Talk:Ventriloquism

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Vocal technique?

The section on "vocal technique" doesn't describe the vocal technique of ventriolquy, it simply presents one of the problems encountered. This section needs to be fleshed-out considerably. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.253 (talk) 00:31, 13 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"The noises produced by the stomach were thought to be the voices of the unliving"?

The current text on Origins includes this passage:

Originally, ventriloquism was a religious practice. The name comes from the Latin for 'to speak from the stomach: Venter (belly) and loqui (speak). The Greeks called this gastromancy (Greek: εγγαστριμυθία).^{[citation needed]} The noises produced by the stomach were thought to be the voices of the unliving, who took up residence in the stomach of the ventriloquist.

This sounds wild—does anyone have a citation for this? The closest thing I could find from a quick search is in C.B. Davis's "Distant Ventriloquism: Vocal Mimesis, Agency and Identity in Ancient Greek Performance," an article in Theater Journal Volume 55 No. 1 pp. 45-65, from March 2003. Skimming, it looks like the article argues (among other things) that the older Greek term, engastrimuthos, may have meant a swallowed spirit, rather than a medium who claims to speak for a spirit. It also references a humorous story from a dialog called Lexiphanes, written by Lucian, partly in support of this reading of the word. This doesn't seem to support the claim that the voices were "thought to be the voices of the unliving," or that ventriloquism was a religious practice. JoeACecil (talk) 00:10, 27 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]