Hats, Roles, Carnival, and Masquerade Weekend at the Faire

This was Masquerade Weekend at the faire. Many of the cast members, vendors, and even some of the patrons wore masks or dressed in costumes that were not their usual mode of dress. And it illustrates quite well one of the major points from my own theoretical framing, that of the carnivalesque setting and the way norms are purposefully inverted in such a context.


What did she just say? Okay, here's one example: I would normally dress as a pirate at renfaire. You've all seen the pictures in previous posts. But this weekend I pulled out a couple of dresses from my days (of yore) in the SCA that, in the context of this particular faire count as "noble" garb. Meaning I dressed as a "Lady" instead of a pirate. That's a big change in roles, and a huge leap in status, even if you considered the *ahem* captain character, as the owner of a ship and an entrepreneur, not to be a lowly criminal. Huge reversal, no? That's what I'm talking about. I was even treated differently, as part of the play of course, the cast all know what I'm doing with my research and my persona. Many of them curtsied /bowed to me and called me m'lady who would not have done so were I wearing a pirate hat instead of a circlet and veil. 

But it was not only me. This picture of the cast at pub sing Sunday afternoon also illustrates this point. Look at the hats. Some of them have traded with others of vastly different stations. The two you can see here are the king's piper (in front waving her arms) wearing the tinker's hat, and (behind her in yellow) Lady Isobel wearing the cooper's hat that looks like one of his barrels. Though they were not taking up one another's trades for the day, there was still the inversion of "norms" by the trading of hats that scholars have written about in a carnival or festival setting, especially when dealing with things of the medieval time period. It's really validating when something like this in my research comes together without even trying or looking for it.

Ahoy! and Well Met

Capt. Emeleth MacCreedy
of the Mist Reaver

My name is Heather Dumas, Em to my friends, and I'm working on a master's degree in sociology at Ohio University. I'm about to embark on a research project that will culminate in my master's thesis.

If geeks are people who are super passionate about their hobbies, and nerds are really academically minded, then I'm a geek nerd. (Or as one friend put it, a "gnerd.") I am really interested in what sociologists call deviant subcultures--but not so much the criminal element as those fringe groups of people who like to live life, or at least part of it, a bit differently. Many of the groups I like to study usually have some element of dressing in some rather weird clothing and/or in some way portraying a persona that is not the one the everyday world sees...usually. This is how I ended up studying the people at renfaires. That's short for renaissance faires, and the extra "e" is an intentional use of the old fashioned spelling used by members of this subculture.

Yes, that's me dressed as a pirate, "Captain Emeleth MacCreedy," since it is customary to take on a renaissance era persona while at faire. (You were here for the pirates after all, right?) This is a participant observer study, meaning that I get to jump right in there and play along with everyone else at the faire. I've actually done a little research on renfaires before, as an undergrad, and have developed a network of informants, as we call them in this academic discipline, who have graciously accepted me as part of the crew, as it were. You'll hear more about them later, since they are the real stars of this show--they're who I'm writing about--the cast, playtrons, boothies, and other rennies.

This blog is to keep interested parties informed of my progress, and to let my friends read about those adventures which will never make it into the academic article that is the final product of this research. My field research will take place starting in early June and continue through late October. I'll be interviewing people at faires, along with taking lots of notes and photographs (pictures are sometimes worth a thousand words in field notes). More on that later. Until then... Wind in yer sails!