Celebration--acting variously as a binding force for a community or as a self-congratulatory act, carried out in settings as intimate as a family dinner and as grand as tickertape parades--would seem to be so fundamental to human behavior as to operate ahistorically. But the various ways we celebrate--how we crown our heroes, how and when we clap during an opera, how we wave our flags at victory celebrations, how we f?te our celebrities--are structured...