Syllabus 5/1 (2016) D. Phenix, “Semester-Long Study of Carnivals”

SYLLABUS: A SEMESTER-LONG STUDY OF CARNIVALS

Deinya Phenix, St. Francis College

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

As a sociologist, I have a general interest in investigating the variety of influences on behavior. Over the last decade this general interest has developed along several areas, including crime and deviance over the life course, education, and structural aspects of cultural practices and representation. The course outlined below came about as a result of my work teaching the sociology of religion as a standalone course and teaching culture, deviance, stratification, and gender as modules of general principles of sociology courses. As these are not my primary areas of research, I made the pedagogical choice to incorporate community voices and experience in the lectures.

As my personal hobbies of dance and music afforded me a network of talented individuals willing to visit the college and share their culture through guest lectures and demonstrations, I experimented with combining lectures by professional artists or religious practitioners with traditional textbooks and class discussion. On the suggestion of my department chair, I developed a new course that combined my avocational interest in music and dance with the academic topics of culture and systems of belief. At the same time, I observed that many of my students were routinely absent in the early spring due to the irresistible allure of “home” and the tradition of playing mas, i.e., marching, dancing, singing, and role playing in the few days before Lent. I decided that the pull toward this particular tradition, extravagant and popular as it was, had as much influence as many other social forces and as much certainty.

As part of the course development, I did some exploratory research in Haiti and Brazil, and I have written some observations of racial consciousness, contested urban spaces, performance- based activism, social service, ethnic representation, and popularization of religious and cultural traditions. I have drawn on some of these themes in developing lessons to engage students in the sociology of carnival. Furthermore, as different as carnivals are across places, the significant overlap in certain practices and themes justifies the investigation of carnival as a single phenomenon.

Taught from a sociological perspective, this course uses interdisciplinary materials in diverse formats to engage students in the discussion of the major sociological variables—gender, race, religion, and social class, linked to major social and historical processes—collective behavior, globalization, stratification, representation, social reproduction, and deviance. The course is not

1 Syllabus 5/1 (2016) D. Phenix, “Semester-Long Study of Carnivals” a deep study of any of these topics. Rather, the course introduces students to the application of these core concepts in examining a specific social phenomenon. Thus, the course content is intentionally broad.

The course satisfies an upper level social science elective requirement for honors students. Per the college honors program requirements, the course does not have prerequisites. Thus, the first lesson in the course is an overview of the major principles of sociology. This overview equips the students with a basic vocabulary and orientation for following the sequence of readings and issues throughout the course. By the end of the course, the students will have several months of practice applying this vocabulary verbally and in writing.

Carnival itself is a very broad term and highly varied set of practices. The inspiration for the course and my research is the pre-Lenten celebration based on the Catholic calendar. However, much of the content concerns the cultures of the African and Caribbean diaspora, and Carnival is defined loosely and includes seasonal celebrations all over the world and any time of the year. For example, students have investigated Mashramani, which occurs in Guyana on the anniversary of its independence in late February. A panel of “burners” presents on the annual summer Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock desert. Other countries and regions discussed are Spain, Italy, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, the southern United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

While there is no single theoretical frame for the course, there are two overarching theoretical frames linked by the cross cultural readings. The first such frame is the set of social and collective elements of the carnivalesque, including moral flexibility and the performative nature of mass celebration. Students begin to explore this frame as they read Ehrenreich’s (2012) statements about Dionysian rites in ancient Europe, and they continue to test this principle as they read about Brazilian Carnaval and American Mardi Gras. The notion of the carnivalesque is even tested in our discussion about disaster, crime and violence later in the course.

Another foundational lesson in the course is on the notion of diaspora as a consequence of globalization, including the trans-Atlantic slave trade and contemporary migration. In reading Pieterse’s (1996) and Hannerz’s (1987) texts on globalization, students learn about globalization as an ongoing historical process and the propensity of cultures to blend or clash depending on the circumstances. Given this discussion, one of the course goals is connecting specific cultural practices to themes of ethnic and transnational identity. This theme is personally relevant for immigrant or first generation American students, but resonates with all classmates as we discuss connections with our respective heritages and then compare those to the connections discussed in the readings about carnival in the “first world.” The final writing assignment is a short research paper in which the student applies one or more of the concepts above to their choice of carnival in their choice of geographic location. Before students begin this term paper, they practice such application in weekly writing and discussion assignments. The writing and discussion assignments are designed to serve multiple purposes: (1) they are a guide for processing and assessing the comprehension of the reading; (2) they

