Performance StudiesRitual-Part I (pp.45-69)Spring 2007DFLSteven Yang

Ritual, Play and PerformancePerformance consists of ritualized gestures and sounds. Rituals helps people deal with difficult transitions, ambivalent relationships, hierarchies, and desires that trouble, exceed or violate the norms of daily life. Play gives people a chance to temporarily experience the tabu, the excessive, and the risky. Example: Oedipus Rex. Both rituals and plays lead people into a second reality.

Rituals and play transform people, either temporarily or permanently.Some rituals transform people permanently; we called them rites of passage.

Varieties of RitualReligious rituals, the ritual of everyday life, the rituals of life roles, the rituals of each profession, the rituals of politics, business and judicial system. Even animals perform rituals.For religious rituals, see fig 3.1 in p.46.

Sacred and SecularSacred rituals associate with religious belief. Secular rituals associate with everyday life, sports, and any other activity not specifically religious in character. But the neat division is spurious. Fig 3.3, 3.4, examples of scared-secular rituals.

Structures, Functions, Processes, and ExperiencesRituals and ritualizing can be understood from four perspectives:1.Structure 2.Function 3.Processes 4.Experiences Seven key themes related to performance studies. (p.50)

Rituals as Actions, as PerformanceEmile Durkheim theorized that performing rituals created and sustained social solidarity. Arnold van Genneps three-phase structure of ritual actions: the preliminal, liminal, and postliminal. Victor Turner develops van Genneps insight into a theory of ritual.

Human and Animal RitualsThe evolutionary scheme of ritual can be depicted as a ritual tree. (fig 3.5)While animals ritual are fixed, humans rituals are complex and sophisticated. Three categories of humans rituals. For primates rituals, see Jane Goodalls boxes. Gorilla and sport fans.

Rituals as Liminal PerformancesThe liminal-a period of time when a person is betwixt and between social categories or personal identities. Turner recognized in it a possibility for ritual to be creative, to make the way for new situations, identities, and social realities by means of anti-structure.

Limens, Lintels and StagesA limen is a threshold or sill, a thin strip neither inside nor outside a building or room linking one space to another. (see the Limens box)An empty theatre is liminal, open to all kinds of possibilities. Liminoid activities v.s liminal activities. (see fig3.9)

Anti-Structural and CommunitasTurner called the liberation from the constraints of ordinary life anti-structure and the experience of ritual camaraderie communitas. Normative communitas vs. Spontaneous communitasRitual experience can also be terrifying.

Ritual Time/SpaceBecause ritual take place in special, the very act of entering the sacred space has an impact on participants. In such space, special behavior is required. Richard Schechners practices this idea in his workshops.

Transportations and TransformationsTransformation: Liminal rituals permanently change who people are.Transportations: Liminoid rituals effect a temporary change, i.e. spontaneous communitas or several-hours-long performance of a role. Being double negative during the performance.

Social DramaEvery social drama develops in four phases, one following the order: breach, crisis, redressive action, and reintegration (or schism). Turner integrated his social drama into his theory of ritual process. (fig 3.13)The fluid relationship between aesthetic dramas and social dramas. (see fig 3.14)