Paper short abstract:

Starting from my fieldwork in the island of Santo Antão (Cape Verde) in this paper I will deal with the role of humor as an intercultural strategy that allows the communication itself in situations of ambiguous and uncertain situations such as that of the ethnographic relationship.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will deal with the role of humor and joke in the ethnographic relationship as uncertain communication.

Starting from my field research in the island of Santo Antão (Cape Verde) I will emphasize how the joke and the misunderstanding that is often connected to it, rather than barriers to communication can be important heuristic elements.

In particular in Cape Verdean culture, joke and irony are customary modes of communication and become an important tool for building relationships, the ultimate way to get in relational intimacy, almost a rite of initiation for the newcomer in the community. And it is precisely through the irony that the anthropologist's insider / outsider ambiguous position is perfectly captured by my interlocutors.

The joke and the teasing have, in fact, a fundamental role in the encounter between different cultures as they reaffirm the difference at the same time downplaying it, allowing the encounter to take place just because the character of "insincerity" of the communication is explicit. In particular, by asserting the opposite of what you actually want to say but in such way that the listener intends the true meaning and with the assumption of a complicity, a common territory where this reversal is clear, the irony is well suited to catch elements of ambiguity as those characterizing the ethnographic relationship. Finally humor can become a major key to manage a complex and uncertain intercultural communication.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the idea of the 'schizo-comic' - the processes of meaning and reflexivity that form and operate within the schizophrenic's relationship to the world. The schizo-comic is a response to what Bateson terms the double-bind. The comic, in these terms, is caught between incertitude and solution; between locked in and reflexive mobility.

Paper long abstract:

The schizophrenic, for Gregory Bateson, is locked in the context of the double bind, producing incertitude and, seemingly, lacking all means of escape. They are unable to extricate themselves and so are destined to repeat the patterns that confirm the (illusionary) paranoid fantasies. We would suggest that what is at hand in these contexts is the 'schizo-comic' object - an anthropologically driven relationship that binds all participants to this notion of incertitude and a desire to escape. The function of the comic is precisely to offer a potential escape from this double bind; for the comic can provide the reflexive moment when participant and context are revealed. More often than not the schizophrenic is denied the comic - what he/she delivers up is the very incertitude of the situation. However, the other participants (observers, spectators, analysts) are given the utterance that can be read as comic. In this way the schizo-comic operates both within and outside of the schizophrenic's world order. It is both singular (in meaning) and double (as a bind) at the same time; it is both literal and serious as well as polysemic and comic. This paper will explore how the schizo-comic can been seen in a range of social contexts, but predominately in the formation of relations of power and knowledge.

Paper short abstract:

Dans cet article nous discutons de la relation entre les formes comiques et les repères sociaux de distinction sur deux moments historiques au Brésil: le cinéma burlesque des années 50 et les joutes de rhymes du freestyle des années 2000.

Paper long abstract:

L'altérité a de tout temps été un sujet privilégié en matière d'humour. Dans cet article, nous discutons de la relation entre les formes comiques et les repères sociaux de distinction. Les blagues, les films comiques et les tournois de jurons, sont des manifestations qui mettent en scène les tensions sociales gerées par les différences, telles que celles de genre, race, ethnie, nationalité et classe. L'humour manipule des categories sociales établies et les mettent en question: des stéreotypes sont tour à tour reproduits ou détruits. Le mécanisme de l'humour est justement celui de remettre en cause nos certitudes, en dévoilant l'aspect construit des classifications sociales. Les systèmes de classification, ainsi que l'humour étant pris dans leur contexte, nous nous concentrerons dans cet article sur deux moments et formes différentes du comique au Brésil: d'abord le cinéma burlesque des années 50, dans lequel des blagues sur les relations entre blancs et noirs, les differences sociales et les genres étaient autorisées. Ensuite, nous examinerons les joutes de rhymes du freestyle, qui ont lieu actuellement chez les jeunes issus des milieux populaires des grandes villes, dans lesquelles les plaisanteries sont soumises à un régime de réstrictions assez évident. À partir de la comparaison de chaque forme que prend le comique, nous essaierons de comprendre comment fonctionne la reproduction des stéréotypes, ainsi que la capacité qu'ont ces pratiques de mettre en question quelques a prioris sur des categories établies.

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Paper short abstract:

I propose to look at the ways in which an oral tradition asserts, reinvents, or alternately struggles with issues of survival, in contemporary Indian scenario, with the Mirasi folk form as my case-study.

Paper long abstract:

I wish to showcase this oral tradition, not merely through its textual content but via its performative resonance - the framework of the performance, rooted in the community it performs for, which allows satire as strategy. The performative space allows it a vibrancy where its humor can be semantic, syntactic, phonetic or contextual, but the utterance is contained within the community it works within, and very often decries.

