 Theater might be thought of as singular and unified. One reason for believing this has to do with the phenomenon known as “the anti-theatrical prejudice”, an animus towards theater that has been expressed by philosophers and theologians as well as theater theorists and practitioners (and that is more fully described in  §1.3).  While it has been alleged by some that distrust of theater practices is present in every culture, Jonas Barish, who coined the phrase “the anti-theatrical prejudice”, does not claim this kind of ubiquity. The idea that it is ubiquitous may be mere speculation and not based on any historical evidence. If it is not a universal, it represents a preoccupation arising in only one of the four regions of the globe in which theater originated as a distinct set of social practices aimed at portraying aspects of human life.