It may be demurred that such arts have gradually been divorced from
their original intention, but the facts do not point to it. Though
some scholars regard other ornamentation as of later origin than the
use of cosmetics, there is nothing to prove that this is a fact.[516]
Moreover, in the development of the special arts a noteworthy fact
becomes prominent—namely, that the sexual element appears stronger in
the later stages, while at first other elements are quite as important
or even far more so. Thus love is a conspicuous theme in the lyrics of
civilized peoples, but of primitive races Grosse declares: “It can not
be ascertained that the Australian tribes ... have produced a single
love song; and Rink, their most faithful student, says that the Eskimos
hardly show any appreciation of the sentiment of love.”[517] In our
dancing the two sexes unite in a movement-play, and Orientals have
beautiful girls to dance before them. Among savages, on the contrary,
imitative dances are much more common, which have no connection with
sex relations. Indeed, we often find rules which confine dancing to
certain places of resort where women are excluded. We can say of
personal adornment too that civilized peoples apply them much more to
the uses of courtship than do savages.
These things being true, it is well to use caution in applying the
Darwinian theory to the origin of art; while uses of courtship very
often accompany the appearance and development of art, we must still
cling to our conception of play as its principal source. Delight in
sensuous pleasure and in regularity, the charm of rhythm, enjoyment
of imitation and of illusion, the demand for intense stimuli, the
attraction of attempting what is difficult—all are elements in the
principle which we have repeatedly found and shall find more and more,
connecting the spheres of play and art without necessarily touching
at all on the question of sex. Even self-exhibition itself may depend
as much on the social as on the sexual instinct. I am convinced, then,
that Schiller was in the main right in deriving art from play, while
Darwin’s theory must be relegated to the position of a secondary or
partial explanation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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