Topic > Carnival: Importance in Culture and Relationships within Historic Communities

Historians who study the Carnival phenomenon will recognize its importance in culture and relationships within historic communities, such as 16th-century France, early modern England or postcolonial Trinidad, and furthermore, the structures underlying the cause of Carnival will be of particular interest to social and cultural historians. As a result, work on the topic has helped us understand culture as an independent force that acts separately, even without the influence of politics or socioeconomics. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayOne thing that can be understood from studying Carnival is the different ways it is expressed in different cultures. Historian Peter Burke, through non-European carnivals, established that in some forms carnival could serve as a time of class unity, as he said: "Carnival can be a time of emotional union... and even a truce in the war of class". Class is often seen as a point of contention for communities, which is why this is so significant and certainly suggests that there are underlying structures at play beneath the simple economic forces that drive society within communities. Professor Raimund Schäffner provides support for Burke's ideas when he writes: "carnival emerged from its confinement to the great halls and manor houses of the privileged upper classes", suggesting that carnival did not apply exclusively to the working class but was practiced by all the classes. Schäffner also describes Carnival as "a constituent element of popular culture", which once again indicates that it was practiced by all different classes as "popular culture" does not discriminate based on class. In this particular case, Schäffner focuses on Carnival after the abolition of slavery in Trinidad in 1833, which he sees as an important contributing factor to the development of Trinidadian culture and consequently the Trinidad Carnival, Play Mas. In reference to French colonists expressing French culture and carnival during the occupation of Trinidad, he writes: 'slaves were forbidden to participate in such celebrations, and. . . had separate celebrations in their own neighbourhoods", which provides evidence of why Carnival in Trinidad can be a celebration of unity, rather than rebellion, and how individuals in Trinidad demonstrate that Carnival is irrelevant to class , but relevant to the culture. Burke mentions Carnival in Trinidad in Varieties of Cultural History, yet details the impact of slavery, although he highlights, for example, the impact of female participation in Carnival; Trinidad in 1826 noted that "a party of ladies, having converted into a party of brigands, attacked me in my quarters", which would suggest that carnival in Trinidad was more inclusive of both women and classes. When compared to European carnivals, which were often not as inclusive, Burke writes, "the carnivals of the Americas contrast with traditional European customs, in which the woman's place was generally on the balcony." This supports the contention that Trinidad Carnival focused more on the coming together of individuals with a shared culture as a result of the Trinidadian experience of slavery and did not discriminate based on class. Burke, however, refers to El Salvador's experience of New World slavery: "Salvador's carnival focused on Zumbi, leader of the rebellious slave community of Palmares" which directly supports Schäffner's idea of ​​slaveryas a force that contributes to a cultural carnival in which classes are united. of division, and shows how the cultures, in this case, of Trinidad and Salvador translate freedom from slavery into a carnival culture. Social and cultural historians such as Peter Burke are particularly interested in the underlying structures responsible for events such as the Carnival community, particularly those that lie even beneath economic and political forces. In the case of Trinidad and Salvador, the structures are made up of the cultural heritage and connections developed after slavery that encompass their respective societies, especially regardless of class. This means that the works of these historians have helped us understand culture as a force in its own right, not simply a consequence of political or socioeconomic changes, which makes events in history, such as Carnival, easier to understand and discover the causes of .While with Burke in Trinidad, where Carnival was represented as a union between classes, in the works of the third generation Annales School historian, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, who instead focused on the communities of 16th century France, Carnival is promulgated instead as an expression of class tension, with much of its attention paid to the culmination of this tension in the Mardi Gras Carnival. An important concept to understand by studying Ladurie's works and especially his book Carnival in Romans is the idea of ​​Microhistory, with which a small, perhaps insignificant community is analyzed, which in this case is the town of Romans in the province of Dauphiné , in France, in which, as quoted by Ladurie: "one in seven or eight Roman families belonged to or aspired to the wealthy elite", demonstrating that the city's population contained a significant peasant majority. Ladurie also describes the population of the Romans as a "divided citizenry", which indicates a class tension in the city, as most of the wealth is owned