Could something as simple and seemingly natural as falling into
step have marked us for evolutionary success? In "Keeping Together
in Time" one of the most widely read and respected historians in
America pursues the possibility that coordinated rhythmic
movement--and the shared feelings it evokes--has been a powerful
force in holding human groups together. As he has done for
historical phenomena as diverse as warfare, plague, and the pursuit
of power, William H. McNeill brings a dazzling breadth and depth of
knowledge to his study of dance and drill in human history. From
the records of distant and ancient peoples to the latest findings
of the life sciences, he discovers evidence that rhythmic movement
has played a profound role in creating and sustaining human
communities. The behavior of chimpanzees, festival village dances,
the close-order drill of early modern Europe, the ecstatic
dance-trances of shamans and dervishes, the goose-stepping Nazi
formations, the morning exercises of factory workers in Japan--all
these and many more figure in the bold picture McNeill draws. A
sense of community is the key, and shared movement, whether dance
or military drill, is its mainspring. McNeill focuses on the
visceral and emotional sensations such movement arouses,
particularly the euphoric fellow-feeling he calls "muscular
bonding." These sensations, he suggests, endow groups with a
capacity for cooperation, which in turn improves their chance of
survival.
A tour de force of imagination and scholarship, "Keeping
Together in Time" reveals the muscular, rhythmic dimension of human
solidarity. Its lessons will serve us well as we contemplate the
future of the human community and of ourvarious local
communities.
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