Carolyn Ware’s book on women’s roles in prairie Mardi Gras traditions is based on her more than ten years of fieldwork in rural Louisiana, particularly in Basile and Tee Mamou. It is an objective look at how women have always been “mainstays of the country Mardi Gras celebrations” and how the women “variously affirm, manipulate and topple traditional gender roles” through their masked clowning and other unmasked participation.
Ironically, while looking at the rural Mardi Gras festivities through a woman’s viewpoint, Ware manages to present a pretty good portrait of the whole rural Mardi Gras. She explains the historical origins of Mardi Gras and gives plenty of local history. Not until I read her book did I realize that “Tee Mamou” is “a contraction of Petit Mamou, or Little Mamou.” Who knew?
In many ways her book is an oral history, as she has interviewed many people about their memories of country Mardi Gras in addition to documenting the Mardi Gras runs herself for more than a decade.
Her humility is wonderful: “Although periodically I say that I’ll run Mardi Gras one more time--next year, when I’m in shape--I suspect that I’ve found my place trailing Mardi Gras runs and enjoying the show.” Her honesty is also refreshing. She does not glaze over racial exclusion, nor does she portray the female festivalizers as self-professing feminists, which they are not. Nevertheless, Ware demonstrates how the women have achieved gender equality through their subtle (and not-so-subtle) inversions of cultural codes during festival time.
The book begins with an introduction and an overview of women’s traditional roles in Mardi Gras; next is a description of women’s masking traditions. Chapter 3 explains how the local Mardi Gras associations are organized. The next two chapters focus in detail on the two area Mardi Gras “runs”: the caravans of costumed participants that go from house to house begging for food for a communal supper and mischievously playing tricks and pretending to harm people’s property. First is the Tee Mamou women’s run which is separate from that community’s men’s run. Second is the Basile run, in which men and women participate together. Ware uses almost the same outline for both chapters, making comparisons between the two easy. Both chapters follow the activities of the day’s run from beginning to end, distinguishing each association’s various rules. Chapter 6 is Ware’s analysis of festive reversals and how “Mardi Gras disguise offers women a variety of ways to symbolically invert or affirm cultural codes.” An epilogue of the book presents four women of different generations and their varying views of Mardi Gras.
The book’s subtitle comes from the sarcastic comment of Merline Bergeaux, regarding the rules of Mardi Gras: “I’m the first one to read the rules … I read them backwards.” The most entertaining part of Ware’s book is her description of the tricks and stunts the women play, especially in opposition to their male captains. As Suson Launey is quoted, “…to be a good Mardi Gras, you got to be bad …”. This reviewer will leave the detailed descriptions of pranks and costumes for the readers of Ware’s book to enjoy, but be prepared for many phallic images.
Ware’s book proves that she is an excellent fieldworker and folklorist as well as an oral historian. Her scholarship is sound, and the book is enjoyable to read. The book has many maps and photos which further enhance it. Ware has performed a good service not only for the folklore scholarship community, but also for the Basile and Tee Mamou communities in documenting their cultural traditions.
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[Review length: 595 words • Review posted on August 26, 2008]