Clowns
CLOWNS. The term clown is used here as a gloss for a cluster of figures that appear in the religious events of various peoples and that have certain attributes in common. It is, therefore, a term of analysis employed in thinking about the place of such figures in religious performance. This usage is not intended to be homologous with the perceptions of any given people, whose culture is likely to connote more particularistic significance to such characters and their cognates. Instead, it is suggested in this article that what ritual-clown figures have in common with one another is a certain logic of composition. Characters of such composition then have crucial functions for the rituals and dramas within which they perform.
The etymology of the word clown in the English language suggests the logic of composition for such figures. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term appeared in English usage in the second half of the sixteenth century: it originally meant "clod," "clot," or "lump." Clod and clot were long synonymous. Clod connotes the coagulation of liquids and a lumpish adhesion of materials. Clot connotes a semisolid lump formed by congelation and coagulation. Put together, clown, clod, and clot connote an entity that is unfinished or incomplete in its internal organization: one that hangs together in a loose and clumsy way.
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