ABSTRACT

The last chapter challenges recent interpretations and even systematic theories about the political dimension of European festive culture, of course with a focus on its carnivalesque declension. In addition, the sections forming this chapter, the last two in particular, also tackle other important themes, for instance, cultural hegemony, rituality and social change, and what kind of structural and processual analysis can help us elucidate and shape a critical historical anthropology (or cultural history) of popular Carnival. In so doing, the final aim is to formulate convincing historical and anthropological conclusions about this much-debated topic.