The Importance of Being Earnest and Playful: Consuming the Rituals Of

ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH

Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802

The Importance of Being Earnest and Playful: Consuming the Rituals of the West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade Yuko Minowa, Long Island University - Brooklyn Campus, USA

The present study investigates the meanings of the consumer ritual, the West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade that takes place in Brooklyn on Labor Day. The ritual process of creating and consuming this Carnival and Parade is sacred to both participating and spectating consumers. It is a kaleidoscope of color and sound, joy and excitement, performance and play, consumption objects and experiences, produced and consumed interdependently, begetting abundant cultural meanings. Based on the ethnographic account, the paper discusses interpretive findings: multiculturalism and ethnocentrism; “Bacchanal” as a metaphor of liberation and resistance; ritual as therapy; and the importance of being earnest and playful in consuming the ritual.

[to cite]: Yuko Minowa (2007) ,"The Importance of Being Earnest and Playful: Consuming the Rituals of the West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Stefania Borghini, Mary Ann McGrath, and Cele Otnes, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 53-59.

[url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/14053/eacr/vol8/E-08

[copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. The Importance of Being Earnest and Playful: Consuming the Rituals of the West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade Yuko Minowa, Long Island University–Brooklyn Campus, USA

ABSTRACT rituals are subject to creolized adaptations in today’s globalizing The present study investigates various meanings of the West world for both affluent and less affluent nations. Indian American Day Carnival and Parade that takes place in Consumer rituals are practices that follow established proce- Brooklyn on Labor Day. The ritual process of producing and dures, ranging from individual habitual activities to family celebra- consuming the Carnival and Parade is sacred to both participants tions, cultural holidays, and religious rites, according to the typol- and spectators. It is a kaleidoscope of color and sound, performance ogy developed by Rook (1985). Both things and actions involved in and play, consumption objects and experiences, produced and rituals communicate symbolic meanings (Rook and Levy 1983; consumed interdependently, begetting abundant cultural mean- Gainer 1995). As with any other human experience, culture inter- ings. Based on ethnographic account, the paper discusses the mediates the interpretation of consumers’ ritual experience: Hu- following: the Carnival as ritual process; multiculturalism and man experience after all is a negotiation of culturally constructed ethnocentrism; authenticity and hybridization; the meaning of symbols (Tharp and Scott 1990, 47). In the age of globalization, “Bacchanal”; and the importance of being earnest and playful in rituals also migrate from one nation to another via expatriates and consuming the ritual. globalizing media. One of the most striking examples of creolized consumer rituals is contemporary Christmas celebrations around INTRODUCTION the world (Miller 1993). Modern American Christmas celebrations In the present paper, I investigate the meanings of the West are an amalgam of various European pre-Victorian celebrations, Indian American Day Carnival and Parade, a creolized consumer from German Christmas trees, English greeting cards, etc. (Belk ritual which takes place in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn 1989). In a large part of the non-Christian world, Christmas is on Labor Day, the first Monday in September. The Parade is a celebrated with its symbolic items but without its religious conno- reverberation of the carnival in their indigenous islands that is tation (Moeran and Skov 1993). Its commercialized accompanying celebrated during Shrovetide before the Roman Catholic holiday of figure Santa Claus metamorphoses into different persona depend- Ash Wednesday. The imported, secular replica in New York, ing on the destination he travels to: Noel Baba in Turkey, Old Wise commonly called the Labor Day Parade by locals, typically starts Santa Man in China, or Uncle Chimney in Tokyo. Creolization of with the Borough President’s predictably trite greeting, such as another major American holiday, Thanksgiving, is less prominent, “Welcome to Brooklyn, the home of West Indians in America,” but recipes of the holiday meal reflect the hybridization of mingling blasting through immense speakers on a truck. It is an apt greeting migrating cultures (Wallendorf and Arnould 1991). Traditional that evokes the decorous beginning of the liturgical ritual. Every consumer rituals in other nations, such as henna-night wedding in year, this bacchanalian festive event draws a deluge of participants Turkey (Üstüner, Ger, and Holt 2000) and death rituals in Ghana and spectators, not only from the approximately two-million Car- (Bonsu and Belk 2003) and China (Zhao and Belk 2007) equally ibbean-Americans in New York City, but also visitors from outside indicate the hybridization of foreign cultures and abundant signs of the participating ethnic communities. Forceful rhythms of soca and materialism which manifested in post-modern consumer rituals. calypso, colorful and thematic costumes of the carnival, frenzied