dance to beg for rain." Several feet long dragon, divided into green, white, red, black, yellow five, infused with the concept of the five elements, in order to symbolize the wish of the five sides of the rain.
2. Plant Totem
Plants are the second life form after animals, and the object of worship of primitive mankind, especially trees, which are woody plants that grow all year round.
The Miao people of China worshiped the maple tree. The Miao people in western Hunan called the maple tree "mom tree". In the Miao language, "Daom", "Daom" is the tree, and "Ma" is the mother. Miao history, its ancestors belong to the "Jiu Li" tribe, the leader of the "Chi You", Chi You in the battle of deer in the Central Plains was killed by the Yellow Emperor captured the maple wood. The Classic of Mountains and Seas? Great Desert South Classic" cloud: "maple, Chi You abandoned the shackles, is maple." Therefore, the maple has become one of the main totems of the Miao. With the worship totem, there will be a totem tree dance. Qing Dynasty "Guiyang Fu Zhi" contains: "flower Miao jump month, to dream spring planted winter tree in the jump field, decorated with wildflowers, said: 'flower tree', men and women are colorful clothes, blowing sheng and singing, dance around the tree, called 'jump flower'. " Among the ethnic minorities in southern China, there is also the gourd totem and the Lusheng dance associated with it. Gourd totem belongs to the flower and fruit worship in plant totem. The worship about herbs came later than the primitive plant worship. For example, the worship of ginseng is believed to transform ginseng into dolls, girls or elderly men and women, and ginseng juice can prolong life. A large number of mysterious legends about ginseng have been circulated in Northeast China, and ginseng pickers have many taboos when they find ginseng in the Changbai Mountains and have all had the experience of being dreamed of by the spirits. The worship of ginseng is more common among the Manchus and Koreans in Northeast China. The "Ginseng Dance" in the Chinese dance drama "The Mermaid" is, of course, a greatly distorted version of the Plant Totem Dance.
3. Biological Totem
"Lun Heng - Sacrifice" said: "The group of gods, said the wind uncle, rain master, Lei Gong's genus. The wind to shake, the rain to moisten, the thunder to move. The four seasons are generated, the cold and heat change, the sun, moon and stars, and people look up to them." Although they are inanimate in themselves, they are endowed with divine power and regarded as totems.
Solar totems are the most common, from Ancient Greece to Ancient Egypt to the Indian tribes of today. "The Yumari dance is a dance of the Umala people of Latin America. At the beginning of the dance, the existing priests in the venue erected a wooden cross, shaking the mallet to the left and right in order to inform the heavens that the dance is about to begin; then the mallet will be changed to the up and down direction of the shaking, while dancing around the wooden frame in circles, and chanting in a low voice. At this time the other dancers slowly gathered, with a fine dance steps ten and around the wooden frame into a queue forward, backward; sometimes in a circle according to the clockwise direction of the slow move. The women stand aside or behind the men to follow the dance. When the male dancers facing the east in a semicircular formation, the female dancers side from east to west, simulating the orbit of the sun and slowly moving formation. Beyond the sun and moon, the speechless mountains and rocks are also worshiped. Shengde Mountain, Jinfeng Mountain and Whistle Mountain, where the Dong people live in Guizhou, are all sacred mountains of the Dong people, and every June there are people going to the mountains to worship God. When the Dong people go into the mountains to cut wood, hunt, or reclaim land, they burn incense and paper to seek permission from the mountain gods beforehand, or else they will incur disaster. The Buyei have a traditional faith program March 3 mountain activities, is the village as a unit of the mountain god ceremony. The Bai people worship the two mountain gods of Dancang Mountain, and there is a mountain god shrine to enjoy the sacrifice. There are also the Bai people in the first month of the lunar calendar, from the first to the fifteenth pay mountain festival, choose an auspicious day, people dressed up high mountains, with wine and rice dishes for sacrifice and pay thanks to the mountain god's gifts and blessings, very warm and grand. The Yi people worship fire, and believe in and honor the fire god "Ayidigu". Said this god will give mankind light and warmth when he is happy; bring fire when he is not happy. Worship of water Dai living in the Lancang River basin, for the sacrifice of the Lancang River water god. Jinghong Dai people call this will be God for the Dragon Goddess, the legend of the river there are nine dragons, including the White Dragon's daughter and the Dai a young man married, so that the local winds and rain, a good harvest. Later, the local headman killed the dragon woman husband, enraged the dragon goddess, the Dai village into a sea, flooding. Later, Jinghong people thanked for the sacrifice, and the river god for the protection of the village of Meng God, yearly sacrifice, to avoid flooding.
