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This chapter introduces the concept of ritual as the re-enactment of the actions of the ancestors and gods which transformed primordial chaos into the order of the world, contending that the neotenic nature of our oceanic desire structures ritual behavior in predictable ways, ways which conform to universal experiences and perceptions. It cites as an example the Sun Dance ceremony of Plains Indians, which has been appropriated by modern American culture as a paradisiacal model by which to legitimate unbridled concern for self and self-advancement.

This introductory chapter examines the role of the past in mainline Protestant churches—more specifically the Congregationalists—and how they have coped with modern, twentieth-century American life. The religious history of the modern era was as much about fortress building as it was about ecumenical cooperation: this urbane and presumably secular age saw far more debate about what it meant to be a Baptist or a Presbyterian or a Congregationalist—or, for that matter, a Roman Catholic or a Jew or an evangelical—than any earlier time. Congregationalists are especially apt for this kind of story. To begin with, from the early nineteenth century onward, they have played a major role in shaping American culture, exerting an influence well beyond their relatively modest numbers.

This chapter describes the Old Baptist feeling, or “lonesome sound,” rooted in the folkways of dissenting Protestantism and in the nineteenth-century Primitive revolt that seeped into modern American culture through the singing of old-time musician Roscoe Holcomb (an Old Regular Baptist) and bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley (a Primitive Baptist). Holcomb's emergence during the postwar folk revival and long career as well as his more recent stardom mark the strange eruption of a distinctly Calvinist presence in the nation's popular culture that had been buried at least a century before. But outside the confines of church, sect, and denomination, religion can have a second life ruled by mood and metaphor, where believer and nonbeliever alike reconfigure an old faith to meet their current needs. In Holcomb's and Stanley's music, we hear Calvinism's second, altered life sung into being.

This chapter explores how, by embracing and selling racial difference, black musicians were able to become leading cultural innovators, symbols of modern black representation, and central players in the formation of modern American culture. This emerging racial formation was essentially strengthened by its diversity within the Manhattan marketplace. The popularity of ragtime empowered African American musicians to intervene in the city's local—but nationalizing—commercial culture industries with new and inventive musical commodities that, in turn, further propelled black innovators to the top of Manhattan markets. This reflexive, mutually propelling circuit promoted the increase of black artistry alongside the expansion of New York culture industries such as song publishing, musical theater, and vaudeville. It reinforced the idea that African American entertainers were some of the best in New York City and, increasingly, throughout America.