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This Inka ritual stage, or ushnu, is found immediately outside the kallanka of the Inka site of Inkallakta ( also spelled Incallacta, Incallajta or Inkallajta ), in Bolivia. The kallanka is the largest room known to have existed in the Western Hemisphere prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century. The platform is in the shape of an inverted step pyramid, with a large rock in the center that elevates and makes visible a performer standing on it. The ushnu is located at the highest, most central point of a large plaza, immediately outside the kallanka's central portal. A performer could emerge from the kallanka onto the rock as if emerging from a trap door. Yes, that's me on the platform, "communing" with the ancient Inkas.
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Performance in premodern societies created senses of community and identity, forged power relations, and communicated ideologies and other important messages. Theatrical spectacles, such as those involving the ushnu of Huanaco, Peru (above), were a critical element in governance and the creation of empires. Archaeologists have done a poor job in analyzing performance, focusing on either its physical possibilities and limitations ("proxemics")or substituting their own experiences for those of ancient peoples without any basis. The latter I have described as "fantastic fandangos of phenomenological phantasmagoria", which is an academic way of describing nonsense and b.s. My own work seeks to consider the experience and emotion of performance in a scientific and systematic manner.
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I undertake this work through a study of the relationship between the nature of premodern performance spaces and the communicative and emotional import of the performances within them. A dramatic presentation's effect on an audience cannot be determined without consideration of the "theater" housing it. Appropriate analysis of such a theater requires the examination of numerous factors, including shape, entrances and exits, location of the "stage", background set, lighting, sound, costumes, and changes in elevation. The size and nature of the audience, including its capacity, composition location relative to the "actors", and sightlines are important factors. The discussion in the first bullet point above is a rough but demonstrative example. Interviews with actors, directors, theatre,set and lighting designers and other theatre professionals are an important analytic tool of this project.
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