Patricia Anne Masters spent more than five years researching the Philadelphia Mummers and their annual Philadelphia Mummers Parade, the longest-running folk parade in the United States. At the heart of the Mummers is a commitment to play, performance, and community. Masters’ ethnography seeks to deeply understand the various ways the Mummers’ activities form a group identity, thus creating a play community. Through participant observation as a member of a competing club, structured and unstructured interviews, archival research, and textual analysis, Masters seeks to compile a body of research that privileges the Mummers as well as places them within a broader sociological framework concerning the formation of community.
The Mummers Parade began from immigrant celebrations on the margins of Philadelphia in the 1800s. The event has become a large spectacle with over 12,000 participants, and costs between four and eight million dollars a year to produce. The daylong event is the culmination of a year of preparation and fund-raising undertaken by dozens of clubs of working class Philadelphians (4). All entertainment includes a mix of music, comedy, dance, mime, special effects, lavish costumes, and floats. Motivations for participating in the parade include fun and the thrill of performance, a desire to continue family traditions of the past, strong relationships that are as much friendships as extended family, and the opportunity for creativity.
Masters’ work is valuable as it is the study of a play community, an area that is relatively neglected within sociological research. Masters defines play as comprising freedom (lacking in obligation), separateness from other parts of daily life, uncertainty, unproductivity, governance by rules, and make believe (11-12). This play has helped strengthen neighborhoods in which Mummers have a strong presence. However, this play has not successfully established itself across racial, class, and ethnic divisions. Masters explores play as a generating/regenerating experience of community (193). She notes that as the diversity of Philadelphia increases, it is important for the Mummers to expand who participates in their community.
Masters challenges the notion that the Mummers’ display is a “Lily White” parade, a criticism that has been associated with the parade since its inception (70). Though there have been all-black clubs competing, and blacks hired to perform as the music section of clubs, the parade has struggled to have consistent integration of African-Americans and other non-white ethnic groups in both the participation and enjoyment of the Mummers tradition. An example of this discord is seen in the presence of the blackface controversy (75). During the 1960s concerns of racism and racist acts were raised around the presence of blackface in the parade, a long tradition of “wenches” and “dudes” painting their faces black with exaggerated white lips. In an attempt to explore the complexity of how racial harmony and discord is lived, Masters showcases the experiences of blacks who chose to participate in the parade despite the controversy; of whites’ perceptions of the situation and actions to protect blacks who chose to participate; of City Hall’s inability to mediate these tensions of identity; and of black leadership’s desire to challenge the depictions of blacks in their city. The controversy, which eventually resulted in the removal of blackface, highlights the tensions of identity and participation in the parade and Philadelphia at large during the 1960s. Since then City Hall has used its economic pressure to encourage the inclusion of women, gays, blacks, and other minorities in the parade (91).
Masters paints a vivid picture of the excitement, effort, and showmanship of the Philadelphia Mummers tradition. She shows how communities that have played together, have stayed together over the last century. The experience of play allows ordinary working-class folks to be extraordinary performers, express their political critiques, and celebrate their city. She also acknowledges that the Mummers are human and for all their brilliance are also flawed. As an African-American woman I am very interested in how diversity is incorporated into the Mummers’ magic. It is interesting to note which folk tales are showcased in the parade. For example, if characters portray Little Bo’ Peep, is there room for Ananzi the Spider? As Philadelphia grows in its diversity, whose folk heroes are not represented and what can be done to bring those characters to Broad Street? Further, in what ways do the Mummers’ traditions fit within the broader phenomenon of theatrical play communities such as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Carnival in Brazil, and Crop Over in Barbados?
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[Review length: 734 words • Review posted on October 1, 2008]