The Anthropology of festivals
Before you get to the bottom of the Holi Festival in India and Great Britain, you should get an insight into the anthropology of festival so you can understand the motivation to do research on the Holi Festival and the guiding principle. To understand the following columns, you should know about the basis of a festival.
In our society, when we think of a festival, we always have a music, fashion or film festival on our mind. But a festival is not necessary an event with artists and music. It’s more likely a ritual. There are thousands of different types of festivals, which can have religious, spiritual, ethnic or seasonal backgrounds, just to name a few.
They are not always only entertaining or amusing, but also “offer a unified focus for learning about history, government, community, social interaction, traditional values, and social change“ (Audrey C. Shalinsky). The Holi Festival for example is at the same time an amusement event and also has a historical and spiritual background the participants get reminded of.
People with the same values are brought together and thus the community spirit gets strengthened and the social cohesion fostered; furthermore traditions get taught, referred to the Holi Festival the event is a tradition itself, but also the traditional beliefs get forwarded. Pride and loyalty get strengthened and the everyday stress gets reduced.
Participants of a festival often feel a strong connection to each other while the festival takes place. At the Holi Festival for example even people with different statuses, who don’t have a relation to each other in their ever day life, are celebrating together. They form a new community, a communitas as long as the festival lasts. Different norms than in their every-day life are important. Concerning the Holi Festival inequalities in gender or caste are less relevant. This just lasts for the festival, afterwards almost everything goes back to the usual. What stays is the memory or changes in personality, but everything else returns to the normal structure.
“The group thinks, feels, and act quite differently from the way in which its members would were they isolated” (Émile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method, 1895).
A communitas gets reached in the second step of Arnold van Genneps concept of the three phases of a rite, which Victor Turner edited later:
I. Separation: a group or individual alienates, they are “moving away from a fixed point in social structure towards something unknown”. When they are completely separated they reach the second phase;
II. Liminaility: the group or person is not part of the society anymore they were before. They are right in the middle of the whole process. “Betwixt and between” (Turner 1969) of the first (separation) and the third step (reintegration) . In terms of communitas every form of the normal social structure is irrelevant, everyone is equal. This phase is an emotional and spiritual experience. As a group they feel a strong sense of solidarity and affiliation. As individuals they can keep the memories and the sense of solidarity may remain, but all in all the end of the festival leads to the third phase of this concept;
III. Reintegration: it’s kind of like a rebirth, the individuals may return to the society as a new person. They have to readopt the norms and values of the social structure, but may have changed their own personality while going through these strages.
This experience can be basic, memorable or transforming. The same festival can have different effects to individuals; the reception of the message varies from person to person. One can have a basic experience, which means that they are not affected by the happening and they show a neutral reaction. Others can have a memorable experience that lasts in there memory but doesn’t change their attitude or behavior, which is the case for a transforming experience.
The experience, more the conclusion is formed by individual interpretation: how does a participant analyses the happening; how does he or she connects to certain symbols, rituals or events; how does the attendee perceive or experience the mood and how he or she express their emotions. In terms of the Holi Festival it is influenced in how the participants are grounded in history and also the symbol of the colours is multivocal, everyone relates different to it.
Gluckman defines a festival as an “interaction between individual motivations and societal functions” (Thomas Hylland Eriksen, 1995 )
Many festivals take place every year, often at the same date or in a particular season. For example on national or religious days, such as the Independence Day in the USA or Eastern. In some cases the festival is celebrated every year in a row for centuries, the same way with the same content, like the Holi Festival itself. But the content and procedure can also change, related to social and cultural changes in the community. The actual reason for celebrating can even get dropped, so that no one really knows why this festival takes place or is not interested in it. This is partially the case with the Holi Festival, where a lot of people don’t know about the historical and religious backgrounds anymore. Especially when it is celebrated in other countries like England. But more about that in the following columns.
On the other hand rituals or festivals keep the traditions alive. If they wouldn’t be celebrated, they would get lost.
A festival can be described as a cultural performance. The events that take place in a particular festival define the characteristic of it.
Rituals or festivals are often centered around symbols. These symbols can be multivocal, that means everyone can interpret it their own way. It depends on how the individual connect to this symbol and what he or she feels.
There's a structure a festival could be analysed with in an anthropological way (Audrey C. Shalinsky, 1985):
- Detailed description of the festival in general: How many years in a row does it take place? How long does it last?
How many events are included in this particular festival? v Content and symbolism: What kinds of symbols are used?
How are they presented?
Is there a change in the content? And if so, how did it change?
- Setting: Where does the festival take place? How does the setting, the area refer to the festival?
Is it in a "western" or a "non-western" world?
