An Amulet of Greek Earth: Generations of Greek Folk Culture

Author:Helen Papanikolas
When Published: 2002
Publisher: Swallow Press
Available: www.amazon.com
312 pages, 7x10
ISBN: 0804010374
hardcover $39.95

ISBN: 0804010382
paper $24.95
Description:

From the Publisher
"The boys and men who left their Greek valley and mountain villages for America in the early 1900s set out with amulets their mothers had made for them. Some were miniature sacks attached to necklaces; more often they were merely a square of fabric enclosing symbols of the values of their lives: a piece of 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 book An Amulet of Greek Earth, author Helen Papanikolas explains and describes 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 often the cause of strife as they passed on their beliefs and traditions to successive generations of Greek Americans.
Synopsis
An author of fiction and non-fiction, Papanikolas began writing down some of the stories she had heard growing up in a Greek immigrant community during the 1920s in a mining town in Utah. Later she incorporated studies of immigrants into her college courses about the state. Since the early 1970s, she has given talks to Greek Americans around the country, and here assembles stories of their experience and cultural traditions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR