Abstract—There is little question that leisure performances
such as the Carnival of New Orleans [Mardi Gras], and the bull
fight or bull-pushing festival in Niigata prefecture, Japan, often
contribute to knitting together local community, reflect group
identity and values, and act to enforce continuity of culture. At
the same time these leisure performances foster so-called
“hybridity.” They are, in effect, engines of continuity and
change. As a result, these festive settings may be seen as liminal
zones offering both insulation from change and mechanisms
through which cultural change may be absorbed, altered,
negotiated and otherwise “handled.” This paper focuses on
discussing how cultural performances such as these festive
settings often function to create social capital (good will) and,
especially in times of disaster, “discharge” much of this capital
both to sustain a continuity of tradition and to negotiate with
the “new,” or emerging circumstances. It chiefly mentions
research on two regions, explaining the role of the relevant
leisure performances and establishing a little of each
community’s cultural past. I will discuss how, in both regions,
there was strong controversy (involving the bull pushing festival
in Niigata and Mardi Gras in New Orleans) circulating about
the disposition of scarce resources.
Index Terms—Bull fighting, carnival, cultural, capital, Japan,
leisure, performance, mardi gras.
Jon Griffin Donlon is with the Sport and Leisure Management, Tokai
University, 1117 Kitakaname, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, 259-1292 Japan
(e-mail: jhdonlon@hotmail.com).
[PDF]
Cite:Jon Griffin Donlon, "Cultural Capital and Leisure Performances as Aids to
Disaster Recovery: Niigata Bull Pushing and New Orleans’
Carnival," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 499-502, 2013.