FUNCTION AND FORM 



The analyses have concentrated on the purely formal or artistic 

 aspects of the songs and dances. These eloquent forms were not 

 invented for esthetic gratification, but arose out of a practical need. 

 Their expressiveness is a means to an end, though this end may have 

 been modified in recent centuries. Bear rituals imitate the bear to 

 induce his good will — the more perfect the imitation, the more com- 

 plete the good will. Without a doubt every element contributes to 

 this functional efficacy, though at the present time the writer has not 

 been able to fathom the precise magical connotations of tonaHty, 

 rhythm, and geometry. 



In more general terms, we may be able to establish a relationship 

 between ritual function and formal development. The comparative 

 tabulation of dance function and choreography corroborates the 

 impression of the musical tabulations, namely, that contemporary 

 religious concepts confuse rather than clarify attempts at synthesis, 

 or some order of development. The rites paramount in the 

 modern Iroquois mind, those to the Creator, obviously belong to a 

 more developed stage than do the Medicine rites. On the other 

 hand, the arrangement of the choreographic figures shows a consecu- 

 tive sequence from the simple to the complex. With complexity as 

 our criterion, we have rearranged the rituals. The resultant order is 

 not exactly the same for the music as for ground plans, nor for ground 

 plans as for steps. Quavering, with its complex melodies, uses simple 

 choreography. Shaking-a-bush, with its complex ground plan, em- 

 ploys a simple step. Nonetheless, the various artistic manifestations 

 show similar trends, corresponding, on the whole, to the order of the 

 diagrams of ground plans. They can be tentatively grouped as 

 follows, in order of complexity. 



CHOREOGRAPHIC AND MUSICAL GROUPING 



(1) Men's shamanistic medicine societies — False Face, yeidos. 

 Tertial, monotone. 



(2) Women's old style dances — Dark Dance, Old fskanye, choreo- 

 graphically Quavering and Changing-a-rib. Secundal. 



(3) Animal cures — Bear, Buffalo, Robin, also Shake-the-pumpkin. 

 Feature: monotone antiphony. Round, stomp. 



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