Tarantism - Dance or Die - History Documentary

[@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

3:19 - Did anyone else hear "Farrah Fawcett" family? 😁 Fascinating, well done.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Therafosid Family - I'm pretty sure they're not related!

[@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

@@professorgraemeyorston Well, they had one thing in common. Great hair!

[@BarryHart-xo1oy]

Yeah,l heard “Farrah Fawcett” when the spider expert mentioned the name of a particular family.

[@TuckerSP2011]

It sounded like Farah Fawcett to me too

[@What_I_Think_Happened]

It seems like the spiders got blamed for people wanting to have fun and dance. 🕺 💃 🕺 💃

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I'm not sure I'm quite as enthusiastic as Martin about tarantulas but it does seem like their reputation has been unfairly tarnished!

[@BarryHart-xo1oy]

Yeah,people couldn’t or wouldn’t admit to wanting to dance and enjoy themselves,so they blamed arachnids.

[@gooseyorston736]

Super interesting prof!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thanks Goose

[@rebeccabedford9855]

there's a folk song about this days of the dance 3 daft monkeys the 6 min version is better than the 3min one as they had to cut it down for radio

[@carolr4871]

I wonder if tarantism could have inspired Hans Christan Anderson's story "The Red Shoes." I have danced a tarantella but not because of a spider bite.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I'm sure he would have known about the Northern European dancing plagues.

[@julietcampbell8657]

Fascinating series, new subscriber, find them addictive.

[@cds3703]

I like how he called Lycosa tarantula small even though they can get 30 mm (3 cm) in body length (excluding the legs)

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Smaller than the big South American ones!

[@cds3703]

@@professorgraemeyorston to be fair T. stirmi is already one of the top 3 biggest spiders

[@missnellaful]

Ancient spiders have new secrets! Could these people have been frightened by them, and suffered a severe nervous reaction just from looking at these spiders? I love spiders, maybe that’s why I have never been a dancer? Great work! Thank you Professor.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@traceyolsen308]

Thank you for mentioning the cults of Cybele and Bacchus, several of the descriptions of other unusual conditions also resemble the customs of some religious groups. It would be interesting to have a program on the beliefs (and desire)? of the necessity of the priests of Cybele to castrate themselves and dress as women. Also one on mass hallucinations, like the events at Fatima where it seemed that many people in about a 20 mile radius (?) saw the sun wizzing around the sky giving off rainbow colours. Weird!

[@Dxzekaxmind]

Seppure in contesti "chiusi" le tradizioni influenzano le persone(ad esempio il latte fa male ma lo si beve per tradizione: isteria di massa)anche quando non necessario, l'isteria di massa non spiega il Tarantismo! è noto che nei rituali si confondevano anche epilettici per tarantati o che alcuni tarantati potrebbero non aver mai visto un ragno, anche i falsi tarantati per guadagnare soldi con gli spettatori è una cosa nota gia nel 1400 in Campania...ma tutto questo proprio perchè il problema di fondo è veritiero! adesso non ci sono piu le tarante di un tempo, le tarantelle possono avere tantissime varianti, il ragno piu grande(non si trova in italia) è una tarantola gigante e provoca tremende irritazioni solo a sfiorarne il pelo!, come molti mali il veleno della tarantola non agisce allo stesso modo con tutti, c'è chi è piu e chi meno predisposto...non è un'invenzione pugliese, ci sono testimonianze di morsi da tarantole fino agli anni '60 a Napoli come in alcune regioni della Spagna...In Sardegna c'è un Ragno molto piu potente, l' Argia! tale ragno puo provocare deliri, allucinazioni e anche la morte, in Sardegna il rito è quindi piu complesso(la persona veniva chiusa in un sacco di letame dentro una buca mentre l'intero villaggio suonava e ballava attorno ,in alcuni casi ballavano 7 donne che potevano anche sputare sul malcapitato...oppure venivano messi in un forno, poi aspettavano la guarigione o la morte...ed altri rimedi molto strambi...)...

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Grazie, non avevo sentito parlare dell'Argia, lo esaminerò. Sono d'accordo sul fatto che i problemi del tarantismo e delle piaghe danzanti del Nord Europa sono complessi ed è improbabile che possano essere spiegati da una singola "diagnosi".

