Spain's invasion of the Andes initiated a social drama unprecedented in the experience of the Andean natives. Spanish and Spanish-conscripted native chroniclers wrote extensively about Inca pageantry, spectacle, and ritual, and hastily attributed pagan belief to performances they witnessed or heard about. With equal haste, the Spanish appropriated performance as means of introducing and enforcing Christianity. In this thesis, I treat performance as the central feature of Andean Colonial transition. Performance may be viewed as an ephemeral feature of the Andean transition but fortunately, in mortuary performances (dealing with death and treatment of the body); there are many theatrical elements that survive in mortuary contexts (e.g., staging, setting, costumes, make-up, props, and choreography). Archaeology, history, and ethnographic observation together illustrate that performance has alternately established, celebrated, or subverted Andean power relations during hundreds of years. Mortuary performances are especially excellent commentaries about religious climate of Colonial Peru. In this thesis I analyze mortuary performance in Colonial and contemporary Peru. I argue that the Colonial Spanish saw performance as evidence of belief and sought to transform pagan belief to Christian belief. Ultimately, communities, religion, and performance itself were transformed; integrated and reintegrated into dynamic personal and public expressions.

This dissertation begins with a discussion of the rediscovery and rehabilitation of masks as tools of performance and pedagogy in Western theatre over the past century, considering the work of various theorists, directors, teachers and performers in whose work the mask occupies a significant position. Discussion then focuses on the development of the neutral mask as an object and as a paradigm of pedagogy for the actor over the past eighty years and undertakes a comparative investigation of the concept of neutrality as a performant state. The discussion takes in the teaching of Jacques Copeau, Etienne Decroux and Jacques Lecoq, and extends to the theories of Eugenio Barba, considering the possible parallels between Barba's 'pre-expressive' state and the state of neutrality which the mask assists to develop in the actor. The dissertation further proposes that the term 'performative liminality' is an appropriate term to adopt for this performant state, and makes this proposal with reference to the theories of anthropologist Victor Turner regarding the liminal state. The practice-as-research component of the project sought to investigate and document the various uses of the neutral mask and its application to the creative processes of the actor, and aimed to provide qualitative analysis and evaluation of the neutral mask when used in a developmental workshop environment. The dissertation contains a full account of the practice component of the project and details the processes used to investigate the neutral mask, offering analysis drawn from the inside experiences of the actors and the outside observations of the researcher. Within that analysis is a consideration of the neutral mask as a tool for developing the scenic presence of the actor. / Masters Thesis

This dissertation examines how a group of street vendors in Yogyakarta City, Indonesia, experienced a government-organized relocation from Mangkubumi Street to a newly renovated marketplace. In particular, I explore the strategies taken by the leaders of a street vendor organization called Pethikbumi to refuse the relocation and claim their right to the street. Contestations over streets, street vending and street vendor relocations constitute important moments during which citizenship, democracy and belonging are negotiated in the city. I argue that the conflict over belonging and democracy took the form of a social drama and was shaped and structured by specific moral appeals, public performances, and processes of imitation (cf. Turner 1974). The study begins with an exploration of the history of street vending and the pedagang kaki lima (street vendor) in Indonesia. I outline how the pedagang kaki lima were viewed as “dirty”, a simplified code for the transgression of social, spatial and legal boundaries. I move on to explore the way the street vendors of Pethikbumi drew on ideas of “the people” (rakyat), democracy and transparency in claiming their rights. I analyze the ways that Pethikbumi drew on important moments in Indonesia’s past and present, situating this relocation conflict as significant and as part of “history”. The relocation was also rooted in an epistemology of “skepticism” derived from an awareness of the ambiguity and tension between appearances and realities (cf. Anderson 1990). Pethikbumi engaged in tactics to both reveal and conceal the “unseen powers” that were imagined as working behind the scenes to generate conflict. The conflict over the relocation to a marketplace was not only a fight over who had access to the street but also a struggle over what constitutes democracy, how to achieve transparency, and who belongs in post-Suharto Indonesia.

Buddhist prison outreach is a relatively recent development, in the United States of America and elsewhere, and has yet to be chronicled satisfactorily. This thesis traces the physical, legal and social environment in which such activities take place and describes the history of Buddhist prison outreach in the USA from its earliest indications in the 1960s to the present day. The mechanics of Buddhist prison outreach are also examined. Motivations for participating in Buddhist prison outreach are discussed, including Buddhist textual supports, role models and personal benefits. This paper then proposes that volunteers active in this area are members of a liminal communitas as per Victor Turner and benefit from ‘non-player’ status, as defined by Ashis Nandy. The experiences of the inmates themselves is beyond the scope of this thesis. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Religious Studies)

