Lore Podcast Episode 289: Shake It

Host: Aaron Mahnke
Release Date: September 22, 2025

Overview

In this richly woven episode, Aaron Mahnke explores the deep and often haunting connection between dance, ritual, and the exercise of power across history and cultures. From bone-chilling Aztec death whistles to the tragedy of the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee, "Shake It" charts how movement and music become acts of devotion, resistance, and, sometimes, sparks for violence and transformation. Mahnke also spices the episode with a classic Irish folktale, showing how the line between ritual and the supernatural is often blurred.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Terror of the Aztec Death Whistle [01:04]

• Summary:
  The episode opens with a striking account of the Aztec death whistle—small, skull-shaped clay instruments unearthed from ancient graves. When blown, they emit a chilling, high-pitched scream.
• Notable Insight:
  • Modern neuroscience (University of Zurich, 2024) found the sound to be so unclassifiable that it creates immediate, primal fear.
  • "[The whistle's] ambiguity causes an immediate sense of confusion and fear in all who hear it." [01:45]
• Historical Use:
  • Believed to be used during human sacrifices, amplifying the sense of terror and the sacred.

2. Worldwide Traditions of Sacred Dance [03:00–07:00]

• Summary:
  Mahnke surveys global traditions where dance is a vital spiritual act, not just entertainment.
• Examples:
  • India (Tulu People): The Naga mindala dance honors serpent gods through priests embodying snake deities. [03:20]
  • Jamaica (Maroons): The Chromanti dance involves ancestor possession for communal health.
  • Bali/Indonesia: The Barachum and Babukang dances invite possession to protect the living or dead.
  • Korea: Buddhist monks perform the Barachum to banish spirits.
  • Wales: Shepherds once danced in labyrinths carved into hillsides.
  • Mesoamerica (Danza de los Voladores): Five men climb a 30m pole; four jump and spiral downward on ropes while the fifth plays music atop the pole. "[According to myth, the Dance of the Flyers] originated to appease the gods after a long drought. And hey, it must have worked, because it's still being performed to this day." [04:49]
• Religious Contrasts:
  • Judaism: Simcha Torah features processional dancing with scrolls ("the Torah scrolls wish to dance, and so we become their feet").
  • Christianity: Generally prohibits dance in worship, but exceptions like St. Francis of Assisi dancing are noted.

3. Dance as Resistance & Control: Irish, Tongan, and American Histories [07:00–09:30]

• Dance Suppression:
  • Irish Step Dancing:
    • Rooted in Druidic rituals, suppressed via English penal laws from 1695, yet survived underground. The Gaelic League's later "formalization" both preserved and changed these traditions.
    • Quote: "A bit ironic, right, that to protect a folk art from laws and regulations, the Gaelic League imposed a bunch of laws and regulations." [09:00]
  • Tonga: Methodist missionaries banned old dances, prompting Tongans to create a new national dance, the laka laka, sidestepping bans while preserving stories.
  • New York City’s Cabaret Law (1926–2017): Ostensibly to control Prohibition speakeasies but functioned largely to target Black artists; severely restricted public dancing.

4. The Ghost Dance & Wounded Knee: Devotion, Desperation, and Disaster [10:14–25:00]

Wovoka’s Prophecy and the Origins of the Ghost Dance

• Wovoka (Jack Wilson):
  • Northern Paiute prophet with reputed supernatural powers—controlling weather, surviving gunshots, sending visions of heaven ("There, wildlife was abundant... residents spent their days dancing and playing sports.").
  • Receives a vision: a dance ("choreography similar to the Paiute round dance") that could summon a Messiah to restore paradise.
  • Instructions included blending tradition (dancing) with elements of forced assimilation (sending kids to school, farming).
  • "It actually suggested a way the tribes could hold onto their cultural roots even in the face of this post colonial reality." [11:45]

Spread of the Ghost Dance and Government Crackdown

• Spread:

  • Adopted by many tribes (Paiute, Bannock, Shoshone, Utes, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Lakota), each adding their own songs and interpretations.
  • Rituals became intense, prolonged; participants sometimes collapsed into trances with visions of joyous afterlives.

