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book: Ritual Humor in Highland Chiapas
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Ritual Humor in Highland Chiapas

Language: English
Published/Copyright: 1973

About this book

Zinacantan, Chamula, and Chenalhó are neighboring Mayan communities situated in highland Chiapas, Mexico, near the city of San Cristóbal Las Casas. The inhabitants of the three communities speak dialects of the Tzotzil language. Five religious fiestas, celebrated by these communities in honor of their saints, provide the data for Victoria Bricker's comparative study of ritual humor.

In Chenalhó and Chamula performances of ritual humor are concentrated in the five-day period of a single fiesta, while in Zanacantan similar performances are distributed over threee fiestas. In these fiesta settings, performers in distinctive costumes make obscene and sacreligious remarks in the context of religious ritual. These performances are defined as ritual humor because they occur only in ritual settings.

Bricker's study constitutes a controlled cross-cultural comparison of ceremonial or ritual humor in its social and cultural setting. Much new information is provided in verbatim texts, recorded during actual fiesta performances. The study reveals that, although the three communities share a common pool of ritual symbols, they elaborate them differently in ritual humor. The study analyzes the symbolic expression of values, social organization, and interethnic relations.

Author / Editor information

Victoria R. Bricker is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Tulane University.

Reviews

There is every reason to believe that Victoria Bricker's monograph will become a classic in its niche of Mesoamerican studies. It is at once an application, based on the author's own fieldwork in three Tzotzil-speaking Indian communities in Chiapas, Mexico, of the much-lauded ... middle range of generalization in the tradition of controlled comparison; a comprehensive survey of ritual humor in Mesoamerican ethnohistoric documents; and, finally, a broad comparative overview of ritual humor throughout modern Mesoamerica and the United States Southwest.
— American Anthropologist

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    Frontmatter

    I
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    CONTENTS

    IX
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    PLATES

    XI
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    MAPS

    XII
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    FIGURES

    XII
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    PREFACE

    XIII
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    I. Introduction

    1
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    2. A Woman's Place . . .

    12
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    3. The Entertainers

    46
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    4. iBomba!

    68
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    5. Chamula: Crazy February!

    84
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    6. Pandora's Box

    127
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    7. The Moral Dimension of Ritual Humor

    145
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    8. Metaphors of Social Criticism

    158
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    9. Ritual Humor in Space and Time

    167
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    10. The Social Meaning of Ritual Humor

    219
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    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    225
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    INDEX

    239
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
February 25, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9780292766907
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
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https://doi.org/10.7560/770041
eBook ISBN: 9780292766907
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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