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t I Festival: Definition and MorphologyAlessandro Falassi

I

Festival is an event, a social phenomenon, encountered in virtually all human cultures.The colorful variety and dramatic intensity of its dynamic choreographic and aestheticaspects, the signs of deep meaning underlying them, its historical roots and theinvolvement of the o'natives" have always attracted the attention of casual visitors,have consumed travelers and men of letters alike. Since the last century, scholarsfrom disciplines such as comparative religion, anthropology, sociology, and folklorehave concerned themselves with the description, the analysis, and, more recently, theinterpretation offestivities. Yet little explicit theoretical effort has been devoted to thenomenclature of festive events orto the definition of the wmfestiual. As a result, themeaning of festiual in the social sciences is simply taken from common language,where the term covers a constellation of very different events, sacred and profane,private and public, sanctioning tradition and introducing innovation, proposing nos-talgic revivals, providing the expressive means for the survival of the most archaicfolk customs, and celebrating the highly speculative and experimental avant-gardesof the elite fine arts.

Etymologically the term festiual derives ultimately from the Latin festum. But

2 I AL[ssANt)lto ]Al.ASSr

originalll ' l,!tirr had two terms for festive events: festum, for ,.public joy, merriment,rt'vt'f rv." .od.fi 'ria, meaning "abstinence f.om work in honor of th" goir.l, Both termsnrrrt' trntttl irr the plu-*I, festa and feriae, which indicates that at that time festivalsrllrr:atly lasted many days and included many eveltts. In classical Latin, the two termstt'rrrl.d to become synonyms, as the two typr:s 'f ev.rrts te.ded to merge. r

l'rom festa derived the Italian /i:srn (pl. festel, rhe l.rench F*"tpl. f6tes) andfestiual (udj.), the Spanish fiesta (pl. jusuol", tlrc I'ortugu ese festa,irr" niiaai" rrigri"l,feste, feste d,ai, festial then festittal, at fir*r an adj,:t,tive

"onooting events and then anoun denoting them.Feria (pl'

"f"'fu! had a r*'nrnntit: inplication rf lack, intermission, and absence thatremained in the origirral. rnetninr of the ltalia nferia(abstinence from work in honor of asaint),

.ferie (l irne away. fnxn worl), and giorni feriali (days of absence of ."ligiou" ""..-m

'riment,h terms'estivals

o terms

es) andEnglishthen a

rce thatnor of ars cere-acationreaningof cul-

:d suchnercialFrench

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:lebra-personr g o f atist or1lmon-

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rcriod-', serieszs, allbonds,of thegnizesinuity,

Festiual: Definition and Morphology | 3

secondary and subordinate. Religious festivals have evident secular implications, andsecular ones almost invariably resort to metaphysics to gain solemnity and sanctionfor their events or for their sponsors. Another basic typological distinction that is oftenmade draws upon the setting of the festival, opposing rural to urban festivals. Ruralfestivals are supposedly older, agrarian, centered on fertility rites and cosmogonymyths, while the more recent, urban festivals celebrate prosperity in less archaicforms and may be tied to foundation legends and historical events and feats. Anothertypology can be based on power, class structure, and social roles, distinguishingamong festivals given by the people for the people, those given by the establishmentfor itself, and those held by the people for the establishment, by the establishmentfor the people, and by the people against the establishment.s

Festive behavior has also been studied as a whole complex with one basic symboliccharacteristic. While some scholars have indicated as most important the symbolicinversion, the topsy-turvy aspect apparent in festivals such as the Roman Saturnaliaor the Feast of Fools, others have insisted on the similarities between daily and festivebehavior, stressing that the latter parallels the former but with a more stylized formand with greatly increased semantic meaning'

The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. If we consider that the primaryand most general function of the festival is to renounce and then to announce culture,to renew periodically the lifestream of a community by creating ne\{ energy, and togive sanction to its institutions, the symbolic means to achieve it is to represent theprimordial chaos before creation, or a historical disorder before the establishment ofthe culture, society, or regime where the festival happens to take place.

