Celebrating the City: Carnivals, Processions, and Other Urban Rituals

Catalog description

This course will introduce urban rituals, examining their intimate ties with the cultures and histories of the cities they celebrate. We will move through processions, carnivals, sacrifices, secret cults, funerary rites, and Worlds Fairs, from ancient Rome through the French Revolution to present-day Mumbai, Rio, and Istanbul. In looking for points of comparison across such a broad canvas, well draw on eclectic sources, including ethnographic, archaeological, and historical texts, graphic images, music, and film. And well collaborate to enact--and experience--one ourselves!