4. Genital Totem
Primitive humans in the process of evolution, more and more feel the significance of tribal reproduction. This kind of fission reproduction like plants can not only strengthen the tribe's ability to survive, but also can continue life in the pleasure. Thus, there came the totem worship of genitals and its dance. Of course, such dances are hard to see today, especially in 'modern lands and peoples with near negative population growth rates, where the desire to reproduce has greatly diminished. But in some of the more primitive and barren areas, vestiges of the dance still exist. In the famous Wooden Drum Dance of the Miao people in Qiandongnan, China, people not only dance around wooden drums that symbolize their ancestors, but also revel in the nude wooden statues of their ancestors on their backs, embodying strong reproductive imagery.
Characteristics of Totem Dance
1. Image
Totem Dance is obviously a kind of "figurative dance", because the totem itself is an image. Primitive humans have a special interest in the imitation of mysterious objects, just as children always love to show their fascination with things that interest them with their body movements. The Samoan village girl in the butterfly dance is like this: the performer sometimes kneeling on the ground, sometimes rushed out, as if the butterfly in the drum wings fluttering, and finally landed on the knees to make a circle.
2. Intentionality
Totem dance enables primitive people to achieve pleasure in performance, which makes them feel as if they have fallen into the image of the totem they worship and identify with, and get the spiritual and emotional experience as if they were with the totem. This is very similar to the feelings of children imitating lions, tigers and doves, but the difference is that there is more of a collective interpenetration and catharsis of ideas in the totem, which is the kernel of the collective representation of the totem dance. The emotional power of representations is hard to imagine how great. Their objects are not simply perceived by the consciousness in the form of a reflection or mental image, fear, hope, religious terror, the ardent hope and urgency of convergence with the essence of ****same, the fervent appeal to the protector god - all of this constitutes the soul of these representations.
The Evolution of Totemic Dance
With the further socialization and civilization of the clan tribes, totem worship and its dance also began to change from connotation to form, or coalesce into politics, or hereditary customs, or submerged or fused in the sea of national psychogenesis.
1. Political utilitarianism
The process of social classification, so that the totem also began to penetrate into the minds of the rulers and solidified the rulers, the rulers in accordance with the rule of the power gradually constructed their own political totems. In China, the dragon and phoenix totems and their "dragon flight and phoenix dance" are the most typical. The dragon totem first originated from the clan tribes. In recent years, lizards, crocodiles, pythons and dragons have been found in ancient cultural relics and ruins from various periods since 5000-6000 years ago. According to the evidence, the Yanhuang tribe to tiger totem, while the southern ethnic minorities use the dragon as a totem, the Shang replaced the Xia after the dragon totem dominance, the tiger image is gradually transformed into the image of the dragon. Han Dynasty artifacts appeared in the Fu Xi, Nuwa's human head and snake body image, that is, when the Chinese ancestors worship the image of the dragon illustration.
