Recovering Ancient Ritual and the Theatre of the Apache
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2005 Recovering ancient ritual and the theatre of the Apache: a journey through the false consciousness of Western theatre history Marla Kathleen Dean Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Dean, Marla Kathleen, "Recovering ancient ritual and the theatre of the Apache: a journey through the false consciousness of Western theatre history" (2005). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1330. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1330 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. RECOVERING ANCIENT RITUAL AND THE THEATRE OF THE APACHE: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS OF WESTERN THEATRE HISTORY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Theatre by Marla Kathleen Dean B.A., The University of Texas, 1998 M.A., The University of Texas, 2000 May 2005 ©Copyright 2005 Marla Kathleen Dean All rights reserved ii DEDICATION I wish to dedicate this study to my children: Simone, Christian and Julia; who have each supported me with their special gifts throughout this journey. I could never have completed these pages without their love, encouragement, and patience. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the second year of my doctoral candidacy, during a nineteenth century theatre seminar led by Dr. Jennifer Cavenaugh, I suddenly felt like Blanche Dubois describing her first confrontation with love in Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire: “All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on 1 something that had always been half in shadow.”TP PT It was at that moment, discussing English melodrama, that I saw for the first time the material theatre of the past being reconstructed by the historian to fit into the idea of Western theatre. I felt devastated, confused, betrayed and saddened. My excitement as I began to view the histories in their context of the culture where and when they were written would come later. My revelation was insignificant to everyone else in the room and yet, it changed my course and threw open the doors to my scholarship. Thank you, Dr. Jennifer Jones Cavenaugh, for my enlightenment and my quest. I give special thanks to Professor Cavenaugh for her guidance, thoughts and inspiration throughout this dissertation. Her skills as an editor and necessary role of the devil’s advocate assisted me on every level within these chapters. I also wish to acknowledge Professors Oscar Brockett and John Brokaw for throwing down the gauntlet of historical scholarship before me. They both inspired and challenged me to dig deeper. Their contributions to my methodology and research techniques gave me the tools to complete this study. Without Professor Les Wade’s theoretical challenges this dissertation would be very short. Through his patience and questions he gave me the courage and desire to confront and seek new paths. His insight and instruction made this 1 A Street Car Named Desire TP PT Tennessee Williams, ( New York: Signet Classic, 1947) Sc. vi, 95. iv work possible. In addition, I thank Professor Femi Euba for his gifts of insight and challenge to see through another lens. His ability to gently shift my perspective was of great benefit to me throughout my studies. An analysis such as this stands on the foundation of many. It is to these scholars and specifically theatre historians who have preceded me that I give my most heartfelt thanks, for it is because of their explorations that I have found a path. In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge those who have fed my heart and soul: my mother and father, Raymond and Nadene Dean, who have always supported my dreams and shaped my courage to pursue them; my dearest friend and fellow artist, Rosalyn Rosen, who never lost faith in my mission; and my fellow travelers, Gino Chelakis and Kristin Hanson who have never failed to listen. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………….. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………… iv ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………. vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………… 1 The Sacred and Profane in Ancient Greece……………………… 20 The Written and the Oral………………………………………… 23 Methodology…………………………………………………….. 32 2 INFLUENCES UPON THEATRE HISTORY’S PERCEPTION OF GREEK AND ROMAN PERFOMANCE…………………………… 39 Mimos…………………………………………………………….. 46 Rome…………………………………………………………….. 63 3 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY AND ITS IMPACT UPON THE WESTERN THEATRE NARRATIVE ………….…………………. 91 The Early Church …..…………………………………………… 96 The Middle Ages………………………………………………… 123 4 FIRST ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN THE EUROPEANS AND THE INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS OF THE AMERICAS…….. 158 European Perceptions of the Indian…………………………….. 164 Indian Perceptions of the European…………………………….. 191 5 THEATRE AS SACRED RITUAL IN FIFTH CENTURY ATHENS ………………………………………………………….. 220 City Dionysia Ritual Form…………………………………….. 231 Ritual Elements…..…………………………………………….. 244 Ritual Function …………………………………………………. 258 6 THE THEATRE OF THE APACHE………………………………. 266 Na’ii’ees Ritual Form………………………………………….. 277 Ritual Elements ……………………………………………….. 287 Ritual Function ………………………………………………... 294 7 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………….. 298 BILBIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………… 303 VITA………………………………………………………………………………… 319 vi ABSTRACT This dissertation examines past cultural influences which have shaped theatre historians’ perception of ancient Greek and contemporary Native American performance. It suggests that through a recognition of these influences, which have long tempered the Western narrative of theatre, ancient and Indigenous performance can be reviewed as similar forms of a lived exchange. This study also examines theatre history’s place within Western ideology, which has shaped contemporary scholarship of the Indigenous and classical Greek performance, based upon the cultural residue of ancient inversion processes. The study tracks the formation of certain beliefs and assumptions within performance history through Roman, early Christian and Renaissance cultural identities. It notes the misrepresentation of oral and popular theatre within theatrical scholarship through its reliance upon the written remains of the ruling classes and confronts the notion of high and low forms of art within the theatre canon. Through an historical methodology, the chapters attempt to disclose and refute long held assumptions within the discipline of theatre history. It explores contemporary Apache and ancient Athenian performance as both sacred tribal rituals and theatre. In conclusion, the dissertation reviews the constructed opposing paths of fifth century Athenian theatre and ritual performance of the Native American within theatre history. It summarizes the impact of ancient social structures upon our view of Indigenous performance today and argues that without these religious and cultural biases, the Apache ritual and fifth century B.C.E. theatre can be seen simultaneously as dramatic and sacred forms of equal importance within their tribal structures and theatrical narrative. vii Ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker consciously, it is true, but with a false consciousness. The real motive and forces impelling him remain unknown to him. Friedrich Engels, 1893 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Watching the televised opening ceremonies of the 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, I suddenly understood what Friedrich Engles meant by the false consciousness inherent within ideology. False consciousness is the belief that acts and ideas are conscious and yet, in actuality are dominated by cultural influences of which we are unaware. The Olympic ceremony was a theatrically performed linear narrative of Utah’s history transmitted via satellite in numerous languages to a billion member audience around the world. At one point during the pageant the four tribes of Utah were introduced upon the ice, dancing and singing. Each distinct group, in various Native dress, danced separate performances and sang in different languages simultaneously. Their voices rose into unintelligible songs, distinct customs and colorful dress blurred, their movements diffused into one recognizable and understood image: The Native American. Four separate peoples with very different histories were combined into one indistinguishable historical event for this theatrical pageant. Five centuries of Native American history and performance were abridged into an historical American performance moment, diffusing all tribes into one image of a dancing and singing other. I had witnessed in that televised moment the unveiled false consciousness embedded in Western ideology and its impact upon the history of performance. 1 As a historian approaches an historic monument such as: the Golden Age of Greek Theatre or the nineteenth century image of the Native American, I believe the process of examination should be viewed as active. This study looks at the history of a people and their cultural constructions, such as theatre, as