TEACHER'S CORNER:
STUDYING COMMUNITY FESTIVALS
American community celebrations
recently are attracting some
anthropologists' attention. Town
festivals are frequently compared to
traditional societies' public rituals
which reflect and justify contemporary
values and social situations and offer
a vision of the future. In the
American West, where I have lived for
the past four years and conducted
research (sponsored by the Wyoming
Council for the Humanities) on
community festivals, many towns have
celebration "days" such as the famous
"Frontier Days" in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Parades, rodeos, carnivals, bazaars,
livestock shows, and musical
performances highlight these festivals.
Most community residents believe the
festivals are organized to bring in
tourist dollars, but anthropologists
argue that these celebrations have
other important functions: preserving
heritage, fostering social cohesion,
releasing tensions accumulating from
daily life, and inculcating pride and
loyalty.
In other regions, community
festivals may revolve around national
holidays such as July 4th, Thanksgiving
or Memorial Day; a religious holiday
such as Easter; or an ethnic
celebration such as the Chinese New
Year. Sporting events (the Olympics or
the Rose Bowl) provide another theme.
Throughout the United States, community
festivals provide an easily accessible
resource for student "field"
involvement. Festivals offer a unified
focus for learning about history,
government, community, social
interaction, traditional values, and
social change. Furthermore, numerous
skills (observation, note-taking,
analysis, and written description) are
involved in the study of community
festivals.
This teaching activity first offers
a general approach for studying
community festivals. A study guide is
next provided to help teachers conduct
a field study with their students.
Finally, one celebration is described
illustrating the type of analysis
possible from such a study.
GENERAL APPROACH
Students carry a notebook to make
brief notes on the spot, but at regular
intervals (every 30-45 minutes) they
stop and record more details from
memory. They write an "objective"
account of what they saw and heard
(i.e., sequence and time of events,
actors, spectators' reactions); then
they can add their personal reactions.
Later they hypothesize about the
functions of the festival event for
participants and spectators.
(continued on p.8)
#3
HWiBKZfrj.
Students interested in photography-
can take pictures to check the accuracy
of their observations and to search for
greater detail. Tape recorders can
record sound Level and crowd response
as well as conduct interviews. Library
research and newspaper archives are
important resources for historical
perspectives on the festival. Students
may compare these accounts with oral
history reports from informant
interviews.
If students collaborate when they
write up their notes, they will see
firsthand that observation has a
subjective component and that the
interpretation of human behavior is
very difficult. The students'
differing reactions to observation
should generate interesting classroom
discussion. It is particularly
fascinating for students to think about
how the perspectives of different
people might influence their
interpretations of the festival. For
example, how might a person new to the
area interpret the history of the town
or the major occupations of its people
from observing the festival? Is
RELEASING* TEMSlort5
a rancher's view of a county fair
different from a town shopkeeper's or a
tourist's? How does a man's view
differ from a woman's or a child's?
Before a study is begun, it may be
necessary for permission to be obtained
from an organizing group, participants,
or perhaps the Chamber of Commerce.
Requests to avoid being photographed,
recorded, or observed should be
honored. Most people readily consent
as I experienced in my study in
Thermopolis, Wyoming.
STUDY GUIDE
The following guide (adapted from
Evelyn Hatcher's Festivals : Study Notes
and Queries . Evelyn Payne Thatcher
Museum of Anthropology, Technical Paper
#1, 1979. St. Cloud, MN: St. Cloud
State University. $2.00) can help
students gather data to analyze a local
community festival.
1. General Description of the Festival
A. Number of events in the festival
(parade, carnival).
B. Number of units in events
(floats, booths, rides).
C. What is the duration of the
festival and of each event?
D. How long has the festival been
conducted? How has it changed in
content?
2. Festival Setting
A. Downtown, park, auditorium. How
is the area changed from its
ordinary function and appearance?
B. Layout. (Make a map.)
C. How do people get from place to
place? What is the movement
pattern? (linear, circular,
randomly scattered). How does
this foster social interaction?
D. Do many things go on simultan-
eously or do all people attend
the same events? How does this
affect social behavior and the
expression of emotions?
(continued on p. 9)
3. Type of Festival
A. Calendrical (every year at the
same time), seasonal (harvest,
county fair), religious, ethnic.
B. Does each event have the same
focus? (A parade may celebrate
town history while a carnival in
the same festival does not.)
C. What message is given about the
past, present, and future?
D. When has each event become a part
of the festival?
E. What values are fostered by each
event?
