NP - All Work and No Play Make the Baining the "Dullest Culture on Earth"

[David Morris]

The one type of “play” that the Baining sanction is dancing, but only
a certain type of highly stylized dancing. They choreograph elaborate
dances, with masks and costumes, which they carry out at certain times
of the year; but, according to Fajans, they attach no symbolic
significance to these. Traditionally the dances were the province
entirely of the adult men; women and children were forbidden even from
observing. Now, according to Fajans, women and children do
participate, at least to some degree. Perhaps these dances are
acceptable to the culture because their formal structure and the
intensive work that goes into preparing for them (including the
creation of the elaborate costumes, which are used only once and then
destroyed) remove them from primitive, "animal-like" ways of playing.
Also, today the dances appear to be conducted largely to entertain
visitors, which may put them into a category of work rather than play.

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 11:45 AM, jochen stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> But they obviously have fire dances: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baining_people
>