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

approaches 25
a ritual is a stereotyped series of simple complementary transactions programmed
by external social forces. . . . The form of a ritual is parentally
determined by tradition. . . . Some formal rituals of special historical or
anthropological interest have two phases: 1) a phase in which transactions
are carried on under rigid parental strictures, 2) a phase of parental license
in which the child is allowed more or less complete transactional freedom,
resulting in an orgy.
This fits neatly with my contention that ritual and play join in crucial ways.
24 Kaprow’s works often extend in time and space, but still there are boundaries.
Lowry Burgess is working on a piece, Quiet Axis, that extends from Earth to
the far side of the Moon and on to the Large Cloud of Magellan. As of 2002,
Burgess – by then sixty-two years old and a Professor of Art at Carnegie-Mellon
University – was still working on his decades-long piece.