Charivari/Shivaree: A European Folk Ritual on the American Plains

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Charivari/Shivaree: A European Folk Ritual on the American Plains Scholars of early modern Europe in the past two decades have begun to investigate charivaris and other related social rituals. In I939, Huizinga, in Homo Ludens, began the systematic study of the function of games and play in society and, in I97I, Davis initiated her investigation of charivaris as rituals to control disruptive elements in the society of sixteenthcentury France. Her subsequent research has inspired historical studies focusing on the religious context, both popular and institutional, of the charivari; on the arena of the social custom and practice which encompassed women and sex; and on similar practices in a variety of cultures. This recent outpouring of work on the social behavior of European people is part of the heritage of the Ecole pratique des hautes etudes, and of French historians who see all of human behavior as fodder for historical analysis. By placing their research in an anthropological setting, they have facilitated our understanding of these rituals through the cooperative efforts of anthropologists, students of folk culture, semioticians, and critics of literature, art, and drama.1