Such representation cannot be properly accomplished by reversal behavior or byrites of intensification alone, but only by the simultaneous presence in the samefestival of all the basic behavioral modalities of daily social life, all modified-bydistortion, inversion, stylization, or disguise-in such a way that they take on anespecially meaningful symbolic character. Consequently, both symbolic inversion andintensification must be present in the festival, and in addition there will be the elementof symbolic abstinence-for instance from work, from play, from studn from religiousobservances. In sum, festival presents a complete range of behavioral modalities, eachone related to the modalities of normal daily life. At festival times, people do somethingthey normally do not; they abstain from something they normally do; they carry to theextreme behaviors that are usually regulated by measure; they invert patterns of dailysocial life. Reversal, intensification, trespassing, and abstinence are the four cardinalpoints of festive behavior.6

III

A morphology of festivals must indicate their minimal units and their possiblesequences. Such a theoretical operation, analogous to what Vladimir Propp did forthe constituent parts of the folktale, may aim at an archetype accounting for all festivals,or more accurately at "oicotypes" accounting for a class of festivals of the same kindor from the same cultural area.7 Studies have indicated that several constituent partsseem to be quantitatively ever-recurrent and qualitatively important in festive events.These units, building blocks of festivals, can all be considered ritual acts, "rites,"

rcred/han aven i{

4 I ALESSANI)Ho t.At.ASsl

since they halrPtttt within an exceptional frame of time and space, and their meaningis considcrccl to go beyond their literal and explicit aspects.'l'he frarning ritual that opens the festival is one of ialarization (which for religious

evelrts lra-" bectt called sacralization) that modifies the usual and daily fu.,cti,o' andntt:rtning of time and space. To serve as the theater of the festive events an area isrc't' laimccl, cleared., delimited, blessed, aclorncd, forbidden to normal activities.ssimilarly, daily time is modified by a grarlual or sudden interruption that intro-eluccs "time out of time," a special temporal dimension devoted to special activities.l'estival time imposes itself as an auto'(rnrous cluration, not so much to be perceived

and measured in days or hours, but to lrc rlivided internally by what hupp.^* *ithi'it from its beginning to its end, as in the "m'vclnents" of mytiical narratives or musicalscores'e The opening rite is follnwed by a number of events that belong to a llmitedgroup of general ritual types. 'rhert arc. rires of purification and. "l"ur"i".rg by -""r*of fire, water, or air, or centerecl anrund rhe solemn eipulsion of some

"o.t #

""up"gou,carrying the ooevil" and "negutive" out of the "o--rrnity. If the rationale of these ritesis to expel the evil thrrt is already within, as in exorcisms, other

"o-pl"."nr"f .i,""aim at keeping away thc evil perceived as a threat coming from outside. These ritesof safeguard in

neaning

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Festiaall Definition and, Morphology I s

sacred meal of Communion, the Greek tradition that Zeus is invisibly present at theritual banquets of the Olympic Games, or the practice of the Tsembanga Maring peopleof New Guinea, who raise, slaughter, and eat pigs for and with the ancestors. In farless frequent cases, as in the potlatch, objects with special material and symbolicvalue are ritually consumed, wasted, or destroyed.Ia

Ritual dramas are usually staged at festival sites, as rites have a strong tie tomyths. Their subject matter is often a creation myth, a foundation or migratory legend,or a military success particularly relevant in the mythical or historical memory of thecommunity staging the festival. By means of the drama, the community members arereminded of their Golden Age, the trials and tribulations of their founding fathers inreaching the present location of the community, the miracles of a saint, or the periodicvisit of a deity to whom the festival is dedicated. When the sacred story is not directlystaged, it is very often hinted at or referred to in some segments or events of thefestival. rs

Rites of exchange express the abstract equality of the community members, theirtheoretical status as equally relevant members of a oocornmunitas," a community ofequals under certain shared laws of reciprocity. At the fair, money and goods areexchanged at an economic level. At more abstract and symbolic levels, information,ritual gifts, or visits may be exchanged; public acts of pacification, symbolic remissiodebitum, or thanksgiving for a grace received may take place in various forms ofredistribution, sponsored by the community or a privileged individual, who thus repaysthe community or the gods for what he has received in excess.r6

