This article examines how cultures having little or no experience with
writing ("performance cultures") communicate and express legal meaning
through the orchestrated use of the physical senses. Part II of the piece examines how each
of the various senses - hearing (sound), sight, touch, smell and taste
- is brought to bear in the cultural and legal experience of
performance-based societies. Part III considers how and why members of
performance cultures "perform", i.e. use and combine various sensory
media in single messages, and describes how and why they use the same
strategy in legal expression. It also considers how information is
distributed among the different sensory components of performance and
assesses what that distribution means for our interpretation of
performative culture and law. The Conclusion of the paper offers some
preliminary hypotheses concerning the deeper implications of
performance for the cultural practices and legal values of the
societies it dominates.
Published in 41 Emory Law Journal 873 (1992).
A copy of the full text of this article is available upon
request.