Merican Disguise

American Disguise

Franco-American Identity, Community, and La Guiannée

French traditions in America do not live solely in Louisiana. Franco-American Identity, Community, and La Guiannée travels to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, to mark the Franco-American traditions still practiced in both these Midwestern towns. This Franco-American cultural identity has continued for over 250 years, surviving language loss, extreme sociopolitical pressures, and the American Midwest's demands for conformity. Ethnic identity presents itself in many forms, including festivals and traditional celebrations, which take on an even more profound and visible role when language loss occurs. On New Year's Eve, the guionneurs, revelers who participate in the celebration, disguise themselves in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century costume and travel throughout their town, singing and wishing New Year's greetings to other members of the community. This celebration, like such others as Cajun Mardi Gras in Louisiana, Mumming in Ireland and Newfoundland, as well as the Carnaval de Binche, belongs to a category of begging quest festivals that have endured since the Medieval Age. These festivals may have also adapted or evolved from pre-Christian pagan rituals. Anna Servaes produces a historical context for both the development of French American culture as well as La Guiannée in order to understand contemporary identity. She analyzes the celebration, which affirms ethnic community, drawing upon theories by influential anthropologist Victor Turner. In addition, Servaes discusses cultural continuity and its relationship to language, revealing contemporary expressions of Franco-American identity.

A Universal Template for Research Position and Life Experience Papers

The self-descriptive title, A Universal Template For Research Position and Life Experience Papers, implies that there is a position that writers take in even the simplest of essays. As such, Template provides an opportunity to accomplish two tasks at once: consider the definitive differences between Research, Position, and Experience papers, and explore the issues that impound and empower contemporary urban education. Dale Benjamin Drakeford provides an interactive workshop to guide student writing on any social science subject. Agreeing with many scholars that public and free pedagogy is indispensable, the author also argues that there is no wrong or right in scholastic debate, only correct presentation of objective thoughts or non-objective attitudes. This the author says, is what is sometimes forgotten in the heat of getting ideas on paper. Hence, Template provides structure for planning papers, and in-process cues for staying on task to complete them with proper formality.