When a Yoruba dancer performs an age old ritual dance, he becomes the spirit he intends to invoke. In this sense he looses his own individuality in order for supernatural spirits to speak through his movements, and for the proper message to be communicated. Elaborate costumes and masks are necessary elements to bring about this transformation, and these intriguing anklets would have been an important part of the dance language. They are covered on the outside with cowrie shells, (a highly valued and costly item), which the dancer wrapped around his ankles so when he moved the shells would knock against each other to make a pleasing sound. As a sort of musical instrument, the anklets helped sustain the rhythm crucial to creating an atmosphere of heightened emotions and trance. Religious/social ritual dances aimed to provide a dramatic form of social cohesion, bringing people together in a spirit of joy bonded with the spirit of their ancestors.
- (PF.5133)
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