This thesis investigates how Victor Turner’s concept of ‘cultural performance’ can be used to explore and analyse the experience of film. Drawing on performance theory, hermeneutics, phenomenology and Bakhtin’s dialogism, Sections One and Two develop this investigation through a theoretic discussion which relates and yet distinguishes between three levels of ‘performance’ in film: filmmaking performance, performances as text and cultural performances. The theory is grounded within four films which were researched for this thesis: Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, 1994), Rats in the Ranks (Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson,1996), beDevil (Tracey Moffatt, 1993) and Link-Up Diary (David MacDougall, 1987). Section Three undertakes the close analyses of the latter two films. These analyses address specific cultural performances that are performed ‘across’ cultures and which are concerned particularly with Australian society’s relationship with indigenous Australians. ¶ Section One locates Turner’s concept of ‘cultural performance’ within his wider theory of ‘social drama’ and introduces the three-tiered mode of analysis which is developed throughout this thesis. His concept of ‘liminality’ is also investigated in order to consider specific relationships between performances which take place in film and theatre. Performances which take place in film are located in this Section within the theatrical understanding of performance as ‘for an audience’. I describe this relationship between performances in film and theatre through Kristeva’s interpretation of Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia as intertextuality, especially through her distinction of a ‘transformative’ intertextuality. Three specific concepts from theatre and performance theory are interrogated for their relevance to film theory: 1. Brecht’s theory of ‘gest’, 2. ‘direct address to the audience’ in relation to the ‘gaze’ in film and 3. Rebecca Schneider’s conceptualisation of ‘the performance artist’. ¶ Using these three tropes of performance, Section Two develops a theory of performance in film. Besides Turner’s concept of ‘cultural performance’, this theory draws on aspects of several other substantial bodies of work. These works include Richard Schechner’s performance theory, Michael Taussig’s understanding of ‘mimesis’, Vivian Sobchack’s phenomenology of film, Paul Ricoeur’s theory of text ‘as meaningful action’, Gadamer’s concept of ‘meaningful play’, Bakhtin’s conceptualisation of a ‘dialogic’ text and Catherine Bell’s theory of ‘ritualised behaviour’. The two analyses in Section Three do not rigidly follow the three-tiered process of analysis which is developed in the previous two Sections. They rather focus on the films as sites for particular cultural performances which are specific for each film and which need for their description, different aspects of the theory that is offered through this thesis. These analyses especially draw on my interpretation of David MacDougall’s ‘transcultural cinema’ and Jodi Brook’s conceptualisation of a ‘gestural practice’ in film, which she positions both in terms of Brecht’s theatrical concept of ‘gest’ and Walter Benjamin’s concept of the ‘shock’ of modernity. ¶ The film analyses are of one fiction film, beDevil, and one non-fiction film, Link-Up Diary. Both films use audiovisual images of Aboriginal Australians as content. According the terms of this thesis, these people must also be considered as filmmakers. Although this role may constitute varying degrees of authority and power, a film analysis which considers the filmmaking roles of people whose images are present in the filmic text also allows a particular consideration of the social relationships which exist between people who ‘film’ and people who ‘are filmed’. My focus on the cultural performances of these two films allowed an even closer description of this relationship for two reasons. Firstly, both Moffatt and MacDougall respectively present their own images in the films. Secondly, my analyses of these films as cultural performance draw out and describe the different ways in which the two films address the same ‘social drama’: the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. My analyses expose how a description of these differences in address can extend beyond the distinction between one film as ‘fiction’ and the other as ‘non-fiction’ towards a description of the different ways in which people relate to each other, at both the individual level and at the level of society, through the production and reception of a particular film. While locating these films as cultural performances within in particular sets of social relationships, my consideration of film in this thesis in terms of theatrical performance also enables a description of the experience of film which draws on the social experience of live theatre. The theory developed in this thesis and its application in the analyses of these two films suggest further areas of research which might look more closely at whether or not, or how much people draw from the social practices of live theatre as they live their lives with film – a signifying practice which has existed just over one hundred years.

Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This study explores the possibilities of rewriting the text of a complex novel as a film script. Film is an important contemporary artform but the actuality of the thematic content of contemporary Afrikaans novels is not well represented in current films. In this study an adaptation of the novel, The long silence of Mario Salviati by Etienne van Heerden (2000) ,t o a script is made in an attempt to provide the Afrikaans scriptwriter with a workable method. The theme which features prominently in the adaptation is the experience of identity in the post-colonial and/or post-apartheid era in South Africa. Theoretical reflection on the problem of adaptation is essential before the chosen novel can be turned into a script, since the scriptwriter has to make certain adjustments during the process of adaptation. The adaptation of a novel to a script implies the translation of a written, descriptive text into a visual text. When a complex novel such as The long silence of Mario Salviati is rewritten as a script, a detailed analysis of the novel must be undertaken in order to identify the relevant ideological content, the important themes and underlying meanings which should be retained in the film script. In order to find appropriate visual images for the thematic content of the novel, contributions of semiotics to film studies are studied and implemented in the process of visualisation. The chosen theme for the script of The long silence of Mario Salviati is "Identity, hybridity and liminality in the Tallejare community". This theme features prominently in many narratives about post-colonial and post-apartheid issues; therefore theoretical reflections on the concepts of liminality and hibridity are included in the study. There are two main sections in the dissertation. In the first section aspects of scriptwriting are analysed and discussed in order to develop a workable method for scriptwriters. The study entertains the hope that more contemporary Afrikaans novels will be adapted for the big screen or television by the film industry. This is necessary to ensure that the experience of South African identity is represented adequately in the Afrikaans film industry. The second section of the dissertation contains the film script, which is an adaptation of the novel The long silence of Mario Salviati by Etienne van Heerden. The script forms an integral part of the study as well as of the dissertation. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This study explores the possibilities of rewriting the text of a complex novel as a film script. Film is an important contemporary artform but the actuality of the thematic content of contemporary Afrikaans novels is not well represented in current films. In this study an adaptation of the novel, The long silence of Mario Salviati by Etienne van Heerden (2000) ,t o a script is made in an attempt to provide the Afrikaans scriptwriter with a workable method. The theme which features prominently in the adaptation is the experience of identity in the post-colonial and/or post-apartheid era in South Africa. Theoretical reflection on the problem of adaptation is essential before the chosen novel can be turned into a script, since the scriptwriter has to make certain adjustments during the process of adaptation. The adaptation of a novel to a script implies the translation of a written, descriptive text into a visual text. When a complex novel such as The long silence of Mario Salviati is rewritten as a script, a detailed analysis of the novel must be undertaken in order to identify the relevant ideological content, the important themes and underlying meanings which should be retained in the film script. In order to find appropriate visual images for the thematic content of the novel, contributions of semiotics to film studies are studied and implemented in the process of visualisation. The chosen theme for the script of The long silence of Mario Salviati is "Identity, hybridity and liminality in the Tallejare community". This theme features prominently in many narratives about post-colonial and post-apartheid issues; therefore theoretical reflections on the concepts of liminality and hibridity are included in the study. There are two main sections in the dissertation. In the first section aspects of scriptwriting are analysed and discussed in order to develop a workable method for scriptwriters. The study entertains the hope that more contemporary Afrikaans novels will be adapted for the big screen or television by the film industry. This is necessary to ensure that the experience of South African identity is represented adequately in the Afrikaans film industry. The second section of the dissertation contains the film script, which is an adaptation of the novel The long silence of Mario Salviati by Etienne van Heerden. The script forms an integral part of the study as well as of the dissertation. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Using an analysis of the creation of the character Dan Kelly in my play, risk, I argue that fairytale characters work as more than personage representations. They function on a big canvas for the audience; they carry large chains of association. Given this, I then propose that the human response is to infer additional meaning, meaning beyond the scope of plot and immediate character interaction - the audience infers symbolic meaning, ‘amplifying’ what is there into more. They enter a ‘generative empty space’ within the play where they infer or ‘unfold’ more meaning. In creating this ‘greater tale’, they are engaged beyond their personal ‘horizon of understanding’, and so, ‘take in’ the work through a heightened perceptual acuity. Therefore, I pursued the idea of making space for the operation of this process, of leveraging the creation of meaning around a character. My inquiry led me to believe that a powerful way to do this was through absence rather than presence and silence rather than sound; and this had a profound impact on my choice of form for Dan Kelly: he progressed, through a number of stages, from reportage to a digital representation.

The study unpacked the meaning and the value of intonjane in traditional Xhosa communities. It also provides a critical analysis and interpretation of the intonjane custom and in particular its impact on the upbringing of a Xhosa traditional girl child. It investigates the value of this practice, especially in relation to where it is still being performed, even in our modern times. I researched closely into all aspects of how the girls were brought up, and with what social values. The data collection has been conducted through interviews with the Philakukuzenzela group when they were in Grahamstown Art Festival in July 2011 who come from a place called Centuli, and other people (abaThembu) who practice and have knowledge of the different aspects of the intonjane process and observation during the actual ceremonies in O. R. Thambo district, and in Gemvale near Port St Johns in the Province of the Eastern Cape. Interviews were conducted in Xhosa and translated into English. This Visual Narrative investigates and contributes to the debate regarding the value of traditional African thought and how it can enrich our contemporary belief system. The objective was to investigate the essence and merit of the knowledge imparted by elderly women to young girls during the initiation period of intonjane within Xhosa traditional communities. This study provides a foundation and springboard for my practical artworks which utilized symbols and metaphors to express my understanding of the important events and stages associated with this traditional ceremony. Clay medium was used as the medium of expression, applying different techniques such as throwing, press mold, slab building, coiling, engraving, sewing and inlaying, with press mold being the main technique utilized. My artworks are of three different types, which are symbolic of the three aspects or stages, of liminality, namely: pre-liminal, liminal and post-liminal. / Art history, Visual arts and Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)