The West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade is a marchers jumping up to dance “road march” steps, vendors of unique example of such consumer rituals. It is a bricolage of Trinidadian roti and Jamaican beef patties, and orgiastic pandemo- meanings and forms which embodies often paradoxically conflict- nium all constitute the genius loci of the nation’s largest single-day ing values. The investigation of the West Indian American Day event. While carnival participants spend as long as a half year Carnival and Parade combines together several streams of research planning the event, the delirium of masqueraders and gaieties of the inquiry within consumer research. One very prominent aspect of spectators consumed experientially and interdependently are short- the Carnival and Parade is its emphasis on the production and lived; the intense pleasure and excitement of the emotional inter- consumption of ethnic subculture within the multicultural environ- course die before night falls completely in the expansive autumn ment and exchange processes within shared experience, interesting sky of Labor Day. both to consumer and marketing researchers. Second, the Parade is An alternate way to apprehend the West Indian American Day extremely conducive to provoking sensory and sensual pleasure in Carnival and Parade is to critically examine it as a syncretic, the enthralling atmosphere: the ethnic foods and feasts, overwhelm- creolized consumer ritual in which diverse participants and specta- ingly gigantic floats, bright decorations of masked kings and tors both engage in and negotiate the meaning-making of the ritual queens, gaudy displays of provocative dancers on trucks, scanty in today’s globalizing yet pluralistic social context. Creolization is costumes of marchers, pulsating electronic music blaring from a synthesis of meanings and forms from disparate sources, tradi- speakers, and the laughter and roaring outcry of the crowds. Third, tional and contemporary, and foreign and local (Hannerz 1987; Ger the current study aims to complement the rather slim research and Belk 1996). The interplay between imported and indigenous efforts made in the area of carnival and parade rituals. Although cultures, absorption and integration of foreign with local meanings, both participants and spectators of civic and cultural rituals (e.g., begets new behaviors and ways of thinking. Immigrants, a source Super Bowl Sunday, homecoming games, St. Patrick’s Day, Me- of cultural influx, alternate their identities as consumers by swap- morial Day parades) are highly involved in their consumer behavior ping elements of creolization (Oswald 1999). While the concept (Rook 1985), examinations of these rituals have been somewhat originated in the social and cultural history of particular colonial neglected. Academic consumer research is rarely dedicated to societies in the Americas and the discourse of linguists, creole investigating such rituals with the following noteworthy excep- concepts have become more general in their application in social tions: Halloween (Belk 1990, 1994), Lesbian and Gay Pride Day science including consumer research. Both material objects and Parade (Kates and Belk 2001), The Florida Classic (Stamps and 53 European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, © 2008 54 / The Importance of Being Earnest and Playful Arnould 1998) and Mardi Gras (Williams et al.1998). By studying THE CARNIVAL AND CONSUMER RITUALS the meaning of the Carnival, I hope to learn much not only about the The ethnographic study of the Carnival, which consisted of consumption per se that occurs within the ritual, but about the multiple methods of post-modern, holistic assessment of the social overlap and interplay of many current consumption theories as phenomena, revealed that the symbolic aspects of the Carnival and well. Therefore, in this paper, I deconstruct and dissect the contents its experiential consumption possess complex, multi-faceted mean- of the Carnival, examine the semantics, and reconstruct the con- ings and dimensions. The omnipresence of multimodal and sumer ritual with renewed meanings in today’s pluralistic multivocal cultural codes in the narratives of the informants sug- multicultural social context. gested webs of the multilayered organic human sociality within which consumers drift and manipulate their identities. Interpreta- METHODS tions of the semantics are structured as follows: 1) Production and The intention of this study is to elucidate the multifaceted consumption of the Carnival as the ritual process, 2) multiculturalism meanings of the Carnival ritual that are culturally and socially and ethnocentrism, 3) authenticities and hybridization, 4) the mean- constructed. As such, ethnography was considered appropriate for ing of “bacchanal,” and 5) the importance of being earnest and the methodology (Arnould and Wallendorf 1994). Thus, the study playful in consuming the ritual. involved field trips, participant observation, on- and offsite interviews before, during, and after Labor Day weekend. During the Production and Consumption of the Carnival as the Ritual preparation period prior to Labor Day weekend, for example, trips Process were made to one of the mas camps, venues where the masquerad- There are multiple groups of people involved with the produc- ers’ costumes are created and where the band members and others tion and consumption of the Carnival to varying degrees. Partici- from the community congregate for various reasons. Several days pants and spectators are two broad