Festival typically includes rites of competition, which often constitute its catharticmoment in the form of games. Even if games are commonly defined as competitionsregulated by special rules and with uncertain outcome (as opposed to ritual, theoutcome of which is known in advance), the logic of festival is concerned with thecompetition and the awards for the winner; the rules of the game are canonic, and itsparadigm is ritual. The parts or roles are assigned at the beginning to the personaeas equals and undifferentiated "contestants,"'ohopefuls," "candidates." Then the de-velopment and the result of the game create among them a oofinal" hierarchical order-either binary (winners and losers) or by rank (from first to last). Games show howequality may be turned into hierarchy.r7 Besides games in the strict sense, festivalcompetitions include various forms of contest and prize giving, from the election ofthe beauty queen to the selection of the best musician, player, singer, or dancer,individual or group, to awards to a new improvised narrative or work of art of anykind or to the best festive decorations. By singling out its outstanding members andgiving them prizes, the group implicitly reaffirms some of its most important values.

Athletic or competitive sporting events include individual or collective games ofluck, strength, or ability. These have been considered a "corruption" of older playsof ritual combats with fixed routine and obligatory ending, such as the fight betweenLight and Darkness representing cosmogony, then progressively historicized and ter-ritorialized into combats between, for example, the Christians and the Moors, orrepresentative individuals, the champions (literally "the sample") carrying the colorsof the whole group.IB

In their functional aspects, such games may be seen as display and encouragementof skills such as strength, endurance, and precision, required in daily work andmilitary occupations; such was for instance the rationale of medieval mock battles.re

6 I ALESSANDRO TAIASSI

In their symbolic aspect, festival competitions may be seen as a metaphor for theemergence and establishment of power, as when the "winner takes all," or when thewinning faction symbolically takes over the arena, or the city in triumph.

At the end of the festival, a rite of deualorization, symmetrical to the openingone, marks the end of the festive activities and the return to the normal spatial andtemporal dimensions of daily life.20

IV

Admittedly, a complete or even an extensive morphology of festivals will corre-spond to very few-if any-actual events. Real-life festivals will not present all theritual components listed, not even in "de-semanticized,"that isn secondary and scarcelymeaningful, forms. A complete festival morphology will correspond to the completefestive cycle, and several of its parts will form the config!"rration of each of the actualfestive events.2r This fragmentation of the festive complex into events distributed allalong the calendrical cycle follows the course of history and its trends of centralizationand decentralization in social life, as well as the interplay of religious and secularpowers and their division in the running of social and symbolic life and its "collectiverituals." Furthermore, in today's western and westernized cultures, larger, often moreabstract and distant entities try to substitute themselves for the older, smaller, tightlywoven communities as reference groups and centers of the symbolic life of the people.22Today we try to bring the audience close to the event by means of the mass media,or to bring the event close to the audience by delegating smaller entities such as thefamily, to administer it everywhere at the same time, or to fragment the older festivalsinto simpler festive events centered on one highly significant ritual. Such fragmentationis seen in the United States, where the ritual meal is the focus of Thanksgiving, theexchange of gifts the focus of Christmas, excess of New Year's, military might andvictories and civic pride are the themes underlying the parade on the Fourth of Julyand the Rose Parade. Carnivalesque aspects underlie Mardi Cras and Halloween.And symbolic reversal is nowhere more evident than in the demolition derby. Eventhe tradition of dynastic anniversaries is present, modified though it may be, inWashington's and Lincoln's birthdays; competitions are perfectly typified by the In-dianapolis 500, the Superbowl, and the Kentucky Derby. Even the archaic tendencyto consider the ritual games of the festival as cosmic events may be surfacing in theIerm world championship, obstinately used for events that in the strict sense areencounters of local teams playing a culture-bound and territorially limited game, suchas American football or baseball. Festive rites of passage take place on Valentine'sDay, at debutantes'balls, drinking celebrations ofthe eighteenth birthday and fraternityand sorority rushes. Rites of deference and confirmation of status include presidentialinaugurations, Father's Day, and Mother's Day. The archaic Kings and Queens of theMay have their functional equivalents in the yearly beauty pageants of Miss, Mister,and Mrs. America. Plays have been grouped in various yearly festivals of the arts thatrange from Shakespeare festivals to the Oscars ceremonies in Los Angeles, throughsymphonies, jazz festivals, and fiddling contests. And the modern;ferios, the countyfairs, are numerous and ever-present.23

If not festival proper, such events are part of a festive cycle, a series of eventsthat in other times and cultures would fall within tighter boundaries of time, space,

' forrhen

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Festiaal: Defnition and. Morphology I 7

and action. This festive complex is everchanging and evolving. But with all its mod-ifications, festival has retained its primary importance in all cultures, for the humansocial animal still does not have a more significant way to feel in tune with his worldthan to partake in the special reality of the Festival, and celebrate life in its "timeout of t ime."

