THE TRAVELING SHOW MENACE - CONTESTED REGULATION IN TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY ONTARIO

The authors apply recent work on regulation to anthropological analyse s of community. In Ontario, Canada, the Provincial Police, community l eaders, and the traveling show industry itself regulated shows, albeit to different ends and through different means. For rural Ontarians, i nvoking the law to combat crooked American carnivals articulated and r einforced local and national identity. Distinctions between insiders a nd outsiders were amplified because circus folk were quintessential ot hers-itinerants and even ''freaks.'' Unlike most outsiders, however, c arnies reveled in their difference and saw through the moral hypocrisy of regulation.