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‘Yes And’ Throughout Time and Social Space

The Anthropology of Improvised Theatre. ‘Yes And’ Throughout Time and Social Space. ‘Yes And’ Throughout Time and Social Space. Improv does this to people.

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‘Yes And’ Throughout Time and Social Space

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  1. The Anthropology of Improvised Theatre ‘Yes And’ Throughout Time and Social Space ‘Yes And’ Throughout Time and Social Space

  2. Improv does this to people • “When it works, and you know it’s working, There’s like an automatic pilot thing that sets in between 2 or 3 or even all of us at once, where you sense that it’s writing itself, and you’re just kind of there and along for the ride and enjoying it.” (Erin, Personal Interview 2007)

  3. Improv does this to people • “This was two characters who hadn’t been introduced yet. Both [of us] came out with characters and a situation and a focus that was identical. I mean the characters were not identical, but they were complimentary. And we just started talking, and I was like ‘Oh my god, this is the coolest thing’. It was so cool…and this was the first time this had happened to me…That gave me a real sense of ‘Ok, that can happen.’…That was a great feeling. That was a great feeling.” (Jill, Personal Interview 2007)

  4. Improv does this to people • “After [the show], the next day I had to sit down and write in my journal…I thought ‘oh my gosh, what if I lived this way? What if I really lived this way in the world with people?’ I was very touched by watching [the performers] work together. I mean, that’s no lie, and I just said, “What if I lived that way?” And it caused me to examine, on the lowest level, what if I said “yes, and” to you and you and you [pointing randomly at people].” (Laura, Personal Interview 2007)

  5. What’s the Story? • What are these feelings of unity that are commonly experienced in improv theater among other arts? • What is at the heart of this connectedness? • How is it that people are able to connect and understand one another in the first place?

  6. Communitas • Feelings of cognitive-emotional unity amongst a group of people involved in some form of ritual activity (Turner 1982) • Liminal space. Betwixt and between. • States of grace. • Things that bar the way. • How do we get here?

  7. Empathy • Requires a theory of mind. • Orders of Intentionality: I know that you know that I know that you know. • Emotional contagion. • The lessons of Autism. • How do we connect like this?

  8. Mirror Neurons • Your body in my brain. • Actors as mirror neuron experts. • Networking brains. • More lessons from Autism. • The Machiavellian mind. • How did humans end up with this awesome cognitive talent?

  9. What’s ‘Our’ Story? • Characters: Early Homonids between 1 million BP to Modern Humans. • Settings: Africa, Europe, Asia • Situation: The world effects us, and we effect the world. • Action: Physical, Cognitive and Cultural adaptation over time.

  10. Important Theories of early Cognitive Evolution • Change in African climate leads to bipedalism. • Bipedalism allows for better escape and ability to hunt. • Domestication of fire leads early Hominids into closer social networks 1.4 million BP. • Meat allows for growth of brain due to higher fat diet. • Increase in brain size, and resulting birthing bottleneck, drive increase in childhood.

  11. Early Hominids Homo Habillis Homo Habillis Homo Erectus Homo Heidelbergensis

  12. Early Technical Prowess • Handaxe used for 1 million years • Impose consistent form to biface • Many tools in one

  13. Early Climate Changes • Onset of ice ages transform Europe to tundra and Africa to largely desert. • Drives hominids (H. Heidelbergensis) to change. • African hominids become coast oriented (Sapiens). Drastic increase in tool variation. • Euro hominids become largely carnivorous (Neanderthals). Some increase in tool variation.

  14. Homo Sapiens • Show up about 200,000 BP • Start radiating out of Africa about 50,000BP • Bring a suite of new behaviors.

  15. Hominid Predators Saber-toothed Cats Giant Hyenas Other Hominids

  16. What the Predators did? • Minimized expansion of genus Homo out of Africa. • Drove an increase in body and group size in hominids (Dunbar). • Teamwork leads to defeating mega-fauna. • How do we become team oriented?

  17. Us and Them • Altruism and Xenophobia emerges from in group out group relations. • Group cooperation selected for protection of resources and guarding against threats. • Empathy emerges in response to dealing with this mixture of social pressures from increased group size. • Understanding your friends is as useful as understanding your competitors.

  18. A Mind for Socializing • Grooming is the root of socialization for mammals, especially primates. • This is efficient for small groups • Larger groups require more energy grooming to maintain social equilibrium. • Theory: language arises as a means to groom many at once to reduce energy cost (Dunbar). • This requires an adept Machiavellian mind to be effective.

  19. Art, Ritual and Creativity • The ability to symbol – a revolution • Roots of religion lead to expanding social ties beyond blood or tribe (Hayden) • Ecstatic experience may be at the root of religion and ritual (Hayden) • Dancing, dreaming and drumming • Where have these things gone?

  20. Transformations • Domestication of plants and animals leads to sedentism, which leads to surplus, which leads to specialists • Sedentism leads to concentrated populations and the birth of the urban • Change in social structures and subsistence lead to the shift in religion

  21. What is religion? • A system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in [people] by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic (Geertz).

