Home on the Grange

This chapter traces how the rules that governed New England working-class sociability changed dramatically at country and western events. The cowboy names, the clothing, the decor, and the music worked in concert to suspend everyday rules—sociologists would call this phenomenon “alternation.” Normally used to explain how groups of people construct alternate symbolic universes, alternation relies on the use of name change, different dress, and different music in order to radically change individuals' worldview. Alternation describes the constructed frontier space of the country and western event and helps to explain how New England country and western fans of different ethnic backgrounds came to share the same space and work across difference to create a new community.