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Blacking, Professor John – How musical is man? - Venda dancing, drumming and the trance state

…. the exciting rhythms of the Venda possession dance (ngoma dza midzumi) do not send every Venda into a trance. They send only members of the cult, and then only when they are dancing at their own homes, with which the spirits of the ancestors who possess them are familiar.

The effectiveness of the music depends on the context in which it is both performed and heard. But ultimately it depends on the music, as I found out once when I was playing one of the drums. Dancers take turns coming out into the "arena," and at first there were no complaints about my efforts. Very soon, however, a senior lady began dancing, and she was expected to go into a trance because the music was being played for her cult group.

However, after a few minutes she stopped and insisted that another drummer should replace me! She claimed that I was ruining the effect of the music by "hurrying” the tempo- just enough, I suppose, to inhibit the onset of trance.