{{Short description|Organization of comedic entertainers}} '''Clown society''' is a term used in [[anthropology]] and [[sociology]] for an organization of comedic entertainers (or "[[clown]]s") who have a formalized role in a culture or society.

==Description and function== Sometimes clown societies have a sacred role, to represent a [[trickster]] character in religious ceremonies.{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}} Other times the purpose served by members of a clown society is only to [[parody]] excessive seriousness, or to deflate pomposity.<ref>{{cite news |first=Orwell |last=Goode |date=10 June 2019 |title=Facebook removes "honk" post |website=New Media Central |type=op.ed. |url=https://www.newmediacentral.net/honk-honk-facebook-removes-honk-post/ |url-status=dead |access-date=2019-06-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622064740/https://www.newmediacentral.net/honk-honk-facebook-removes-honk-post/ |archive-date=2019-06-22 }}</ref>

In the sense of how clowns function in their culture:{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}} * A clown shows what is wrong with the ordinary way of doing things. * A clown shows how to do ordinary things the "wrong way". By doing ordinary things "the wrong way" the clown reveals what would otherwise be perceived as the serious or true state of things in a different fashion.

Members of a clown society may dress in a special [[costume]] reserved for clowns, which is often a [[ridiculous]]ly extreme or improper form of normal dress.{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}} Some members paint their body with horizontal black and white stripes, which represents a [[skeleton]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Lotsege |last1=Patterson |first2=Mary Ellen |last2=Snodgrass |year=1994 |title=Indian terms of the Americas |publisher=Libraries Unlimited |url=https://archive.org/details/indiantermsofame00patt |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive |page=[https://archive.org/details/indiantermsofame00patt/page/122 122]|isbn=9781563081330 }}</ref><ref name=Cazeneuve-1957>{{cite book |last=Cazeneuve |first=Jean |year=1957 |language=FR |page=242 |title=Indiens du Nouveau-Mexique |place=Paris, FR |publisher=Connaissance du Monde |oclc=26224115}}</ref>{{efn|...&nbsp;''leur corps est peint souvent de raies blanches et noires qui leur donnent plus ou moins l'apparence de squelettes.''<br/>...&nbsp;"their bodies are often painted with black and white stripes which give them more or less the appearance {{nobr|of skeletons}}." — Cazeneuve (1957)<ref name=Cazeneuve-1957/>}}

In the case of the [[Zuni people|Zuni]] clown society of the [[Puebloans]],<ref name=Bunzel-1932/> "one is initiated into the Ne'wekwe order by a ritual of filth-eating" where "[[mud]] is smeared on the body for the clown performance, and parts of the performance may consist of sporting with mud, smearing and daubing it, or drinking and pouring it onto one another".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Parsons |first1=Elsie Clews |author1-link=Elsie Clews Parsons |first2=Ralph L. |last2=Beals |date=October–December 1934 |title=The sacred clowns of the Pueblo and Mayo-Yaqui Indians |journal=[[American Anthropologist]] |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=491–514 |doi=10.1525/aa.1934.36.4.02a00020 |doi-access=free |jstor=661824 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hyers |first=M. Conrad |year=1996 |title=The Spirituality of Comedy: Comic heroism in a tragic world |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=1-56000-218-2 |page=145 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_0KjfR6U4VwC |via=Google Books}}</ref> The sacred clown and his apparently [[antisocial behavior]] is condoned in Native American ceremonies.<ref name=Shanley-1997>{{cite journal |last=Shanley |first=Kathryn W. |date=Autumn 1997 |title=The Indians America loves to love and read: American Indian identity and cultural appropriation |journal=American Indian Quarterly |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=675–702 |jstor=1185719 |doi=10.2307/1185719 }}</ref>{{efn|"The sacred clown and his apparently antisocial behavior which is condoned in Indian ceremonies seems outrageous to Western people who believe it is savage for a culture to institutionalize behavior that seems to be psychotic and {{nobr|perverted." — Shanley (1997)<ref name=Shanley-1997/>}} }}

While in their costume, clowns have special permission from their society to parody or criticize defective aspects of their own culture. They are always required to be funny. In the case of the [[jester]] at the English Royal Court with his cap of bells and [[pig's bladder]] stick he was allowed to make fun of, be indelicate and sometimes downright rude to members of the royal family and their entourage without fear of reprisal. Other persons living within the same culture nearly always recognize a clown when they see one, but seldom consciously understand what the clowns do for their society. The typical explanation is "He's just a funny man."{{citation needed|date=April 2007}}

Clown societies usually train new members to become clowns. The training normally takes place by an [[apprentice]] system, although there may be some rote schooling as well.{{citation needed|date=April 2007}} Sometimes the training is [[improvisational comedy]], but usually a clown society trains members in well known forms of costume, pantomime, song, dance, and common visual gags. On rare occasions the training includes scripted performances, or skits, which are part of a standard repertoire that "never gets old", and is expected by members of the culture that the clown society is embedded in.

