Ancient Curriculum in India
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REVIEW
Early Ed.
The earliest forms of education were focused on hunting and gathering wild foods and vegetables. There was no reading or writing and information was transmitted through word of mouth, songs, gestures and rituals. Why was it important for dance ed.?
Sumerians
Developed a calendar based on the moon and the sun (lunisolar).
They were the first to develop writing.
Each of the Sumerian city states had its own god.
The “Epic of Gilgamesh,” (2100 BC) a mythic poem that first appeared as early as the third millennium B.C. is about a Sumerian king textually documented through twelve clay tablets.
Why is this text important for the study of dance?
That dance was considered a joyful activity and indicative of a happy, normal life, is further seen in the Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Some people claim that the goddess Ishtar is still invoked in modern performances by celebrities such as JLo, Chakira, Beyoncé and the Kardashians.
(2) Sumerian and Akkadian textual sources portray dance both as a private act of spontaneous joy and play and as a cultic act performed in religious rituals.
(3) Sumerian courts on the need of making manifest to all, by means of the written word, ... reason to believe that music, song, and dance were a major source.
Source 1: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3210912
Source 2: https://www.degruyter.com/database/EBR/entry/MainLemma_13753/html?lang=en
Source 3: https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/sumerians.pdf
Babylonians
The most complete version of The Epic of Gilgameshwas written around the 12th century B.C. by the Babylonians.
The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed c. 1755–1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organized, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It was written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, purportedly by Hammurabi, sixth king of the First Dynasty of Babylon.
There was also much discussion of its influence on the Mosaic Law. Scholars quickly identified lex talionis —the "eye for an eye" principle—underlying the two collections.
The Law of Moses, also called the Mosaic Law, primarily refers to the Torah or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. It is the law revealed to Moses by God.
Debate among Assyriologists has since centered around several aspects of the Code: its purpose, its underlying principles, its language, and its relation to earlier and later law collections. Assyriology, also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cuneiform writing.
What is the role of dance in Babylon?
(1) Babylonian and Hittite rituals also included ritual dance processionals.
(2) An original veil dance would have been a mystic temple
dance based on a Babylonian story of Ishta about birth and rebirth.
According to Homer, the Greek poet.
Source 1: https://socalfolkdance.org/articles/biblical_roots_in_jewish_dance_codman.htm
Source 2: https://dancefans.cultu.be/the-dance-of-7-veils
Egyptians
Methods of Instruction:
- Internships
- Dictation, memorization, copying, repetition
- Observation and participation
Dances were performed at births, marriages, funerals, royal functions and ceremonies for the gods. Reliefs and murals depict, children, men, women, dwarfs, pygmies, kings, queens, animals such as baboons and ostriches and gods like Thoth, Horus, Isis and Isis all dancing. Hathor was the mistress of dance.
According to the International Encyclopedia of Dance, dances were performed “for magical purposes, rites of passage, to induce states ecstasy or trance, mime; as homage; honor entertainment and even for erotic purposes.” Dances were performed both inside and outside; by individuals pair but mostly by groups at both sacred and secular occasions.
Dance rhythms were provided by hand clapping, finger snapping, tambourines, drums and body slapping. Musicians played flutes, harps, lyres and clarinets, Vocalizations included songs, cries, choruses and rhythmic noises.
Dancers often wore bells on their fingers. They performed nude, and in loincloths, flowing transparent robes and skirts of various shapes and sizes.
Dancers often wore a lot of make-up, jewelry and had strange hairdos with beads, balls or cone-
shaped tufts.
The oldest depictions of dance comes from pottery from the pre-dynastic period (4000 to 3200 B.C.) from the Naqada Ii culture that depicts female figures (perhaps goddesses or priestesses) dancing with upraised arms. Similar dancers are joined by men brandishing clappers in what is thought to represent mourners in a funeral procession. Some scholars believed that ballet moves such as the pirouette and arabesque originated in ancient Egypt.
Greeks
- Athenian (The arts, democracy)
- Aim: Good citizenship, individual excellence and development
- Contents: Reading, music, gymnastics, writing, poetry and arithmetic
- Methods: Human relationships and discipline
- Legacy: Olympic games, theater and festivals
- Later Athenian
- Aims
- Critical Thinking
- Intellectual Ruling
- Aristotle: Rational Living
- Sophists: Pragmatism
Contents: Geometry and rhetoric
Methods: Lecture and Q&As
Legacy: Socratic Method, philosophy
Why was dance important in Athens?
