Festivals, Group Making, Remaking and Unmaking

Festivals have provided an important arena for debates in anthropology and the social sciences. A focus of these debates has been the characterisation of the links between festivals, social groups and collective identities. While revisiting these debates, this paper argues for a performative view of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEthnos Vol. 81; no. 4; pp. 584 - 599
Main Author Leal, João
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Stockholm Routledge 07.08.2016
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Anthropology
community
Ethnicity
Festivals
Group identity
heritage
Holy Ghost
Migrants
migration
Social groups
Social sciences
Transnationalism
Azores
North America
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Summary:Festivals have provided an important arena for debates in anthropology and the social sciences. A focus of these debates has been the characterisation of the links between festivals, social groups and collective identities. While revisiting these debates, this paper argues for a performative view of festivals as instances of group making, remaking and unmaking. Based on Holy Ghost festas in the Azores and among Azorean migrants in North America it shows how festivals can be viewed as contentious sites for the production of new transnational and ethnic socialities and identities. The paper highlights the importance of this view of festivals for a critical assessment of current efforts aimed at the 'heritagisation' of festive cultures.
ISSN:0014-1844
1469-588X
DOI:10.1080/00141844.2014.989870