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Celebrations of Life, Death, and Social Order: Carnival, Day of the Dead, Vodou

Explore the vibrant traditions of Carnival, Day of the Dead, and Vodou and their significance in social and cultural contexts. From the festive parades of Carnival to the ancestral connections in Day of the Dead and the syncretism of Vodou, discover the rich diversity of these celebrations worldwide.

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Celebrations of Life, Death, and Social Order: Carnival, Day of the Dead, Vodou

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  1. Celebrations of Life, Death, and Social Order:Carnival, Day of the Dead, Vodou Dr. Aminata Maraesa

  2. Carnival • In the days preceding Lent, all rich food and drink must be disposed of • The consumption of this, in a giant party that involvedthe whole community, is thought to be the origin of Carnival.

  3. Saturnalia

  4. Bacchanalia

  5. New Orleans, USA France

  6. Russia Portugal

  7. carne vale • The Latin expression carne vale means "farewell to meat“ • The social feasts preceding Lent were the last days when one could eat meat before the fasting of Lent began

  8. Carnival in Uruguay • “These were times and places of total indulgence in wine, song, dance and sex. The typical restraints of everyday life waned, carnivals were times for the systematic transgressions of boundaries” (Mikhail Bakhtin, 1968 Russian philosopher).

  9. Elvis mask – 1970s Malawi Carnival in Nigeria 2008

  10. Nigerian masquerade:http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=gC7SAup_RD4

  11. Carnival in Trinidad “pretty ‘mas” NegreJardin

  12. National Carnival Commission (est. late 1980s) • 1) mas’ (masquerade), • 2) Calypso (musical form)the lyrics of which often expressed protest or injustices (under enslavement and colonialism) • 3) pan (steel-pan drumming)created in 1937 as orchestras of frying pans, dustbin lids and oil drums when drums and other percussion instruments were banned in 1880

  13. “NegJadin”

  14. Dame Lorraine

  15. Sailor Mas • n

  16. Jab Jabs and Red and Blue Devils

  17. Jab Molassie

  18. Dame Lorraine

  19. MokoJumbies

  20. Carnival as tourist commodity? • Trinidadian carnival as piece of National Identity: • Commodity differentiation as marketing strategy • Objectification of cultural forms: • How does this affect/influence cultural inventiveness? • “salvage ethnography” • Caribbean as hedonistic tourist paradise: • Emphasizes the BACCHANAL of Carnival? • What about the locals? Can they “free up” without objectification?!?!

  21. Trinidad carnival: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJe3Togwtm0

  22. Day of the Dead • Nov. 1 - All Saints' Day recognition of the saints • Nov. 2– All Souls' Day commemorates the faithful departed

  23. Mexican Days of the Dead • Nov. 1 - Día de los Inocentes(“Day of the Innocents”)or Día de los Angelitos(“Day of the Little Angels”) • Nov. 2 - Día de los Muertosor Día de los Difuntos(“Day of the Dead”)

  24. All Hallow’s Eve • Often the visiting of gravesites and watch over the dead begins on Oct. 31 – which was celebrated in Europe (BEFORE IT WAS DONE IN THE U.S.) as Halloween or “All Hallows Eve” or the day before All Saints Day, also known as All Hallows Day or Hallowmas. • Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of “souling”, when poor folk would go door to door on, receiving food in return for prayers for the dead.

  25. Halloween • Samhain - a Gaelic (pre-Christian) harvest festival held on October 31–November 1 • The date of Samhain was associated with the Catholic All Saints' and All Souls' Days from at least the 8th century

  26. Day of the Dead

  27. Mexican tradition • What makes the Mexican celebration distinctly Mexican are • 1) the name Day(s) of the Dead • 2) the abundance and variety of sweet breads and candies • 3) the humor and gaiety that marks the festivities

  28. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mexican-Sugar-Skull-com/147116664688http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mexican-Sugar-Skull-com/147116664688 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuqp6vYTs_g - Lonely Planet DofD vs. Halloween • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RRJZ9B3eC0&t=6s - celebrated at Xcaret in the Riviera Maya

  29. cultural symbol andpolitical subversion • “The Day of the Dead, like Carnival, always presented a threat to the official political and religious establishment… Spanish rulers attempted to tone down, if not entirely eradicate, the popular celebration[s]” (363) • “… [the drunkenness that took place at the cemeteries]… This fiesta, which drew boundaries between the living and the dead and partially inverted their roles, showed up the presence of death in the midst of life…” (363)

  30. Zombies… in Vodou and popular culture Michael Jackson - Thriller

  31. “The Magic Island” (1929)

  32. “White Zombie” (1932)

  33. Bela Lugosi a.k.a. - Dracula

  34. Vodou - religion of healing • Healing of social relationships---believed to be the root causes of most—if not all—physical and emotional ailments • Ancestors are considered as partof one’s social network—including the dead in religious ceremony is integral to the Vodou belief system The Guedes

  35. Syncretism • The combining of different beliefs; often used to refer tothe blending of different religious practices

  36. Vodun altar in Benin

  37. Catholic altar in U.S.A.

  38. Vodou altar, Haiti

  39. “voodoo doll”

  40. Mambo Ezili Danto (Santa Barbara Africana)

  41. Papa Legba (Saint Lazarus)

  42. “the crossroads” veve for Papa Legba

  43. Gede (St. Gerard Majella)

  44. “sexuality is perhaps the central animating force in all of life… sexual and spiritual energy come from the same source” (10)

  45. Vodou is NOT a static practice – nor is any cultural practice – so the fact that the practices of Carnival, the Day of the Dead and Vodou AND HALLOWEEN may merge with one another: • 1) Is not new: given the 2000 years that Christianity has been on the planet and absorbing pre-Christian peoples and practices • 2) Is not stopping: in an age of globalization, transnational communication via media images and flow of material goods

  46. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpeLdXeIbwA&NR=1 - vodou National Geographic • Guede Haitian possession trance - • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHY9WNDZ-h8&NR=1 • Dancing with Guede in Brooklyn - • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzSCkCO4xjM

  47. Globalization • Increasingly global relationships of culture, people, and economic activity. • The global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade. • The term can also refer to the transnational circulation of ideas, languages, and popular culture.

  48. Transnationalism • Heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states. • Transnationalism as an economic process involves the global reorganization of the production process, in which various stages of the production of any product can occur in various countries, typically with the aim of minimizing costs. • Nation-state boundaries become fluid/porous through migratory workforces, globalized corporations, global money flow, global information flow, and global scientific cooperation.

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