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Punta is a Garifuna music and dance style performed at celebrations and festive occasions. A dance and music created by the Garifuna people of present day St. Vincent and Dominica. The best known traditional dance in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and parts of Nicaragua is Punta (called banguity), before the arrival of the Garifuna people in Punta Gorda, Roatan, Honduras on April 12 of 1797. The first album record of traditional punta music was released originally on 1955 in Honduras by Stone record, a Belizean record company. Sambunango made famous by Gatos Bravos of Honduras, released in 1987, it's known as the first commercially produced punta music song from Honduras. The most famous song of punta music is Sopa De Caracol made famous by Banda Blanca, The song was originally written be Belizean singer Hernan "Chico" Ramos, and translated into Spanish by Banda Blanca. Contemporary punta arose in the last thirty years of the twentieth century in Belize, while the earliest notions of the punta dance precede the coming together of the West African tribes and the Amerindian tribes of the Caribbean in the 17th century 〔Rosenberg, Dan. 1998. Parrandalised. ''Folk Roots'' 20 nos. 2-3: 47-51.〕 The diaspora of Garinagu people, commonly called the "Garifuna Nation", dates back to their origins of the amalgamation of West African slaves and the Arawak and Carib Amerindians. Punta is used to reaffirm and express the struggle felt by those of the indigenous population's common heritage through cultural art forms, such as dance and music and to highlight their strong sense of endurance.〔 Besides Belize, punta also has a following in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Southern Mexico and the United States. Lyrics may be in Garifuna, Kriol, English or Spanish.〔Greene, Oliver N., Jr. 2004. "Ethnicity, modernity, and retention in the Garifuna punta". ''Black Music Research Journal'' 22, no. 2: 189-216.〕〔(Punta Dance and Punta Songs )〕 However, most songs are performed in the indigenous Awarak and Carib-based languages of the Garinagu and are often simply contemporary adaptations of traditional Garifuna songs.〔 Being the most popular dance in Garifuna culture,〔 punta can be performed at wakes, holidays, parties, ancestral celebrations, and other social events.〔(Belize Music - The Garifunas. Belize.com Ltd, 2008. Web. 13 May 2010. )〕 Punta is iconic of Garifuna ethnicity and modernity, and can be seen as a poetic folk art that connects older cultures and rhythms with new sound.〔 Chumba and hunguhungu, circular dances in triple rhythm, are often combined with punta.〔 ==Origins and historical context== In their culture, the people refer to themselves as both Garinagu and Garifuna, with Garifuna mainly pertaining to their culture, music, and dance rather than using it to identify their people. There are a variety of possible origins of the ''puntas intended meaning for the Garifuna dance and music it represents. The word ''punta'' is a Latinization of an ancient West African rhythm called bunda, or "buttocks" in the Mandé language.〔 The punta dance is also known by the name ''kuliao'', from Spanish ''culeado''.〔 Another possibility refers to ''punta'' in the Spanish meaning "from point to point", referring to the tips of one's toes or to the movement from place to place.〔 The Punta dance is performed by a man and a woman who evolve separately in a circle formed by the spectators. They begin facing each other and the figure varies with the ingenuity of the dancers, but always represents the evolution of a courtship in which first the man pursues, and then the woman, while the other retreats; and ends only when one of them, from exhaustion or from lack of further initiative, admits defeat by retiring from the ring, to have his or her place immediately taken by another.〔 Punta dance is a mimetic cock-and-hen mating dance with rapid movements of the buttocks, hips, and feet, while the upper torso remains motionless.〔 Couples attempt to dance more stylistically and seductively, with better hip movements, than their competitors. As the evening progresses, the Punta became extremely “hot”; while the spectators egged on their favorites with cries of: mígira-ba labu, “don't leave (off) under him!” or: mígira-ba tabu, “don't leave (off) under her!” which has the same effect as, “don't let him (or her) beat you!” 〔 Over time due to their difficult history, music and dance became a way to explain their daily lives and surroundings, a vehicle to communicate Garifuna struggles and ideas, and an antidote to celebrate life and release Garifuna pain.〔 "While punta the song form symbolizes the retention of culture through music, punta the dance form symbolizes the continuity of life." 〔 The basic dance appeals across lines of gender and age, whether it is expressed in its original, more conservative manner with gentle swaying hips that imply sexual desire, or the more aggressive, provocative manner that emulates sex. The constantly pulsating rhythms represent the most direct and physical form of intimacy, which attracts people of various ethnicities as well.〔 Punta rituals have been observed on holidays such as Christmas Eve and New Year's Day by anthropologist Cynthia Chamberlain Bianchi during her study in the late 1970s-mid 1980s. More commonly were the religious or ancestral rituals, as those seen on the ninth-night wakes by anthropologist Nancie Gonzales during her fieldwork in Central America. If a death occurred at night, then the wake would begin early the next morning and continue all day, ending with a burial in the late afternoon. However, if the death were during the day, an all-night wake would ensue with people coming and going throughout, with prayers and drinking being a familiar sight.〔 Punta dancing can be considered a salient feature of the all-night watches and was mandatory for many participants. Gonzales reflected on her work and other anthropologists', such as Virginia Kearns, concluding that similar evidence has been found in Belize, as well as her own in Honduras, that most punta dancing and story telling was kept until the ninth-night wake, rather than included at any time.〔 Punta music is well known for its call and response patterns and rhythmic drumming that reflects an African and Amerindian origin.〔 The Garinagu people say that their music is not about feeling or emotion, as in most other Latin American nations, but more so about events and dealing with the world around them. A Garifuna elder, Rutilia Figueroa, states: "The Garifuna sing their pain. They sing about their concerns. They sing about what’s going on. We dance when there is a death. It’s a tradition () to bring a little joy to the family, but every song has a different meaning. Different words. The Garifuna does not sing about love. The Garifuna sings about things that reach your heart." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Punta」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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