Clambake: A History and Celebration of an American Tradition

Combining history, ethnography, reportage and essay, an independent folklore scholar offers a wealth of perspectives on the not-so-humble clambake. Prompted by a visit to the Allen's Neck Clambake, a southeastern Massachusetts institution for more than 100 years, Neustadt traces the clambake's roots to both Native American practice and invented Yankee tradition. Her earnest, effusive description of the Allen's Neck feast covers the town's heritage (Quaker, Portuguese, summer visitors) and details the anatomy and aesthetic of the clambake--from ticket sales to constructing a fire to picking clams. Neustadt is no Calvin Trillin, but for two-thirds of the book she eschews academic jargon in favor of clear prose. In a final, more academic section, she argues that none of the common analytical categories--clambake as food, festival or ritual feast--sufficiently explains the event. With its old-fashioned foods and community spirit, the clambake, she writes, affirms identity in a time when society is fragmenting. Illustrations. (Aug.)