A sacred clown (or ritual clown) is a recurrent figure in world mythology, ritual, and religion, an ambivalent or paradoxical figure.[1]
Etymology
editOccurrence
editEurope
editEnid Welsford described the festival fool, in constrast to court jesters, as "ritual characters."[2] The morris dances, mummer plays, Sword-Dance, and Plough Monday plays, which prominently feature fools, mark the transition between winter and the vernal equinox.[1]
Pakistan
editDuring the mendi rite of traditional Pakistani weddings, a cross dressing clown-like character, generally a young girl dressed as an old man, appears as a liminal figure marking the boundary between the end points of the wedding as a rite de passage.[1]
Mayo
editMardi Gras
editMaya
edit
Yaqui
edit- Pahkolam[5]
Heyoka
editPueblo clown
editBadchen
editYokuts lonewis
editLonewis clown [6]
Lord of Misrule
edit- Feast of Fools
Clown societies
editClown society is a term used in anthropology and sociology for an organization of comedic entertainers (Heyoka or "clowns") who have a formalized role in a culture or society.
Sometimes clown societies have a sacred role, to represent a trickster character in religious ceremonies.[citation needed] Other times the purpose served by members of a clown society is only to parody excessive seriousness, or to deflate pomposity.[7]
In the sense of how clowns function in their culture:[citation needed]
- A clown shows what is wrong with the ordinary way of doing things.
- A clown shows how to do ordinary things the "wrong way".
By doing ordinary things "the wrong way" the clown reveals what would otherwise be perceived as the serious or true state of things in a different fashion.
Members of a clown society may dress in a special costume reserved for clowns, which is often a ridiculously extreme or improper form of normal dress.[citation needed] Some members paint their body with horizontal black and white stripes, which represents a skeleton.[8][9]
In the case of the Zuni clown society of the Puebloans, "one is initiated into the Ne'wekwe order by a ritual of filth-eating" where "mud is smeared on the body for the clown performance, and parts of the performance may consist of sporting with mud, smearing and daubing it, or drinking and pouring it onto one another".[10][11] The sacred clown and his apparently antisocial behavior is condoned in Native American ceremonies.[12]
While in their costume, clowns have special permission from their society to parody or criticize defective aspects of their own culture. They are always required to be funny. Other persons living within the same culture may recognize a clown when they see one, but seldom consciously understand what the clowns do for their society. The typical explanation is "He's just a funny man."[citation needed]
In the case of the jester at the English Royal Court with his cap of bells and pig's bladder stick he was allowed to make fun of, be indelicate and sometimes downright rude to members of the royal family and their entourage without fear of reprisal.
Clown societies usually train new members to become clowns. The training normally takes place by an apprentice system, although there may be some rote schooling as well.[citation needed] Sometimes the training is improvisational comedy, but usually a clown society trains members in well known forms of costume, pantomime, song, dance, and common visual gags. Occasionally these include a scripted performance, or skit, which is part of a standard repertoire that "never gets old," and is expected by members of the culture that the clown society is part of.
Humor assumes "a sacred position within ceremonials" in many Native North American societies;[13] examples are found in Trickster traditions, Pueblo clown societies, Cherokee "Booger" dances, and aspects of the Northwest Coast Potlatch.[14] Humor is a fundamental aspect of Native American life, and has many purposes related to sacred rituals and social cohesion.[14]
Similar concepts
editTrickster god
editFool-for-Christ
editSee also
edit- Julian Steward
- The Ceremonial Buffoon of the American Indian, a Study of Ritualized Clowning and Role Reversals
References
edit- ^ a b c d Handelman, Don (1981). "The Ritual-Clown: Attributes and Affinities". Anthropos. 76 (3/4): 321–70. Retrieved 27 Nov 2022.
- ^ Welsford, Enid. "The Court-Fool in Elizabethan Drama (1935)." King Lear. Routledge, 2015. 103-118.
- ^ Crumrine, N. Ross. "Čapakoba, the Mayo Easter ceremonial impersonator: Explanations of ritual clowning." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1969): 1-22.
- ^ Taube, K. (1989). "Ritual humor in classic Maya religion". In W. Hanks; D. Rice (eds.). Word and image in Maya culture: explorations in language, writing, and culture. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. pp. 351–382.
- ^ Evers, Larry, and Felipe S. Molina. "Running the Deer." Sky Loom: Native American Myth, Story, and Song. University of Nebraska Press, 2014. 204-223.
- ^ Latta, Frank F. (1999). Handbook of Yokuts Indians (2nd ed.). Coyote Press. ISBN 1-892622-09-2.
- ^ "Facebook removes "honk" post". New Media Central. Archived from the original on 2019-06-22. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- ^ Patterson, Lotsee; Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (1994). Indian terms of the Americas. Libraries Unlimited. p. 122. ISBN 9781563081330 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Cazeneuve (1957). [no title cited] (in French). p. 242.
... leur corps est peint souvent de raies blanches et noires qui leur donnent plus ou moins l'apparence de squelettes.
- ^ Parsons, Elsie Clews; Beals, Ralph L. (October–December 1934). "The Sacred Clowns of the Pueblo and Mayo-Yaqui Indians". American Anthropologist. 36 (4): 491–514. doi:10.1525/aa.1934.36.4.02a00020. JSTOR 661824.
- ^ Hyers, M. Conrad (1996). The Spirituality of Comedy: Comic heroism in a tragic world. Transaction Publishers. p. 145. ISBN 1-56000-218-2.
- ^ Shanley, Kathryn W. (Autumn 1997). "The Indians America loves to love and read: American Indian identity and cultural appropriation". American Indian Quarterly. 21 (4): 675–702. doi:10.2307/1185719. JSTOR 1185719.
The sacred clown and his apparently antisocial behavior which is condoned in Indian ceremonies seems outrageous to Western people who believe it is savage for a culture to institutionalize behavior that seems to be psychotic and perverted.
- ^ Emmons, Sally L.A. (2000). A disarming laughter: The role of humor in tribal cultures: An examination of humor in contemporary Native American literature and art (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Oklahoma.
- ^ a b Johansen, Bruce E. (May 2005). "Catharsis vis-a-vis oppression: Contemporary Native American political humor". University of Nebraska at Omaha Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education. 5 (2). Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-06-07.