Three Dark-Brown Maidens and the Brommtopp

De)Constructing Masculinities in Southern Manitoba Mennonite Mumming

MARCIE FEHR AND PAULINE GREENHILL

For most adult Euro North Americans, the season from Christmas to New Year's has some (often vestigial) religious significance but remains characterized primarily by formal ritual obligations of feasting, gift giving and receiving, and visiting (see, e.g., Bella 1992; Caplow 1982, 1984; Cheal 1988). Periodic moments of play and socializing (sometimes involving alcohol!) may break up the structure, but for the most part drinking (sometimes to excess) offers the only relief from the often socially and financially expensive obligations. Yet in the past and to some extent the present, various Euro — North American and other cultural groups marked the period from Christmas Eve on December 24 to Twelfth Night on January 6 with rowdy, disguised playful/ludic (see Huizinga 1950) or carnivalesque (see Bakhtin 1968) behavior that mainstream Euro North Americans associate more with Halloween than with this holiday season (see Santino 1994).

Many such customs, termed the "informal house visit" (see Halpert and Story 1969; Lovelace 1980; and Pettitt 1995), involve a group (usually composed of young men) perambulating from one location to another within a community, to the households of socially and culturally proximate families and individuals. The visits include performative aspects — often dancing and singing — as well as the expectation of a reward — usually food and/or drink — and some sociability with the visited household. The cultural and social surround of one such form, Newfoundland Christmas mumming, has been well documented. Also called mummering or janneying, it has been variously explained as a ritualization of social relations and solidarity, an expression of otherwise repressed hostilities, an indication of fear of strangers, and a dramatization of socioeconomic relations or sex/gender roles. We find aspects of all these motivations in the Brommtopp.

A seasonal informal house visit custom performed well into the twentieth century by young men, almost always on New Year's Eve, in rural Manitoba Mennonite villages where the church tolerated it, Brommtopp is named after the musical instrument, a friction drum, used during the performance (see figure 1.1). The Brommtopp, constructed from calfskin, a barrel, and horsetail, sounds when its player pulls and rubs rhythmically on the horsetail, producing a difficult to describe thrumming sound: "The player, by situating the drum against a wall, could cause sympathetic vibrations which sometimes shook the china from the shelves. The singers had to shout their song in order to be heard over the racket of the brummtupp" (Petkau and Petkau 1981, 92). Writing in a local history, Jake Bergen remembered, "If everything was made real well this strange instrument would make the dishes in the kitchen cupboard rattle" (2005, 189). Traditionally, a group of some dozen teenage boys and young married men would drive (originally in a horse-drawn sleigh or buggy; later by car) and/or walk from house to house within their own village and sometimes beyond. At each residence, the group would sing the traditional song, which could vary from one location to another but generally asked for money in return for good wishes (Toews 1977, 303–304).

As social historian Ervin Beck comments, the "'Brummtopp Song' must have many variant stanzas, since the young people who sing it while performing the New Year's mummers' play typically compose or alter stanzas to make the song fit the household in which they are performing" (1989, 774–775). As the lyrics imply, players could receive money, liquor and/or food, often the traditional Portzeltje (New Year's fritters) (see, e.g., Beck 1989; Epp-Tiessen 1982) in exchange for their performance. Their rowdy behavior contrasted with the usual expectations of decorum for house visits, as we'll detail below.

Costume varied from place to place. As local historians describe, Blumenfeld performers had elaborately specified roles:

(a) Policeman: His role was to keep order in the group that tended to become unruly in their merrymaking. He would knock on the door to say that a group of people wanted to present a New Year's Wish. If the group was welcomed, he ushered in his troupe. He was the steward of the evening's collection. The policeman was uniformed and wore a red stripe on his trousers.

(b) Clown: The clown's attempts to add humour to the performance were hilarious and ridiculous. But everyone loves a clown! His costume can be imagined.

(c) The Couple: The man and woman tried to pose as a hen-pecked husband and a nagging wife. They were dressed in styles typical of that year.

(d) The Singers: The group of approximately 15 young men sang the song of New Year's wishes. They were dressed in white costumes sewn from flour sacks. They had black stripes on their trouser legs and wore white flathats. All were masked.

(e) The Brummtupp Player: He was dressed like the singers. Upon entering the house, he would find a place in the room that was close to an inside wall or near a china cupboard. (Petkau and Petkau 1981, 91; see also Bergen 2005)

At other locations, costumes seem more improvised, using blackface and whiteface instead of masks (see also V. C. Friesen 1988; Schroeder 1999; Toews...