History – Page 24 – The View From Sari's World

Today’s American Renaissance Faires (yes it’s spelled faire) are becoming quite mainstream. It seems you can’t throw a juggler’s ball far without hitting one. Just about every state in the union has at least one yearly faire, some, like California host several. The faires are now popular family, and school events. Some faires even host special family and student days, with activities designed for educational purposes. Of course no American faire is complete without its many vendors selling everything from Elizabethan costumes to modern body scrub. Thousands of people attend these commercialized faires so it might come as surprise to learn that the original faires were presented as part of the 1960’s counterculture movement, specifically as playful ways of protesting American consumerism and uptight social norms.

In her 2012 book, Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture, author Rachel Lee Rubio tells us that the 1964 Pleasure Faire and May Market, featured “an authentically attired ‘monk in full beard and hooded robes’ hawking papal indulgences and calling to fairgoers, ‘Let me absolve you of the punishments and everlasting torments of commercialism!’” The faire, for the California radicals who first participated in it, was not just an entertainment but also a criticism of the establishment and all it stood for.

The first American Renaissance faire was the brainchild of Phyllis Patterson, a Los Angeles schoolteacher. In 1963, she held a very small Renaissance fair as a class activity, in the backyard of her Laurel Canyon home. It was so successful she and her husband Ron Patterson, held a weekend fundraiser for a local radio station. 8,ooo people showed up. This must have been a very successful fundraiser.

Two years later the Patterson’s staged the first Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Angora California. The first commercial vendors were artisans and food merchants who were required to demonstrate historical accuracy or plausibility for their wares. Groups of volunteers were organized into “guilds” to focus on specific reenactment duties (jugglers, singers, actors, blacksmiths etc.). It was hoped that by presenting the faire as a living history event the Renaissance period would be brought to life so that attendees would be reminded of an early age, before the world, or at least America, became immersed in modern technology. What the Patterson’s may have over looked was that the Renaissance period was also a time of growing technology and consumerism. The 17^th century Romantic era was pushback to this, the original counterculture movement, if you will. It is a little ironic that the Renaissance era, not the Romantic period was the theme of choice.

The Pattersons wanted full participation from the attendees. According to Rubio, one did not pay to attend the faires, one paid to play.

[A]ttending the Renaissance faire was, during the 1960s and 1970s, a sort of statement of purpose: of belonging in some way to the counterculture, of resistance to consumerism, of side-stepping — albeit briefly — the external constraints of social convention. Through the faire, people could demonstrate public participation in, and affirmation of, a new type of community that was resolutely transnational, transhistorical, transcultural, and one of choice rather than birth.

I wish I would have known about the history of the American faires, for now I can make better sense of what I saw and participated in last Saturday. It turns out there was a hidden message that I completely missed. In a way, the faires are American experimental theaters designed in a way as to break the fourth wall and pull the audience into the action and not just respond to the players.

I’v been a fan of Renaissance faires ever since I attended the Black Point Pleasure Faire, held yearly in Marin County. The Pattersons also started this faire, and apparently during the late 1970s (when I first attended) was still part of the counterculture movement.

These years I attend the Valhalla Renaissance Faire, held annually in Lake Tahoe California. I even met a Guild Master Saturday who mentioned she knew Phyllis Patterson, but at the time the name meant nothing to me.

As my friend Karen and walked around we were invited to participate in games, street performances, (I ended up quoting Shakespeare near the front gate never guessing I had become part of the play) and was even invited to join the Fellowship Guild (be part of a guild? Sign me up!) I had no idea that we were being asked to join a community, even if only for a day, dedicated to the idea of breaking free from the modern establishment. There was a lot of bawdy talk being bantered about; this too was part of the antiestablishment movement. I thought the vendors were getting into the spirit of Shakespearian humor. I giggled but lightly participated. Leave it to an academic to view the experience through a narrow lens.

It’s not all my fault I saw the faire as a window in Shakespeare’s world. For you see, it was promised to be the weekend that the Bard would finally show his face! I had every intention of interviewing him. I asked and got permission. Wouldn’t that of made a good article? Sadly, he was called away. In fact none of the Lord’s Chamberlain’s men made an appearance. I was disappointed, yet amused that the man remains elusive, even to a time traveler.

Ah, see there’s the rub. I was under the impression I was there as a traveling tourist. Someone who didn’t quite fit in yet wanted a close and upfront view of an alien world. Now I know better. In October California is hosting yet another faire, this one outside of the state Capitol (see I told you they are everywhere). We are making plans to go only this time I will have a better understanding of what will be asked of me. I will pay to play in the spirit of the counterculture movement. I will shake the bonds of both academe and society and let the inner hippie wench out.

Meeting some of the Fellowship Guild members

If the history of Renaissance Faires is of interest, or you just like good biographies, I found this gem on Vimo. It’s a video for rent, titled, Faire: the American Renaissance. It was fun to watch some old home movies of the early days of the original faire.

Rubio’s book is another source for a fresh look at the counterculture movement.

