摘要：Towards Historically Oriented Performance Studies. Case Study: The Gestural Origins of Speech — The paper aims to confront performance studies with a more historical and at the same time global perspective. Instead of focusing only on contemporary events, the historically-oriented performance studies attempt to reconstruct the complex origins of modern performance. This approach requires from a scholar a set of competences in archeology, anthropology, history, primatology, anatomy, neuroscience, and even child psychology. Discussion of the gestural origins of the speech hypothesis is offered as a case study to demonstrate and verify the discussed methodology in action. As a conclusion the paper argues for an enrichment of cultural studies with a perspective of performance studies.
