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E-book
Author Garfinkel, Yosef, author

Title Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture : Dance and Display at the Beginning of Farming
Published Austin : University of Texas Press, June 2003

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Description 1 online resource (346 pages) : illustrations
Contents List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Part 1: The Dance Analysis -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Structural Analysis of the Dance -- Chapter 3: Functional Analysis of the Dance -- Chapter 4: Cognitive Analysis of the Dancing Scenes -- Chapter 5: Conclusions -- Part 2: The Data -- Chapter 6: General Remarks Concerning the Data -- Chapter 7: Neolithic Near East -- Chapter 8: Halafian and Samarra Cultures -- Chapter 9: Neolithic and Chalcolithic Iran -- Chapter 10: Neolithic Southeast Europe -- Chapter 11: Predynastic Egypt
Chapter 12: Later Examples from the Near East -- Chapter 13: Appendix The Figures with "Turned-upwards Legs" -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary As the nomadic hunters and gatherers of the ancient Near East turned to agriculture for their livelihood and settled into villages, religious ceremonies involving dancing became their primary means for bonding individuals into communities and households into villages. So important was dance that scenes of dancing are among the oldest and most persistent themes in Near Eastern prehistoric art, and these depictions of dance accompanied the spread of agriculture into surrounding regions of Europe and Africa. In this pathfinding book, Yosef Garfinkel analyzes depictions of dancing found on archaeological objects from the Near East, southeastern Europe, and Egypt to offer the first comprehensive look at the role of dance in these Neolithic (7000-4000 BC) societies. In the first part of the book, Garfinkel examines the structure of dance, its functional roles in the community (with comparisons to dance in modern pre-state societies), and its cognitive, or symbolic, aspects. This analysis leads him to assert that scenes of dancing depict real community rituals linked to the agricultural cycle and that dance was essential for maintaining these calendrical rituals and passing them on to succeeding generations. In the concluding section of the book, Garfinkel presents and discusses the extensive archaeological data - some 400 depictions of dance - on which his study is based
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-317) and index
Subject Art, Prehistoric -- Mediterranean Region
Art, Prehistoric -- Middle East
Dance in art.
Dance, Prehistoric -- Mediterranean Region
Dance, Prehistoric -- Middle East
Agriculture, Prehistoric -- Mediterranean Region
Agriculture, Prehistoric -- Middle East
Agriculture, Prehistoric
Antiquities
Art, Prehistoric
Dance in art
Dance, Prehistoric
SUBJECT Mediterranean Region -- Antiquities
Middle East -- Antiquities. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh90004414
Subject Mediterranean Region
Middle East
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780292728455
029272845X