Celebrations of Life Death and Social Order Carnival

Celebrations of Life, Death, and Social Order: Carnival, Day of the Dead, Vodou Dr. Aminata Maraesa

Carnival In the days preceding Lent, all rich food and drink must be disposed of The consumption of this, in a giant party that involved the whole community, is thought to be the origin of Carnival.

Saturnalia

Bacchanalia

New Orleans, USA France

Russia Portugal

carne vale The Latin expression carne vale means "farewell to meat“ The social feasts preceding Lent were the last days when one could eat meat before the fasting of Lent began

Carnival in Uruguay “These were times and places of total indulgence in wine, song, dance and sex. The typical restraints of everyday life waned, carnivals were times for the systematic transgressions of boundaries” (Mikhail Bakhtin, 1968 Russian

Elvis mask – 1970 s Malawi Carnival in Nigeria 2008

Nigerian masquerade: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? NR=1&v=g. C 7 SAup_ RD 4

Carnival in Trinidad “pretty ‘mas” Negre Jardin

National Carnival Commission (est. late 1980 s) 1) mas’ (masquerade), 2) Calypso (musical form) the lyrics of which often expressed protest or injustices (under enslavement and colonialism) 3) pan (steel-pan drumming) created in 1937 as orchestras of frying pans, dustbin lids and oil drums when drums and other percussion instruments were banned in 1880

“Neg Jadin”

Dame Lorraine

n Sailor Mas

Jabs and Red and Blue Devils

Jab Molassie

Dame Lorraine

Moko Jumbies

Carnival as tourist commodity? Trinidadian carnival as piece of National Identity: Commodity differentiation as marketing strategy Objectification of cultural forms: How does this affect/influence cultural inventiveness? “salvage ethnography” Caribbean as hedonistic tourist paradise: Emphasizes the BACCHANAL of Carnival? What about the locals? Can they “free up” without objectification? !? !

Trinidad carnival: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=GJe 3 Togwtm 0

Day of the Dead Nov. 1 - All Saints' Day recognition of the saints Nov. 2 – All Souls' Day commemorates the faithful departed

Mexican Days of the Dead Nov. 1 - Día de los Inocentes (“Day of the Innocents”) or Día de los Angelitos (“Day of the Little Angels”) Nov. 2 - Día de los Muertos or Día de los Difuntos (“Day of the Dead”)

All Hallow’s Eve Often the visiting of gravesites and watch over the dead begins on Oct. 31 – which was celebrated in Europe (BEFORE IT WAS DONE IN THE U. S. ) as Halloween or “All Hallows Eve” or the day before All Saints Day, also known as All Hallows Day or Hallowmas. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of “souling”, when poor folk would go door to door on, receiving food in return for prayers for the dead.

Halloween Samhain - a Gaelic (pre. Christian) harvest festival held on October 31–November 1 The date of Samhain was associated with the Catholic All Saints' and All Souls' Days from at least the 8 th century

Day of the Dead

Mexican tradition What makes the Mexican celebration distinctly Mexican are 1) the name Day(s) of the Dead 2) the abundance and variety of sweet breads and candies 3) the humor and gaiety that marks the festivities

http: //www. facebook. com/pages/Mexican-Sugar-Skull -com/147116664688 https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Yuqp 6 v. YTs_g - Lonely Planet Dof. D vs. Halloween https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=0 RRJZ 9 B 3 e. C 0&t =6 s - celebrated at Xcaret in the Riviera Maya

cultural symbol and political subversion “The Day of the Dead, like Carnival, always presented a threat to the official political and religious establishment… Spanish rulers attempted to tone down, if not entirely eradicate, the popular celebration[s]” (363) “… [the drunkenness that took place at the cemeteries]… This fiesta, which drew boundaries between the living and the dead and partially inverted their roles, showed up the presence of death in the midst of life…” (363)

Zombies… in Vodou and popular culture Michael Jackson - Thriller

“The Magic Island” (1929)

“White Zombie” (1932)

Bela Lugosi a. k. a. - Dracula

Vodou - religion of healing Healing of social relationships---believed to be the root causes of most—if not all— physical and emotional ailments Ancestors are considered as part of one’s social network— including the dead in religious ceremony is integral to the Vodou belief system The Guedes

Syncretism The combining of different beliefs; often used to refer to the blending of different religious practices

Vodun altar in Benin

Catholic altar in U. S. A.

Vodou altar, Haiti

“voodoo doll”

Mambo Ezili Danto (Santa Barbara Africana)

Papa Legba (Saint Lazarus)

“the crossroads” veve for Papa Legba

Gede (St. Gerard Majella)

“sexuality is perhaps the central animating force in all of life… sexual and spiritual energy come from the same source” (10)

Vodou is NOT a static practice – nor is any cultural practice – so the fact that the practices of Carnival, the Day of the Dead and Vodou AND HALLOWEEN may merge with one another: 1) Is not new: given the 2000 years that Christianity has been on the planet and absorbing pre-Christian peoples and practices 2) Is not stopping: in an age of globalization, transnational communication via media images and flow of material goods

https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=kpe. Ld. Xe. Ibw. A&NR=1 - vodou National Geographic Guede Haitian possession trance - http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=x. HY 9 WNDZ-h 8&NR=1 Dancing with Guede in Brooklyn - http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Az. SCk. CO 4 xj. M

Globalization Increasingly global relationships of culture, people, and economic activity. The global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade. The term can also refer to the transnational circulation of ideas, languages, and popular culture.

Transnationalism Heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states. Transnationalism as an economic process involves the global reorganization of the production process, in which various stages of the production of any product can occur in various countries, typically with the aim of minimizing costs. Nation-state boundaries become fluid/porous through migratory workforces, globalized corporations, global money flow, global information flow, and global scientific cooperation.

Transmigrant… Recent shift in migration patterns since the 1980 s from point of departure to point of arrival—now there is an ongoing movement between two or more social spaces or locations facilitated by increased global transportation and telecommunication technologies that enable strong transnational ties to more than one “home” country, blurring the congruence of social space and geographic space.