- Type of festival: Is it calendric, ethnic, religious or seasonal? Is the purpose of the festival to teach something,
maybe historical?
- Performers: Who is responsible for the festival? Who organizes it? Who participate and what kind of visitors are
addressed?
- Mood: How do the people behave? How do they express themselves and how do they show their emotions?
All in all you can’t outline or summarize how a festival looks like or passes off, because there are too many different kinds of festivals. Every single event is unique and even not identical in the perception of individuals.
With the knowledge you gained while reading the previous column you can trail the research on the Holi Festival in the following studies.
Sources:
Hylland Eriksen, T. (1995); Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology; London, Pluto Press
Plummer, K. (2010); Sociology: the basics, New York, Routledge
Shalinsky, A.C. (1985); Studying Community Festivals; University of Wyoming, first appeared in AnthroNotes, vol. 7, no. 1; available: http://anthropology.si.edu/outreach/Teaching_Activities/pdf/communityfestivals.pdf (07.11.2012)
Babcock, B.A.; Macaloon, J.J. (1987); Commemorative Essay: Victor W. Turner; Amsterdam, Mouton de Gruyter; available:
http://www.degruyter.com/dg/viewarticle/j$002fsemi.1987.65.issue-1-2$002fsemi.1987.65.1-2.1$002fsemi.1987.65.1-2.1.xml (07.11.2012)
Victor Turner on Liminality and communitas –Summary and Analysis; available:
http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.de/2012/03/victor-turner-on-liminality-and.html (07.11.2012)
Förster, T.; Victor Turners Ritualtheorie; available:
http://www.unibas-ethno.ch/redakteure/foerster/dokumente/Turner2.pdf (07.11.2012)
Cultural Anthropology; New Delhi, Mittal Publication; available:
http://books.google.de/books?id=CRb1IsvJRqIC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=anthropology+holi+festival&source=bl&ots=MnUq6xtoQh&sig=zvfbWK86LpXUEZ1ANml6emK1j4c&hl=de#v=onepage&q=anthropology%20holi%20festival&f=false (07.11.2012)
Don Handelman; 1990 Cambridge University Press; Models and Mirrors: Towards an Anthropology of Public Events; available: http://books.google.nl/books?hl=de&lr=&id=DDb-IYhHA1YC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&dq=anthropology+of+event&ots=BENDiH205e&sig=HjJjYYxEHaJZ9q9zoBlhe6YQJFo#v=onepage&q=anthropology%20of%20event&f=false (06.11.2012)
In our society, when we think of a festival, we always have a music, fashion or film festival on our mind. But a festival is not necessary an event with artists and music. It’s more likely a ritual. There are thousands of different types of festivals, which can have religious, spiritual, ethnic or seasonal backgrounds, just to name a few.
They are not always only entertaining or amusing, but also “offer a unified focus for learning about history, government, community, social interaction, traditional values, and social change“ (Audrey C. Shalinsky). The Holi Festival for example is at the same time an amusement event and also has a historical and spiritual background the participants get reminded of.
People with the same values are brought together and thus the community spirit gets strengthened and the social cohesion fostered; furthermore traditions get taught, referred to the Holi Festival the event is a tradition itself, but also the traditional beliefs get forwarded. Pride and loyalty get strengthened and the everyday stress gets reduced.
Participants of a festival often feel a strong connection to each other while the festival takes place. At the Holi Festival for example even people with different statuses, who don’t have a relation to each other in their ever day life, are celebrating together. They form a new community, a communitas as long as the festival lasts. Different norms than in their every-day life are important. Concerning the Holi Festival inequalities in gender or caste are less relevant. This just lasts for the festival, afterwards almost everything goes back to the usual. What stays is the memory or changes in personality, but everything else returns to the normal structure.
“The group thinks, feels, and act quite differently from the way in which its members would were they isolated” (Émile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method, 1895).
A communitas gets reached in the second step of Arnold van Genneps concept of the three phases of a rite, which Victor Turner edited later:
I. Separation: a group or individual alienates, they are “moving away from a fixed point in social structure towards something unknown”. When they are completely separated they reach the second phase;
II. Liminaility: the group or person is not part of the society anymore they were before. They are right in the middle of the whole process. “Betwixt and between” (Turner 1969) of the first (separation) and the third step (reintegration) . In terms of communitas every form of the normal social structure is irrelevant, everyone is equal. This phase is an emotional and spiritual experience. As a group they feel a strong sense of solidarity and affiliation. As individuals they can keep the memories and the sense of solidarity may remain, but all in all the end of the festival leads to the third phase of this concept;
III. Reintegration: it’s kind of like a rebirth, the individuals may return to the society as a new person. They have to readopt the norms and values of the social structure, but may have changed their own personality while going through these strages.