by a minority of the population. Given this information, Romans can be seen as a city with a class-divided community between peasants and elites, which is in contrast to the communities of Trinidad and Salvador discussed previously. Ladurie highlights in Carnival in Romans the translation of this division, through Carnival, into violence, for example, describing the "cannibalistic fantasies" of parading members of the less wealthy company of San Biagio "Crying flesh of Christians, six pennies a pound" when they mock the 'notables'. Although Ladurie distinguishes that these cries were "half-joking", he later comments: "The pantomimes of agricultural workers and artisans...". . . they quickly became political and continued throughout the week", which foreshadows the violence that would occur, which Ladurie describes as: "more intense than simple street fights in a town of 7000". Ladurie's description of this is supported by that of Liewain Scott Van Doren, who describes the Carnival and riots in the late 1570s as "their struggle against the privilegiés", indicating a form of violence against the elite Indeed, in reference to the events previously mentioned of the day of San Biagio, Van Doren emphasizes that 'the day of San Biagio was used by the drapers to assert their presence as a special group within the community' in 1580 it was the textile industry. Most of the merchants of Romans would have been drapers, and Ladurie, in Carnival in Romans, describes Guérin's belief that "God had made the drapers, carders and men lose their hearts and minds. others who had planned the celebrations of San Biagio's day in 1579". theredisconnect between the peasants or "Legalists" and the elite or "noble people" in the Romans, which would lead to the massacre in 1580. Ladurie mentions that during Carnival, the thinking of the Gentile people, led by Guérian, was not so disconnected from the thought of the Northern League, led by Paumier. He writes: "The God of the Croquants was constantly present in their judicial revolt" and "No doubt it was much the same with the oral declarations of the peasants and discontented citizens of the Dauphiné", proving that it was religion that linked the cultures between the two participating masses. Ladurie further notes, "Death made Paumier the Christ of the revolt," further cementing this idea, however, this did not prevent the massacre from occurring nor did it reduce the antagonism between the two groups, and Ladurie states, "I Northern League members were more men of action than of words", suggesting that Northern League members had less time for religion, resulting in a point of class tension. While the Annales School, certainly in the First and Second Generations, focused more on work and quantitative structures, the Third Generation began to shift attention more towards culture with a particular emphasis on Microhistory and the attempt to understand the thoughts, emotions and consequent actions of the ordinary individual, especially with Ladurie. The Mardi Gras Carnival provides a microhistorical insight into the underlying structure of culture in the working-class community of Romani and as such would be of interest to social and cultural historians, including the Annales. Furthermore, the study of Microhistory introduced by Ladurie with Carnival in Romans helps us to understand that the previously mentioned structure of culture was a great driving force in Carnival, translated into violence across the community in Romans, and this can be applied to other areas of history, where culture is a driving force for events in its own right. Marxist historian EP Thompson takes yet a third approach to the study of Carnival. The concepts of class unity and class tension have already been discussed, but Thompson, who in his works often refers to Carnival in France as 'Charivari' and in England as 'Rough Music', describes it as a hostility of community towards individuals who are believed to have transgressed social normalities in an attempt to ostracize or punish them. Thompson focuses exclusively on the English experience of charivari and mentions the concept briefly in his 1963 work, The Making of the English Working Class, when he quotes: 'both ideas and institutions arose in response to certain common experiences. . . In the simple cellular structure of the friendly society, with its daily ethic of mutual help. Thompson states this in reference to the development of working-class communal culture in England, or the development of plebeian culture. Ultimately, Thompson's Making does not examine his idea of ​​Charivari or Rough Music in depth, but his article "Rough Music Reconsidered" provides more information about it. In the said article, Thompson quotes: "Crude music is the term that has generally been used... to denote rude cacophony, with or without more elaborate rituals, which usually directed derision or hostility at individuals who offended certain norms community" which establishes the effective definition of Thompson's 'Rough Music'. He elaborates on this concept with a description of the universal form of rough music as "raucous and deafening noise, merciless laughter and imitation of obscenities" which Thompson conveys as intended to be directed at a certain individual and which, despite the differences of rough music in British Isles "was so diverse that it is possible to see them as distinct species", the idea of ​​noise as a crucial aspect in showing hostility remains the.