ABSTRACT
Collective experiences in 17th-and 18th-century America were dominated by religious observance. This society continually reaffirmed its structure and socio-spatial arrangements through Puritan ethics, extracting corresponding social performance roles from its inhabitants. Over time, the repeated enactment of learned behavior circumscribed movement The setting of these spatial ballets in which individuals followed the routes of their role through class or public standing, led to a sedimentation of cultural landscape in which the same routes repeatedly taken defined the stage of community life.' In contrast to the monotony of this early colonial lifE?, substantial interest was generated by a passing entertainment, which intervened in the set scene, either playing roles previously not cast or deemed inappropriate. Traveling by any manner available, itinerant showmen brought relief with their infusions of activity to otherwise insular communities.
