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
File Format
File Size
2520 KB
Language
English
Repository Citation
Jankowiak, W. R.
(1999).
Carnival on a Clipboard: An Ethnological Study of New Orleans Mardi Gras.
Ethnology, 38(4),
335-350.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3773911
