When reading the Roach piece, I felt very confused by the multiple contexts which he used the word “performance” in. Roach used “performance” to describe cultures, practices, and holidays. He uses the word as a verb, noun, and adjective. The most distinct context of “performance” I found while reading was on page 13: “the materials of the present study are thematized under categories of those restored behaviors that function as vehicles of cultural transmission. Each category pairs a form of collective memory with enactments that embody it through performance: death and burials, violence and sacrifices, laws and (dis)obedience, origins and segregation.” This quote stood out to me because laws, segregation, burials… these do not seem like performances to me. But, Roach’s article shows that performances are intertwined with and necessary to process and understand shared memory. When a death is experienced, disobedience is seen in society or people come from different backgrounds, our natural reaction as a society is to find a way to deal with this. Roach’s quote suggests and brings to light that burials help the living cope, laws help normalize society (in negative and positive ways) and segregation results from a society that creates differences that do not exist. These performances are ways that society forgets and attempts to erase and recreate.
3 Replies to “The Versatility of Performance”
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An understanding of Roach’s use of “performance” is deepened by examining the connections between Performance Studies and Anthropology. The collaborative work of Victor Turner, an anthropologist, and Richard Schechner, a performing arts scholar, helped to move performance from a strict understanding of an event that occurs on a stage, to something much more broad and less definitive. Thus “performance,” as defined by Turner and Schechner, lies in-between Between Theatre and Anthropology. Performance, much in the same way I would define “literary,” exists in the written, spoken, and movements of our lived experiences.
I agree, as well. I was lucky to have taken a class on linguistic anthropology a few semesters ago, and one of the terms that we examined in light of the field of anthropology was the term “performance”. Basically, the way we defined this was a way of enacting a ritual, or a cultural idea in a way that allows many members of the community to also take part in it. It doesn’t per se mean that there is anything “false” about it (as we usually take the definition to include inherently today). It is actually supposed to be a uniting term, as it brings people together. I think this is quite similar to the way Roach is trying to use performance.
I agree that Roach’s use of the word “performance” was initially confusing. It helped me to think of performances not in the traditional theatrical sense, but as any kind of activity done by a person or group of people. It is interesting that Roach chooses to view performance in such a broad sense, but also helped me to realize that a wide variety of actions and events are tools through which one shares their culture. I think Roach’s wide-encompassing definition of performance will come to be helpful in future readings. Maybe this will allow us to look at the actions of characters with a closer lens and to try and see what influences cause them to act in such a way and also what they are communicating via the action.