(1) In Athens more than 1,150 citizens would dance every year in the tragic, comic, and dithyrambic choruses at the Great Dionysia.
(2) The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments.
(3) More often than not, the satyrs are dancing and chasing young women, particularly the maenads, female worshippers of Dionysos.
Source 1: https://academic.oup.com/book/32943/chapter-abstract/278642775?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Source 2: https://us.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/ancient-greece
Source 3: https://www.worldhistory.org/Greek_Dance/
Romans
Education
in Rome progressed from an informal familial system of education in the
early Republic to a tuition based system during the late Republic and
the Empire. The Roman education system was based on the Greek system as
many of the private tutors in the Roman system were Greek slaves or
freedmen.
- Early Roman Education
- Aim: Utilitarian, military, civic and moral
- Contents: Law, physical and military exercises and vocational
- Methods: Memorization, grammar and intensive drill of speech
- Legacy: Organized body of laws
- Later Roman Education
- Aim: Oratory, management and civics
- Contents: Applied science, history, natural sciences, reading, writing and calculation
- Method: Memorization and public speaking
- Legacy: Methods of organization, administration and management
Was dance part of Roman education?
(1) Roman dance was influenced by Etruscan and Greek dance. Pyrrhic dances, for example, were invented by Greeks but popularized by Romans.
(2) During the III century B.C.E., people that were wealthy in Ancient Rome loved to dance and they were interested in dance to the point where they would enroll their children into dancing school.
Dancing was considered a form of entertainment and if someone was skilled at dancing and was really good at it, they were considered corrupted and the Romans would look down on them.
Greek enslaved men and women knew how to dance and when they became under the rule of the Romans, they would dance for the Romans in order to entertain them.
Later, the Greeks set up a dance school and they began to teach the Ancient Romans how to dance.One dance that the Romans had that was considered a native dance was called the Bellicrepa. This dance was made by the founder Romulus. This dance was taught to soldiers.
Source 1: https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub399/entry-6334.html
Source 2: https://www.historyforkids.net/ancient-rome/daily-life/roman-dance.html/
Toltecs
Exercises and martial arts (dance): For the child to learn how to control their bodies.
Meditation: For the child to analyze how the mind works.
Concentration & Deep Memory: For the child to learn how to memorize dreams.
What prove do we have of dance practices among the Toltecs?
"Inasmuch as modern xicolli was worn during the dance "Prominade of Negritos" in Los Reyes in the state o f Hidalgo (Figure 10), heartland of the ancient Toltecs, Torquemada surely would continue to be impressed with the amazing tenacity of this distinctive garment!"
Source: https://www.iai.spk-berlin.de/fileadmin/dokumentenbibliothek/Indiana/Indiana_10/IND_10_Anawalt.pdf
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II
Learning Objectives
- Understand the Ancient Indian curriculum
- Gain an awareness of how the Ancient Indian curriculum differs from our modern notions of what education should be.
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III
Main Lesson
1
Curriculum
What type of curriculum best applies to the teaching of dance? Explain.
2
Ancient Education System in India
https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/heih111.pdf
Question 2
Identify the main characteristics of this system and how do you think it relates to dance education?
IV
A Note to Remember
A good curriculum sets measurable outcomes and tracks progress throughout the year. Teachers get a better view of what's happening in the classrooms, so students know where they stand, and parents are kept up-to-date.
Source: https://www.powerschool.com/blog/7-reasons-why-your-curriculum-matters-more-than-you-think/
V
Case Study
3
https://youtu.be/BNxCUihiP88
What did the Ancient Indian Education System Look Like?
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/what-did-the-ancient-indian-education-system-look-like
Question 3
Identify the main characteristics of this system and how do you think it relates to dance education?
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VI
Journaling
Reflect of your experience in class today.
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VII
Glossary
1. recommended curriculum
2. written curriculum
3. taught curriculum
4. supported curriculum
5.assessed curriculum
6. Learned curriculum
7. hidden curriculum
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