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Appendix to Chapter 1 Lexicons of the Body Social lexicons of common English and French words for the body, in contrast to anatomical terminology, would look like this: English social lexicon French social lexicon Anatomical terms head la tête cranium face le visage ••••••• chin le menton mandible throat (neck) la gorge (le cou) larynx/cervical vertebrae shoulders les épaules scapulae chest la poitrine thoracic cavity breast le sein •••••••• waist la taille •••••••• hips les hanches pelvis thigh la cuisse femur leg la jambe tibia/fibula knee le genou patella calf le millet gastrocnemius ankle le cheville •••••••• foot le pied tarsus toes l’orteil metatarsus (phalanges) hand la main ••••••••• arm le bras humerus/radius/ulna elbow le coude ••••••••• wrist le poignet carpus fingers les doigts metacarpus abdomen le ventre ••••••••• the back le dos “the spine” “small” of the back les reins lumbar region The above lists are taken from a two-part essay written in 1980 in the Journal of the Anthropological Study of Human Movement [JASHM], Vol. 1, Nos. 1 and 2, entitled “Taxonomies of the Body.” The main purpose of the articles (and this appendix) is to draw attention to the fact that social terms for the body (such as “hip,” “thigh,” etc.) are general. They bring i-xiv_1-130_Will.indd 18 7/8/11 12:27 PM to mind images of the contours or outlines of bodily parts, in contrast to anatomical terminology (such as “thigh joint,” “iliac crest,” “sacrum,” etc.) that is specific with regard to the location of moving parts internal to the body. The list of anatomical terminology as it is given is problematic, however, because it generally refers to bone anatomy, except for the words signifying “calf” in English and “le millet” in French. Here, we find the anatomical name for the gastrocnemius muscle in the lower leg. It would be possible to construct a detailed list of anatomical terms for the social lexicon of the body using nothing but the names of muscles, but in Sweigardian terms, there would be no point in doing this because it encourages students to think that they can (or should) exert voluntary control over specific muscles that pertain to the movements they learn. There are so many muscles involved—even in simple movements—that it is impossible to determine which muscle to isolate. In any case, memorizing muscles (or their names) is neither useful nor efficient for learning or teaching dancing. Teaching should never include telling students what muscle (or muscles) to use to achieve any given movement. Ideokinetically, the best way to get the right muscles to move in a dance class is to use the centering properties of the light beams, outlined in Chapter 1. Furthermore, the lists of English, French, and anatomical terminology emphasize the difficulty of teaching traditional anatomy to teachers of dancing. What, among the thousands of details of (even) bone anatomy, are they meant to use when they teach dancing? Sparger says it very well: “In presenting the study of anatomy to teachers of ballet, it is not easy to decide where to begin, and, more especially, how far to go” (Sparger 1982: 10—see page 16, Chapter 1, for more of the quotation). The above list points to the difficulty of using the ordinary social lexicon of the body to teach dancing, and (for those who read Williams’s work on taxonomies cited above), the anthropological reasons for learning how the body is named in each culture becomes fairly clear. Unfortunately, the subject of anthropological applications of bodily taxonomies is too complicated to address in this book, but some useful references are listed in Williams (1980) for those who want to pursue the subject further. Suffice to say here that words commonly used for the body are, on the whole, too general to be effective with regard to teaching movement. Visualizing one’s thigh or hip is quite different from locating the right or left iliofemoral joint in the body. To see a mental picture of hip or leg means that students visualize the superficial characteristics of the bodily part. Ideokinetically, it is imagery that locates the ilio-femoral joint for each student that will ultimately improve the leg movements, because that joint and its surrounding musculature is where movements of the legs originate. It needs to be said, however, that danced moves themselves should not be done visualizing the ilio-femoral joints (or any other joint). In my opinion, no dance form should be approached in this way. This...

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