"Keeping the Lakes Way": Reburial and the Re-Creation of a Moral World among an Invisible People

wellspring of inner contradictions of the folk imagination, involving a dynamic balancing of ambiguous and dichotomous forces. Drawing liberally on the ideasof Russian literary theorist and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, Gilmore explains that carnival and its songs contribute to an ongoing cultural dialectic; carnival is a true "ideological hybrid," heteroglossic in Bakhtin's terms, upholding and extolling the hierarchies carniva I also mocks and revi les. For most of the 14 chapters, Gilmore applies these ideas to various dimensions of gender symbolism, evinced especially in the coplas. Using a dynamic "topographical model of human experience" (p. 136), Gilmore offers insight into the remarkable plasticity of the symbolic codes underlying Andalusian rural culture. He shows how hierarchical evaluative schemes are fused with sexuality and spatial orientations and govern in turn the relations between things and people. Transferences and inversions of values and status interlink the critical domains of the female-centered domestic domain of the household; the "all-male world apart" of the neighborhood or tavern; and, finally, community space, which mediates the social norms, taboos, and boundaries that define use of public places according to sex. The drama of carnival is inextricably related to the myriad other social dramas—between rich and poor, men and women— played out in symbolically charged arenas of everyday life. Gilmore uses an explicit psychoanalytic spin in his analysis of the complex and subtle dynamics of gender identity inside and outside of carnival. His psychoanalytical take is cogent, if at times a touch heavy-handed in its assumptions. Nevertheless, Gilmore is meticulous and eloquent in his analysis; the premises and categories with which he works are always painstakingly clarified and contextualized. Although their analytical approaches to carnival are markedly different, both authors makea point of attending to the significant current transformations of Andalusian carnival. They address, for example, the rising participation of women in festival activities, which reflects gradually altering gender roles in the larger social milieu. They also discuss the increasing appropriation of carnival by local governments, which has involved promoting competitions among copla composers and results in a dilution of Andalusian carnival's customary spontaneous, subversive spirit. Despite these changes, both authors concur that the recognized social salience of carnival in Andalusia has not diminished. The impersonal and formalistic writing style of both ethnographers might strike some readers as off-putting, especially in view of detailed discussions of the intrigue of local history and the often intimate aspects of people's lives. Mintz and Gilmore do not explore their own interaction and involvement in these lives; this lack is surprising considering the extensive time both authors conducted research in Andalusia. Yet this deficiency does not undermine the great value of the ethnographies. A satisfying richness resonates from both works, saying much for the value of the unparalleled expertise and understanding achieved through years of research in the same fieldwork area. The two books together provide a rich ethnographic picture of the Andalusia of yesterday and today, lending much credence to the classic anthropological view of ritual as being a mirror of the heart and soul of cultural and social life.