The setting of each study is a different marginalized community in the South. Arranged around three themes that have often surfaced in debates about public folklore and anthropology over the last two decades, the studies consider issues of representation, identity, and practice. One study of representation discusses how Appalachian Pentecostal serpent handlers try to reconcile their exotic popular image with their personal religious beliefs. Another looks at how Cajun Mardi Gras customs in rural Louisiana have been sanitized for mass consumption.
A case study on identity tells why a segment of the Cajun population has appropriated the term "coonass, " once widely considered derogatory. One essay focusing on Native Americans shows how the establishment of powwows has helped the Haliwa-Saponi of North Carolina affirm both their tribal and wider ethnic identity. Finally, essays on practice look at an Appalachian Virginia coal town and Snee Farm, a National Heritage Site in lowland South Carolina. Both pieces reveal how dynamic and contradictory views of community life can be silenced in favor of producing a more easily consumable vision of a "past."
Signifying Serpents and Mardi Gras Runners offers challenging new insights into some of the roles that the media, tourism, and charismaticcommunity members can play when a community compromises its heritage or even denies it.
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The setting of each study is a different marginalized community in the South. Arranged around three themes that have often surfaced in debates about public folklore and anthropology over the last two decades, the studies consider issues of representation, identity, and practice. One study of representation discusses how Appalachian Pentecostal serpent handlers try to reconcile their exotic popular image with their personal religious beliefs. Another looks at how Cajun Mardi Gras customs in rural Louisiana have been sanitized for mass consumption.
A case study on identity tells why a segment of the Cajun population has appropriated the term "coonass, " once widely considered derogatory. One essay focusing on Native Americans shows how the establishment of powwows has helped the Haliwa-Saponi of North Carolina affirm both their tribal and wider ethnic identity. Finally, essays on practice look at an Appalachian Virginia coal town and Snee Farm, a National Heritage Site in lowland South Carolina. Both pieces reveal how dynamic and contradictory views of community life can be silenced in favor of producing a more easily consumable vision of a "past."
Signifying Serpents and Mardi Gras Runners offers challenging new insights into some of the roles that the media, tourism, and charismaticcommunity members can play when a community compromises its heritage or even denies it.
Imprint | University of Georgia Press |
Country of origin | United States |
Series | Southern Anthropological Society Proceedings |
Release date | March 2003 |
Availability | Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days |
First published | March 2003 |
Editors | Celeste Ray, Luke Eric Lassiter |
Dimensions | 229 x 152 x 11mm (L x W x T) |
Format | Paperback |
Pages | 138 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-8203-2472-2 |
Barcode | 9780820324722 |
Categories | |
LSN | 0-8203-2472-8 |