Once the totem was established, it was accompanied by worship activities. The phoenix totem is an evolution of the bird totem, a validation of the ruler's collection of birds. The Shawen (说文) reads, "The phoenix is a divine bird. Tian Lao said: 'the phoenix of the image also, Hong before working after, snake neck fish tail, storks Peltebuk, ducks think, dragon text turtle back, swallow jaw chicken pecking, five colors ready to lift. Out of the Oriental gentleman's country soaring beyond the four seas, over the Kunlun, drinking pillar, Maundy feather weak water, twilight host Dan cave, see the world peace." Since the Qin and Han dynasties, about the phoenix bird see, phoenix bird to, phoenix to the instrument of record, repeatedly seen in history, used to proclaim the auspiciousness of peace and prosperity. The phoenix bird into the successive dynasties of the royal family, and symbolize the dignity of the royal family of the dragon to match, become a symbol of the Queen's god bird, become the worship of the "four spirits" one. So the phoenix bird about the noble and auspicious pictures and decorations. The emperor's old residence for the phoenix residence, the imperial chariot for the phoenix carriage, the empress dowager and the empress into the temple line worship wear phoenix crown (after the civil wedding adopted for the bride to wear the crown), elegant music phoenix law, the emperor special paper said phoenix paper (painted on the gold phoenix), the head of the noblewoman decorated with phoenix hairpin, the emperor's imperial edict for the phoenix imperial edict, the war with the dragon flag relative to the phoenix flag, the emperor umbrella said the phoenix cover, the inner palace pavilion called phoenix pavilion, phoenix building, the palace pool phoenix pool pool. The legend of "phoenix book", King Wu of Zhou, the King of Wen have got the phoenix to the emperor's fate of the Ruishu. Folk have "birds towards the phoenix" "dragon and phoenix" "phoenix sunrise" (phoenix more red color, so also known as "phoenix (the phoenix is mostly red in color, so it is also called "Danfeng"). Thus imagine, "phoenix dance" can only be the first to be seen in the court. As a centralized image, the dragon and phoenix dance in the court occupies a very high position.
2. Secular entertainment
The idea of domination is the idea of the ruler. Since the dragon and phoenix became the highest totem worship, and became the embodiment of good luck, the common folk dance of the dragon and phoenix certainly became popular, passed from generation to generation, and became more and more intense. Dragon dance, for example, different styles in different places, even if the same style and different dance methods, even if the same dance method and different styles: the same rain dragon dance, there is a person dancing the small green dragon, there is also a super-sized large disk dragon, etc., insisting on sweet and lively, especially in the sky high Emperor far away from the poorer towns and villages. In the first month of spring, autumn harvest to pay the gods, organize happy events, groundbreaking, most of them have to dance a dance. At that time, the "Dragon Division" led by people dressed as "dragon male" "dragon mother" and children, waving small colorful flags to dance, but there is no dragon props, but through the dancers of the team and the action to The dance is performed by a team of dancers and their movements. One section of the umbrella dance, umbrellas, umbrellas connected, stand up, said the dragon for the Miao family to bring the wind and rain; side of the side of the body to turn the umbrella, is a symbol of the divine dragon rolled to the image of the bustling. Dance changed, the dance changed, the image of the dragon also changed. In folklore, according to the secular mood, the dragon is not just the Golden Luan Bao Dian columns on the kind of majesty, but "into the countryside". Changxing, Zhejiang Province, "hundred leaves dragon", the dragon body with man-made lotus petals a number of pieces connected and become, with a water town flavor.
3. Artistic performance
Totem dance from the folk on the court, and from the court dispersed to the folk in the process, but also follow their own rhythms to the performance, to the stage art evolution. Combined with this statement, "Dan Zhu" proves that "Dan Zhu in the era of Yao and Shun was a clan with a crane as a totem", and the stilt play was directly originated from "the dance of the ancient crane totem clan". The folk dance on stilts in the square no longer sees the slightest hint of totem dance as a group, but when the totem dance is presented on the stage in an individualized way, it becomes stage art. Whether it is the dragon dance, fish dance, snake dance, crane dance, water dance, peacock dance, whether they continue to dance in the square or on the stage and dance, these performances or artistic dance, can be said to be "totem clan dance" natural extension.
4. National Psychology
Totem worship has a direct impact on the generation and stereotyping of the national psyche, and in this process, the totem dance is almost a microcosm of the national psyche. The Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai once used the poem "dancing with broad sleeves, like a bird coming from the east of the sea" to depict the beautiful dance of the Goguryeo Dance that he saw at that time. As a matter of fact, it was the totem worship that was gradually stereotyped in the age of obscurantism that infused the later multi-ethnic and multi-style dances with the religious blood that determined the blood type. Of course, the composition of this blood is not only totem, such as the Korean dance, which is also related to the long-standing myths and legends, and universal witchcraft activities, and the later Taoist idea of gods and immortals, and China's Confucianism.