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connect the readings, different as they may be, to each other. Discussions are based on the writing assignment and are conducted round-robin style. In addition to guiding students toward understanding the social forces of culture, identity and globalization, this course engages students as hosts of a speaker series, bringing in guest artists and scholars from the local community to lecture and demonstrate specific cultural practices. Given this, the writing assignments serve a third purpose: (3) they are a structure for students to generate informed questions for the guest speaker or for the class. Instructors of this course will need to build their own connections to historians, folklorists, musicians, dancers and activists in his or her community. Instructors will need time, approximately four months in advance of the course, to familiarize themselves with the artists’ and scholar’s work, to discuss expectations with the artists and scholars, and to negotiate and prepare speaking contracts with the college or university. As public events with guest lectures usually require speaker honoraria and refreshments for the audience, the course requires a department or shared budget of approximately $2000. Films are also part of the course design, and colleges may find increasing the proportion of film content more cost effective. Speakers are asked to give a formal lecture for 30-40 minutes, then offer a musical or visual demonstration, then open for questions and interactions with the students and other audience members. As the guest lectures and performance/demonstrations are open to the public, additional questions will emerge after the (prepared) questions of the students. By hosting local or regional guest speakers, students will avail themselves of the cosmopolitan capacity of the college or university. In speaking as guests in the series, scholars and artists have the opportunity to reach an audience of undergraduate students primed to ask them questions rooted in the literature and prior class discussion. Even in small or rural communities, instructors should be able to foster such connections between the college community and the practitioners of the culture under study.

Honors program policy has also informed my choice to include excursions as part of the course. I use two local establishments for that purpose: the first establishment is a museum with an ongoing exhibit; the second is a local business that imports and distributes materials used in celebration and other carnivalesque practices. Neither type of establishment may be obvious or available in the vicinity of some college campuses, so some initial research, creativity, and liberal use of technology may be essential to running this course.

To conclude, this course exists to fulfill the need for upper level sociology or general honors elective that is at the same time responsive to the cultural interests of students and a rigorous investigation of these interests. The course is designed as part of a comprehensive liberal arts curriculum and as such it addresses the college goals of global awareness and preparing students to become citizens of the world. It fits in with the rest of the sociology and honors curriculum in being an application of social science principles to the examination of a global social phenomenon. Through writing assignments, the students are assessed on their progress from passive reader to engaged participant and hosts of a speaker series. The course has the added benefit of engaging students and guest scholars or artists in live discussion that benefits the whole college community.

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SYLLABUS

CARNIVAL: THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF SPIRITUAL AND CULTURAL CELEBRATION

COURSE DESCRIPTION: As an advanced level application of analytical tools in the discipline of sociology, this course investigates pre-Lenten and other seasonal festivals in Europe and the Americas. Using a sociological and interdisciplinary perspective, this course explores issues of gender, race, class, sexuality, culture and finance through text, film, guest lectures and a class excursion. The format of the course is a combination of traditional lecture, seminar, and performance series, all in-person. Students will learn independently through substantial reading and writing, interactively through class discussion and conversations with guest artists and speakers, and experientially through guided excursions to local cultural institutions. The typical meeting frequency for this course is once per week.

TEXTS: • Ehrenreich, Barbara. Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy. 2012. Holt [“Ehrenreich”] • Mauldin, Barbara. Carnaval! 2004. University of Washington Press [“Mauldin”] • Riggio, Milla Cozart. Carnival: Culture in Action – The Trinidad Experience. 2004 Routledge [“Riggio”] • Gardner, Jason. A Flower in the Mouth: The Beauty and Burden of Carnaval in Pernambuco 2013 Visual Anthropology Press [“Gardner”] • Supplemental academic readings provided by professor via handouts, links to electronic text, or Canvas [“Supp”]

GOALS: We will discuss the religious and secular social forces that have shaped contemporary festivals and the various forms these celebrations take in the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Cuba, Canada and the United States. We will reflect on these forms to make comparative assessments and uncover social facts about the societies that have generated these celebrations. By including guest lectures, performances, films, and readings from religious studies, anthropology, psychology and performance studies, the course is interdisciplinary. However, the course is sociological in its ultimate goal of understanding the social forces behind these most powerfully resonant global events. This is an advanced level course, requiring research and writing and with the goal of giving students an opportunity to present research on a social phenomenon.

