An Amulet of Greek Earth: Generations of Immigrant Folk Culture - Softcover

Papanikolas, Helen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804010382 ISBN 13: 9780804010382

Publisher: Swallow Press, 2002

Synopsis

The boys and men who left their Greek valley and mountain villages in the early 1900s for America came with amulets their mothers had made for them. Some were miniature sacks attached to a necklace; more often they were merely a square of fabric enclosing the values of their lives: a piece of a holy book or a sliver of the True Cross representing their belief in Greek Orthodoxy; a thyme leaf denoting their wild terrain; a blue bead to ward off the Evil Eye; and a pinch of Greek earth.

In her evocative and meticulously researched book An Amulet of Greek Earth, author Helen Papanikolas explains and examines the vibrant culture these immigrants brought with them to the new world. The Romiosini culture, as it was called, provided the foundation for their new lives and was oftentimes the cause of strife as they passed on their beliefs and traditions to successive generations of Greek Americans.

In the tradition of her fictional accounts of Greek immigrant life, Helen Papanikolas unearths the cultural beliefs and passions that compelled the Greek-American community to make its own way into the broader culture of America. Based on extensive study, personal interviews, and a lifetime of experience, An Amulet of Greek Earth is a revealing and informative chronicle of the immigrant's experience in becoming an American

About this title

About the Author

Helen Papanikolas was the author of several books of fiction and non-fiction, most recently the novel The Time of the Little Black Bird, winner of the Utah Book Award for Fiction.

Review

"Writers like Papanikolas should live a thousand years.”

-- Journal of the Int. Greek Folklore Society

About this edition

• Publisher: Swallow Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0804010382
• ISBN 13: 9780804010382
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312