4 from ritual to theater and back: the efficacy ... - AAAARG.ORG

288
ethology and theater
correlate with what is happening socially, that is, between individuals and
among groups. This kind of study is a holistic behaviorism. See chapter 8.
4 See Girard (1977), Ehrenzweig (1970), and Schechner (1986a).
5 For a very interesting take on Wilson’s work from The Life and Times of Sigmund
Freud (1969) through I was Sitting on My Patio (1977), see Stefan Brecht (1978).
6 Marshack (1972) shows how early mathematical systems developed as seasonal
markers and accurate calendars. He finds these widely scattered over
Eurasia and dates them as early as the earliest cave paintings. If correct, Marshack
establishes for humans a complicated notation system – writing –
coexistent with the first surviving artworks.
7 Scott Powell of Sha-Na-Na observed The Who on tour. Powell wrote the following
description of their finale in Philadelphia’s Spectrum in 1975, showing how
consistent The Who’s performance is and how it affects audiences:
The stage grows black. The synthesizer is playing through the dark hall. It
continues for five minutes, and it seems as if the concert is over, with the
expectation that the houselights will come up and the synthesizer will
continue playing as exit music. But suddenly white spotlights simultaneously
pick up Townshend in mid-air leaping from on top of his amplifiers,
and Daltrey at the front of the stage, belting out a scream that fills the
hall. The landing lights explode through the darkness; the lasers pierce to
the ceiling once again. With the entire audience on its feet clapping, singing,
and dancing to the music, the band leads the audience through several
choruses of the song, and hits a final chord. Townshend has his guitar
by the neck and is beating it into the stage. Feedback and distortion ring
through the hall. Daltrey flies feet first into a stack of amplifiers, toppling
them back off the stage. Moon kicks though his drum-head and hurls his
tom-tom at the rest of the kit. Townshend attacks his stack of amplifiers
with a flying kick and they fall off the back of the stage. Entwhistle stands
by the side of the stage and watches the destruction. Then, with a final kick
at the guitar, clapping each other on the back, The Who disappear from the
stage, and the houselights come up.
(Unpublished paper, 1976)
8 See Ekman (1972, 1980, and 1983); Ekman, Friesen, and Ellsworth (1972); Birdwhistell
(1952, 1964a, 1964b, and 1970); and Goffman (1959, 1961, 1963a,
1963b, 1967, 1969, and 1974).
9 A fight-package is a bundle of sacred/magic materials carried into battle. The
package is said to protect the fighter and to bring him victory.
10 Since writing this essay in the mid-1970s, the debate concerning cannibalism
has sharpened. Some anthropologists doubt that there is, or ever was, cannibalism
– except out of the need for sheer survival (shipwrecks, for example).
The debate is reported in Science.
What [William] Arens concluded after investigating countless accounts
of cannibalism is that there are no reliable first hand witnesses to this