Usable Pasts: Traditions and Group Expressions in North America

by Tad Tuleja (Editor)

In Usable Pasts, fourteen authors examine the manipulation of traditional expressions among a variety of groups from the United States and Canada: the development of a pictorial style by Navajo weavers in response to traders, Mexican American responses to the appropriation of traditional foods by Anglos, the expressive forms of communication that engender and sustain a sense of community in an African American women's social club and among elderly Yiddish folksingers in Miami Beach, the incorporation of mass media images into the "C&Ts" (customs and traditions) of a Boy Scout troop, the changing meaning of their defining Exodus-like migration to Mormons, Newfoundlanders' appropriation through the rum-drinking ritual called the Schreech-In of outsiders' stereotypes, outsiders' imposition of the once-despised lobster as the emblem of Maine, the contest over Texas's heroic Alamo legend and its departures from historical fact, and how yellow ribbons were transformed from an image in a pop song to a national symbol of "resolve."

352 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1997

About the author

Tad Tuleja (b. 1944) is a graduate of Yale, Cornell, and the University of Sussex. He has been a journalist, editor, and researcher, and has authored numerous short-entry reference books. He teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Reviews

[Jennifer Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was difficult to read starting out, but the more I got into the book the more I enjoyed it. I was required to read it for an American Folklore course, and I ended-up really enjoying this one.