Trance as the culmination of performance actions

The aim of the text is to examine the performance theories of ritual from the point of view of their usefulness in analysing the ceremonial life of Shaman hunter-gatherer communities. The main thesis of the article states that whereas the performance concept of ritual shines an accurate light on selected aspects of the ritual life of hunter-gatherers, the methods used by such luminaries of performance studies as Richard Schechner and Erving Goffman are not sufficient to grasp the crux of the ceremonial life of a community whose religion is concentrated around the figure of the shaman. Using selected examples, the author attempts to explain the cause of this state of affairs, pointing to trance as above all a characteristic defining the model shaman ritual. The culminating moment of the trance is the end of the opposition analysed by proponents of performance studies between the individual and the stage. This fact forces us to revise some of the key premises postulated by the representatives of this paradigm.