323 In performance cultures, however, laws and men are virtually coincident. Finding the law generally means finding someone who can perform or remember it. Disputes are resolved not by appealing to texts, but rather by questioning live witnesses and invoking personal authorities. In the absence of dispositive evidence, legal rights may depend not on argument, but on comparative calculations of personal honor and status. The oath of a nobleman may trump the oath of a slave.
Communicative success depends on the live performer actually appearing before a live audience.
This continually forces would-be tellers and knowers into social situations. In the short term, the social aspect of performance encourages members of performance cultures to be responsive to the needs and desires of their present interlocutors, and equally encourages those interlocutors to make their preferences known to physically accesible performers. Performances, unlike writings, are thus products of spontaneous action and reaction. Ultimately, performances unburdened by permanent physical form may be modified to suit different audiences on different occasions. In the long term, the social aspect of performance creates a cultural atmosphere in which sociable behavior is greatly prized.