“Barbarous Games” and “Civilized Celebrations”: The Early History of Carnival in Brazil by Dr. Hendrik Kraay
This series of monthly lectures presented by professors and graduate students in LARC will explore various aspects of Latin American history and current issues. Each one-hour lecture will be followed by a half hour for questions and discussion.
Among other things, Brazil is known today for its elaborate carnival celebrations, but this was not always the case. Dr. Hendrik Kraay will discuss his research on the nineteenth-century history of pre-Lenten celebrations in Brazil. His main focus will be the criticisms of entrudo, the old Portuguese custom of water fights and other practical jokes, and their gradual substitution by what was known as carnaval (parading and masked balls). He will show how these cultural conflicts were very serious business to Brazilians, for they reflected the larger issues of the day.
Hendrik Kraay is professor of history at the University of Calgary. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin (1995) and subsequently held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia. Since 1997, he has taught at the University of Calgary. He is the author of Race, State, and Armed Forces in Independence-Era Brazil: Bahia, 1790s-1840s (Stanford University Press, 2001) and Days of National Festivity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1823-1889 (Stanford University Press, 2013); the latter won the Conference on Latin American History’s 2014 Warren Dean Memorial Prize for the best book on Brazilian history. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters published in both English and Portuguese, Dr. Kraay has edited or coedited the following books: Afro-Brazilian Culture and Politics: Bahia, 1790s-1990s (M.E. Sharpe, 1998); Nova História Militar Brasileira (with Celso Castro and Vitor Izecksohn, Editora da Fundação Getúlio Vargas, 2004); I Die with My Country: Perspectives on the Paraguayan War, 1864-1870 (with Thomas L. Whigham, University of Nebraska Press, 2004); and Negotiating Identities in Modern Latin America (University of Calgary Press, 2007). In 2004, Dr. Kraay was visiting professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. His research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Standard Research Grant and Insight Grant programs. In 2014-15, Dr. Kraay served as acting director of the Latin American Research Centre. His current research projects are focused on the Dois de Julho festival in Bahia and the change in pre-Lenten celebrations from entrudo to carnaval.
Facilitators are Ona Stonkus and Brenda Falle
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