Masquerade Politics: Explorations in the Structure of Urban Cultural Movements

(Hardback)

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This study explores the dynamic relations between cultural forms and political formations in some urban cultural movements. The analysis is based on a detailed study of the structure and development of the London Notting Hill Carnival, widely described as Europe's biggest street festival. Started in 1966 as a small-scale, multi-ethnic local festival, it grew into a massive West-Indian dominated affair that over the years occasioned violent confrontations between black youth and the police. The carnival developed and mobilized a homogenous and communal West-Indian culture that helped in the struggle against rampant racism. The celebration is contrasted with other carnival movements, such as California's 'Renaissance Pleasure Faire'. Analytically, this is a follow-up to Cohen's earlier studies of the relations between drama and politics in some urban religious, ethnic and elitist movements in Africa. The conclusion focuses on the processes underlying the transformation of rational political strategies into non-rational cultural forms.

Reviews

'The book is built up in a lucid way and written in a clear style. It may be of value for scholars interested in the subject of political aspects of cultural events, carnival, as well as the politico-cultural situation of West Indians living in Britain.' Social Anthropology 'Cohen's discussion of the many styles for participation in and resistance to the Notting Hill Carnival and of the utility of these in political mobilisation makes this work a major contribution to the anthropology of urban festivals.' Anthropological Forum "Cohen's work is a welcome departure from the academically popular analyses of both Turner and Bakhtin, neither of whom systematically argues from ethnography of any particular festival, including the many contexts which become defined in multiple styles for participation in and resistance to it. Such approcahes tend to obscure the relations between culture and politics. Cohen's discussion of the many styles for participation in and resistance to the Notting Hill Carnival and of the utility of these in political mobilisation makes this work a major contribution to the anthropology of urban festivals." "Anthropological Forum"

Author Bio

Abner Cohen Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, SOAS, University of London