31. Babcock, Barbara A., ed., The Reversible World. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press, 1978.

A collection of studies of symbolic inversion in literary and other cultural forms, with no mention of its prevalence in millenarism, though it is clearly connected with themes of liberation and rebellion. Festivals, play and carnivals are common loci of this inversion and are discussed here. Ritual inversion appears to protect the order by "venting" psychological "pressure" [in the millennium it springs out of the ritual frame into ordinary life and thus is a real threat]. Carnival is a season of rebellion. Inversion is negative feedback, a correction of the system, and is central to rites of passage as well as seasonal rituals.

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