Will all this dense life become something staged? That depends; what is the difference between ritual and staging? At least this: the grammar of staging has a normative location for an audience to consume the spectacle. Ritual need not be for an audience; it could be all participation. (But doesn't any audience participate? Yes, but they are not necessarily changed or confirmed by their participation the way that is supposed to happen with rituals.)

Index
Behind the security wall

(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001