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5 - Cities as performance arenas

from Part I - Early cities as arenas of performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2015

Norman Yoffee
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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Summary

The rapid development of early cities at different dates in many regions of the world affected their hinterlands profoundly. Ancient Egypt, in many periods a territorial state unlike the typical city-state configuration of the other regions in most periods, presents some of the largest monuments and the longest timespan for investigation, but its urbanism is imperfectly understood. Classic Maya performances were strongly sonic, with anticipation fortified by blasts of trumpet or conch, the pounding of large drums or tapping of smaller ones under the arm, whistles and maracas, singing, and the musical collisions of shells on the king's body. Secular performances in Southeast Asia could involve hundreds or thousands of urban residents as participants and as spectators. Public movement was generally toward a restricted space: ceremonies within a royal court could only ever have small numbers of participants and be observed by relatively few.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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