Awesome Pow Wow Nevada Native American Dancing (Mai 2024)
Powwow, o sărbătoare a culturii indiene americane în care oameni din diverse națiuni indigene se adună cu scopul de a dansa, cânta și onora tradițiile strămoșilor lor. Termenul powwow, care provine dintr-un ritual de vindecare, are originea într-una dintre națiunile algoncheene din indienii de nord-est. În timpul începutului anilor 1800, medicina care călătorește arată vânzarea tuturor tonicelor de leac, folosite „pudră” pentru a descrie produsele lor. Acești vânzători au angajat adesea indienii locali pentru a dansa pentru divertismentul potențialilor clienți, care au aplicat curând termenul la dansul expoziției, precum și la medicamentele de brevet. Numele a luat stăpânire, iar indienii înșiși i-au adăugat nomenclatura lor pentru a descrie dansul pentru un public într-o expoziție.
Astăzi, pulberile au loc pe o perioadă de una până la patru zile și deseori atrag dansatori, cântăreți, artiști și comercianți de la sute de kilometri distanță. Spectatorii (inclusiv non-indienii) sunt bineveniți să participe, deoarece participanții încearcă să împărtășească aspectele pozitive ale culturii lor cu străini. Puternicurile moderne pot fi grupate în două divizii largi: evenimente „concurență” (sau „concurs”) și cele denumite „tradiționale”. Evenimentele din competiție oferă premii substanțiale în diferite categorii de dans și muzică standardizate. În schimb, pulberile tradiționale oferă cantități mici de „bani de zi” tuturor sau unei părți din participanți (cum ar fi primii 10, 20 sau 30 de dansatori care se înregistrează) și nu au dansuri sau cântări competitive. Ambele diviziuni împărtășesc aceeași ordine de evenimente și stiluri de cântat și dans.
Întâlnirile similare cu praful au existat în majoritatea comunităților autohtone cu mult înainte de apariția așezării europene. Dansurile erau de obicei asociate cu una din cele patru ocazii: ceremonii religioase, sărbători de acasă, onorând petreceri de război de succes, sărbători de alianțe noi sau reafirmate și evenimente sponsorizate de diverse societăți războinice sau grupuri familiale extinse. O diferență majoră între evenimentele vechi și cele moderne este că acestea din urmă sunt intertribale și incluzive, ceea ce înseamnă că sunt deschise tuturor celor care doresc să participe, în timp ce evenimentele pre-contact permiteau doar dansului tribului și celor din triburile vecine prietene. motive.
The songs and dances performed at 21st-century powwows derive primarily from those practiced by the warrior societies of the Plains Indians, with the greatest influences coming from the Heluska Warrior Society styles common to the Omaha and Ponca peoples. After the reservation period began (c. 1880), Indian dancers and singers started traveling with Wild West shows such as the one directed by William F. (“Buffalo Bill”) Cody. They soon added an element of crowd-pleasing showmanship, known as “fancying it up.” They also developed an opening parade into the arena, made in precise order. This practice is the direct ancestor of the contemporary powwow’s Grand Entry, during which groups of dancers follow a colour guard into the arena in a predetermined sequence. The Grand Entry not only marks the beginning of the event but also motivates dancers to arrive in a timely manner, because competition points are deducted from those who miss it.
Between the beginning of the reservation era and the end of World War I, the warrior society dances that formed the core of later powwow styles nearly disappeared owing to U.S. and Canadian governmental suppression of traditional Native cultural practices (see Native American: Native American history). After armistice, however, celebrations honouring the return of native veterans fostered the revival of homecoming dances. A new sense of friendship with other American Indian peoples also emerged as the war ended: tribal identity melded to a certain extent with a pan-Indian sense of kinship, and interaction between different tribes increased. In Oklahoma, for instance, where numerous but disparate tribes had been crowded closely together as a result of 19th-century federal removal policies, communities began to invite members of neighbouring tribes to their dances—often called picnics or fairs—as a matter of course. This practice spread to the reservations on the northern Plains as automobiles became common.
Following World War II, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs initiated a program that relocated thousands of Plains Indians into large urban areas, most notably Denver; Minneapolis, Minn.; the San Francisco Bay area; and southern California. This migration sparked a second wave of cultural diffusion and intertribal collaboration, as Indians whose tribal heritage was not from the Plains peoples began to adopt the music and dance styles of that region as their own. The ensuing urbanization of powwow culture encouraged sponsors to hold the largest events in metropolitan (and, later, casino) settings. It also resulted in an intensification of competition and in the formation of a “powwow circuit” with dancers and musicians traveling to competitive events that are scheduled a year or more in advance.
Some aspects of the powwow circuit differ on the basis of location. The “northern style,” originating from the northern Great Plains and the Great Lakes regions, now takes place throughout the northern tier of U.S. states and in Canada. Styles of music and dance that are considered northern include those from the Lakota, Dakota, and other bands of the Sioux nation and from other northern Plains peoples such as the Blackfoot and Ojibwa. “Southern style” powwows have their genesis in the central and western areas of Oklahoma and in the cultures of the southern Plains tribes, including the Kiowa, Comanche, Pawnee, and Ponca peoples. Northern and southern powwow formats are similar in many ways, differing mostly in the presence or absence of specific forms of dance. For instance, the southern forms include men’s southern straight and women’s southern cloth dances, while the northern styles include men’s and women’s traditional dances. Other categories, such as women’s jingle dress and men’s grass dances, began in specific tribal communities but have spread throughout the powwow circuit and are no longer associated with a particular geographic area. Men’s and women’s fancy dances, with origins in the Wild West shows, are also widely popular.
As with powwow dancing, powwow singing is categorized by its practitioners as being either northern or southern in style. The northern style area includes singers from the central and northern Plains, Canada, and the Great Lakes regions, while southern singing is synonymous with that done by the Oklahoma nations. In both traditions, singing is performed by a group of individuals who are arrayed in a circle around a large drum. Musically, all powwow songs share the same basic formal structure, including a steady drumbeat, but southern songs have a lower vocal range and three accented drumbeats between repetitions of each verse. Northern singing is pitched higher, and songs are characterized by drum accent patterns known as “Honour Beats” that occur in the interior of each song rather than between verses. In the southern tradition, drumming is an exclusively male activity: men play the drum while singing, and women sing while standing in a circle around the men. In the northern tradition, however, women may also “sit at the drum” occasionally, depending on the traditional practices of their community. See also Native American dance; Native American music.
