The C odes of H onor and M odesty And Their Repercussions on the Art and Practice of Common Dance in Tunisia

Résumé

Among the meanings of the word modesty, the one evoking a form of restraint that prevents one from saying or doing things out of fear of offending the rules of usage and causing embarrassment, is appropriate for our purpose. As a matter of fact, two implicit codes governed traditional life in Tunisia. First, the code of honor: Its strict rules are concerned by the principle of lineage. Honor is depended on the conduct of women who had to be fierce towards any man from outside of their group. Second, the code of decency: Its rules are concerned by the principle of generation and aimed to lead the relations in the family and in the social group, between parents and their children, between elders and cadets, women and men, etc. Any natural and spontaneous manifestation was disliked by the people. Any natural and spontaneous manifestation was felt to be ‘ib (vice). Within this daily order, which was rigid and hostile to bodily expression, a form of bodily expression where decency and impudence must be combined by a subtle know-how, according to the degree of license and circumstantial prohibitions. The family and community feast gave rise to a form of circumstantial freedom that relieved the pressures. But, if the festival absorbs certain prohibitions, it does not dissolve them completely. Hence, the paradoxical place of dance in traditional Tunisian culture. And hence, its uses, forms and contents.