Dramatic Theories of Voice in the Twentieth Century By Andrew Ki ...

Chapter 1

Vocal Origins

In this chapter, we seek to understand how twentieth-century research and scholarship conceived of the evolution of human vocal anatomy and the selective pressures that may have led to the development of vocalized speech and language. We also question how views from the sciences might contribute to an informed discussion in theatre studies concerning vocal performance and its reception. The science of our human origins, paleoanthropology, is made up of contributions from several disciplines, namely paleontology, archeology, anthropology, linguistics, primatology, biology, and neurology. Researchers within these disciplines disagree about the conclusions that might be drawn from the human fossil record, but they all agree that the development of the anatomical and neurological features that produce the voice and enable the use of vocalized symbolic language makes up the single significant trait distinguishing the human being from the rest of the animal kingdom.

Richard Schechner may be the only theatre critic in the twentieth century who broached paleoanthropology as a source of insight for theatre studies, particularly in light of his concern with theatre and ethology,