categories. But spectators, both preceding the Parade, trips were made to the Museum Grounds, a West Indians and the “Others,” may move beyond the barriers and large parking lot where abovementioned starting events and festivi- merge with participants of the Carnival, creating one big mass of ties of the Parade would take place. The Parade on Labor Day chaos. When the peripheries are blurred, spectators may take Monday took place on a wide four-lane road: Eastern Parkway, advantage to integrate themselves into the social world of the from Utica Avenue to Grand Army Plaza. At these occasions and Carnival and instrumentally, or playfully, manipulate their identi- locations, ad-hoc unstructured interviews were conducted with ties. Thus, identities of participants and spectators are variant and creators of costumes, artists of pseudo-monarch’s costumes, mas- unstable; they are dual at times being conflated at others. The most queraders, retailers in tents and on the street, the audience of the highly involved groups of participants with the production of the competition and spectators of the Parade. Interviews were audio- ritual are those from Trinidad and Tobago, where the Carnival is recorded or video-recorded, and subsequently transcribed for ver- celebrated most extravagantly. Penetrating deeply to the domain of batim analysis. Conversations with informants who refused to these producer groups was essential for understanding the structure, electronically record their responses were recorded manually in my and anti-structure, of the ritual since they were the focal point of the field notes. I also recorded my own observations and feelings into Carnival and the axis of centrifugal forces to empower urban the audio-recorder. In addition, I took 99 still images and 20 video hoplites, both spectators and participants, in the field. clips of the Parade, and 52 still images of the Dimanche Gras. These Expeditions to Flatbush. Genesis Mas is one of approximately visual data were used to decode and analyze the visual images of twenty Trinidadian adult mas bands in Brooklyn. Their mas camp, objects and body languages of consumers that were symbolically the venue where mas costumes are designed and assembled, is communicated with other participants and spectators of the ritual. located in the East Flatbush area of Brooklyn, where the community After the Carnivals, follow-up interviews were conducted individu- is highly populated with West Indians and other descendants of ally and in groups. Africa. The existence of the mas camp is obvious to pedestrians Not including ad-hoc interviews on the street and on the with its loudly colorful and shining costumes and helmets displayed Museum Grounds, I formally interviewed, in total, eighteen infor- in the large show window facing the main street. The theme chosen mants, half of whom were members of the Trinidadian Genesis by the Genesis Mas was Odysseus. Somewhat confusingly, there Mas. I gained access to the mas camp through a colleague of mine, was no entrance in front of the building. The door, which directly a native Trinidadian who had been a member since 2003, once was led to a one large, undivided room on the premises, was on the side the secretary, of the Genesis Mas, and regularly played a mas in the street, as if to suggest a hideaway, available only for members of the Labor Day Parade. The other half consisted of natives or descen- communitas, or the unstructured community of equal individuals dents of West Indians from Jamaica, Barbados, Haiti, and Trinidad who share the intense community spirit (Turner 1969). Inside the who had regularly participated in the carnival in the past in Brook- camp, rows and rows of costumes, helmets, arms and armors, and lyn and in their indigenous islands. In addition, a group of six other props for masqueraders who were to disguise themselves as Jamaican informants were interviewed in a focus group setting, Trojan, Spartan, Helen of Troy, Athena, and the other Olympian moderated by a graduate student for his course project, where I gods were hung from the ceiling and on the wall, waiting to be tried stayed undisguised as an observer of the interview session. These on and chosen by masqueraders. A board member estimated the informants were selected as they had claimed a high level of total number of costume to be approximately 75 to 100 sets. When emotional involvement in the Carnival and Parade. Of twenty three the glittering sun was high, and worn-out brownstones projected informants, fifteen, or approximately two thirds were male. The short shadows onto the street in humid Flatbush, a few band known age range was between 12 and 67, but most informants members showed up in the camp to finish making costumes. As the preferred not to explicitly disclose their age. Instead, some de- sunset approached, band members, one after the other, strolled into scribed their age as “very old” or “above twenty five.” These the camp, and soon the space was completely packed, heated with interviews lasted from 15 minutes to 60 minutes. All the names of their loud, bawdy laughter and the blasting soca music. Some males informants mentioned in the remaining part of this paper are quenched their thirst with beer while others quickly swallowed pseudonyms. take-out rice and peas before starting their nightly craftwork. European Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 8) / 55 The narratives of my informants, the members of the Genesis integrate different cultures within the Caribbean, to reach out to Mas originally from Trinidad, revealed