Dancing as Environmental Aesthetics from Indigenous America
Abstract
Contemporary studies on environmental aesthetics emphasize the relationship of continuity between nature and human action. Most of these critical approaches suggest that the emphasis on the continuity of nature with humanity implies a change of attitude to the natural environment, meaning that we should move away from the exploitation of the natural environment and focus on its preservation and conservation. In the two sections of this paper, it is argued that the idea for the continuity of humans with the natural environment has for a long time been a core philosophical belief in indigenous America, the oldest aesthetic manifestation of which has been expressed in the forms of dancing. The first section is dedicated to the idea of continuity in indigenous America, emphasizing on the concepts of Mother Nature and Human Spirit. The second part shows that native dancing embodies aesthetically the idea of continuity of human action and the natural environment.
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