Though unfortunately the posting member has lost his 'pro' subscription and the set ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/45382725@N03/sets/72157628150854507/ ~ has become unavailable, a flickr member traveling in Botswana photographed a very small, (two men and three women if i remember correctly), Bushmen camp ceremony which suggests causewayed enclosures . Here are links to three photos that can still be accessed :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45382725@N03/6401803071/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45382725@N03/6401814483/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45382725@N03/6401824777/lightbox/
Bushmen are among the world's most ancient extant cultures .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushmen
Thus i feel that their traditions would have been passed broadly into the symbolic language of the diaspora . Though many societies might have dropped this particular ceremony, it seems possible to me that those that flowered in (early) Neolithic Britain had preserved it, and wrote it large on the landscape .
What follows is a description i wrote when the set was still available :
"The first part of the set is dedicated to what appears to be a ceremonial dance in which men tread an irregular ring around a group of women sitting by a fire, (who appear to chant or sing) . The men are careful during part of this to plow the dust with their feet so that a double ditch flanked by ridges is formed ; something which can be seen in this photo, this photo, and this photo . They then tread a second, more circular, ring around the fire itself . Later, one of them treads through the ring(s) in one or more places, cutting them in a manner perhaps analogous to a causeway ."
I find the difference in scales between the enclosures and this ceremony touches a part of my consciousness that is hard to define, except to offer the adage : "From tiny acorns mighty oaks grow."
This post is based on one i previously made to the Alternative Theories forum of the site stonepages.com ; http://www.stonepages.com/forum/index.php?/topic/3998-traditional-african-custom-marking-music-belief/#entry11228
|
