Origins, Ritual, and Ceremony

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Origins, Ritual, and Ceremony
Theatre seems to have existed throughout history. Nearly all societies embraced some form of drama. Theatrical performances are believed to have originated from different cultural practices. Examining the role of orality, ritual, and shamanism provides an insight into the transformation of performances throughout the history of theatre. It presents a clear link between human culture and drama. The transformation from oral culture to literature culture involved different cultural stages. Oral culture is one of the earliest forms of theatre performance, dating back to the 15th century. A significant majority of its characteristics emerge from the practical elements of speech. The words are the performance, meaning, memory, and key to all understanding.
Early forms of oral literature were primarily mimetic. A ritual is an essential form of oral culture. It is an interesting part of theatre studies due to its performative character. It often involves the impersonation of deities, which compares to character enactment in theatre. The performance draws the participant's mind t...