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OBJECTIVES: By the end of this course, students will be able to: Understand academic literature from a variety of disciplines related to Carnival, Mardi Gras and other festivals Demonstrate their awareness of the interconnectedness of knowledge Identify issues of religion, race, gender and stratification within the general issue of public celebration Connect specific cultural practices to themes of ethnic and transnational identity Analyze context and social implications in film and public performance Take advantage of cultural resources in their community or geographic area Prepare and present informed and culturally relevant commentary and questions to engage artists and other key stakeholders in the culture and performance industry Write critical prose applying concepts learned in the readings and lecture to analysis of films and performances.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING SYSTEM: Students are evaluated based on active participation in each class, where attendance will be taken. Significant reductions to the Class Participation score will result from inappropriate sidebar conversations, chatting, texting, playing on electronic devices, excessive absences and leaving class or other failures to contribute to the learning environment. Several writing assignments are required. Assignments must be turned in on time via both hard copy and the course website/turnitin.com, and are subject to a penalty of a 20% grade reduction per day, starting at 9pm of the due date of the assignment. Students must submit only original work and, unless explicitly instructed, must work alone. Any unauthorized assistance will be considered plagiarism. Plagiarism will result in an F on the assignment or on the whole course at the instructor’s discretion. The objectives above will be assessed through recitation and writing, including a research paper on a topic and region of each student’s choosing. Successful writing assignments are those through which students explicitly apply and discuss the theoretical concepts and social facts discussed in the reading and in class. Students are also expected to deliver an oral presentation, accompanied by any visual aid warranted, based on their research paper, and successfully answer questions by the instructor and peers. Students are graded based on their performance on assignments of various point values, totaling up to 100 points. Extra credit is only available at the instructor’s discretion. What follows is a list of requirements with their point value and table for converting points to letter grades.

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Requirement Point Final Score Letter Final Score Letter value grade grade

Class participation and contribution 20 94-100 A 77-79 C+ to the learning environment 90-93 A- 74-76 C Weekly writing assignments and 50 recitation, 5 points each 87-89 B+ 70-73 C-

Research paper 15 84-86 B 60-69 D

Final presentation 15 80-83 B- 59 and below F

Total possible points 100

COURSE OUTLINE AND SCHEDULE:

Lesson Topic Notes/Assignments Introductions and course overview; Confirm access to course website College Library article “Avoiding Plagiarism” [Supp] introduction to relevant sociological “Pre-test” in-class writing assignment 1 principles, culture and religion Student survey due

Carnival’s roots: of spontaneous Schechner, Richard. Carnival (Theory) After Bakhtin expression, moral holiday, and role [Riggio/Supp] reversal Ehrenreich, Chapters 1-7 (focus on 1 & 4; skim 2, 3, 5, 6 2 & 7) Mauldin, Chapter 1 The carnivalesque and making the Jones, Stephen. Tribes of Burning Man: how an profane sacred experimental city in the desert is shaping the new American counterculture [Supp/SFCelibrary] Mauldin, Chapters 2-5 Guest lecture and photography exhibition by Kelly 3 Gunther Panel discussion on Burning Man Films:  Burning Man Documentary by Russia Today  Spark, a Burning Man Story

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Historical forces: slavery, Pieterse, Jan Nederveen, Globalization and Culture: 3 colonization, migration, Paradigms [Supp] globalization Ulf Hannerz, The World in Creolisation [Supp] 4 Diaspora, transnational identity and Ehrenreich, Chapter 8 hybridity Film: Black Atlantic Field trip to Hall of African Peoples exhibit at Museum Yoruba religious and cultural roots 5 of Natural History of masquerade Mauldin, Chapter 9 A Flower in the Mouth, pp 1-128 [Gardner] 6 Roots of Samba music and dance Guest lecture, music and dance demonstration by Grupo Ribeiro

Armstrong, Piers, Bahian Carnival and Social Carnivalesque in Trans-Atlantic Context [Supp] 7 Gringos in the hostel Guest lecture, performance, and Afro Brazilian drum workshop by Batala NYC

Religion, stratification and race: Suhrbier, Mona, Candomble and the Brazilians: the from Favela to Carnival in Brazil Impact of Art. In Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production [Supp] Tosta, Antonio Luciano, Resistance and Citizenship in 8 the Songs of Ile Aiye and Olodum [Supp] Films:  Ebony Goddess: the Queen of Ile Aiye  Girl Power

Cuban traditions: echos of identity Schmidt, Betina, When the Gods Give Us Ashe: and stratification Caribbean Religions as the Source for Creative Energy. In Handbook of New Religions [Supp] Spirituality and identity in Cuban music and dance Knauer, Lisa Maya, Consuming Slavery, Performing 9 Cuba: Ethnography, Carnival and Black Public Culture. In Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World [Supp] Guest lecture and performance by Yesenia Selier and Company Haitian sacred traditions and McAlister, Elizabeth. The Madonna of 115th street protest revisited: Vodou and Haitian Catholicism in the age of transnationalism. In Gatherings in diaspora: Religious From Carnival to Rara: a Haitian communities and the new immigration 10 [Supp] Spring in dance and song Mauldin, Chapter 11 Desmangles, Leslie, Rara as Popular Army: Hierarchy, Militarism and Warfare. In Perspectives on the

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Caribbean [Supp] Guest lecture and performance by Kongo Haitian Roots

Riggio, Chapters 13, 17 and 19 [Supp] Nurse, Keith, Globalization and Trinidad Carnival: Trinidad and transnational identity Diaspora, Hybridity and Identity in Global Culture 11 Playing Mas as marriage of religion Mauldin, Chapter 10 and culture Guest lecture and steel pan performance by Leslie Ann Bolden

