Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004. First Edition, First Printing. Near Fine Hardcover in a Fine Dust Jacket.

No Flaws or Blemishes but minimal shelf handling and a slight shelf lean; Still Gift Quality.  11.25 inchesa tall;  341 pages with a bibliography and index.

Near Fine / Fine. Item #15808
ISBN: 0295984260

With more than 300 dazzling photographs, this book offers an international look at Carnival in New Orleans and Basile, Louisiana; Laza, Spain; rural Bulgaria; Venice, Italy; Basel, Switzerland; Tlaxcala, Mexico; Oruro, Bolivia; Recife and Olinda, Brazil; Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; and Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Carnival takes similar shapes everywhere European Catholics carried their religion and its festivals.

People disguise or adorn themselves in costumes and masks to parade through the streets, eating, drinking, and making music before the Lenten fast begins on Ash Wednesday.

But as this book shows, indigenous customs with even deeper roots--and, in many places, customs that accompanied enslaved Africans in their diaspora--became integrated into the festival to give it distinctive local flavors.

Price: $19.95