A STROLL THROUGH CARNIVAL

THE SPATIAL HIERARCHY OF CARNIVAL IN RIO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Abstract

In early nineteenth century, at the time of carnival, Rio de Janeiro celebrated a rough and popular entrudo in its streets and a quieter and familial one in its middle and upper classes houses. In order to refine it, Rio de Janeiro imported the Parisian carnival with its masked balls in closed ballrooms. To reach them, well-to-do people organized processions. In the streets, they encountered popular gatherings, which had not disappeared. From their competition resulted a hierarchical organization of streets. At the same time, ideas moved from one group to the other. The evolution of the feast expressed in this way the interaction between social classes, their opposition, but also their openness. The modern carnival was born in this way: it combined popular traditions and a foreign model, took hold of public space and became in this way the feast of a whole city, of a whole population.