The role of the primitive art in the process of human being

Performing the hunting dance before people went hunting, people thought they were killing the beast. In fact, they "exorcise" themselves ... prepared for hunting, and all-round: physically and spiritually, practically and psychologically. Magic dance was a means of public education for all participants in it - physical, professional, ethical and aesthetic education. It is quite obvious that in this dance, the human body is actively developing: the strength and flexibility of the muscles, the speed and coordination of the movements, the mechanisms of control of each part and the movement. The social significance of the physical development of man was enormous at that time, when all work processes were still purely physical and when there was no special activity aimed at improving the human body - sport. Elements of sport were organically embedded in a dance that was originally so dramatized and storyline as a gymnastic. Ethnographic data show that in nations at a low stage of cultural development, the gymnastic beginning plays in dance the most active role, requiring the dancers to have a tremendous physical endurance of virtuosity in the body. It is remarkable that in ancient Greece gymnastics was regarded as a kind of art, although at that time the sports exercises and games were separated from the dance and became an independent form of activity.

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On the other hand, in the primitive dramatic dance, the purely production habits of the hunters were also improved. In the hunting dance, where the role of the beast was performed by some of the hunters, dressed in animal fur or a corresponding mask, the hunter's professional habits were actively perfected - the accuracy of the mesh, the energy of the movement of the hand that casts the spear, increasing the technique of jumping and silent running, each dancer acquires the ability to match his movements with the movements of others in the general rhythm of collective dance.
But the most important aspect of the impact of hunting dance on its actors was the influence on their psyche, their senses, the moral, religious and aesthetic aspects that formed them. Because this dance involved each participant in the spirit of the collective, made him feel part of an organized social activity, creating a sense of solidarity with other people, strengthening his belief in the strength of the collective, giving him a sense of pride that he knows virtuously his body, helped him to silence the natural fear of the beast, inspiring his confidence in victory. That is exactly what people have deceived not the beast, but themselves. In this ritual, they were spiritually prepared for the difficult struggle, cultivating in themselves the qualities necessary for the success of their enterprise. Therefore, the art "hunted" not only nature but also man himself. It helps the labor and the generic institutions to pull the man out of the animal state, allowing man to feel and realize himself as a person, enlivening his biological needs and functions, poetrying his endlessly difficult and yet almost animal-like rough life.

In this light, it becomes clear why artistic culture at its birth does not usually know the difference between artists and consumers, between performers and viewers.