2010
DOI: 10.3366/afr.2010.0405
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On Dancing and Fishing: Joy and the Celebration of Fertility Among the Punu of Congo-Brazzaville

Abstract: Among the Punu of Congo-Brazzaville ikoku dancing is perceived through the concept of joy. In line with the privileging of the emotional experience, this article intends to consider the dance as an emotive institution – that is, a socially organized activity that creates culturally meaningful forms of emotion within which an understanding of self, as well as social identities and relations, are shaped. In ikoku, a succession of dance sessions, embarked on with shame-banishing pride and performed individually o… Show more

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Cited by 9 publications
(3 citation statements)
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“…But they performed in a line, with no movement in space as in traditional performances. Beyond their different origins, most of these dances emphasized swaying hips and the eroticism of waist movements, a feature present both in popular dances and in traditional moves such as ikoku, a symbolic celebration of fertility (Plancke 2010).…”
Section: Social Contexts and Musical Contentsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…But they performed in a line, with no movement in space as in traditional performances. Beyond their different origins, most of these dances emphasized swaying hips and the eroticism of waist movements, a feature present both in popular dances and in traditional moves such as ikoku, a symbolic celebration of fertility (Plancke 2010).…”
Section: Social Contexts and Musical Contentsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The performances, especially the ikoku dance, further institute a link with the water spirits. The collective fishing that takes place in the pools of these spirits comprises two regulated actions whose main features can be found in the two phases of the ikoku dance and which are designated by the same verbs (see Plancke ). This analogy traces a connection between the human dance world and the spiritual water world: in the dance encounter, which is evocative of the sexual encounter, the dancing couple activates human fertility, which is ultimately guaranteed by the water spirits.…”
Section: Community‐making and The Integration Of Social Normsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The tension between these principles is distinctively enacted in the ikoku dancing, which invokes both gender complementarity and maternal encompassing. The two phases of the ikoku dance – the jumping phase and the hip‐rotation phase – have gendered connotations derived from the complementary tasks of the married couple, namely hunting for men and giving birth for women (see Plancke ). The feminine phase, meanwhile, is ideally performed by a couple, conjuring the image of the female containing both sexes.…”
Section: Community‐making and The Integration Of Social Normsmentioning
confidence: 99%