The Global History of the Swing

This project traces the history of an object that has accompanied us since immemorial times, from pre-imperial China and from the Greek legends of Erigone. From the rituals of the Minoan Crete to the great swing of the Brahmins of Siam, that today lives its dead hours in Bangkok, this research traces the history of an object and an experience. On the one hand, it would be unthinkable not to associate balancing with an evolutionary past that human beings share with other animal species. The arousal of the vestibular system may very well be part of an adaptive training mechanism dependent on biological inheritance. Perhaps swinging is the vestige of a remote era, the emotional rest of our animal condition. On the other hand, however, these biological considerations do not serve to explain its different cultural uses. From ritual to play or from magic to medicine, swinging drags behind a past marked by diversity, not only in relation to its material forms but to the quality of experience to which it has given access.