NEH on the Road: Carnaval

FAIN: MR-50166-13

St. Mary's College of California (Moraga, CA 94575-2715)
Carrie Brewster (Project Director: September 2012 to April 2022)

Ancillary public humanities programs to accompany the NEH on the Road: Carnaval traveling exhibition.

We hope to bring to the Hearst Art Gallery Carnaval exhibition and public programs a cross-cultural and multi­ temporal perspective to the phenomenon of carnival. In addition to the many ethnographically known examples of rituals of inversion, there is archaeological evidence of feasting and ritualized behaviors that may be interpreted in light of this practice. Cynthia Van Gilder, Ph.D., professor of Anthropology at Saint Mary's College will lecture on anthropological perspectives on carnival, and, together with the museum staff and colleagues from the Anthropology, Art History, History, Performing Arts and Modern Language Departments, will work to organize various links to the curriculum at Saint Mary's. Such possibilities include but are not limited to, a semester-long course on the anthropology of feasting, interdisciplinary courses,co-funding various speakers, movies, or activities on related topics, and the possibility of a January Term course.