emergent themes associ- other cultures beyond the Caribbean, both the local American and ated with the ritualistic dimensions of the Carnival as well as its other cultures on the global sphere. The selection of the themes by significance in sustaining their lives as immigrants in the U.S. The Genesis Mas in the past years exemplified the contention. There most important aspect of the Parade is its process, which begins here was a carnival troupe from Brazil, masqueraders from the labor in Brooklyn when the Carnival in Trinidad ends and which com- union (mostly Caribbean) who portrayed the progression of health pletes at the end of the Labor Day Carnival. The ritual script calls care, and Chinese masqueraders in yellow satin kung-fu suits who for beginning by deciding on the theme of the Mas for the year in demonstrated the dragon dance in the Parade while subtly placarding the first place. At Genesis Mas, for example, eight members of the their new-age religion. The informants expressed varied opinions board selected the theme of Odysseus this year, after having regarding the issues of unification and integration of cultures Egyptian and African themes in the preceding years. Since the among the Islands and beyond. One of the board members of the nature of the ritual is playful, the accuracy of the historicity is not Mas considers the Carnival an agent of the diffusion of the culture: a terribly important issue. The front surface of shields hung on the “Well, it means that we are able to carry out our culture in different wall uniformly depicted not the gorgon but Romulus and Remus culture and pass it to the people who are not aware of it and exposed sucking milk from the she-wolf. Ian, who selected the Spartan to a different people we meet in America. Remember in the United costume, said, “It is a Roman character.” When asked why they States people from all over the world, so we project it and exposing selected Odysseus this year, Aaron, who handles the Public Rela- to them, so they can have an idea of different cultures Trinidad tions of the Mas, gave me a somewhat inarticulate answer: “Well, have.” One female, an active and regular participant of the Mas this is Trojan. Everybody knows that the Trojan War was a Greek band, does not believe in such idealistic efficacy of the Carnival War. See, Greeks were similar to Romans. Basically, Greeks were since “people are who they are” and wish to remain as such with the Trojans.” When he was asked to clarify the connection between their national identity, although she believes that the common Greeks and Trinidadians, he grinned and confided: “Well, the main human conception and ideal of “having a good time together” thing is costume and carnival.” Band members were indeed inter- works, uniting all the participants and spectators, and strengthening ested in historical themes; they seemed to trigger them to search for their human bonds. their own roots in their minds, wandering in their collective memory Ambivalence about Self and Others. Cultural pride and long- of slavery and emancipation, associated with the words history and ing for national recognition is another theme that emerged in carnival. Aside from historicity, however, the most important thing informants’ narratives while discussing the unification and integra- is that “[band members] can do all these, and all these are done by tion of the Caribbean. The cultural pride expressed by all the crafts and by [their] hands.” As Turner (1988) points out, it is informants was quite strong. Aaron, for instance, raised his voice conspicuous creation that is the central force of the ritual process in when he said “We are known for playing pans. We are number one pre-industrial societies, while conspicuous and excessive con- for the pans, and they can’t take that from us,” and “They can not sumption is the prominent feature of rituals in the industrialized be Trinidad” while expressing his contrary sentiment, “Island has society. to respect each others” because they share the same cultural Liminal or Liminoid? The importance of production can not be background while “each island represents certain things in certain overstated, given the time and money that participants invest in ways. So we represent the Carnival, and the soca music, you know.” various aspects of the carnival during the long preparation period. A female member, Lisa, contended that “For most of them, Carnival Moreover, there are a lot of give-and-take matters in the Carnival, is to have a good time, but when you put money and time for the which create, strengthen, confirm, and recreate the human bonds in costumes, sure you do feel cultural pride.” the communitas. Although no explicit tangible gift item is involved, Ethnocentrism. Furthermore, some informants, especially imponderable quotidian reciprocal activities function as a means of highly involved band members expressed resentment towards symbolic exchange (Malinowski 1984). A male informant con- those who had been opposed to having the annual carnival on tended that large corporate sponsors do not understand the seman- Eastern Parkway. One female was excited when she started to tics of the ritual process, but “small guys” out there on the Parkway, confess her feeling towards intrusion of the “Others”; her mono- who are involved all year around with the give and take of ideas, logue began with her sentiment to commercial intrusion, but it fundraising, and parties do. Participants seem to be proud that jumped quickly to the intrusion of “some individuals in America,” “nobody is big” but