Page 258 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

A Reactivated Performance Capacity 233

A third song refers to hidden violent plot. A man knows how to hide
his weapons and motives within and cunningly attack at the proper
moment, just as a lurking serpent leaps at his prey:

The man’s race is not a simple, straight one
It’s a real black cobra with feet in the belly.
A fourth song resorts to similes that peasant women have been con-
versant with for generations:

Oh! woman, do not say ‘My man is simple, ingenuous’
His race is not a naive breed, he cuts a throat with hair.

Our detailed analysis of a re-activated performance of grindmill
songs prompts us to underscore five distinctive aspects specific to that
process of re-activation of a traditional form of communication. The
effectiveness of the communication process rests upon the strength of
words. None of them is casual. The syntax, on the other hand, may re-
main the simplest and shortest possible, conspicuous by its irrelevance
as a determinant linguistic asset. The elementary poetic elements
such as rhyme, rhythm and caesura enhance the phonetic value of the
words and stress their semantic effect.
Words are powerful on account of two characteristics: genuine sim-
plicity and symbolic import. All of them are common words borrowed
from the everyday lexicon of the common person. They always refer
to concrete realities. There is not a single abstract or ideological word
as one may find in the usual militant songs of any action group. The
latter’s aim is didactic and makes a great use of key concepts. The main
objective of our songs is neither didactic nor informative. A symbolic
logic defines their cognitive regime. They use neither concepts nor
allegories, but go by feminine common sense. Their reference is only
woman’s experience as spontaneously perceived and judged.
The oral text is to be sung. The musical performance can not be
dissociated from the text. The traditional images, words and repre-
sentations are updated and related to present practices. Two features
define this referential shift. There is a semantic affinity or homology
between the traditional term and present experience. The past mirrors
the present; basic experience is the same. As a consequence, the shift
towards a present referent is but natural, spontaneous and genuine.