In this Book
- The Jumbies' Playing Ground: Old World Influences on Afro-Creole Masquerades in the Eastern Caribbean
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: University Press of Mississippi
During the masquerades common during carnival time, jumbies (ghosts or ancestral spirits) are set free to roam the streets of Caribbean nations, turning the world topsy-turvy. Modern carnivals, which evolved from earlier ritual celebrations featuring disguised performers, are important cultural and economic events throughout the Caribbean, and are a direct link to a multilayered history.
This work explores the evolutionary connections in function, garb, and behavior between Afro-Creole masquerades and precursors from West Africa, the British Isles, and Western Europe. Robert Wyndham Nicholls utilizes a concept of play derived from Africa to describe a range of lighthearted and ritualistic activities. Along with Old World seeds, he studies the evolution of Afro-Creole prototypes that emerged in the Eastern Caribbean--bush masquerades, stilt dancers, animal disguises, she-males, female masquerades, and carnival clowns.
Masquerades enact social, political, and spiritual roles within recurring festivals, initiations, wakes, skimmingtons, and weddings. The author explores performance in terms of abstraction in costume-disguise and the aesthetics of music, songs, drum-rhythms, dance, and licentiousness. He reveals masquerades as transformative agent, ancestral endorser, behavior manager, informal educator, and luck conferrer.
Table of Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- pp. ix-xii
- FOREWORD: Clash of Cultures
- pp. xiii-xvii
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- pp. xviii-xx
- INTRODUCTION
- pp. 3-6
- 2. Aesthetics of Masquerading
- pp. 46-76
- 3. Masquerading in the Eastern Caribbean
- pp. 77-105
- 4. Specific Masquerade Types
- pp. 106-144
- 5. Masquerade Prototypes in West Africa
- pp. 145-176
- 6. Masquerade Prototypes in Western Europe
- pp. 177-208
- 7. Old World–New World Comparisons
- pp. 209-230
- CONCULSION
- pp. 231-241
- APPENDIXES
- pp. 242-247
- REFERENCES
- pp. 255-271