ABSTRACT
Events that can be designated “performance” – dance, music, and/or theatre – occur among all the world’s peoples and date back as far as archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians can go. In Chapter 3, I discussed “cave art” and performance in relation to ritual. Let me continue now with that discussion concentrating on what kind of performances took place in these ancient sites. Evidence indicates that people were performing in caves at least 30,000 years ago. What kinds of performances? The words “dance,” “theatre,” and “music,” or their linguistic equivalents, are not universal, but the behaviors are. Of course, such behaviors vary from place to place, culture to culture, and epoch to epoch. But surviving cave art and prehistoric artifacts indicate that rhythmic movement (dancing), beating of bone-to-bone drums and flute sounds (music), wearing masks and/or costumes while impersonating other humans, animals, or supernaturals (theatre) were going on (see Wilford box). No one knows if these paleolithic performers were acting out stories, representing past events, experiences, memories,
dreams, or fantasies. I would like to think they were; that making what we would call theatre-dance-music is coexistent with the human condition.That this kind of activity is an important marker of what it means to be human. Supposing that such performances were happening, no one can answer the chicken-or-egg question, “Which came first, ritual or entertainment?” Answering that question depends as much on definitions as on archaeological evidence. What exactly is “ritual,” what “entertainment”? In earlier chapters I have offered some definitions, while insisting that all performances are to some degree both ritual and entertainment. In prehistoric times,most probably even more than today, performances were both ritual and entertainment. In historical times, for many centuries, in many societies, religious rituals and state ceremonies have entertained vast numbers of participating believers and citizens. Conversely, in today’s world, more than a few aesthetic performances, popular entertainments, and sports events have been ritualized.