every man is the same average “small guy.” At a euphemistic expression for neighboring ethnic minorities that this annually recurring ritual, as a matter of fact, every small battle over implicit territorial borders. Lisa alluded to uneasy person’s status is elevated, as in the inversion of social hierarchy coexistence and long-standing tensions between Hassidic Jews and postulated by Turner (1969). The intense comradeship and egali- West Indians in the Crown Heights and East Flatbush areas. The tarianism present in the narratives suggest that during the annual worldwide headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Jews is ritual process, the sacred period of the year, participants are reduced located right on the Carnival route, and their hostility and anger to homogenized common men and go through the liminal stage to towards the entire Carnival were evident in their determined indif- gain and regain life-sustaining power and energy while renegotiat- ference, and stern and austere appearance, as if the Carnival triggers ing the self-identity by reflecting the heritage. In this regard, the their memory of the Crown Heights Riot of 1991. duality of the Carnival should be noted. For mere spectators, especially those who belong to the “Others,” the Carnival is a Authenticities and Americanization liminoid phenomenon: it is a secular one-day quirky cultural event The meaning of authenticity and the importance attached to it which is an object of the intellectualized modern industrial leisure varied from one to the other. Informants seemed to agree on which (Turner 1992). aspects of the Carnival were authentic or Americanized. The creation of handmade costumes and other objects from scratch and Multiculturalism and Ethnocentrism the participation of the entire community in this creation process are Unification of the Caribbean, Tightening of Human Bonds. two interrelated factors that together constitute the authenticity of Functionally the Carnival is polysemous; it is the opportunity to the Carnival. Mickey, the artist of the band, who came to the Mas 56 / The Importance of Being Earnest and Playful camp early in the day and stayed into the evening to work on Haitian kompa compete against the Trinidadian music in the craftwork, repeatedly emphasized the importance of being perfect Parade. In addition, live performances of steel pans and bongo in his band’s artistic endeavors. Such enthusiasm may result from drums constitute the music apropos of the Carnival. All these types the fact that consumers in celebrations “often affirm the joyous of music are something beyond background music. The performing outpouring of their spirit and the creative play of their imagination of music and the digesting it as the audience together create the in a variety of the performing and decorative arts” (Dorson 1982, whole musical experience that calls up deep responses beyond the 33). Nevertheless, facets of this ritual creation process of the enjoyment of merely fascinating noise. This process has ritual Carnival have metamorphosed into a hybridized product of Brook- significance. As Kivy contends (1993, 27), “participation in the lyn. Comparing to Trinidad, Aaron complained: musical experience has the effect, through these deep connections, of bringing people together: It has a culturally cohesive effect.” Back home … you have more of a group of people, the Consumer research on the cultural meaning of music from different organizer. See here, you have to find a place to rent; there are genres indicates that music is important to any level of culture (such not that much places to rent; you have to find a locations, they as age and ethnic subcultures) to define itself and to determine are not united like back in home, where everybody knows what group status (Blair and Hatala 1992; Schroeder and Borgerson it is. Everybody take parts for reasons. So we are more united 1999; Hogg and Banister 2000). However, in recent years, there back home as a whole because they know that is the way it is. have been intrusions of the “Other” music, such as hip-hop and rap But here, we have to get up to go to work the next day. But back music. home, we don’t have to go to work next day, because this is The concept of Americanization immediately provoked two what we do. negative words: limits and violence. Aaron, in discussing the real carnival in Trinidad, explained about “the real thing”: “We don’t Kate, a recent immigrant from Barbados, who grew up with the have no limits. Over here, we have limits and restrictions. Restric- Crop Over, a celebration of the end of sugarcane harvest on her tion is like we can’t do this, we can’t do certain things that we can island, but who is not quite familiar with the Brooklyn Carnival yet, do back home.” For example, “here you can’t walk and drink on the indicated similar sentiments to those of Aaron: street.” The limits were imposed when Rudolph Giuliani became the mayor of the New York City, and they changed part of the ritual … [People] here party, but to me back home is nicer and more script of this Carnival: organized and it has more spirit than here maybe because here more different nationality, then we have no respect to visitors They have parties to raise funds for masqueraders. That’s who just come and jump, because it is something new for them parties are for. So, back then, people used to have parties but back home it is more organized and people are more illegally. But then, Giuliani and his people came in and shut all involved, it is different feeling than here. them down.

