Symbolizing America

A collection of essays that shows how anthropological theories and techniques can be applied to the culture of contemporary middle-class Americans. It analyzes such aspects of American culture as advertising, mass-audience movies, patriotic and ethnic parades, college parties, greetings, and the dilemmas of adolescent sexuality.

Beeman, Brown University; 'The story of [James] Bond' by Lee Drummond, McGill University; 'The Melting Pot: Symbolic Ritual or Total Social Fact?' by Milton Singer, University of Chicago; 'The Los Angeles Jews 'Walk for Solidarity': Parade, Festival, Pilgrimage' by Barbara Myerhoff and Stephen Mongulla, University of Southern California.It also includes: 'History, Faith, and Avoidance' by Carol Greenhouse, Cornell University; 'The Discourse of the Dorm: Race, Friendship, and 'Culture' among College Youth' by Michael Moffatt, Rutgers University; 'Why a 'Slut' is a 'Slut': Cautionary Tales of American Middle-Class Teenage Girls' Morality' by Joyce Canaan, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies; and an epilogue, 'on the Anthropology of America,' by John Caughey, University of Maryland.