THE PRIMATOLOGY OF THE THEATRE? (Prymatologia teatru?)

According to the author sometimes we become hypnotised by a verbal construction. There is, for example, something seductive in the concept of the 'primatology of the theatre'. He finds himself attracted by this neologism, and the chance to make wider use of the term 'primatology', outside the established biological connotation. Traditionally, all problems connected with man are excluded from primatology, since they are the domains of anthropology. The criteria, however, remain blurred. Some primatologists claim that the anthropoidal species belong to the hominids. That which is primary, rudimentary and substantial in the articulation of man's ancestor testifies not only about the power of expression but also about the forms of the expression of the homo sapiens, such as laughter, which Dostoevsky declared is the most profound characterisation of the properties of the human being. Purportedly, certain animals are also capable of laughing. One could say that we are concerned with the 'simplicity formula' (cf. Hidden Territories), i. e. the behaviour and games that remain in the closest possible homeostasis with the natural environment. In the most recent issue of 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' (USA) American scientists propose the thesis that 'at the beginning there was the gesture and not the word'.