Monsters, tricksters, and sacred cows
Subtitle: animal tales and American identities
By: edited by A. James Arnold ; with an afterword by Derek Walcott.
Series: New World studies
Publisher: University Press of Virginia
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Charlottesville, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 291
Subjects: Animals -- America -- Folklore; Human-animal relationships -- America -- Folklore; Indians -- Folklore
Description: The 1992 Quincentennial of the encounter between the New World and the Old resulted in a veritable culture war - an extreme polarization of hardened ideological positions on different ideas of America. Monsters, Tricksters, and Sacred Cows brings a fresh perspective to the confusing question of American identity.

It clears the minefields laid by the generals commanding the opposing camps, while demonstrating that both sides have been primarily interested in protecting and defending an idea of "Americanness" that cannot resist scrutiny.

Some of the leading international scholars in anthropology, comparative literature, and history of the Americas show convincingly in this book that contacts between and among peoples and ethnic groups have, since early colonial times, produced new - and typically American - cultural forms throughout the hemisphere.

Monsters, Tricksters, and Sacred Cows will appeal to the general reader and will attract a wide readership in folklore and cultural anthropology as well as in Caribbean and Latin American studies, comparative literature, and history.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.

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