[@Dxzekaxmind]

@@professorgraemeyorston stando alle testimonianze in Campania (Napoli) della prima metà del '900 si iniziò a etichettare il rito della tarantella al pari dei cosiddetti "intrugli" mettendolo sul piano della superstizione, per questo piano piano iniziarono a non fare le tarantelle, ma i morsi delle tarantelle avvenivano comunque e i medici non sapevano cosa fare(si parla addirittura di elettroshock come cura proposta e attuata da qualche dottore)... fortunatamente dagli anni 70 sembrerebbe svanito questo problema, la medicina si è evoluta come le condizioni igieniche,forse con il tempo questi ragni potrebbero essere diventati meno velenosi e o più piccoli, ovviamente non credo che il tarantismo sia una possessione spiritica o che ci voglia l'intercessione di un santo, credo che il discorso della danza come rimedio del ragno serviva a espellere il veleno esattamente come l'uso di mettere i tarantato in un forno...ci sono molte testimonianze nell'archivio musicale campano in cui ex tarantati raccontano la loro esperienza, il sintomo più importante è quello dell'irrigidimento muscolare che trova sollievo nella danza...in una di queste interviste la ex tarantata disse "io il medico l'ho chiamato ma non ha saputo fare niente. Luigi Stifani il violinista filmato da De Martino in un intervista raccontò il suo intervento più breve, al termine, la donna era guarita quando arrivò il dottore che disse al musicista "noi non siamo ancora al vostro livello" ... adesso nessuno penserebbe di espellere un veleno con il sudore ballando, adesso ci sono gli antistaminici, chi sa forse un futuro parleranno della nostra medicina come intrugli e superstizioni... Buone feste ! Felice anno nuovo

[@Buster_Piles]

How very bizarre. And fascinating. Human behaviour is thoroughly confusing.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

It's what makes people interesting.

[@Buster_Piles]

@professorgraemeyorston I'd read about this before but your video revealed just how, quite frankly, ... weird, human behaviour can be. As you say though .... 😊👍

[@6Haunted-Days]

I’m confused….I thought the dancing plague was from a form of wheat mold or….something? I never heard the tarantula theory……or am I thinking of another type of dancing plague?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

That is ergotism, it is one of the theories to explain the dancing plagues of Northern Europe - it is confusing as there are many competing theories.

[@Amntiskinner]

Remember hearing the theory of mouldy wheat been turned into bread,,some kind of LSD affect,, BBC Radio 4 did a thing on tarantism in the 90s Makes a lot of sense when listening to how people were affected,

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Ergotamine is the psychoactive chemical - it does have LSD like effects but a whole lot of other nasty side effects like destroying your skin - hence St Anthony's Fire from the burning sensation.

[@Amntiskinner]

Didn’t realise how far back this Phenomenon stretched, my theory is it evolved into a kind of festival by the 16th century, where they got twated and danced till they fell over, a bit like the rave culture of the 90s, did they not wear a red piece of material round the arm or neck to say they were single and available?

[@Amntiskinner]

Sorry for my English I’m Irish and thanks for putting this vid together,,

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Getting drunk and having a good time probably had a lot to do with it.

[@SchlichteToven]

I don't really feel like I have any more answers than I did before. What would cause mass hysteria to the extent that loads of schoolchildren drowned? For that matter, what IS mass hysteria, and is there any actual evidence that it can cause whole towns to dance themselves to death? Do the bites of tarantulas found in southern Italy actually have the effect of making people dance when they hear music? Or is the "dancing" just seizures or convulsions? You'd think if such an effect as dancing were possible, someone would have documented it in modern times. Also, this video uses a lot of unnecessarily sexualized video clips of women. Presumably men get spider bites too?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

We don't really understand mass hysteria but the dancing has nothing to do with any toxins in the spiders.

[@tommix6016]

It is quite evident that the condition is due to the pernicious influence of moles.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

A good a theory as any!

[@alexandros8361]

Much as I really respect your work and perspective, historically, medically, and psychiatrically,...for once I cant agree with you, professor. This condition seems organic to me, particularly when a ligature is effective. As it is with certain toxins of other venomous creatures, delaying their release of these toxins into the lymphatic system. Possibly different activities do prevent muscle stiffness, giving sufficient time for the body's antibodies to come into effect. Best Regards.

[@screensaves]

helene cixous