4. Participation in the Festival
A. Who plans the festival?
B. Who participates and how?
C. What groups of people are
attracted to what events and why?
D. What is the spectator/participant
ratio? (few watching with many
participating as with a square
dance, or few participating with
many watching as with a parade)
5. Mood of the Crowd
A. Comraderie, partisanship agita-
tion.
B. How consistent is the mood? When
does it change and why?
6. Types of Objects Used in the
Festival
A. Arts and crafts, manufactured
merchandise, and floats.
B. How are the objects presented to
the public? What are the
functions of the objects?
C. Which objects attract the most
attention and why?
7. Symbolism
A. What kind of message is given
about the past?
B. What kinds of national symbols
are used? (flags, soldiers in
uniform, colors) What responses
are evoked during the festival?
C. What kinds of local symbols are
used? (farm machinery, cowboys,
new technology)
INCULCATING PRlt>e
D. What kind of ethnic symbols are
used?
8. Costs/Rewards for Participants and
Spec tators
A. What does it cost in terms of
time, money, or donated goods?
B. What do the participants gain?
C. What do the spectators gain?
9. Functions of the Festival
A. What do people say is the purpose
of the festival?
B. In what ways is the festival
period distinguished from the
regular life of the participants
and spectators?
C. Do people attend the festival
year after year? Why?
D. To what extent is a sense of
community fostered by the
festival?
THERMOPOLIS PAGEANT DAYS
Thertnopolis' town celebration, like
many in the West, contains several
events including parades, sidewalk
sales, a carnival of rides and games, a
demolition derby, a horse show, and
outdoor plays. Since 1950, however, a
10
unique event, the "Gift of the Waters
Pageant," has played a central role in
the festival. This pageant commemo-
rates the Shoshoni Indians' 1896
cession of the hot springs near
Thermopolis from their reservation
lands. The Indians received $60,000 in
cash and cattle for the ten square
acres. Many townspeople point to the
hot springs as the primary reason for
the founding and continued growth of
the town. The "Gift of the Waters
Pageant" develops various themes
usually associated with traditional
rituals: the importance of the past,
the values of good will and harmony,
and the feelings of reverence and
respect. Though a few Indian dancers
do participate, in return for payment,
the festival is decidedly a non-Indian
view of Thermopolis' past.
The one hour pageant, performed at
dusk on a grassy knoll near the
Thermopolis hot springs, is organized
with narration and silent symbolic
scenes alternating with traditional
Indian dances performed by Shoshonis
from the nearby Wind River Reservation.
The poetic narration, originally
composed in 1925, describes in symbolic
form the townspeople's view of the
history and purpose of the springs.
Basically, the narration develops three
interwoven themes: that the Shoshonis
made a beneficent gift of their hot
springs; that the springs have healing
qualities; and that all peoples are
brothers who share in God's bounty.
The themes are interwoven through the
role of Chief Washakie, leader of the
Shoshonis when the treaty cession of
the hot springs was made. The Chief is
portrayed as a wise, generous man who
willingly gave up the springs to his
white brothers and also specified in
the treaty that some of the waters
should be reserved for free public use.
She offers the bowl of water to a
medicine man who drinks and passes the
bowl to the other Shoshoni men who
drink. Then "Chief Washakie" makes his
gift. It is precisely the power of the
water that recompenses the Shoshonis
for their sacrificial gift, since the
people who come from around the world
to be healed will bless the Shoshonis.
A strong religious component ties
in the themes of universal brotherhood
and healing. One of the highlights of
the performance is the rendition of the
Lord's Prayer in sign language by a
Shoshoni girl. While she works through
the gestures, a member of the women's
chorus, who has moved to a hidden spot
overlooking the setting, sings the
prayer. This sequence develops the
theme of universal brotherhood which
culminates in the closing dance of the
pageant in which all the Shoshonis and
the women in the chorus intermingle in
the Shoshoni dance circle. The
performance is slow-paced, solemn, and
dignified, lightened only by the
exuberance of the Shoshoni dances.
Studying such a pageant and
community festival, students can ask
questions such as: What is the
relationship of this festival to local
and national history? How does this
pageant portray Native American-White
relations? What elements of this
festival promote social cohesion, local
pride, and the preservation of
tradition?
Audrey Shalinsky
Assistant Professor
Anthropology
University of Wyoming
of
The notion that the water is sacred
and healing is portrayed by the
pageant's major silent activity. An
Indian "princess" helped by two
attendants dips a bowl into the spring.