Carnival in the first world: Brooklyn Kasinitz, Philip, New York Equalize You? Change and Continuity in Brooklyn’s Labor Day Carnival [Supp] 12 Nurse, Keith, Globalization in Reverse [Supp]

Material culture and the Excursion to drum and costume shop on Union St., 13 implications of carnival for urban Brooklyn economies Carnival in the first world: American Wehmeyer, Stephen, Feathered Footsteps: South Mythologizing and Ritualizing Black Indian Processions in New Orleans. In Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture [Supp] Shrum and Kilburn, Ritual Disrobement at Mardi Gras: 14 Ceremonial Exchange and Moral Order [Supp] Films:  Mardi Gras: Made in China  The Order of Myths  The Whole Gritty City

Essential forms of cultural Mauldin, Chapters 6 and 12 15 expression: the power of the Guest lecture by SFC Dean Allen Burdowski moment Le Menestrel, Sara, “Singing Us Back Home”: Music, Place and Production of Locality in Post Katrina New Orleans Law and order when it’s upside Ehrenreich, Chapters 9, 10 & 11 (skim 10) 16 down: disaster, violence and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival#Violence persistence of celebration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Mardi_Gras_Riots http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article- 1210407/Notting-Hill-Carnival-ends-violence-teenager-

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suffers-stab-wounds.html

Students will present their research in an interactive session engaging classmates and guests in the discussion of carnival 17 Student presentations practices in a particular locale and/or a particular question about global carnival practices.

Final Paper due

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Armstrong, P. (2010). Bahian Carnival and Social Carnivalesque in Trans-Atlantic context. Social Identities, 16(4), 447-469. Ehrenreich, B. (2007). Dancing in the streets: A history of collective joy. Macmillan. Gardner, Jason. (2013) A Flower in the Mouth: The Beauty and Burden of Carnaval in Pernambuco. Visual Anthropology Press Hannerz, U. (1987). The World in Creolisation. Africa, 57(04), 546-559. Jones, S. T. (2011). The Tribes of Burning Man: How an Experimental City in the Desert is Shaping the New American Counterculture. Ccc Publishing. Kasinitz, P. (2004). “New York Equalize You? Continuity and Change in Brooklyn’s Labor Day Carnival.” In Millia Reggio, editor, Carnival: Culture in Action, The Trinidad Experience. New York: Routledge, 2004: 270-282. Knauer, L. M. (2011). Consuming Slavery, Performing Cuba: Ethnography, Carnival and Black Public Culture. Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World, 2(2), 3-25. Le Menestrel, S., & Henry, J. (2010). “Sing Us Back Home”: Music, Place, and the Production of Locality in Post-Katrina New Orleans. Popular music and society, 33(2), 179-202. Mauldin, Barbara. 2004. Carnaval! University of Washington Press. McAlister, E. (1998). The Madonna of 115th Street Revisited: Vodou and Haitian Catholicism in the Age of Transnationalism. Gatherings in diaspora: Religious communities and the new immigration, 123-160. McAlister, E. (2009). Rara as Popular Army: Hierarchy, Militarism, and Warfare. In Philip W. Scher, ed., Perspectives on the Caribbean: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation. MA: Wiley- Blackwell, 2009, pp. 129-143 Nurse, K. (1999). Globalization and Trinidad carnival: Diaspora, Hybridity and Identity in Global Culture. Cultural Studies, 13(4), 661-690. Nurse, K. (2004). Globalization in Reverse: Diaspora and the Export of Trinidad Carnival. Carnival: Culture in action—the Trinidad experience. New York: Routledge.

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Pieterse, J. N. (1996). Globalisation and culture: Three paradigms. Economic and Political Weekly, 1389- 1393. Schechner, R. (2004). Carnival (theory) after Bakhtin. Carnival: Culture in Action: The Trinidad Experience, 3-13. Schmidt, B. E. (2012). ‘When the Gods give us the Power of Ashe’: Caribbean Religions as the Source for Creative Energy. Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production, 4, 445. Shrum, W., & Kilburn, J. (1996). Ritual Disrobement at Mardi Gras: Ceremonial Exchange and Moral Order. Social Forces, 75(2), 423-458. Suhrbier, M. (2012) Candomble and the Brazilians: the Impact of Art. In Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production. In Cusack, C., & Norman, A. (2012). Handbook of new religions and cultural production. Brill.

Tosta, A. L. (2010). Resistance and Citizenship in the Songs of Ilê Aiyê and Olodum. Afro-Hispanic Review, 175-194.

Wehmeyer, S. C. (2010). Feathered Footsteps: Mythologizing and Ritualizing Black Indian Processions in New Orleans. Social Identities, 16(4), 427-445.

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