Before the novel, before the play, there was the line. The oldest human art form we possess is not a cave painting.

When we think of "theater," the image that often comes to mind is a Western one: a curtain, a proscenium stage, actors in psychological realism. But this is merely one branch on a vast, global tree.

Walk through a major museum’s galleries. In one wing, you encounter a luminous Renaissance portrait, its subject idealized, its technique flawless, designed to convey divine order and earthly power.