Overview
Combining shrewd applications of current cultural theory with compelling autobiography and elegant prose, Jos E. Lim n works at the intersection of anthropology, folklore, popular culture, history, and literary criticism. A native of South Texas, he renders a historical and ethnographic account of its rich Mexican-American folk culture. This folk culture, he shows--whether expressed through male joking rituals, ballroom polka dances, folk healing, or eating and drinking traditions--metaphorically dances with the devil, both resisting and accommodating the dominant culture of Texas.
Critiquing the work of his precursors-- John Gregory Bourke, J. Frank Dobie, Jovita Gonzalez, and Americo Paredes--Lim n deftly demonstrates that their accounts of Mexican-Americans in South Texas contain race, class, and gender contradictions, revealed most clearly in their accounts of the folkloric figure of the devil. Lim n's own field-based ethnography follows, and again the devil appears as a recurrent motif, signaling the ideological contradictions of folk practices in a South Texas on the verge of postmodernity.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780299142247
- ISBN-10: 0299142248
- Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
- Publish Date: October 1994
- Dimensions: 8.99 x 5.98 x 0.56 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.79 pounds
- Page Count: 266
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