NOTESl. For the meaning of festiual in Latin see

The Oxford Latin Dictionary, ed. P. G. Clare(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), pp. 686,69 4-9 5 ; L e x ic o n Tot ius L atinit at is, ed. E gidi oForcellini (Padua: Typis Seminarii, 1940),2:452-53,468; Charles Du Cange, Glossar-ium Medio,e et Inf.mae Lainita.tis (Niort: Favre,lBB4), 3:436 -38, 462-63.

2. For the meaning of festiaal in the Ro-mance languages, see the Vocabolario degliAccademici della Crusca, 5th ed. (Florence:Tipografia Galileiana, Iffi6), 5:757-SB, Bl4-20; Dictionnaire de l'Acaddmie Frangaise, Bthed. (Paris: Hachette, 1932),I:537, 554; RealAcadernia Espaflola, Diccionario d,e la Len-gua Espaftola, I9th ed. (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1970); Jos6 Pedro Machado, Dbbn'ario Etirnol6gico d,a Lingua Portugu,esa, 3ded. (Lisbon: Horizonte, 1977),3:38, 40.

3. For the meaning of festiaal in English,see for instance the Middle English Diction-ary, ed. H. Kurath and S. M. Kuhn (AnnArbor: University of Michigan Press and Lon-don: Oxford University Press, 1952), 3:451,529; The Shorter Engli^sh Dictionary, ed. C.T. Onions, 3d ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press,1973), pp. 742-43; Webster's Third New In-ternational Dictionary, ed. P. Babcock Gove(Springfield, Mass.: Merriam Co., 1976), pp.Bts, B4l.

4. For the meaning of festiual in the socialsciences, see Dictionary of Folklore, Mythol-ogy and Legend., ed. Maria Leach (New York:Funk and Wagnalls, 1949), I:376; Dictionaryof Myhology Folhlore and Symbols, ed. Ger-trude Jobes (New York: Scarecrow Press,196l), l:563; The Encyclopaedia of SocialScierrces, ed. Edwin R. A. Seligman (NewYork: Macmillan, 1937), 6:198-2OI; Ency-clopaedia of Religion and Ethics (New York:Scribner's, 196I), 5:835-94. For generaldiscussions of festive events. see Victor Tumer.ed., Celebration: Stu.dies in Festiaity and Rit-

ual (Washin6on: Smithsonian Institution Press,l9B2), especially pp. lI-30, and also his"Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow and Rit-ual," Rice Uniuersity Studies 60 (1974), pp.53-92; Robert J. Smith, "Festivals and Cel-ebrations," in Richard Dorson, ed., Folkloreand Folklife (Chicago and London: Universityof Chicago Press, 1972), pp. 159-72, andhis The Art of the Festiual (Lawrence: Uni-versity of Kansas Press, 1975); Carla Biancoand Maurizio del Ninno, eds., Festa. Antro-pologia e Semiotica, Acts of the InternationalCongress of l97B in Montecatini (Florence:Nuova Guarald i , 1981); Roger Cai l lo is ,"Theorie de la Fte," Notnelle Reotn Fran-qai"se 27 (1939): 863-82; 28 (1940): 49-59;Beverly Stoeltje, "Festival in America," inRichard Dorson, ed., Hand,boolt of AmericanFolklore (Bloomington: Indiana UniversityPress, 1983), pp. 239-46; John J. Mac-Aloon, "Cultural Performances, Culture The-ory" in his (ed.) Rite, Drama, Festiual, Spectodc(Philadelphia: ISHI Press, l9B4), pp. I-I5;Jean Duvignaud, Ftes et Ciailizations (Parisand Geneva: Weber, 1973); Marianne Mesnil,"The Masked Festival: Disguise or Affirma-tion?" Cultures 3 (1976) no. 2:11-29. Forfestive events as symbolic representations ofworldview, see Alan Dundes and AlessandroFalassi, La Terra in Piazza: An Interpretationof the Palio of Siena (Berkeley and Los An-geles: University of California Press, 1975).Compare Clifford Geerlz, "Deep Play: Noteson Balinese Cockfight,"D aed,alw 101 (1972):t-37.

