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Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy |
Author: Barbara Ehrenreich
Published: 2007-01-09 |
List price: $26.00
Our price: $17.16
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As of: January 07th, 2009 07:16:21 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Take back the power of joy
I found this book fascinating as it gave me a new way to frame history through looking at the power of collective joy. While reading it, I vowed to attend our neighborhood 4th of July parade - just because my kids are grown doesn't mean I can't celebrate with my decorated bike or dog. I am also looking forward to attending a game of our Madison Mallards Northwoods League baseball team where the stadium is truly family friendly, the fans are involved in the game, sit up close, sing, cheer, eat local food, and remember what it is to love the game of baseball.
We can only do a limited amount by watching life go by, it is time to get out and participate again.
 Life minus dance equals zero
What is it about the human psyche that almost demands that one take off the social mask, shed inhibition, and engage in behavior requiring sizable kinetic energy, behavior of which is sometimes totally beyond the pale of acceptable standards of conduct? Is this behavior an intrinsic human need, or maladjustment that requires tuning or even rescuing by those cultures that do not stoop to the writhing and bodily contortions of the primitive, backward cultures that do? Is stillness, is the sterile boardroom composure that appears settled and refined, an acid test for rationality? Can one indeed be rational and still indulge periodically in the drunken-Mount-of-Ephesus-like ecstasy of the ancient Greeks? Is dance a sign of social decadence or proof of social health, and if the former why do so many people throughout history risk reprisal by authorities by joining their friends, neighbors, and strangers to "dance in the streets?"
This book provides an excellent context to begin to answer these questions. Although the book is short, and frequently provides only anecdotal evidence for its assertions, both its statements and conclusions are plausible, and the author exhibits an intellectual honesty that is becoming rare in today's intellectual circles. She is very aware, and admits so throughout the book, that much more evidence is needed to conclude some of the claims that are made between its pages. It is a book that puts human movement on a pedestal, as an object or worship and as an activity that respects tradition as well as rebels against it. When one reaches its final pages, one becomes more convinced that dance, that is, dance with no inhibitions or restraints, or "dancing in the streets", is part of being human, a necessity like air, food, and water. A culture that has it is a vibrant and confident one. A culture where it is absent is a dysfunctional one.
But as the author details in the book, many attempts are made to suppress the out-of-equilibrium ethos of dance, sometimes by persuasion or intimidation, but most often by force. And most of the world's major religions have been all too happy to assist with this. They demand stillness in their subjects: movements resembling even in the slightest the ignorant savages of tribal cultures are an anathema. One must not be too elemental-to close to the jungle, if one is to have a higher, organized, rational culture. But even the most zealous of efforts fails to rid the world of the pestilence of dance. It reappears, as the author shows, in the sports stadiums throughout the civilized world, and in the high fidelity, high-decibel, trance-inducing rock concerts of the same.
The author ends the book lamenting the state of the planet and hoping for a revival of the translation of potential to kinetic energy that is the street dance. Her concerns are to be noted but there is really no cause for worry. There is plenty of energy, plenty of activity, plenty of innovation, plenty of action in this ruckus of scientific and technological advancement, in this incredible outpouring of creativity that is stirring up the conceptual dust. In this carnival called the twenty-first century.
ecstasy is innate
Dance Anthropologists, Dance Makers, Cultural Anthropologists, those seeking a community to call their own, and those who long to be invited to 'the dance' will all delight in this extraordinary tale, ehemm I mean history. Barbara invites us all back to the dance, our place of connectedness, ecstasy, and pure expression of life (and culture). Try to read this and not feel its truth in your neurological wiring. Read Anya Royce Peterson and then this, or this and then Anya, or Levi Strauss and then this, or this and then Strauss. But whatever you do, don't overlook this book. I haven't yet read Ehrenreich's Blood Rites: the origins and history of the passion of war, but she makes a strong argument that it is the other half of this story, and it will surely be my next read.
A compelling read
This is an interesting and compelling book to read. Although, I cannot comment on the accuracy of the historical information, the descriptions of rock concerts and sports events in today's world are consistent with my observations. I would add that political events that involve large numbers of people also share the same attributes: chanting, moving, and collective engagement.
SAVE THE WORLD......DANCE!
I totally connect with this book! Ehrenreich has done a brilliant job of:
1)Thinking of the subject in the first place; 2)Knowing how important it is to connect up the lack of Celebration and Joy with the history of Patriarchy; 3)Weaving the quotes of many authors through the historical sequence to demonstrate the vividness of Celebration/Ecstatic experiences. As well as demonstrating the suppression of such.
This book presents a wholy new perspective on the innards and basic instincts that are the invisible pulse of patriarchy. The "head' part of patriarchy, linear analytical thinking, suppressed the "heart" part, the
social/emotional feelings, that are natural to human being-ness.
This book gives much Hope for our ability, innate and alive, to blossom more fully into Joy as we continue our practical and political grassroots growth. We all want Community and, happily, Community and Celebration, work symbiotically to energize the natural pulse of humanity...Joy.
THERE'LL BE DANCIN'....DANCIN' IN THE STREETS!
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