Monday, January 07, 2013

Increase Mather on Gynecandrical Dancing

This is just too much fun.

Here is Increase Mather's pamphlet An Arrow Against Profane and Promiscuous Dancing Drawn out of the Quiver of Scriptures (Boston 1684). You understand, he's against mixed dancing because it may lead to mixed dancing.

Of interest, on p.12 he points out that in the description of Jacob's marriage in Genesis, we read of a marriage, but no dancing! On p. 21 he rhetorically asks, Is this a time for Jigs and Galiards! On p. 23 he explains that David and Miriam's dances were "Religious Dances accomodated to the State of the Old Testament-Church." And, of course, those were not "mixt" dances.


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13 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:48 PM, January 07, 2013

    This post is #4 in a Google search for "gynecandrical." LOL!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. S.7:49 PM, January 07, 2013

      Let's make it #1! Traffic, comment, etc. LOL

      Delete
  2. Anonymous8:23 PM, January 07, 2013

    now its #2!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. S.8:24 PM, January 07, 2013

      We are making lexical history in real time.

      Delete
  3. Ephrayim9:59 PM, January 07, 2013

    Its already number one in a search for "Jigs and Galiards". Mind explaining what in the world it is?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dan Klein1:46 AM, January 08, 2013

    It's a little known fact that "Gangnam Style" is a Korean corruption of "Gynecandrical Saltation."

    ReplyDelete
  5. Joe in Australia2:03 AM, January 08, 2013

    According to the OED "gynecandrical" should be spelt "gynæcandrical" and it means "pertaining to both men and women". In this context it means a dance involving both men and women. "Saltation" means "leaping, bounding, or jumping", and hence can refer to a dance; jigs and galliards (note: two l's) are old-fashioned dances of a particularly rapid and lively nature.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Avraham 10:23 AM, January 08, 2013

    Christians are in general not aware of the actual meaning of the 7th commandment. i think this is because of a lack of Hebrew. They seem to confuse the word related to adultery to the word referring to znut. If they would go through the Torah once a year like Jews do they probably would not make this mistake.[They would notice the usage of the word adultery in Leviticus and notice that it refers only to a married woman.] The reason this never a\occurs to them is that Paul considered any sex outside of marriage to be adultery. According to the book of Thecla, he considered sex in Marriage to be adultery. He probably should not be considered an expert in Old Testament Law.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mar Gavriel10:13 PM, January 08, 2013

    "Book of Thecla"???

    ReplyDelete
  8. Avraham 5:41 AM, January 09, 2013

    The ACTS of PAUL and THECLA.

    ReplyDelete
  9. DF9:37 AM, January 09, 2013

    "Increase" Mather is actually an Anglicized form of Yosef. (Yosef = increase.) And "Cotton" Mather was the Anglicized form of "junior". (Kotton = junior)


    (Read this years ago in a pretty learned work, can't remember. First sounds more plausible than the second, but who knows with these wacky christian hebraists.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. S.9:43 AM, January 09, 2013

      Interesting. I can see, looking quickly, that it is definitely a belief that is out there. Would like to confirm it.

      Quick peak at Wiki shows that Increase had a brother named Joseph, so that's a little odd. Also, he had a brother named Eleazar (not to mention Samuel and Nathaniel) so I would guess that his parents knew how to give Hebrew names. As for Cotton, according to Wiki he was named for his grandfather, John Cotton.

      Delete
  10. Chavi Beck1:51 PM, August 06, 2013

    Sounds a little more likely than the urban legend about sticking a finger into a Bible at random and naming the kid whatever word turns up. Although I have in my own family tree the names Bava and Tana (Buva and Tuna in the Hungarian pronunciation) and the story I'm told from both ends is that the father went to a tzaddik to ask what to name the kid, but the tzaddik was in middle of learning, and when he called out a word aloud, they used that word.

    ReplyDelete

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