Publisher's Synopsis
"A refreshing combination of history, ethnic studies, and culture theory. Cohen convincingly demonstrates the continued need for documented history as a corrective for the excesses of overzealous historical advocacy."--Anthony F. C. Wallace, University Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
Folk culture has not disappeared in America, not even in urban and suburban America. Through these essays on groups of people pushed to the edges of society, folklorist David Cohen tackles the larger questions of multiculturalism, academic advocacy, and American national character.
Cohen examines emergent Native American groups in New Jersey that recently have organized themselves into tribes. He looks at the history of these groups as they attempt to document an Indian ancestry. He also portrays the little-known Afro-Dutch, a term he applies to the thousands of blacks who combined the culture they brought from Africa with Dutch culture in New Jersey and New York. Next he moves to the "Pineys" of the New Jersey Pinelands, questioning the way they have been represented in legends. Cohen then discusses the Angel Dancers, a small religious sect in suburban Bergen County, accused of participating in orgies and kidnapping children. He shows the power of rumor to label unpopular religious groups as cults.
