ABSTRACT
Although anomie often has negative and dysfunctional influences, people, communities, and cultures sometimes respond to it in a positive and constructive manner. This chapter considers how the novels of James Fenimore Cooper explore the anomie and displacement caused by outside forces taking control in a hinterland. Cooper provides clues regarding how self-awareness can help people avoid dysfunction. The chapter analyzes how Chinua Achebe portrays an indigenous leader who adapts in order to cope with the pressures of outside intervention by a powerful colonial empire. It introduces Handsome Lake, a Native American leader who, although similar in some ways to Wovoka of the disastrous Ghost Dance movement, offered productive strategies for overcoming anomie and for rebounding from despair and defeat. The chapter examines the Yup’ik, a Native Alaskan people hurtfully impacted by disruptive changes. Their history reflects both the work of Emile Durkheim regarding dysfunction and suicide and Handsome Lake’s vision of cultural renewal.