5. For the sacred/profane dichotomy andsemantic pair, see Emile Durkheim, The El-ernentary Forms of the Religious Life (London:Allen and Unwin/New York: Macmillan, 1915);Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane(New York: Harper Torchbooks, 196I). Com-pare Sally F. Moore and Barbara G. Myerhoff,eds.. Secular Ritual (Amsterdam: Van Gor-

I I ALESSANDRo llt,Asst

cum, 1977). lbr the c(rntcml)orary situatiorr,see Robert lltrllah lleyowl Belief: Essays onReliginn in o l\xt-7'rulitilunl Wortd (New york:Harpr:r and llow. 1970). tbr an applicationto conlcnrgxrrary fcstivals, see Bruce Guil i_ano, Snt'rrr o l'nlhno? A Consideration of FourI tu I r c n-C u nodian Re I ig iotu Fe s ti ua ls 1 Oitawa:Nrrtionrrl illuseum of Canada, 1976):Jean Du-t ignaud, " [ 'est iva ls : A Socio logical Ap-pvtach," Cultures 3 (1976) no. l: 13-28: FrankManning. The Celebration of Society: per-spectiae on Contemporary Cultural perfor-m,ances (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowlins GreenUniversity Popular Press, l9B3).

6. For festive inversion, see Barbara llab-cock, ed., The Reuersible World,: Symbolic In-uersion in Art and Society (lthaca: Cornel-University Press, 1978). Excess, affirmation.and juxtaposition are discussed in Harvev Cox.The Feast of F'ools: A Theological Esiay onFestioity and Fantasy (Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press, 1969). Joseph pie-per, In Tune with the World: A Theory of Fes_tiaity (New York: Harcourt. t965) dl."r..".festive behavior as a form of assent to theworld as a whole. See also his Uber Das phan-ornen Des Fesres (Cologne: Westdeutscher Ver-lag, 1963). Contrast Yves-Marie Berce. F6teet Reuohe (Paris: Hachette, 1976), MikhailBakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Cambridge:MIT Press, 1968), and Miguel de Ferdinandy,Carnaual y Reuolucion y diecinueae ensayosmas {Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico: EditoiialUniversitaria, 1977). Analogies betr,veen dailyand festive behavior are stressed in RogerAbrahams and Richard Bauman, "Ranges ofFestival Behavior," in Babcock. The Reuers-ibleWorld, pp. 193-208. Roger Calllois, Manand the Saued (Glencoe: Free Press. 1959)sees festival as periodical excess and chaos.On transgression see, for instance, Robert J.Smith, "Licentious Behavior in Hispanic Fes-tivals," Wstern Folklore 3l (1972):29O-98:Sherry Roxanne Turkle: "symbol and Festivalin the French Students Uprising" (May-June1968) in Sally Moore and Barbara Mverhoff.Symbols and Politics in Communat id,eology(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975), pp.68-r00.

7. Vladimir Propp, Morphology of theFolktqle (Austin: University of Texas press,1968). For the concept of Oicotype see C. W.Von Sydow, "Geography and Folktale Oico-

types," )n Selected Papers on FolkLore (Co_penhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, lgzl8), pp.44-59.

B. For rites of sacralization see, for in_stance, Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Compar_atiae Religion (New York: Sheed and ffard,l95B), pp. 367-87 and The Sacred and theProfone, pp. 20-65.

9. This concept of time appears in ClaudeLdvi-Strauss, The Raw and the Coolted. (NewYork: Harper and Row, 1969l, pp. 15-16.Compare Edmund Leach , . .C ronus a r rdChronos" and "Time and False Noses" in hrsRethinking Anthropology (London: AthlonePress, 196l), pp. 124-36; Mircea Eliade,The Saoed and the Profane, pp. 85-95.

