Browsing by Subject "Festivals"
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Item Festivals of colonial America: from celebration to revolution(Texas Tech University, 1995-12) Apgar, Peter D.Within a highly stratified colonial society that traditionally precluded the populace from political involvement, crowd action in pre-Revolutionary America became a potent force in successfully obtaining political goals. Participation in festivals contributed to this new sense of popular empowerment. The festivals of May Day, New England Election Day, Pinkster, the King's Birthday, Pope Day, and New Year's Eve allowed the populace forums to build dynamic group relationships, to gain experience in organization, and to pubHcly express opinions. Revolutionary leaders recognized the importance of festivals and drew on their rituals, objects, and symbols to energize the pubHc, and the public responded by further adapting festive elements for protest.Item From rite to right: How holy days became a natural right in medieval England(2013-05) Kirkland, Justin; Howe, John M.; Swingen, Abigail; Brasington, BruceThis thesis explores medieval English holy days using the theoretical framework of medieval natural rights established by Brian Tierney, R. H. Helmholz, and Kenneth Pennington. It suggests that holy days were invented as natural rights in the Middle Ages based on evidence from summae and from prosecutions of feast nonobservance by ecclesiastical courts. The right allowed all people in society to observe holy days by abstaining from servile work. This had great implications on social relations in medieval society because it limited the power masters had over their servants.Item Let the car burn, we're going to the faire : history, performance, community and identity within the Renaissance festival(2004-05) Gunnels, Jennifer Sue; Canning, Charlotte, 1964-The Renaissance festival is an interactive venue which utilizes popular and fantastic views of history to encourage audience members to participate in the performance. While these festivals share much in common with living history presentations, the open use of myth and romanticized history at the Renaissance festival, while sometimes criticized, allows the festivals to incorporate people in the performance in ways that other venues cannot. Living histories, usually heritage sites, seek to confirm and validate identity or membership within a specific community. Their methods of presentation leave little room for playing with or questioning these historically predetermined roles. The Renaissance festival, based as it is in a much earlier history and a romanticized one at that, creates more flexible group and individual identification. Because the Renaissance festival encourages the exploration of identity and community beyond those determined by the history of the historical performance, it carries the potential to change the ways in which individuals view themselves, performance, history, and community. It does so through encouraging new constructions of identity for the individual as well as new group affiliations based on interpersonal interactions, commerce, and myth. These will be viewed through the use of three case studies of the Scarborough Faire, Texas Renaissance Festival, and Michigan Renaissance Festival. Participation in these performances can encourage a questioning of how community and identity can be built and what they mean.Item Music and tourism in Cusco, Peru: culture as a resource(2009-05) LaBate, Elizabeth Ann; Slawek, StephenThis dissertation explores music in Cusco, Peru found in the festivals and other performance contexts related to tourism. The central thesis considers what happen when culture becomes a resource for socio-economic development. First the historical emergence of culture as a resource is examined through the discourse of international agencies, folklorists, and travelers. Next, various contexts of music and tourism in Cusco highlight specific examples of culture as a resource, such as Inti Raymi, other raymi festivals, the pilgrimage of Señor de Qoyllur rit’i, dinner show restaurants, and nightclubs. In each example, I discuss the history of the performance context, the musical repertoire, opportunities for musicians, and how local people keep the performance relevant to their lives. While critics have called cultural tourism a devil’s bargain and proponents have called it a panacea to under-development, I conclude that the real effects of culture as a resource in Cusco are more complex. I analyze the music in conjunction with social conditions of asymmetric power as the aestheticization of poverty.