Urban Rituals in the longue durée: Permanence and Changes

Abstract

What does the perspective of the longue durée bring to the anthropological analysis of urban rituals? In this essay, I will propose an approach to European urban rituals based on historical anthropology. Such an approach aids in analyzing the different types of rituals through history, but also to study the evolution of the social representations of the city. In the longue durée, historical anthropology enables one to focus on permanence as well as on changes. Using different historical and ethnographical examples of urban festivals, I will present, on the one hand, some major invariant structures of European urban rituals, and on the other hand, some of their modern transformations. The notions of play, authority and social structure will be questioned first in order to understand the age of some rituals. The notions of mobility, rationality and cultural economy will then be used to trace back the major contemporary innovations in the field of urban rituals. Comparing older and newer features of European urban rituals will eventually relate to the general evolving perceptions of the seasonal annual cycle.