La crítica eclesiástica a la danza popular durante la Antigüedad Tardía (siglos IV-VIII)

Abstract

In the present study we analyze how the ecclesiastical hierarchies always pointed to dance as a sinful and totally reprehensible activity, and turned it into another sign of religious otherness, even though wide sections of the Christian population had already adopted it as one more part of their cultural heritage. The problem was more serious when people incorporated these dances to the festivals held in honor of the saints; for the preachers, to do this was to contaminate these solemnities with idolatry. However, what for the Church authorities was a survival of paganism, for the faithful constituted one more expression of their way of understanding religion, as it became one more manifestation of popular religiosity alien to normative religion; in other words, it stood as an essential component of the lived religion.