Prehistory, Performance, and “Origin Rituals”

Read:
1. Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. Pages 28-29.

2. Macgowan and Melnitz from 1959 : "The Theater Begins with Primitive Man" in The Living Stage, 1-20.  (An example of how the story used to be told).

3. Two sections of Richard Schechner, Performance Theory. In the online text available through OCRA read pages 153-166 (those underlinings are from whoever marked up the library book). If you bought the book you likely to have the 2003 edition, which would be pages 170-186.

Also read, in the same book,  pages 1-6 (section titled “The Cambridge Anthropologists” for those with different editions).

ALSO:  Watch Cave of Forgotten Dreams, directed by Werner Herzog, streaming through OCRA.



Recommended: Diana Taylor, excerpt from The Archive and the Repertoire, page 1-52.
Also recommended:  Schechner, Introduction to Performance Studies, 221-225

Reading Response: Think about the following questions. Pick one or combine for your response paper.

1. In light of Schechner’s theory in Performance Theory  and in light of the Bernal excerpt, what can be said about the historiographical agendas and ideological investments in Macgowan and Melnitz’s text on "primitivity" versus "civilization”?

2. What does Schechner argue is the social reason propelling performance? Be able to turn to the text and point to the place where Schechner provides a theory.

3. Think of an example of theatre or ritual you would call "ecological"  today and say why.

4. What kind of performance theory might be prompted by Herzog's exploration of paleolithic caves? 


Graduate Students, besides doing the recommended reading, if you are interested to go further in paleolithic performance questions read Yann Montelle. Paleoperformance: The Emergence of Theatricality as Social Practice and/or Mats Rosengren, Cave Art: Perception and Knowledge.