The primitive dances

Dancing was considered by primitive man to be one of the most natural ways of expressing feelings and emotions. There is proof of this in the drawings of the last Paleolithic Period (at least 10,000 years ago) found in some caves in Spain. These represent men dancing round figures of animals. It is clear that they displayed in their dancing a desire to hunt and kill these animals. For this reason the experts who discovered the drawings called them hunting dance. Primitive men celebrated births, marriages, and battle victories by dancing. They also danced religious rituals to try to influence their gods. They hoped to win wars and overcome sickness, bad crops, and death by dancing to frighten away the evil spirits. In war dances, they waved their weapons and pretended to attack the enemy. They hoped this acting would make them braver and bring them victory when the battle took place. Today primitive people still dance like this.