ISBN:
0674502299
,
9780674502291
,
9780674040878
,
0674040872
Language:
English
Pages:
Online Ressource (viii, 198 p.)
,
ill.
Edition:
Online-Ausg. [S.l.] HathiTrust Digital Library
Series Statement:
History e-book project
DDC:
306.484
Keywords:
Rhythm Psychological aspects
;
Rhythm Cross-cultural studies
;
Psychological aspects
;
Dance Psychological aspects
;
Dance Cross-cultural studies
;
Psychological aspects
;
Movement, Psychology of
;
Electronic books Cross-cultural studies
Abstract:
In Keeping Together in Time one of the most widely read and respected historians in America pursues the possibility that coordinated rhythmic movement - and the shared feelings it evokes - has been a powerful force in holding human groups together. As he has done for historical phenomena as diverse as warfare, plague, and the pursuit of power, William McNeill brings a dazzling breadth and depth of knowledge to his study of dance and drill in human history. From the records of distant and ancient peoples to the latest findings of the life sciences, he discovers evidence that rhythmic movement has played a profound role in creating and sustaining human communities. The behavior of chimpanzees, festival village dances, the close-order drill of early modern Europe, the ecstatic dance-trances of shamans and dervishes, the goose-stepping Nazi formations, the morning exercises of factory workers in Japan - all these and many more figure in the bold picture McNeill draws. A sense of community is the key, and shared movement, whether dance or military drill, is its mainspring. McNeill focuses on the visceral and emotional sensations such movement arouses, particularly the euphoric fellow-feeling he calls "muscular bonding." These sensations, he suggests, endow groups with a capacity for cooperation, which in turn improves their chance of survival
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index. - Description based on print version record
,
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.
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