Besides hand-crafted costumes, the most important ritual There used to be parties every Friday for several months before artifacts of the carnival are food and music. Informants, both the actual Carnival. They were so big, so big that police had to come participants and spectators, in general indicated a dilemma between to clear the traffic on Flatbush Avenue. No cars, no buses can come authenticity and hybridization of the two items which quintessentially down. It was so much people every Friday night. That went on for serve to define the consumer’s self identity in the social and cultural two to three years. Then, Giuliani became a mayor, he barred groups. Food, for instance, is “more than a means of nourishment everything. He killed some of our spirit. But there are still some and sustenance; it is also a key cultural expression” (Peñaloza 1994, people who are not gonna give up, like me, and you see those who 42). As a metaphor for culture, food serves as a statement about are here. We fight, because we want to pass this down to our society, issues, class, or other things that are considered significant younger generation. in the culture. (Farb and Armelagos 1980). Plenty of Caribbean Violence is another facet of what the informants considered foods sold by vendors are authentic festival foods that can be Americanization that is frequently and intensely discussed by cooked only outdoors. Several informants mentioned roasted corn informants. Violence, such as gunfire and Carnival killing, has and grilled chicken, for instance, which can not be roasted or grilled erupted in the crowd of thousands in the past, striking those at home but only baked in the oven; “foods like this prepared climbing aboard a float or just walking around the block. An outdoor give natural flavors.” When they are sold on Eastern altercation might break out and violence would ensue. While it Parkway, however, some elements of the local culture slip onto the happens everywhere, here in Brooklyn and in Trinidad, “It’s plate. Diminished authenticity is considered unavoidable and con- disgusting,” said one male, comparing its magnitude, and continu- sumers were willing to compromise and accommodate. On the ing that “in New York very obvious it’s overwhelming, it’s very, other hand, the intrusion of the American popular junk food into the very overwhelming. They have no respect for the police; police carnivalscape stirred not only annoyance and disappointment but have no respect for them. As soon as you talk to them, they are ready some anger. Grease trucks stuffed with hotdogs, French fries, to shoot you. We have violence back home [Trinidad], but here we pretzels, and gelato ice cream with artificial colors and flavors stood have more.” discreetly at intersections of large streets, perhaps a yard away from There is a question about uniqueness of violence as American. Eastern Parkway. Appadurai (1996, 139) contends “the contemporary world is filled Music is another rudiment of the Carnival. Born in Trinidad, with examples of ethnic consciousness that are closely linked to calypso, the improvisational satirical folksong, used to be the most nationalism and violence.” While these Americanized aspects of popular music for mas bands at Caribbean carnivals in both Trinidad the Parade (i.e., violence and restrictions) affected the authenticity and elsewhere. In recent years, however, soca, a mixture of soul and of the Carnival and Parade, younger West Indians, particularly calypso, has gained wider popularity. Originating in Trinidad in the those who grew up in the U.S., consider them legitimate and 1970s, its rhythms are basically Latin and its lyrics have roots in unavoidable. These young informants who were descendants of West African traditions of praise, ridicule, and commentary on West Indians grew up in New York City while the City was being public events similar to calypso. Jamaican reggae music and cleaned up to become a safe, attractive, and hyperreal tourism European Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 8) / 57 destination. They consume violence in media and through games. souvenir items (such as key chains, T-shirts, accessories) that use In their minds, violence is the object of spectacle and harmless the colors of those flags. It is a sacred ritual artifact for those experience that exist only in the simulated world. The different spectators who make an annual pilgrimage to the Parade. For perspectives regarding violence by generations, gender, and ideol- example, Edmund, a young immigrant from Haiti said, “When I go ogy are another evidence for the polysemous nature of authentici- there I design the whole thing like the Haitian flag” in discussing his ties and hybridizations within a given ethnic group of consumers. Parade attire. He wears the flag on the day of the Parade because he wants to “simulate freedom” as his