Many dancers believe that these women's dances have their origins in the ancient fertility cults
of the middle and near east. It is not possible to entirely prove or disprove this theory in any way
that would satisfy scholarly academic requirements. The modern Western woman who is also
perhaps an office worker and wife doesn't think of herself as doing an ancient cult dance. But
she can find in the dance a source of feminine elegance, serenity, passion, and creativity that is
sorely lacking in a modern technological culture which is distinctively patriarchial. And
certainly, any woman who dances Raks Sharki, where the movements originate from the
stomach and flow through the chest understands that it's certainly possible that this dance has
ancient pagan origins..

People have always endowed their gods with human frailties, and thus these deities had to be
appeased with the best of their possessions: the fruits of the field, the fatted calf, and even human
beings. The fertility cult in particular existed in all ancient civilizations. The great Mother
Goddess has appeared under different names such as Mylitta, Isis, Ashtoreth, Astarte, Ishtar,
Aphrodite, Venus, Bhagvati, Parvati and Ceres. The function of these goddesses was
reproductive, not just in the limited sense of human beings, but in the greater sense of the planet
itself. They ensured the cycle of the seasons which regulated the growth of crops. They were
responsible for the increase of livestock and the perpetuation of the race. The well -being of both
the city and the countryside depended upon the goodwill of the regional mother goddess.

None of these goddesses were celibate because it ran counter to their function. Neither were her
priestesses necessarily expected to be celibate. Since the reproductive functions of the goddess
were symbolized in the human female's reproductive organs, it must have seemed very natural to
give the goddess the gift of a girl's service and virginity. Thus began the practice of temple
prostitutes, who were honored citizens in their day and time. The ancient definition of "virgin"
simply meant that woman belonged to no man. There is ample evidence in the writings of
Socrates, Apollodorus, Plautus, Arnobius, Justin and Eusebius of sacred prostitution in the
Middle East, West Asia, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and North Africa. Girls might be sent to the
temple as the result of a pious vow. Sometimes it had a double aim, namely that of serving the
deity while earning their marriage portions. Dance might also have been an integral part of their
duties.

In Egypt today, it is still the custom at many weddings to hire a belly dancer for the wedding.
The bride and groom often take a picture with their hands on the belly dancer's stomach. This is
an obvious reference to the dance's relation to ancient fertility cults. As if there were any doubt
on this score, Morocco reports making the acquaintance of a Saudi Arabian woman who
arranged for her to take part in a Berber tribal birthing ceremony, reminiscent of ancient times.
(Morocco had to pretend to be the unfortunate mute serving girl of her benefactor in order to pass
inspection.) The women gathered in a tent, while the men waited outdoors. A hollow was dug
in the ground, where the mother-to-be sat. She was surrounded by concentric circles of women
who danced with repeated abdominal movements while the woman gave birth. The same
Saudi woman found it highly amusing that the LaMaze "birthing classes" taught the same
movements to be found in the timeless art of belly dance. The dance itself was considered by
these women to be sacred, and not intended to be seen by men at all. Armen Ohanian, a Persian
dancer of the nineteenth century, who was a Christian Armenian, wrote of her horror at seeing
the debased form of the dance for the first time: "In the true Orient, the most depraved man
venerates instinctively in every woman the image of her who gave him birth.... In this olden Asia
which has kept the dance in its primitive purity, it represents maternity, the mysterious
conception of life, the suffering and the joy with which a new soul is brought into the world.

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