Clown society

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Clown society is a term used in anthropology^{[citation needed]} and sociology^{[citation needed]} for an organization of comedic entertainers ("clowns" who have a formalized role in a culture or society.

Contents 1 Description and Function 2 Difference from School for Comedians 3 Examples 4 See also 5 Notes 6 Bibliography

[edit] Description and Function

Sometimes clown societies have a sacred role, to represent a trickster character in religious ceremonies^{[citation needed]}. Other times the purpose served by members of a clown society is only to parody excessive seriousness, or to deflate pomposity^{[citation needed]}.

In the sense of how clowns serve their culture^{[citation needed]}:

• A clown shows what is wrong with the way things are.
• A clown shows how to do ordinary things the wrong way.

Members of a clown society always dress in some kind of a special costume reserved for clowns, which is usually an absurdly extreme form of normal dress^{[citation needed]}.

In the case of the Zuni clown society of the Pueblo Indians, "one is initiated into the Ne'wekwe order by a ritual of filth-eating" similar to Eucharist; "mud and excrement are smeared on the body for the clown performance, and parts of the performance may consist of sporting with excreta, smearing and daubing it, or drinking urine and pouring it one another".^[1][2]. The sacred clown and his apparently antisocial behavior is condoned in Indian ceremonies. ^[3]

While in that costume, they have special permission from their society to parody or criticize defective aspects of their own culture. They are always required to be funny. Other persons living within the same culture may recognize a clown when they see one, but seldom consciously understand what the clowns do for their society. The typical explanation is "He's just a funny man."^{[citation needed]}

Clown societies usually train new members to become clowns. The training normally takes place by an apprentice system, although there may be some rote schooling as well^{[citation needed]}. Sometimes the training is improvisational comedy, but usually a clown society trains members in well known forms of costume, pantomime, song, dance, and common visual gags. Occasionally these include a scripted performance, or skit, which is part of a standard repertoire that "never gets old," and is expected by members of the culture that the clown society is part of.

[edit] Difference from School for Comedians

A clown society is different from, but closely related to a school for comedians. Comedians serve many of the same social functions of parody and social criticism, and also embody the role of the trickster, but a comedian usually only uses slightly exaggerated mannerisms to show that he/she is joking. Comedians who are not also clowns do not wear a blatantly outrageous or formalized costume.^{[citation needed]}

Also very different from clowns, comedians frequently must assume personal responsibility for their social criticism, rather than having the free pass that a clown enjoys when in costume.

[edit] Examples

• The Zuni is one of the clown societies of the Pueblo Indians, particularly known for its scatological practices^[4]
• Hopi group among Pueblo Indians^[5]
• Circus clowns function as a clown society, in occidental culture.
• The Shriners are a clown society within the Masons, and in American society generally.
• Sacred clowns are called heyoka in Lakota Sioux Native American culture.
• Circus clowns were the only persons allowed to criticize the government of the former Soviet Union.^{[citation needed]}
• Members of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army combine the ancient arts of clowning and fooling with the relatively recent skills of non-violent direct action.

[edit] See also

• Pueblo Clowns
• Kiva
• Heyoka
• Wild man
• Court jester
• Trickster
• Liminality
• Satirist
• Jester

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

• Elsie Clews Parsons and Ralph L. Beals, The Sacred Clowns of the Pueblo and Mayo-Yaqui Indians American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 36, No. 4 (October-December, 1934), pp. 491-514
• Kathryn W. Shanley The Indians America Loves to Love and Read: American Indian Identity and Cultural Appropriation American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 675-702 doi:10.2307/1185719
• David Hayman Toward a Mechanics of Mode: Beyond Bakhtin NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Winter, 1983), pp. 101-120 doi:10.2307/1345079
• M. Conrad Hyers The Spirituality of Comedy: comic heroism in a tragic world 1996 Transaction Publishers ISBN 1560002182
• JJ Honigmann An Interpretation of the Social-psychological Function of the Ritual Clown Journal of Personality 10 (3), 220–226. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1942.tb01904.x 1942 - Blackwell Synergy
• N. Ross Crumrine Capakoba, the Mayo Easter Ceremonial Impersonator: Explanations of Ritual Clowning Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Spring, 1969), pp. 1-22 doi:10.2307/1385250
• Bunzel, Ruth L. "Introduction to Zuni Ceremonialism". (1932a); "Zuni Origin Myths". (1932b); "Zuni Ritual Poetry". (1932c). In Forty-Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Pp. 467-835. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1932. Reprint, Zuni Ceremonialism: Three Studies. Introduction by Nancy Pareto. University of New Mexico Press, 1992.