La jota y la taranta. Ritualidad de la música y la danza en la cultura tradicional aragonesa [The jota and the taranta. The rituality of music and dance in traditional Aragonese culture]

Abstract

For centuries, the tarantella has been the musical remedy used in Italy to cure those bitten by the tarantula, symbolically called «taranta». In Spain, sources also confirm the presence of the same phenomenon and therapy for it with this style of music and in Aragon with the jota. This paper outlines a line of argument relating the jota with the tarantella, their possible common origin and their relationship with states of possession. Links are also drawn with the psychic characteristics associated with melancholy which, in contexts of cultural and economic marginalisation, have led to cultural phe-nomena which have materialised in the use of music and dance.