10. For rites of purification and safeguardsee, for instance, Peter Rigby, .oSome

-Gogo

Rituals of 'Purificationo: An Essay on So"llland Moral Categories," in E. R. Leach. ed.-Dialectic in Practical Religion (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 155_78; Mary Douglas, Purity and Dangir (Lon_don: Routledge and Kegan eaul, IOOO).

ll. For rites of passage, see the classicArnold van Gennep , The Rites of passage(Chicago: University of Chicago press, l96d);Barbara Myerhoff, "Rites of passage: processand Paradox,o'in Victor Turner, Celebration,pp. 109-35; Max Gluckman, ..Les Rites dePassage," in his (ed.) Essays on the Ritual ofSocial Relations (Manchester: ManchesterUniversity Press, 1962), pp. 1-52. For dis_cussion of extensive ethnographic compara-t ive data, see Frank Young, In i t i i t ionCeremonies: A Cross-Cuhural Study of StatusDramatization (New York: Bobbs-Merri l l .1965) and Martha N. Fried and H. Morton.Traruition: Four Rittnls in Eight Ciltures \NewYork: Norton, l9B0); Judith Brown, ..A Cross_Cultural Study of Female Initiation Rites,"American Anthropologjsr 65 (1963): g3Z_53.

12. For rites of reversal see Barbara Bab_cock's discussion in The Reaersible World, pp.l3-36. Rich comparative materials and icon_]Braqhy from Europe appear in GiuseppeCocchiara, Il Mondo alla Roaescia (Turin:^Ei-naudi, 1963). A theoretical discussion of theconcept is in Rodney Needham, ,,Reversals,',in his Agairct the Tranquility of Axionu(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Cal_ifomia Press, I9B3). pp. 93-120.

13. On pilgrimages see Surinder Mohan

're (Co-l8), pp.

for in-iompar-I Ward,and the

Clauderd (Newl5- I6.us and" in hisA.thloneEliade,-95.feguard,e Gogor Social: h , ed . ,rbridge:r . 153-rr (Lon-'6).classic

Dassagere60);

Processtration,tites de'itual ofchesterior dis-rmpara-t i a t i onf Stanrsvlerri l l ,Worton,es (Newt Cross-Rites,"37-53.ra Bab-rld, pp.rd icon-rusepperin: Ei-n of theersals,"Axioms' of Cal-

Mohan

llhardway, Hindu Places of Pilgrim'age in In-dia (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University ofCalifomia Press, 19?3); Victor Turner andEdith Turner , Image and Pilgrimage in Chris-tian C uhure : Anthropobgiral Perspectiaes (NewYork: Columbia University Press, 1978); andVictor Turner, Process, Performance and Pil-grimage: A Study in Comparatioe SymbologylNew Delhi: Concept, 1979). Forparades andprocessions, see, for instance, Sydney !qlo,Spectacle, Pageantry, and Early Tudar Policy(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969); Albert D'Mackie, Scottkh Pageantry (London: Hutch-inson, 1967); Leroy F. Vaughn, Parade andFloat Guid'e (Minneapolis: Denison, 1956);David Colin Dunlop, Processiow: A Disser-tation, Together With Pranical Suggestions(London: Oxford University Press, 1932).

14. For classic rites of conspicuous con-sumption and ritual offerings, see H. G' Bar-nette, "The Nature of the Potlatch," ArnericanAnthropologi.sl40 (1983): 349-58. For an in-terpretive essay, see Alan Dundes, "Headsor Tails: A Psychoanalytic Study of Potlatch,"JournaL of Psychological Anthropology 2(1979): 395-424; Roy A. Rappaport, Plgsfor the Arrcestors: Rittnl in the Ecology af aNew Guinea People (New Haven: Yale Uni-versity Press, 1968); Evon Z. Yogt, TortiLlasfor the Gods: A Symbolic Analysis of Zinacan-teco Rituals (Cambridge: Harvard UniversityPress, 1976); Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss,Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function (Chicago:Univlrsity of Chicago Press, 1964); n' 5'Drower, "The Ritual Meal," Folk-Lore 48(193?): 226-44; Sula Benet, Festiaal Meruu'round the World (New York: Abelard-Schu-man, 1957).