The Mirasi oral tradition is simultaneously formulaic and subversive, encyclopedic and parochial, mimetic and carnivalesque, invocative and subversive, ritualistic and secular (even scatological). What is the syntax of such a performance that is full of dichotomies? Is it that the audience appreciation comes from the recognition of the same, or is the location of the performer community lending them this unique role - that of the lowly jester as well as the wise keeper of larger community values.

While what lends the oral performative tradition its rigor and plausibility, its survival ultimately hinges on who do so for that specific tradition - its recipient audience. Therefore, moving beyond inward structural analysis, I'd like to investigate how a lived tradition, where the absence of context means absence of the tradition itself, attempts to survive while maintaining its core aesthetic.

An oral performative tradition like this one thus treads the fine line between past and present, incident and its narrative, and the abstract and the real, and I seek to understand the performative space that defines it as such as well as its potential in contemporary scenario.

Paper short abstract:

In Cambodian theatre, clowns are disruptive of the theatrical conventions applied to the other actors. In a ritual context, they stand as necessary participants. How do clowns play an essential part in the ritual performance of a classic epic story and what is the broader social significance?

Paper long abstract:

Khmer lkhon khol is an all-male drama performing exclusively excerpts from the Ramakerti epic, the Khmer version of the Indian Ramayana. In rural settings, performances take the form of a propitiatory ritual yearly offered to local ancestor spirits and deities from the Khmer pantheon. This complex ritual extends over five days during which actors mime the epic while narrators sing and chant actions and dialogues in a upper linguistic register. During the performance, some villagers are possessed by local ancestor spirits who solemnly receive the theatrical offering. Another element is essential to the performance of this ritual and strikingly contrasts with the overall performance: the interventions of tlok (clowns). These ambivalent characters stand emancipated from any of the choreographic norms governing the acting in lkhon khol, purposely ignoring linguistic conventions. They step into the performance, shouting jokes and satires, disrupting the unfolding of the epic with political commentaries and burlesque gesticulations. Nevertheless, these clowns are of primary importance to the proper conduction of the ritual and take the lead in the staging of its symbolic climax: the release of the waters, thus anticipating an abundant upcoming agrarian season. Unconventional and disruptive, what makes clowns so necessary in this ritual? Which modalities regulate their interventions? How does their ambivalent behavior relate to the broader social implications of the ritual?

Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the Pablos, a particular group of Ritual Clowns performing in the Pilgrimage to the Señor de Qoyllur Rit’i. By examining the Ritual Humor, I aim to define the contested field in which authority and spirituality are negotiated through the figure’s burlesque character.

Paper long abstract:

Once a year the pilgrimage to the Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i is held in the southern Peruvian Andes and playfully reflects the diversity in Andean Spirituality. 16.000 dancers perform to the lord during the six days of the pilgrimage. This paper, based on field research, is concerned with a deeper analysis of a particular group of dancers called the Pablos (or Ukukus), a group of Ritual Clowns, which embody values from both Christian-catholic and spiritual-Andean beliefs. Thereby, the centre of attention is focused on the ways in which the Pablos relate to those two "worlds" through their burlesque performances. By examining Ritual Humor, understood as an intrinsic element of their clownesque performances, I aim to define the contested field in which authority and spirituality are negotiated through the figure's burlesque character. The analysis has found fundamental changes in Ritual Agency shaping the actual performances and ritual elements thoroughly, although the social perception towards the performance remains constant. Pablos have not always played the distinctive role of Buffoonery in the pilgrimage, other satiric groups at times far more present in their clownesque Performance used to play a leading role in the pilgrimage.

The comic elements are crucial to the spiritual experience of the pilgrimage to the Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i. The question I raise: Is it of real importance who embodies the comic figure?

Paper short abstract:

Ce papier explore la figure du bouffon dans ses modes d'engagement et de gestion de l'incertitude au travers de l'articulation entre des formes d'actions comiques et cultuelles.

Paper long abstract:

Au Mali les bouffons (korodugaw) s'immiscent au sein de cérémonies particulières par des danses et des chants ou plus largement dans des espaces villageois par des processions. Ils sont aisément identifiés par leurs parures, leurs comportements et leurs danses. Ils sont réputés pour faire rire, mais également pour leurs activités propitiatoires et contre-sorcellaires. Autrement dit la bouffonnerie articule le comique et le cultuel, le théâtre et le rituel.

Considérée dans sa globalité, la figure du bouffon entretient également des liens étroits avec la gestion de l'incertitude. En effet les bouffons s'inscrivent dans des situations d'incertitude, la suscite dans les formes comiques qu'ils mobilisent, la contrôle dans leur organisation, cherchent à l'annihiler par leurs activités cultuelles.

Nous proposons ici d'explorer ce mode particulier de faire avec l'incertain dans l'articulation des formes d'actions comiques et cultuelles.