Dancing mania
Dancing mania
Dancing mania (pronunciation: /ˈdænsɪŋ ˈmeɪniə/), also known as dance epidemic or dance frenzy, is a phenomenon of mass hysteria that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries.
Etymology
The term "dancing mania" is derived from the Latin mania meaning "madness" and dancing from the Old English dancian meaning "to move rhythmically".
Description
Dancing mania involved groups of people, sometimes thousands at a time, who danced uncontrollably and erratically. Often, these episodes would last for days or even weeks. The participants would sometimes collapse from exhaustion and even die from heart attack or stroke. The exact cause of dancing mania is not known, but it is often thought to have been a form of mass psychogenic illness in which physical symptoms with no known physical cause are observed to affect a group of people, as a form of social influence.
Related Terms
- Hysteria: A psychological disorder whose symptoms include conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms (somatization), selective amnesia, shallow volatile emotions, and overdramatic or attention-seeking behavior.
- Mass psychogenic illness: An outbreak of disease-like physical symptoms that are caused by psychological stress and spread through a population.
- Social influence: The change in behavior that one person causes in another, intentionally or unintentionally, as a result of the way the changed person perceives themselves in relationship to the influencer, other people and society in general.
See Also
- Tarantism: A form of dancing mania that occurred in Italy.
- St. John's Dance: A form of dancing mania that occurred in Germany and Holland.
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on Dancing mania
- Wikipedia's article - Dancing mania
This WikiMD dictionary article is a stub. You can help make it a full article.
Languages: - East Asian
中文,
日本,
한국어,
South Asian
हिन्दी,
Urdu,
বাংলা,
తెలుగు,
தமிழ்,
ಕನ್ನಡ,
Southeast Asian
Indonesian,
Vietnamese,
Thai,
မြန်မာဘာသာ,
European
español,
Deutsch,
français,
русский,
português do Brasil,
Italian,
polski