ABSTRACT
Aristotle argued that although the tactile feeling seemed to be a property of the flesh itself, it was ‘deeper than skin’, indeed that the real organ of touch was situated ‘further inward’. Important and highly effective method of accessing portals through tactile means is through bodily pain. Cradling and running the hands along sacred objects, such as sacred boards, is equivalent to touching the Ancestor itself; it is ‘a physical quality and tactile, entirely different from the visual sensation in eyesight’. Ancestral designs are painted in sand, rocks, bark and ceremonial objects, as well as on bodies; stories of Ancestral journeys are sung and danced; artwork is touched and stroked; and the Ancestors are called up from beneath the earth itself by the dancing feet of the performers. Raising dust when dancing is vitally important in dance, since ‘the feet penetrate the ground to raise the Ancestors’.
