"Ladies and Gentlemen, The North Road Pounders!": An Inquiry into Identity, Aesthetics, and New Authenticities in Rural Alaska

This essay seeks to understand a particular musical ensemble and related ritual traditions in a rural immigrant community in Alaska. While some of the materials used in the ensemble are gathered locally, other articles are mass-produced, and one element, an interpretation of the Australian dijiridu, is the result of information gleaned from the Internet. The cultural complex is viewed as "local" as well as "global," and "invented" as well as "traditional."