Maria Fernandez de Larrinoa, Pedro
(2000)
Carnival performance and folk aesthetics in a French Pyrenean Basque valley in the twentieth century: An anthropological study.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
This thesis concerns folk performance in the French Basque Pyrenees. It is based on fieldwork research which was conducted in the easternmost area of the Basque Country, a region known in the French language as Pays de Soule or, in Basque, as Zuberoa. In particular, it examines Maskarada performance, a genre of carnival theatre popular in the area which involves the young people of a village, who disguise and mask themsselves in order to dance, sing and stage stories in a highly ritualistic way. A study of Maskarada performance in Zuberoa shows that meaningful changes have taken place throughout the twentieth century. These changes are reflected both in the enactment of the folk arts themselves and in the sociological characteristics of the region. Because these changes have affected indigenous understandings of carnival theatre and festivity, this thesis focuses on the changing socio-cultural criteria which lead the organisation of Maskarada performance in Zuberoa today. Maskarada performance echoes issues of social and cultural identity, publicly projecting notions of the self and otherness, as well as of gender and political awareness. This thesis takes a perspective which reveals that traditional folk arts are not fixed but dynamic, reflecting social change and the dynamics of traditional culture in rural Basque society.
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