ABSTRACT
At the descriptive level there is no detail of performance occurring everywhere under all circumstances. Nor is it easy to specify limitations on what is, or could be treated as, performance. Figure 8.1 is an exemplary but somewhat serendipitous panorama of just how diverse and extensive the performance world is. Criteria for inclusion in the chart were: 1) events called performances in this or that culture; 2) events treated “as performance” by scholars. I limited myself as much as possible to events that I have either seen or studied. I wanted to fight the tendency to seek “origins” or “sources” in performances below the horizons of field work or reliable historical research. I took my cue from anthropological field work: the evidence I sought was in vivo, ready at hand. I know that another person could make another time/ space/event chart populated by different items. But I believe the outcome would be a similar riot of apparently disparate particulars. What hope is there of unifying such a figure?
