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.
The 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.
While 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.
Alessandro Testa is Research Fellow in Anthropology at the Institute of
Sociological Studies, Charles University, Prague.
Rituality and Social (Dis)Order
92 Controversial Heritage and Divided Memories from the Nineteenth
Through the Twentieth Centuries
Multi-Ethnic Cities in the Mediterranean World, Volume 2
Edited by Marco Folin and Heleni Porfyriou
93 History as Performance
Political Movements in Galicia Around 1900
Dietlind Hüchtker
94 The Cultural Life of Risk and Innovation
Imagining New Markets from the Seventeenth Century to the Present
Edited by Chia Yin Hsu, Thomas M. Luckett, and Erika Vause
95 Popular New Orleans
The Crescent City in Periodicals,Theme Parks,and Opera,1875–2015
Florian Freitag
96 Science in the Metropolis
Vienna in Transnational Context, 1848–1918
Edited by Mitchell G. Ash
97 Imaginary Athens
Urban Space and Memory in Berlin, Tokyo, and Seoul
Jin-Sung Chun
98 Rituality and Social (Dis)Order
The Historical Anthropology of Popular Carnival in Europe
Alessandro Testa
99 Irish Writers and the Thirties
Art, Exile and War
Katrina Goldstone
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Studies-in-Cultural-History/book-series/SE0367
Routledge Studies in Cultural History
Rituality and Social
(Dis)Order
The Historical Anthropology
of Popular Carnival
in Europe
Alessandro Testa
First published 2021
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Alessandro Testa
The 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.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: 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
Alla 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 development
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, ceremony,
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
Index 211