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

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actuals
in the upper story of the ceremonial house, the men who are producing
these sounds are exceedingly conscious of that unseen audience
of women. They think of the women as admiring their music, and
if they make a technical blunder in the performance, it is the laughter
of the women that they fear.
(Bateson 1958: 128)
Wherever we turn in the tribal world we find theater – the interplay
among space, time, performers, action, and audience. Space is used
concretely, as something to be molded, changed, dealt with. The simplest
arrangement is, of course, an open area with a performance in the
center and the audience on all sides. That is the shape of the Tiwi trial.
Or a musical performance from inside to a gathering outside randomly
standing, sitting, or moving. Or the multiple simultaneous performances
of the Hevehe which cohere into a whole that no one person can
see all of. Or the construction of special places as in the Nanda. Or the
building of an entire camp away from the village as in the Bora. Often
space is articulated by the deployment of props or elements, such as a
large fire or a hollow log on which the initiates to be circumcised are
put, or a throne, or an animal pen where a sacrificial feast-beast is kept.
Examples of different spaces can be multiplied at will. Each is made for
and is part of a particular ceremony, event, or ritual.
Nowhere do we find a permanent theater or ceremonial place – a
single structure whose shape is “neutral” and “adaptable” to all uses.
The closest we come to that is an open space for dancing, debating,
trading, duelling, trying. Or the whole village which is a stage for
everything that goes on in and around it. Throughout the tribal world
events make shapes. In many ceremonies the principal architectural
element is people – how many there are, how and where they move,
what their interactions are, whether they participate or watch or do
both. Mead’s and Bateson’s film Dance and Trance in Bali (1938) shows
some people keenly watching the show, others lounging disinterestedly,
and several walking through the performance on their way to
other business. Our culture is almost alone in demanding uniform
behavior from audiences while clearly segregating audience from performers
and audience from others in the area who are neither audience
nor performers.