ancestors did; he feels their spirit The meanings of “Bacchanal” is in him. Daniel, a second generation Haitian-American, readily Ritual as Therapy. The apposite word to express the spirit of agreed with his classmate, claiming, “For me I feel like the celebra- the Carnival and Parade culture is “bacchanal”: Having a good, tion of the freedom, and feel what my ancestors have fought for.” party time. In describing the most memorable episodes from the Not only does it help sustain the self identity, but its succession from Carnival, young male informants almost always confessed the one generation to the next means a great deal to these West Indian seeing, meeting, dancing with women was exciting, sometimes consumers. In this regard, the Carnival and the obsession with the ethereal, experience; evanescent as they may be, sexually oriented, national flag can be interpreted as the outcome of their acculturation yet non-erotic, experiences are a panacea for the loathsome subju- process (Peñaloza 1994) while it mirrors the commodification of gation to the mundane. Another driving force of “bacchanal” is the culture (Oswald 1997). Nationality, one of the personal identi- reactance to hardships of daily life, and socioeconomically stress- fying characteristics and attributes, to a significant extent defines ful, if not depressing, living conditions in the large metropolis. the self. At the same time, what one wears is an explicit statement Under such circumstances, releasing energy and entrancing the self of self concept. Thus, wearing the national flag at the Carnival and is necessary to maintain sanity. Especially with costumes and Parade may be considered the extreme manifestation of the self masks, masqueraders’ physical appearances are altered, and the extended into possessions simultaneously at multiple levels (Belk psychic personality is transformed into the other, ideal self or 1988). Therefore, West Indian consumers, individually and collec- subconscious, hidden, split self. Aaron enthusiastically explained tively, resist submerging their West Indian identities and assimilat- the cathartic aspect of the Carnival: ing into the American culture, which is considered temporal and changing and which threatens the spiritual resort anchored to the Carnival is one of the happiest things that we can bring to our traditional West Indian one. self; it means a lot to me. As a matter of fact, in year 2000, I was the king of the band which is very big, it’s a big, big thing. That The Importance of Being Earnest and Playful means you won the king. You won the position that can’t be Unlike adult Halloween parties (Belk 1994) and Lesbian and taken away from me. So, it’s excitement, happiness, and joy. Gay Pride Day Parade (Kates and Belk 2001), the West Indian After working every day and doing all the negativity, this is the American Day Carnival and Parade is not merely a ritual of excess, day that you get to release every thing. That’s basically what extremes, exaggeration, debauchery, and licentiousness. Le mot it is. juste here is perhaps “playful,” but it goes beyond such manifest behavior as humor, joking, and comedy. The playful behavior is not These narratives of the informants suggested the therapeutic a consequence or reversal of repressed hostility, anger; on the effect of the Carnival ritual. It provides the consumer with agency contrary, it is a manifestation of the most earnest desire to maintain and amplitude. The role inversion and “deep play” allow partici- sanity and sustain human bonds. In the same way that Turner (1988, pants to break away from everyday life (Turner 1969; Geertz 1973). 124) contested that “the way people play perhaps is more pro- Although its periodicities are not cosmological, the recurrence of foundly revealing of a culture than how they work, giving access to the ritual ascertains the sustenance of the community, the heritage, their ‘heart values,’” this Carnival is a sacred tradition for many and the self. Moreover, the Carnival takes place in the postmodern West Indian consumers through which participants and spectators utopia, where participants perceptually experience spatiotemporal introspect reflexively, relating their lives to the values handed down displacement, create playspace, and perform artscape (Maclaran from one generation to the next. and Brown 2005) although it is not in the confined marketplace. As Regardless of their stage of acculturization to their new world, such, it is the “milieu of ‘community, freedom, equality and dramaturgical interactions through playful behavior to shape and abundance,’ where the normal order of everyday life can be re- reshape the consumer identities are consequential for both indi- versed, albeit temporarily, and where the imagination can run riot” viduals and the community at large. Beyond the needs of individual (Bakhtin cited in Maclaran and