Carnival on a Clipboard: An Ethnological Study of New Orleans Mardi Gras

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 1999

Publication Title

Ethnology

Volume

38

Issue

4

First page number:

335

Last page number:

350

Abstract

Ethnological methods determined that New Orleans Mardi Gras is a time for socializing with friends and family, as opposed to an opportunity to engage strangers in acts of fellowship or communitas. People prefer to be wild or silly within the confines of their own group. Outside of costumed performers or those engaged in ritualistic bead exchanges, the norms of pedestrian behavior are maintained. This study is methodologically innovative as it is the first to obtain a non festival baseline in order to distinguish standard, culturally appropriate behavior from that which results from a change in the normative order. Moreover, it is the first to identify the interpersonal contexts in which behavior is inverted, intensified, or remains neutral in street interactions among strangers.

Disciplines

Anthropology | Archaeological Anthropology | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Social and Cultural Anthropology

Language

English

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