Paleoperformance: The emergence of theatricality in the deep caves of the Upper Paleolithic

My intention in writing this dissertation is to provide the fields of performance studies, theatre history, and cultural anthropology with a new chapter that, until now, has been missing---a chapter about the emergence of "theatre" as a social practice in prehistory. Based on the evidence available, I have sought to determine the links between the human use of caves in the Upper Paleolithic and the institutionalization of theatricality---defined as a sanctioned operational system for the fictitious. I contend that traces of such theatricality emerge from the extant cultural remains linked with the human use of caves in the Upper Paleolithic. To excavate this emergence, I propose a paradigm that I have labeled paleoperformance.;This investigation begins with an analysis of the socio-economic aspects of the Upper Paleolithic society with a focus on a period (22,000 to 14,000 years before present) during which all the socio-economic components for the emergence of theatricality were present. By assessing the extant archaeological evidence for the human use of caves and their implications for the emergence of theatricality, this archaeology of performance provides my investigation with a set of evidential data that confirms the "marginal" nature of the cave and the liminal nature of the practices that were performed within its boundaries. To contextualize this evidential data, I provide a series of modus operandi.;The deep caves were places where societal segregation took place in order to guarantee stability and survival. Knowledge was variably disseminated during initiatory procedures that were carefully choreographed. To frame these performative procedures, the cave users had, at their disposition, iconographic structures that operated both as mnemonics and "texts." Finding the "texts" by dissecting the mechanisms of Upper Paleolithic iconography is a daunting task approached by synthesizing and expanding the contributions of six major scholars. The assessment of these iconographic vestiges is an invitation for the construction of narratives. Therefore, based on the extant evidence and common sense, I provide a series of admittedly speculative episodes. Each episode presents one particular aspect of paleoperformance as an initiatory procedure. Such procedures, I conclude, were instrumental in the institutionalization of theatricality, and mark the emergence of "theatre" as social practice.