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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A paper which looks at the New Orleans carnival, Mardi Gras, with particular reference to the influence of African culture and traditions on the festival, and the way in which both Creole and Black cultures contributed to the modern form of Mardi Gras. Bibliography lists 6 sources
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLmardi.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
is open to, and celebrated by, those of all races and ethnic groups, its origins and history can in fact be traced back beyond the development of Creole society to
the early days of slavery, and it is possible to find early cultural and musical influences still surviving in the present-day structure of Mardi Gras.
The festival itself can be seen to have commonalities with others both in Europe and Africa:
there are similarities, for example, with the Christian festivals which preceded the asceticism and privations of Lent, as a result of the strong Catholic influence which colonisation had brought in
the sixteenth century. Sturman (2003) points out that many of the African slaves who purported to have converted to Catholicism also retained many of their traditional cultural and religious customs
as well, leading to the syncretism which is still evident in areas such as Haiti as well as some regions of the USA. Sturman notes that elements of candomble are
still prevalent in samba and in carnival practices. Ake (2003)
also makes the point that there was, in the 1900s, a strict divide between Creole and Black culture in New Orleans, maintained as strictly in many cases as the divide
between white and non-white in other areas. Creoles possessed a considerable degree of political and economic power, as could be seen from the fact that they owned slaves: in the
British dominated colonies, to be a person of colour was synonymous with being a slave. This what not the case in New Orleans, where the Creole community identified with European
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