[[Humor]] assumes a "sacred position within ceremonials" in many Native North American societies;<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Emmons |first=Sally L.A. |year=2000 |title=A disarming laughter: The role of humor in tribal cultures: An examination of humor in contemporary Native American literature and art |degree=Ph.D. |place=Norman, OK |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma]] }}</ref> examples are found in [[trickster]] traditions, [[Pueblo clown]] societies, [[Cherokee]] [[booger dance]]s, and aspects of the Northwest Coast [[potlatch]].<ref name=Johansen-2005>{{cite journal |last=Johansen |first=Bruce E. |date=May 2005 |title=Catharsis ''vis-a-vis'' oppression: Contemporary Native American political humor |journal=University of Nebraska at Omaha Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education |volume=5 |issue=2 |url=http://www.utpjournals.com/simile/issue18/Johansen1.html |url-status=dead |access-date=2007-06-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927230021/http://www.utpjournals.com/simile/issue18/Johansen1.html |archive-date=2007-09-27}}</ref> Humor is a fundamental aspect of Native American life, and has many purposes related to sacred rituals and social cohesion.<ref name=Johansen-2005/>

==Examples== * [[Circus clown]]s function as a clown society, in [[Western culture]]. * [[Sacred clown]]s are called [[heyoka]] in [[Lakota people|Lakota]] and [[Dakota people|Dakota]], and [[Pueblo clown]] in [[Hopi people|Hopi]] and [[Tewa]] Native American cultures.

==Difference from school for comedians== A ''clown society'' is different from, but closely related to a school for comedians. Comedians serve many of the same social functions of parody and social criticism, and also embody the role of the trickster, but a comedian usually only uses slightly exaggerated mannerisms to show that they are joking. Comedians who are not also clowns do not wear a blatantly outrageous or formalized costume.{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}}

<!-- There is another difference between a "comedian" and a "comic" a comic is nearer to the traditional clown, as in the case of someone like Ken Dodd who wears loud and exaggerated costumes but still is basically a "stand-up" and manages to bridge the gap between the two different styles. -->

==See also== {{div col begin|colwidth=8em}} * [[Heyoka]] * [[Jester]] * [[Kiva]] * [[Liminality]] * [[Pueblo clown]] * [[Satirist]] * [[Sin-eater]] * [[Trickster]] {{div col end}}

==Footnotes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{reflist|25em|refs=

<ref name=Bunzel-1932>{{cite book |author=Bunzel, Ruth L. |year=1932 |section=Introduction to Zuni ceremonialism; Zuni origin myths; Zuni ritual poetry |title=47th Annual Report |pages=467–835 |publisher=[[Bureau of American Ethnology]] |place=Washington, DC |via=Government Printing Office |section-url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/zuni/bunzel/zunirel.htm}}</ref>

}} <!-- end "refs=" -->

==Further reading== {{refbegin|25em|small=yes}}

* {{cite journal |author=Hayman, David |date=Winter 1983 |title=Toward a mechanics of mode: Beyond Bakhtin |journal=[[Novel (journal)|Novel: A Forum on Fiction]] |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=101–120 |doi=10.2307/1345079 |jstor=1345079 }} * {{cite journal |author=Honigmann, J.J. |year=1942 |title=An interpretation of the social-psychological function of the ritual clown |journal=[[Journal of Personality]] |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=220–226 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-6494.1942.tb01904.x |publisher=Blackwell Synergy }} * {{cite journal |author=Crumrine, N. Ross |date=Spring 1969 |title=Capakoba, the Mayo Easter ceremonial impersonator: Explanations of ritual clowning |journal=[[Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion]] |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.2307/1385250 |jstor=1385250 }} * {{cite book |author1=Bunzel, Ruth L. |author2=Pareto, Nancy (intro.) |year=1992 |orig-year=1932 |title=Zuni Ceremonialism: Three studies |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |quote=<small>Reprint of the three titles published in the 1932 ''47th Annual Report of the [[Bureau of American Ethnology]]''</small>. <small>''See''</small> Bunzel (1932) <small>''ref above''</small>.}}

{{refend}}

{{Clowns}}

[[Category:Clowning|Society]] [[Category:Cultural anthropology]] [[Category:Religious rituals]] [[Category:Ritual clowns|Society]] [[Category:Satire]] [[Category:Sociological terminology]]