15. On the relationship between ritualdrama and festival see, for instance, TristramP. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, "Folk Dramaand Folk Festival," in their Folklore inArner-ico (New York: Doubleday, 1966), pp' 195-225;Yictor Turner, "social Dramas and Rit-ual Metaphors" in his (ed.) Dramas, Fields,and Metaphors. Symbolic Action in HurnanSociety (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,19741. pp. 23-59:Abner Cohen, '"Drama andPolitics in the Development of a London Car-naval," Man 15 (1980): 65-87;Alfonso Ortiz,"Ritual Drama and Pueblo Worldview" in his(ed.) lVera Perspectiues on the Pu.eblos (Albu-querque: University of New Mexico Press,

Festiaal: Definition and Morphology I 9

1972), pp. 135-62; Richard Schechner,"Ramlila of Ramnagar and America's Ober-ammergau: Two Celebratory Ritual Dramas,"in Victor Turner, Celebration, pp. 89-106;Paul Radin, "The Ritual Drama" in his Prim-itiue Religion (New York: Dover, f957)' pp.289-306.

16. On ritual exchange see the classicMarcel Mauss, The Gi.ft (New York: Norton,f967). On pp. 40-41 Mauss discusses thethree obligations to give, to receive, and toreciprocate. See also Raymond Firth, "Sym-bolism in Giving and Getting," in his SymbolsPublic and Priuate (Ithaca: Cornell UniversityPress, 1973), pp. 368-402. Forethnographicdata, see for instance G' A. M. Bus, "The'Te'Festival or Gift Exchange in Enga (Cen-tral Highlands of New Guinea)," Anthropos46 (195I): Bl3-24. On economic aspects seeRoger Abrahams, "The Language of Festi-vals: Celebrating the Economy," in VictorTurner, Celebration, pP. 16\-77.

I?. On games, play, and ludic elementsin festival see the seminal Johann Huizinga,Homa Lud.crw: A Stud'y of the Play Element inCulture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955) andRoger Caillois, Man, Play and Games (Clen-coe: Free Press, 1961). Context is discussedin John M. Roberts, Malcom J. Arth, andRobert R. Bush, "Games in Culture,".Amer-ican Anthropologist 6f (1959): 587-605.Communitas and hierarchy are terms of a se-mantic pair introduced and discussed by Vic-tor Turner in The Ritual Process - Structureand Anti-structure (Chicago: Aldine, 1969)'pp.94-204.

lB. These concepts are discussed in Mir-cea Eliade, Patterns in Comparatiue Religion,pp. 319-21, 431-34. See also Herbert Jen-nings Rose, "suggested Explanation of RitualCombats," Folk-Lore 36 (1925): 322-31.

19. For medieval mimic battles see, forinstance, William Heywood, Palio and Ponte(London: Methuen. 1904).

20. See notes B and 9.21. A classic extensive study of a com-

plete festival cycle in Arnold van Cennep,Marurcl de Folklore Franqak Contemporain,9 vols. (Paris: Picard, I93B-58). Compara-tive data are in E. O. James, Seasonal Feastsand Festiuals (New York: Barnes and Noble,1963). For the festive cycle of a single reli-gious group, see, for instance, M. M. Un-

l0 / nmsserunRo FALASST

derhill, The Hind,u Religiotu Year (Oxford:Odord University Press, 1921), and San-gendi Mahalinga Natesa Sastri, Hindu Feasts,Fasts, and Ceremonies (Madras: M. E. Pub-lishing House, 1903).

22. A discussion of contemporary historypolitics, and festivals is in George Mosse, TAeNationalization of the Masses (New York: Fer-tig, 1975). For historical evolution and changeof meaning in festival, see Marianne Mesnil,Trois Essais sur la Fte (Brussels: Editions deI'Universit6, 1974). For a specific case studysee Victor Barnouwl "The Changing Char-acter of a Hindu Festival.".Ame rbanAnthro-pologist 56 (195a): 74-86.

23. For festivals in the United States seethe thorough introduction in Beverly Stoeltje,"Festival in America." For a general studysee W. Lloyd Warner, The Liuing and theDead,: A Stu.dy of th,e Symbolic Life of theAm,erbarc (New Haven: Yale University Press,1959). For the festive cycle see Jane M. Hatch,The Am.erican Book of Days, 3d. ed. (NewYork: Wilson, l97B). For festivals of ethnicgroups, see for instance, Melwin Wade,"'Shining in Borrowed Plumage': Affirmationof Community in the Black Coronation Fes-tivals of New England (c. 1750-