This experience can be basic, memorable or transforming. The same festival can have different effects to individuals; the reception of the message varies from person to person. One can have a basic experience, which means that they are not affected by the happening and they show a neutral reaction. Others can have a memorable experience that lasts in there memory but doesn’t change their attitude or behavior, which is the case for a transforming experience.
The experience, more the conclusion is formed by individual interpretation: how does a participant analyses the happening; how does he or she connects to certain symbols, rituals or events; how does the attendee perceive or experience the mood and how he or she express their emotions. In terms of the Holi Festival it is influenced in how the participants are grounded in history and also the symbol of the colours is multivocal, everyone relates different to it.
Gluckman defines a festival as an “interaction between individual motivations and societal functions” (Thomas Hylland Eriksen, 1995 )
Many festivals take place every year, often at the same date or in a particular season. For example on national or religious days, such as the Independence Day in the USA or Eastern. In some cases the festival is celebrated every year in a row for centuries, the same way with the same content, like the Holi Festival itself. But the content and procedure can also change, related to social and cultural changes in the community. The actual reason for celebrating can even get dropped, so that no one really knows why this festival takes place or is not interested in it. This is partially the case with the Holi Festival, where a lot of people don’t know about the historical and religious backgrounds anymore. Especially when it is celebrated in other countries like England. But more about that in the following columns.
On the other hand rituals or festivals keep the traditions alive. If they wouldn’t be celebrated, they would get lost.
A festival can be described as a cultural performance. The events that take place in a particular festival define the characteristic of it.
Rituals or festivals are often centered around symbols. These symbols can be multivocal, that means everyone can interpret it their own way. It depends on how the individual connect to this symbol and what he or she feels.
There's a structure a festival could be analysed with in an anthropological way (Audrey C. Shalinsky, 1985):
- Detailed description of the festival in general: How many years in a row does it take place? How long does it last?
How many events are included in this particular festival? v Content and symbolism: What kinds of symbols are used?
How are they presented?
Is there a change in the content? And if so, how did it change?
- Setting: Where does the festival take place? How does the setting, the area refer to the festival?
Is it in a "western" or a "non-western" world?
- Type of festival: Is it calendric, ethnic, religious or seasonal? Is the purpose of the festival to teach something,
maybe historical?
- Performers: Who is responsible for the festival? Who organizes it? Who participate and what kind of visitors are
addressed?
- Mood: How do the people behave? How do they express themselves and how do they show their emotions?
All in all you can’t outline or summarize how a festival looks like or passes off, because there are too many different kinds of festivals. Every single event is unique and even not identical in the perception of individuals.
With the knowledge you gained while reading the previous column you can trail the research on the Holi Festival in the following studies.
Sources:
Hylland Eriksen, T. (1995); Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology; London, Pluto Press
Plummer, K. (2010); Sociology: the basics, New York, Routledge
Shalinsky, A.C. (1985); Studying Community Festivals; University of Wyoming, first appeared in AnthroNotes, vol. 7, no. 1; available: http://anthropology.si.edu/outreach/Teaching_Activities/pdf/communityfestivals.pdf (07.11.2012)
Babcock, B.A.; Macaloon, J.J. (1987); Commemorative Essay: Victor W. Turner; Amsterdam, Mouton de Gruyter; available:
http://www.degruyter.com/dg/viewarticle/j$002fsemi.1987.65.issue-1-2$002fsemi.1987.65.1-2.1$002fsemi.1987.65.1-2.1.xml (07.11.2012)
Victor Turner on Liminality and communitas –Summary and Analysis; available:
http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.de/2012/03/victor-turner-on-liminality-and.html (07.11.2012)
Förster, T.; Victor Turners Ritualtheorie; available:
http://www.unibas-ethno.ch/redakteure/foerster/dokumente/Turner2.pdf (07.11.2012)
Cultural Anthropology; New Delhi, Mittal Publication; available:
http://books.google.de/books?id=CRb1IsvJRqIC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=anthropology+holi+festival&source=bl&ots=MnUq6xtoQh&sig=zvfbWK86LpXUEZ1ANml6emK1j4c&hl=de#v=onepage&q=anthropology%20holi%20festival&f=false (07.11.2012)
Don Handelman; 1990 Cambridge University Press; Models and Mirrors: Towards an Anthropology of Public Events; available: http://books.google.nl/books?hl=de&lr=&id=DDb-IYhHA1YC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&dq=anthropology+of+event&ots=BENDiH205e&sig=HjJjYYxEHaJZ9q9zoBlhe6YQJFo#v=onepage&q=anthropology%20of%20event&f=false (06.11.2012)