  22. Two types of religion • Book religion: major world religions that have a scripture of some sort describing supernatural beings and providing a moral code • Traditional religion: passed on from generation to generation as oral and experiential traditions

  23. Urban Growth • Necessitates new rules and new roles in early societies. • These reflect the lives of urbanites. • Legends of heroes taming the wild. • Birth of humanoid gods. • The advent of a world that is known, recorded and controlled.

  24. Book Religion vs Traditional Religion • Worldview • Book: Sacred is largely removed from Material World. • Traditional: Sacred is Material World. • Ecstatic Experience • Book: Individual ecstatic experience frowned upon, discouraged, cloistered away • Traditional: ecstatic states are the religious experience.

  25. Book Religion vs Traditional Religion • Participation • Book: more a spectator event. As long as correct words are said and correct things are done, the ritual is successful. • Traditional: open for everyone’s active participation (food, dance, music, preparations, etc). emotional involvement and transformation of consciousness is essential to ritual success.

  26. Ritual Behavior • Is structured and patterned; • Is rhythmic and repetitive (to some degree), tends to recur in the same or nearly the same form with some regularity; • Acts to synchronize affective, perceptual-cognitive, and motor processes within the central nervous system of individuals; • Most particularly, synchronizes these processes among the various individual participants

  27. Improvisation as Ritual • Much closer in character to Traditional Religions • Yet, Not a religion at all • Structures and activities very ritual-like • Produces similar effects to ritual • What are the effects of ritual?

  28. Ritual and the Brain • Normal cognition: brain hemispheres fire alternately • Ritual Communitas: hemispheres fire simultaneously (d’Aquili & Laughlin 1979) • Ecstatic states open the door for Right Hemisphere to lead • Right hemisphere includes spatial and tonal perception, internal pattern recognition (our thoughts and those of others), and holistic and synthetic comprehension (Rappaport 1999)

  29. Full Circle • Group mind/Communitas is truly a synchronization of minds (d’Aquili & Laughlin 1979) • Much of Improvised Theater has ritualistic activities or ritual structure • Theater exercises (improv AND scripted) help exercise our mirror neuron systems (the roots of our ability to empathize)

  30. Tell the Story • Improv has grown beyond art fancy • All levels of education exploring improv • Applied Improvisation spreading the word to business and non-profit outreach • This is grass roots social rebooting • Reintroduces the value of collaborative living to an increasingly disparate world.

  31. Next Steps • Turn this talk into a book. • EEG research on improv performers • Discern brain activity during improvisational play for an empirical comparison.

  32. Special Thanks to: • AIN and the Amsterdam team for hosting. • Family, Friends and Colleagues in Portland and abroad who provided funds and other support to make this trip and presentation possible.

  33. References Annual Review of Neuroscience, 2004. 27:169-92 “The Mirror-Neuron System” Giacomo Rizzolatti and Laila Craighero Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 16 Number 3“Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Embodied Language” Leonardo Fogassi and Pier Francesco Ferrari The Wall Street Journal, (Eastern Edition). New York, N.Y.: Mar 4, 2005 pg. B.1 “How Mirror Neurons Help Us to Empathize, Really Feel Others’ Pain” Sharon Begley Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 2002, Vol. 59 Issue ½, “Evolution of Human Intelligence: The Roles of Brain Size and Mental Construction” pp.10-20 University Of California, San Diego. "Autism Linked To Mirror Neuron Dysfunction."ScienceDaily 18 April 2005. 8 July 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com  /releases/2005/04/050411204511.htm>.

  34. References Society For Neuroscience. "Mirror, Mirror In The Brain: Mirror Neurons, Self-understanding And Autism Research."ScienceDaily 7 November 2007. 8 July 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com  /releases/2007/11/071106123725.htm>.European Science Foundation. "How Mirror Neurons Allow Us To Learn And Socialize By Going Through The Motions In The Head."ScienceDaily 21 December 2008. 8 July 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com  /releases/2008/12/081219073047.htm>. University of California - Los Angeles (2010, April 13). “First direct recording made of mirror neurons in human brain.” ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 5, 2010, from <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100412162112.htm> Washington University School of Medicine. "Baby Brain Growth Mirrors Changes from Apes to Humans." ScienceDaily 12 July 2010. 13 July 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100712154422.htm>. “The Evolution of Imagination: An Archeological Perspective”, Stephen Mithen. 2001. Substance, Vol. 30, No. ½, Issue 94/95. pp. 28-54

  35. References The Prehistory of the Mind. Stephen Mithen, 1996: London. Thames and Hudson. Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language.Dunbar, Robin. 1996. Harvard University Press: Cambridge. Children of the Ice Age: How a Global Catastrophe allowed Humans to Evolve. Stanley, Steven M. 1998. W.H. Freeman and Company: New York. Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and other animals. Frans De Waal. 1996. Harvard University Press: Cambridge Shamans, Sorcerers and Saints: A Prehistory of Religion. Brian Hayden. 2003. Smithsonian Books: Washington A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers, by V.S. Ramachadran. New York: Pi Press, 2004. Long-Form Improvisation: Collaboration, Comedy and Communion. Brad Fortier. 2010. Lambert Academic Publishing: Saarbrücken Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Rappaport, R.A. 1999. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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