Telling stories making history, place, and identity on the little bighorn

摘要

Many anthropologists now conceptualize tradition and identity, and the relationship between the two, as emergent and contingent. This article expands that constructivist project by theorizing history and place in much the same way. It describes how the people who live in and visit the Little Bighorn area of Montana have used the past and the landscape to fix themselves in the present and shape their future. Attention focuses on the co-constitution of history, place, and social identity within the discursive space opened by Custer's legendary last stand and, most particularly, on the dialogue among three versions of the battle story presented to the paying public in the 1990s: the story told at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and in two competing battle reenactments. The analysis offered demonstrates that the Little Bighorn past is neither shared nor fixed but is continually and strategically reconstituted in the present.