Brown 2005, 312). consumers, such symbolic interactions define the fuzzy perimeter Ritual as Resistence. The transformation and liberation of the of communities in today’s multiethnic and multicultural metropolis self does not always occur in the vacuum of social context. As with (Goffman 1959; Maffesoli 1996). In an aggregate sense, the Carni- any big drunken orgiastic party, or affectual tribes discussed by val rituals, which are both hedonic and polemical, define, at least in Maffesoli (1996), “bacchanal” can invite problems and dangers. their very truth, the social salience of the West Indian consumers Aside from the physical violence already discussed, there are and their communities. It loudly speaks about them. In this regard, conceptual problems about the meanings of the Carnival. There is being earnest and playful is not antithetical but properties that must a blurred boundary to delineate the realm of the festive event. Then, coexist and manifest in their bacchanalian ritual. the Parade becomes a site of political discourse and proclamation based on people’s collective historical memory. In other words, for CONCLUSIONS some, the Carnival is not merely a bacchanal but a symposium for The present study examined the meanings of the creolized philosophical inquiry and political contestation. consumer ritual, the West Indian American Day Carnival and One object that is venerated by West Indian participants and Parade that takes place in Brooklyn on Labor Day in September. spectators is their national flag. With their national flag, the ex- Although the carnival has long since lost its original religious tended self par excellence, they expressed their renewed national meaning, the ritual process of creating the carnival is sacred to pride (Nunley and Bettelheim 1988). On Eastern Parkway, a large masqueraders. Likewise, in order to watch the carnival events and number of vendors sell national flags of each Island nation and other the Parade, spectators make the annual pilgrimage to Brooklyn. It 58 / The Importance of Being Earnest and Playful is a kaleidoscope of color and sound, joy and excitement, perfor- Geertz, Clifford (1973), The Interpretation of Culture, New mance and play, consumption objects and experiences, produced York: Basic Books. and consumed interdependently, creating abundant consumption Ger, Güliz and Russell Belk (1996), “I’d like to buy the world a meanings. The paper discussed five interpretive findings: produc- coke: Consumptionscapes of the ‘less affluent world’,” tion and consumption of the carnival as the ritual process; Journal of Consumer Policy, 19 (September), 271-304. multiculturalism and ethnocentrism; authenticity and hybridiza- Goffman, Erving (1959), The Presentation of Self in Everyday tion; the meanings of “Bacchanal”; and the importance of being Life, Garden City, NY: Double Bay Anchor Books. earnest and playful in consuming the Carnival and Parade ritual. Hannerz, Ulf (1987), “The World in Creolization,” Africa, 57 The Carnival is bone and blood of the local West Indian (4), 546-59. consumers. Music flows in their veins. Rhythms of the road march Hogg, Margaret K. and Emma N. Banister (2000), “The vibrate in their hearts. As they jump up in the air, laughter and Structure and Transfer of Cultural Meaning: A Study of breaths of urban maenads and satyrs reverberate in the sky. The Young Consumers and Pop Music,” in Advances in Con- entire mass pulsates with excitement. Madness is everywhere. As sumer Research, Vol. 27, ed. Stephen J. Hoch and Robert J. they laugh harder, however, their laughter begins to sound as if they Meyer, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 19- are crying. On the float, paraphrasing Stevie Smith, are they waving 23. or drowning? The seriousness of their play is a reflection of their Kates, Steven M. and Russell W. Belk (2001), “The Meanings of desperate desire and firm determination for better living and their Lesbian and Gay Pride Day: Resistance through Consump- resistance to nothingness. Being earnest and playful in their perfor- tion and Resistance to Consumption,” Journal of Contempo- mance, these West Indian consumers spontaneously touch the rary Ethnography, 30 (4), 392-429. meanings of lives through the experiential consumption of the Kivy, Peter (1993), The Fine Art of Repetition: Essays in the ritual. The Carnival has such profound existential meaning. So, Philosophy of Music, New York: Cambridge University jump up before you look, or as the calypsonian Mighty Sparrow put Press. it: “Drinking they rum/ beating they bottle and spoon/ nobody could Maclaran, Pauline and Stephen Brown (2005), “The Center watch me and honestly say/ they don’t like to be in Brooklyn on Cannot Hold: Consuming the Utopian Marketplace,” Journal Labor Day.” of Consumer Research, 32 (September), 311-23. 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