• Lyrics Example:

  • "Mother, come home, mother, come home. My little brother goes about always crying..." [13:45]

• Rising White Panic:

  • Large-scale participation and unity among tribes alarmed the government.
  • The killing of reservation cattle (government property) as Ghost Dance offerings escalated tensions.
  • Massive military response at Pine Ridge, the largest since the Civil War.

The Wounded Knee Massacre

• Escalation:
  • Sitting Bull, though uninvolved in the Ghost Dance, is killed during a botched arrest at Standing Rock.
  • Fleeing Lakota Ghost Dancers are surrounded and disarmed; confusion over a deaf man’s gun leads to chaos.
• Massacre:
  • "US Soldiers began to gun down Lakota indiscriminately... nearly 300 unarmed Lakota lay dead, their blood running down into the water beside the camp, a creek called Wounded Knee." [23:45]
• Reflection:
  • "The government murdered the Lakota because of their humanity, because they dared to cling tight to that most human thing of all, a cultural identity." [24:30]
• Aftermath:
  • The Ghost Dance fades, but Wovoka's prophecy that he would "shake the earth" upon his death comes true—a major Nevada earthquake strikes three months after he passes.
  • "Son of a gun... Said he was gonna shake this world if he made it, and by God he did." [25:30]

5. Folkloric Coda – The Dancing Dead (Irish Folktale) [31:44–36:55]

• Setup:
  An Irishman from the Kirwan family encounters a stranger near a fairy hill who mysteriously offers a jockey for a horse race.
• Unsettling Revelry:
  The stranger invites Kirwan to a feast and dance at a supernatural mansion. During the festivities, Kirwan realizes the other dancers are dead acquaintances—family and friends lost to death.
• Climax:
  His long-departed love tries to pull him into the dance ("Dance with me, she whispered... Look at me, for you once loved me now." [35:50])
• Escape and Aftermath:
  Kirwan avoids being claimed by the dead, but awakes with a burn on his wrist in the shape of his love’s hand.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Aztec Death Whistle:
  "The high-pitched scream that emanates from these whistles does something to the human brain. That is, it fills us with instant uncontrollable dread." [01:20]

• On Dance Suppression:
  "What's a quicker way to subjugate an entire people than to separate them from the very thing that makes them, well, them." [08:23]

• On Wovoka's Message and Assimilation:
  "A distinctly native ritual paired with a series of commands to cooperate with assimilation didn't exactly seem like a natural combo... it actually suggested a way the tribes could hold onto their cultural roots." [11:45]

• On Wounded Knee:
  "US Soldiers began to gun down Lakota indiscriminately... nearly 300 unarmed Lakota lay dead, their blood running down into the water beside the camp, a creek called Wounded Knee." [23:45]

• On Survival of Belief:
  "Wovoka passed away on Paiute land in Nevada... Three months to the day after his death, Wovoka sent his message. A massive 7.1 magnitude earthquake rippling through Nevada. It was all the proof they needed. Wovoka had made it to heaven." [25:45]

• On Folklore’s Depth:
  "I hope you enjoyed today’s waltz through the dances of the world. It never ceases to amaze me just how many different shapes and forms folklore can take." [26:19]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:04] Aztec death whistle and psychology of fear
• [03:00]–[07:00] Global sacred dance traditions
• [07:00]–[09:30] Dance suppression in Ireland, Tonga, NYC
• [10:14]–[25:00] Wovoka, the Ghost Dance, and Wounded Knee
• [25:45] Wovoka’s prophecy and posthumous earthquake
• [31:44]–[36:55] Irish folktale: The Dead Dance

Tone and Style

Aaron Mahnke’s narration is contemplative, analytical, and tinged with both wonder and somber reflection. He blends folklore’s eerie intrigue with historical tragedy, highlighting the enduring human need for sacred movement—even when it is policed or punished. The episode juxtaposes the mystical with historical realities, punctuated by literary storytelling and chilling, poetic re-tellings.

Final Thoughts

"Shake It" is a powerful exploration of how dance—in its myriad forms—can be a source of ecstatic transcendence, cultural continuity, and, unfortunately, deadly misunderstanding. Mahnke reminds us that folklore is not just myth, but memory, wound, and rallying cry—a fact as alive today as it was on the sacred grounds of ancient civilizations and at Wounded Knee alike.