Rubio, Rachel Lee. Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture. NY Press. 2012

Bradshaw rock paintings Western Australia — Bradshaw rock paintings
Western Australia

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a god! Hamlet

The second book in Terry Pratchett’s “The Science of Discworld, the globe” tackles an important question in the evolution of man. How did humans go from being ape like creatures to ones that can write eloquent poetry? In other words, how did the human mind evolve to think beyond its immediate surroundings?

Science has proven that our closest relative is the chimpanzee. We share 98% of our genomes with them, yet we have little in common. That 2% difference seems to be a pretty big deal.

Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, Pratchett’s co-authors, walk the readers through the evolution of the human brain. It’s a rather convoluted story, one with gaps and seemingly full of conjectures* (*This is what one scientist thinks when another disagrees) . The biggest mystery and subject of debate is how over time we acquired a large brain, and how that brain developed the capacity to think beyond instinct. We know from the fossil records that 8 millions years ago the ancestors of humans and chimps parted, and since then the human brain has tripled in size. What we don’t know is why.

In two recent studies, researchers from Duke University suggest the human brain boost may have been powered by a metabolic shift that meant more fuel for brains, and less fuel for muscles.

Two researchers from the UK noted “the human brain uses more energy, pound for pound, than any other tissue. Yet our body burns the same number of calories as other primates our size”. They think we may have diverted our energy to the brain, allowing it to develop. This may also be the reason why our muscle mass differs from apes and chimps; what we gained in brain mass we lost in muscle mass.

Yet another theory, the Aquatic Ape theory, suggests at some point millions of years ago our ancestors moved from the Savannahs and back into the water. While most scientists balk at this suggestion it does answer some questions on why we look much different from our ape cousins. The theory suggests that a diet rich in seafood would account for brain development. If you would like to read a truly wonderful article on this subject I highly recommend reading Martin Clemens, “Aquatic Ape theory: An argument for our water origins.

Yet none of these theories explain how we developed into the philosophical apes we are today. As Cohen and Stewart explain, it’s not the big brain that counts; it’s what we do with it. They map out what they think is important to human evolution: the idea that by becoming storytellers we gained language and culture.

It is a large map, one too big to fully flesh out here, but the idea goes something like this: Our early ancestors learned to play the “What if game”.

Imagine one of our ancestors out in the Savanna plains, just chilling and taking in the breeze when he or she, notices a lion in the grass to the right, and possibly one to the front. Instead of acting on instinct or freezing in place, our ancestor thinks, “What if?”. What if I slowly back up towards that tree?” What if one runs out before the other, could I make it to the tree?” A story of what if starts to play out in our ancestor’s mind, and from that an idea of escape begins to form. Now let’s say he does escape and goes back to his clan and tells the story of how he escaped. His experience is shared with others. This is the beginning of what Cohen and Stewart call “extelligence”. The idea that shared knowledge benefits a clan as a whole and allows for group survival. As early humans began to share more and more information or stories, the more structured their world became. Structure led to stability and stability led to civilizations. This makes sense, yet I found myself asking a question: What allowed for the development of the what if game, and how did our earliest ancestors share this knowledge? Here is where some of my own conjecture comes in, so take it for what it’s worth.

“To sleep, perchance to dream” Hamlet

We know animals learn and share their experiences. Parents pass down survival methods to their young and we see group think in many species. Yet without the ability to communicate we cannot be sure if this is intentional or instinct. And even if it is intentional, we are the only animal to find creative ways to express our ideas and share them with our clan. What was the catalyst for our development of language and art?

Anthropologist Kate Glaskin, in her article, “Dreams, memory, and the ancestors: Creativity, culture, and the science of sleep” reminds us that “Ethnography from Aboriginal Australia attests to the significance of dreams in the creation of new songs, designs, and ceremonies”. We know this from drawings, and oral traditions that talk of how early Aboriginals shared knowledge gained through dreams. Other early cultures such as the Native Americans did the same. Before written language and possibly before fully developed language, dreams played an important role in the development of early culture. Glaskin notes, “Advances made in neuroscience mean that, increasingly, scientists are able to map neural activity occurring in different sleep phases. Can this capability help us to understand the emergence of creativity, such as that which appears to have its origins in dreams?”

If it is true that creativity emerged from dreams, couldn’t it also be true that storytelling, a form of creativity, also emerged from dreams? Perhaps early man learned to play the what if game because he may be the only animal to have complex dreams? Let’s play the game.

What if our early ancestors found themselves dreaming of past events, only in the dream the outcome was different. And, what if they used these same dreams as learning tools? Early man may not have just learn to be creative on cave walls and in song from dreams, he may have used dreams as a way of learning to think beyond the immediate and start asking himself and his clan, “What if”? If these dreams became oral teachings then we would have our first storytellers and shared emerging extelligence.

I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream—past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Bottom, Midsummer’s Night Dream

Clemens, Martin. Aquatic Ape theory: An argument for our water origins. Mysterious Universe. org

Glaskin, Kate. Dreams, memory, and the ancestors: Creativity, culture, and the science of sleep. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute JSTOR.com

Scientific American. How did human brains get to be so big? Scientific American.com

Category: History

All the world’s a stage: A brief history of Renaissance Faires

The What if game: how humans evolved from apes to Shakespeare

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