Tradition and grammar: tribal morris dancers, and Paganism versus paganism
Okay, this has to be the strangest headline I’ve come across in a while: Hey nonny no, no, no: Goths and pagans are reinventing morris dancing, from The Independent, with the sub-heading, ‘Why the newcomers are putting the fear of God into the traditionalists’. The ‘traditionalists’ are those who perform morris dancing without any appreciation or awareness of its Pagan origins, which they dispute. The dance we recognise today was cleaned up and given a Christian makeover in the late 19th century, completing the divorce from its original celebratory and ecstatic Beltane purpose as a fertility dance. What’s remarkable is that it survived so many centuries in any form whatsoever when so many aspects of our Pagan past were eradicated by the Church.
But the Pagans (not sure about the goths) can argue they’re the traditionalists, because their claim to the dance goes back long before the birth of Christ. Now, surely there’s room in a modern pluralistic society for the enjoyment of morris dancing by those who wish to stick to the 19th century reworking, and those who wish to restore its sacred ritualistic function and approach it from a spiritual perspective? All sides, after all, seem to have great fun and for anybody watching it’s a lot of fun as well. The quest to claim victory over the definition of the ‘one true meaning’ kind of misses the point. Whether we’re Christians or Pagans or anything else, many of us might say, live and let live. Or, in this case, dance and let dance.
But I noticed in the article linked to above that the usual denigration of Paganism through denying it a capital letter P is in force. This is common, and another thing people passionately argue over to the absolute bemusement of anyone on the outside looking in. Personally I no longer have time for the lower-case (I used to use it myself) when Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and other faiths and their followers are all capitalised irrespective of how many sub-groupings they have. Indeed, some of those are capitalised as well—Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses…
Ultimately, this isn’t something that will change the world but is one of those little and subtle ways in which Pagans and Paganism (and Witches) are ranked lower in credibility. But from the simple perspective of language alone, the use of the lower-case in this context is a glaring inconsistency. You expect tradesmen and women to be referenced in the lower-case—plumbers, carpenters, cleaners—but not religious groups and believers. I’m open to other people putting forward a different take on this—I wouldn’t condemn you for choosing p over P, let’s not be silly—but words, like dances, do have meaning and history. And in most articles where we see the lower-case paganism, it’s virtually guaranteed that the writers are following a long-established convention without giving it any thought whatsoever.
I wonder, though, if a child at school wrote Paganism instead of paganism, would he or she likely be ‘corrected’ by the teacher, who nine times out of ten would be ignorant of the significance of the word to many of us? I know that if wrote christian, muslim, islam or christianity in an essay at school, I would most definitely have been pulled up on it. Rightly so. Because it looks wrong. And it is. Well, pagan and paganism and witch look wrong to me. There’s one exception of note to the lower-case imposition, and that’s Celtic—always a capital C. I’ve no idea why that should be, especially when you consider those we call the ancient Celts never referenced themselves as such. But it only goes to further strengthen the arguments of the ‘upper-case for all’ lobby, and all we who belong to that lobby can do is wilfully capitalise with intent…
So, what of goths? Well, goths are not defined with any essential reference to religion at all. They aren’t intrinsically, necessarily spiritual. They aren’t defined as a religious group; they are a sub-culture. A goth may or may not be religious. So I’d say lower-case unless starting a sentence with the word—same as with gothic, which is primarily a literary genre as well as a descriptive label (ie. the house had a gothic appearance). But maybe others out there want to argue differently where goths are concerned. Or maybe you agree with my reasoning? I’d apply the same to being gay, or vegetarian, or left-handed, or dyslexic, or disabled, or black, or… Well, the point is made, I hope.
tags: Beltane, capitalisation, celebration, Celts, Christianity, dance, goths, grammar, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, morris dancing, Muslims, Paganism, religion, ritual, spirituality, tradition, Witchcraft
2 comments on “Tradition and grammar: tribal morris dancers, and Paganism versus paganism”
May 17th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I love the fact that its upsetting the Edwardian style traditionalists or whatever they call themselves - Those damned Pagans are always up to something aren’t they
and fancy doing it on Beltane as well - Terrible
I would always capitalise Goth as I would Gay/Lesbian/Bi-sexual - I think because the former may have originally been a sub-genre but its also become a lifestyle and cultural choice as well - just like Punk and Hippies etc - the rest are sexualities - you capitalise Heterosexual - why not the rest - its important!
May 17th, 2008 at 10:28 am
@amethystdragon: Hmm. Actually, heterosexual isn’t capitalised, neither is homosexual or bisexual or gay, in strictly grammatical terms. If you’ve seen heterosexual capitalised anywhere other than the start of a sentence, it’s technically, most definitely, wrong. I wouldnt capitalise punk or hippies either, same justification. Of course it’s still the case you spell what you want to spell however you want. Unless in an essay that’s going to be marked!
x
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