Remember the macarena? It was the hottest new dance in 1996. People loved it because it was easy, and fun, and you could go out and do it with other people. And yet, you didn’t exactly do it WITH other people. The dance was hailed as self-affirming and inclusive, and it was something each of us could do as a glorious solitary expression of our own body’s capacity for rhythmic grace and movement.
In a macarena, people support each other by doing the same things alongside each other. They confidence and support by entraining with other people. A Durkheimian sociologist would identify this dance as an exemplar of mechanical solidarity.
