To my son Sam To my daughter Sophia First publ<strong>is</strong>hed 1993 by Routledge II New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Paperback edition first publ<strong>is</strong>hed by Routledge 1995 Simultaneously publ<strong>is</strong>hed in <strong>the</strong> USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
THE FUTU R E OF RITUAL but whose d<strong>is</strong>course affects not only future performances but <strong>the</strong> ways in which past events are received. 2. Arman <strong>is</strong> <strong>the</strong> "soul, " <strong>the</strong> Self with a capital S, <strong>the</strong> imper<strong>is</strong>hable whatever-it-<strong>is</strong> identical to brahman, <strong>the</strong> transcendent, universal, si ngle absolute which a person can experience, or enter, but not describe or relate. Atman- brahman <strong>is</strong> beyond maya- lila, a cancelling out <strong>of</strong> maya- lila in a way roughly equivalent to <strong>the</strong> way antimatter anihilates matter. 3. According to Hindu mythology as told in <strong>the</strong> Puranas, <strong>the</strong> ex<strong>is</strong>tence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> world <strong>is</strong> divided into four aeons, or yugas. The Indians, loving ma<strong>the</strong>matics, calculated <strong>the</strong>se prec<strong>is</strong>ely in terms <strong>of</strong> both divine and human years (one divine year = 360 human years). The Krita yuga lasts I ,728,000 human years and <strong>is</strong> a period <strong>of</strong> perfection; <strong>the</strong> Treta yuga lasts I ,296,000 years and <strong>is</strong> a truthful age; <strong>the</strong> Dvapara yuga lasts 864,000 years and <strong>is</strong> a time <strong>of</strong> dimin<strong>is</strong>hed good; and, finally, <strong>the</strong> Kali yuga (our own time), lasts 432,000 years and <strong>is</strong> a period <strong>of</strong> darkness and calamity. One Mahayuga equals all four yugas (4,320,000 years); and 1,000 Mahayugas (4,320,000,000) <strong>is</strong> a day <strong>of</strong> Brahma. At <strong>the</strong> close <strong>of</strong> th<strong>is</strong> day <strong>of</strong> Brahma, a collapse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> universe takes place which lasts through a ni ght <strong>of</strong> Brahma, equal in duration to h<strong>is</strong> day, during which period <strong>the</strong> worlds are converted into one great ocean ... . At <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> that night he awakes and creates anew. . . . A year <strong>of</strong> Brahm a <strong>is</strong> composed <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> proper number <strong>of</strong> such days and nights, and a hundred <strong>of</strong> such years constitute h<strong>is</strong> whole life. (Wilkins 1975 :354) When Brahma's life ends, <strong>the</strong> elements <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> universe d<strong>is</strong>solve. 4. From <strong>the</strong> Bhagavata Pu rana translated by O'Fiaherty and quoted in O'Flaherty 1984 :109-10. 5. At <strong>the</strong> Department <strong>of</strong> Performance Studies, T<strong>is</strong>ch School <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Arts, New York <strong>University</strong> - where I have been teaching since 1967. 44 ., l •: t t ~· ~~' ., _ .. J, ' -1 . .ti ' I. I' I.~ 'I . ,; '" tl ~' ., li.'_· 3 The <strong>street</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>stage</strong> I mean our thing's forTY. We don't want to get on Meet <strong>the</strong> Press. What's that shit? We want Ed Sullivan, [<strong>the</strong>] Johnny Carson show, we want <strong>the</strong> shit where people are lookin' at it and diggin' it. Abbie H<strong>of</strong>fman (1969a:48) [A constitutional republic] cannot forever withstand continual carnival on <strong>the</strong> <strong>street</strong>s <strong>of</strong> its cities and <strong>the</strong> campuses <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> nation. Unless sage debate replaces <strong>the</strong> belligerent strutting now used so extensively, reason will be consumed and <strong>the</strong> death <strong>of</strong> logic will surely follow. Vice-President Spiro Agnew, May 1969 1 . old authority and truth pretend to be absolute, to have an extratemporal importance. Therefore, <strong>the</strong>ir representatives . .. are gloomily serious. They cannot and do not w<strong>is</strong>h to laugh; <strong>the</strong>y strut majestically, consider <strong>the</strong>ir foes <strong>the</strong> enemies <strong>of</strong> eternal truth, and threaten <strong>the</strong>m with eternal pun<strong>is</strong>hment. They do not see <strong>the</strong>mselves in <strong>the</strong> mirror <strong>of</strong> time, do not perceive <strong>the</strong>ir own origin, limitations, and end; <strong>the</strong>y do not recognize <strong>the</strong>ir own ridiculous faces or <strong>the</strong> comic nature <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir pretensions to eternity and immutability. And thus <strong>the</strong>se personages come to <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir role still serious, although <strong>the</strong>ir spectators have been laughing for a long time . .. . Time has transformed old truth and authority into a Mardi Gras dummy, a comic monster that <strong>the</strong> laughing crowd rends to pieces in <strong>the</strong> marketplace. Mikhail Bakhtin (1984:212- 13 ) The role <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> revolutionary <strong>is</strong> to create <strong>the</strong>atre which creates a revolutionary frame <strong>of</strong> reference. The power to define <strong>is</strong> <strong>the</strong> power to control. .. . The goal <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>atre <strong>is</strong> to get as many people as possible to overcome fear by taking action. We create reality wherever we go by living our fantasies. Jerry Rubin (1970: 142-3) What <strong>is</strong> <strong>the</strong> relation between "<strong>the</strong> authorities" and "<strong>the</strong> people" when <strong>the</strong> people occupy public <strong>street</strong>s, squares, plazas, and buildings? Do carnivals 45 il ~
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