ABSTRACT
Although puppet and object performance has been considered a central element of many Asian, African, and Native American cultures, modern culture in 16th-and 17th-century Europe began to consider performing objects as remnants of pagan and primitive societies, separate from high culture. In the laer part of the 19th century, this situation was augmented by the western concept that puppetry was particularly, if not solely, suited to children’s entertainment and education. Moreover, the 19th-century invention of anthropology and folklore provided Europeans a scientic means of understanding the Asian, American, and African cultures (and some aspects of traditional European performance) that they considered primitive. As a result, these two disciplines provided the rst in-depth western research into puppet, mask, and performing object forms.
