Models and mirrors : towards an anthropology of public events

Ritual is one of the most discussed cultural practices, yet its treatment in anthropological terms has been seriously limited, characterized by a host of narrow conceptual distinctions. One major reason for this situation has been the prevalence of positivist anthropologies that have viewed and summarized ritual occasions first and foremost in terms of their declared and assumed functions. By contrast, this book, which has become a classic, investigates them as epistemological phenomena in their own right. Comparing public events — a domain which includes ritual and related occasions — the author argues that any public event must first be comprehended through the logic of its design. It is the logic of organization of an occasion which establishes in large measure what that occasion is able to do in relation to the world within which it is created and practiced. Front Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Dedication 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Figures 8 Preface to second edition: theorizing through models and mirrors 9 Comparison 10 Ritualization and the symbolic type 16 Modelling and the problem of representation 20 Bureaucratic logic and the event-that-presents 28 Notes 42 Bibliography 49 Acknowledgements 52 1 Introduction 54 1 Premises and prepossessions 55 Why study public events? 61 Some basic features of public events 62 The positioning of performance 69 Proto-events 72 2 Models and mirrors 74 Events that model the lived-in world 75 Events that present the lived-in world 93 Events that re-present the lived-in world 101 Qualifications 110 3 Precariousness in play 115 Predicaments in play: the laughter of the Ik 124 Events and societies 128 2 Proto-events 134 Intersections 135 4 The donkey game 136 Play in the workshop 139 The donkey game — a tell-tail sign 143 Hanging tails on the angels 145 The sign of the tail 147 Intersections 152 5 Banana time 154 'Times' and 'themes' in the workplace 155 The integration of 'times' and 'themes' 157 3 Public events 163 Intersections 164 6 The Palio of Siena 165 Comune, city, contrada 166 The Madonna 169 The contrada and the horse 171 The sequence of occasions in the festival model: frames of integration and opposition 175 The parade and the race 178 Alternative views 181 Intersections 185 7 Christmas mumming in Newfoundland 187 Interior and exterior attributes of person and community 188 The mumming complex in outport Newfoundland 194 Time, space, and control in mumming 197 Inside-out, outside-in: inversion and congruency in mummmg 201 Convergence and divergence, concealment and revelation 204 Intersections 209 8 Holiday celebrations in Israeli kindergartens 211 Kindergarten and celebration in Israel 214 Kindergarten celebrations 217 Hannuka: hierarchy, family, and collectivity 219 Purim: the evolution of maturity 224 Mother's Day: the creation of family and intimacy 228 Jerusalem Day: statehood and citizenship 232 Conclusions 236 Intersections 239 9 State ceremonies of Israel — Remembrance Day and Independence Day 240 The unit of comparison: sirens and fireworks 241 The dating of days, the shaping of space: aspects of Zionist cosmologic 243 Opening Remembrance Day: closing ranks and the struggle for renewal 251 Opening Independence Day: the glories of pluralism 261 National cosmology and the encoding of time 272 Intersections 283 10 Symbolic types — clowns 285 'In process': the clown at a Pakistani wedding 287 The clown as a symbolic type 289 The clown type and the boundary 294 Attributes of Pueblo Indian clowns 297 Hopi clown and kachina: opposition and reconciliation 300 Anti-structure and process 304 The Dance of Man: clown, boundary, process, and anti-structure 305 Conclusion 312 Epilogue: towards media events 315 Notes 319 Bibliography 350 Index 372

Theodore Hamerow, a prominent historian, was born in Warsaw in 1920 and spent his childhood in Poland and Germany. His parents were members of the best-known Yiddish theater ensemble, the Vilna Company. They were part of an important movement in the Jewish community of Eastern Europe which sought, during the half century before World War II, to create a secular Jewish culture, the vehicle of which would be the Yiddish language.

Combining the skills of an experienced historian with the talents of a natural writer, the author not only brings this exciting part of Jewish culture to life but also deals with ethnic relations and ethnic tensions in the region and addresses the broad political and cultural issues of a society on the verge of destruction. Thus a vivid image emerges that captures the feel and atmosphere of a world that has vanished forever.

Theodore S. Hamerow received his higher education at City College in New York, Columbia University, and Yale University. He retired in 1991 as G.P. Gooch Professor of History from the University of Wisconsin.