Rituality and Social (Dis)Order : The Historical Anthropology of Popular Carnival in Europe

235 Pages·2021·4.673 MB·English

by  Alessandro Testa

Rituality and Social (Dis)Order
Carnival has been described as one of the foundational elements of
European culture, bearing an emblematic and iconic status as the
festive phenomenon par excellence . Its origins are partly obscure, but its
stratified and complex history, rich symbolic diversity, and sundry social
configurations make it an exceptional object of cultural analysis.
T he product of more than 12 years of research, this book is the first
comparative historical anthropology of popular European Carnival in
the English language, with a focus on its symbolic, religious, and political
dimensions and transformations throughout the centuries. It builds on
a variety of theories of social change and social structures, questioning
existing assumptions about what folklore is and how cultural gaps and
differences take shape and reproduce through ritual forms of collective
action. It also challenges recent interpretations about the performative
and political dimension of European festive culture, especially in its
carnivalesque declension.
W hile presenting and exploring the most important features and
characteristics of European premodern Carnival and discussing its
origins and developments, this thorough study offers fresh evidence and
up-to-date analyses about its transversal and long-lasting significance in
European societies.
A lessandro Testa is Research Fellow in Anthropology at the Institute of
Sociological Studies, Charles University, Prague.
Routledge Studies in Cultural History
92 Controversial Heritage and Divided Memories from the Nineteenth
Through the Twentieth Centuries
M ulti-Ethnic Cities in the Mediterranean World, Volume 2
E dited by Marco Folin and Heleni Porfyriou
9 3 History as Performance
P olitical Movements in Galicia Around 1900
D ietlind Hüchtker
9 4 The Cultural Life of Risk and Innovation
I magining New Markets from the Seventeenth Century to the Present
E dited by Chia Yin Hsu, Thomas M. Luckett, and Erika Vause
9 5 Popular New Orleans
T he Crescent City in Periodicals, Theme Parks, and Opera, 1875–2015
F lorian Freitag
9 6 Science in the Metropolis
V ienna in Transnational Context, 1848–1918
E dited by Mitchell G. Ash
9 7 Imaginary Athens
U rban Space and Memory in Berlin, Tokyo, and Seoul
J in-Sung Chun
98 R ituality and Social (Dis)Order
T he Historical Anthropology of Popular Carnival in Europe
A lessandro Testa
9 9 Irish Writers and the Thirties
A rt, Exile and War
K atrina Goldstone
F or more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Studies-in-Cultural-History/book-series/SE0367
Rituality and Social
(Dis)Order
The Historical Anthropology
of Popular Carnival
in Europe
Alessandro Testa
F irst published 2021
b y Routledge
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a nd by Routledge
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R outledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Alessandro Testa
T he right of Alessandro Testa to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A ll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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L ibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
N ames: Testa, Alessandro, 1983– author.
Title: Rituality and social (dis)order : the historical anthropology
of popular carnival in Europe / Alessandro Testa.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group,
2021. | Series: Routledge studies in cultural history; Volume 98 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020031246 (print) | LCCN 2020031247 (ebook) |
Subjects: LCSH: Carnival—Europe—History. | Popular culture—
Europe. | Masks—Symbolic aspects—Europe. | Europe—Social
life and customs.
Classification: LCC GT4242 .T47 2021 (print) | LCC GT4242 (ebook) |
DDC 394.25094—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020031246
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020031247
ISBN: 978-0-367-61722-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-10621-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
A lla pervicace volontà dell’esserci. A dispetto di tutto.
In memoria di una certa idea di Europa.
E a Heleen.
“The problem of carnival (in the sense of the sum total of all diverse
festivities, rituals and forms of a carnival type) – its essence, . . ., its devel-
opment under conditions of class society, its extraordinary life force and
its undying fascination – is one of the most complex and most interesting
problems in the history of culture.”
Mikhail Bakhtin1
“In a sense, every type of cultural performance, including ritual, cere-
mony, Carnival and theatre is an explanation of life itself. Through the
performance process itself, what is normally sealed up, inaccessible to
everyday observation and reasoning, in the depths of sociocultural life,
is drawn forth.”
Victor Turner2
Contents
List of Figures ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
1 A Theory of Popular Culture From the South 1
1.1 Popular Culture: A Theory From the South 1
1.2 Folklore Fades Out . . . 4
1.3 . . . Cultural Circulation and Hegemony Remain:
Concluding Remarks 8
2 A Critical Model of European Carnival 14
2.1 European Popular Carnival: A Model 14
2.2 The “Carnivalesque” 21
2.3 Masks and Masking 24
2.4 Feasting and Binging, Waste and
Unproductiveness 31
2.5 The Trial, the Scapegoat, and Door-to-Door
Processions 38
3 The Elusive Origins of Carnival 53
3.1 Ritual Transvestism, Zoomorphism, and the
Prehistory of Carnival in Late Antique and Early
Medieval Times 53
3.2 Ancient Predecessors and the Methodological
Conundrum 59
3.3 The “Religion of Carnival,” the Shamanic
Hypothesis, and More Methodological
Conundra 77
viii Contents
4 Ritual Inversions, Cultural Hegemony, and the Structure
of the Conjuncture 102
4 .1 The Inversions of Carnival (in Rome, for
Example) 102
4.2 Three Interpretative Models (With Reflections on
Revolts and Revolutions) 114
4 .3 Cultural Hegemony, Resignation, and
Dehistorification (and More Case Studies) 133
4 .4 Rituality, (Anti-)Structural Events, and the Oblique
Politics of Carnival 150
4 .5 Final Remarks 168
Bibliography 187
I ndex 211
Figures
2.1 The Christian semiotics of masking in the Middle Ages. 28
2.2 A detail from the painting Carnival in Rome (Carneval
in Rom ), Johann Lingelbach, ca. 1650, KHM-Museum-
sverband, Vienna. 29
2.3 Detail from an illustrated manuscript of the Roman d’
Alexandre , fourteenth century, Bodleian Libraries,
University of Oxford, MS. Bodl. 264 fol. 21v. 30
2 .4 T he Fight between Carnival and Lent (Der Kampf zwischen
Fasching und Fasten ) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559,
KHM-Museumsverband, Vienna. 32
2.5 The Fight between Carnival and Lent (De strijd tussen
carnaval en vasten ) by Peeter Baltens (attributed to),
late sixteenth century, Museum M, Leuven S_54_V_0318. 33
2.6 The Triumph of Carnival (Il trionfo del Carneval ),
Anonymous, Tyrolean region, xylography, eighteenth
century, cat. 7640, Istituto Centrale per il Patrimonio
Immateriale – Gabinetto delle stampe, Rome. 35
2.7 Carnival and the sphere of alimentation. 36
2.8 The Burial of the Sardine (El entierro de la sardine )
by Francisco Goya, ca. 1810, Museo de la Real
Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid. 40
4.1 Illustration by Gordon Thomson or Towneley Green,
engraving by Edward Dalziel, probably realised in 1868
but published in the 1880 volume of the Scenes
and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens
(Household Edition). 112
4.2 The Inversions of Carnival. 115
4.3 Aquarelle with carnival masks from Basel by Jakob Götz,
ca. 1590, Historisches Museum Basel, Stammbuch Götz ,
Inv. 1870.921. 116
4.4 Fastnächtlicher Schembartlauf from the Berliner
Schembartbuch , Schembartbuch: Fastnächtlicher
Schembartlauf © bpk/Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. SPS,
ms. Germ. Fol. 491, 142r. 143