1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
While by no means exhaustive, this is a enjoyable scholarly look at Rainbow traditions from the founding to 2010., February 10, 2012
For several years now I've attended Rainbow Gatherings, month-long intentional communities set up in forests and dedicated to peace and harmony, veganism, ecological living and disconnecting from technology. I share few of the values of most people there, but I love to attend because the events are a remarkable and rather paradoxical spectacle: in spite of no formal organization, thousands of people have managed to convene regularly for four decades in a decided place and set up needed infrastructure; in spite of a ban on commercial activity, thousands are fed; in spite of the wildly different religious and political beliefs of attendants, Rainbow Gatherings are generally harmonious events where *everyone* is made welcome.
But while I've participated in Gatherings in Europe, Turkey and Israel, I knew little about Gatherings in the place it all began: the United States. Michael I. Niman's PEOPLE OF THE RAINBOW: A Nomadic Utopia is an ethnographic study of the North American Rainbow phenomenon, based on the author's own involvement in this community. The book was originally published in 1997; this second edition leaves the earlier text unchanged, but adds a new epilogue discussing recent developments.
Niman begins the book in perhaps the best possible way: an account of one typical day at a Rainbow Gathering. Through the eyes of Sunflower, a character based on the author, we follow Rainbow life from waking up in the morning to falling asleep at night. Sunflower passes through the usual places set up at gatherings, such as kitchens, communal fires and music-making circles, he engages in leisure or volunteering for tasks that need to get done (activities which are not necessarily distinct from each other at Rainbow), and he interacts with folks from a diversity of backgrounds.
After this introductory chapter, Niman's study is more formal, citing documentary evidence and interviews carried out in the field. In describing Rainbow traditions and the people involved, he often draws comparisons to other North American utopian communities from the 17th century to the present day. Niman also describes the relationship between Rainbow Gatherings and the world around them. One aspect of this is media reporting, and Niman has exhaustively trawled archives to show how the Rainbow Family is portrayed in the press. The other confrontation between Rainbow and the outside world is with the US Forest Service and law enforcement officers, which has ranged from harmonious to dirty tactics and violence on the part of the government.
While Niman is sympathetic to the Rainbow Family, an active member himself, he nonetheless takes a critical view at times. In spite of an emphasis on tolerance and inclusion, Rainbow Gatherings have taken few steps to attract African-Americans and the disabled. Though decisions are supposed to be made by the consensus of all present, few participate in decision-making sessions and inevitably power hierarchies arise. But perhaps the most serious critique of Rainbow traditions comes in the chapter "Fakelore". Rainbow Gatherings often claim Native American heritage. One tradition, the myth that the Rainbow Family is foretold by a Hopi prophecy, has spread to Rainbow communities all over the world:
"There will come a time when the Earth grows sick and when it does a tribe will gather from all the cultures of the World who believe in deeds and not words. They will work to heal it ... they will be known as the 'Warriors of the Rainbow.'"
Niman debunks this supposed prophecy, showing how it has no basis in authentic Hopi lore (or any other Native American belief) but appeared for the first time in a 1963 tract of Christian evangelism. Furthermore, he notes that Native Americans do not welcome Rainbow appropriation of their culture and identity, and several native groups have called such appropriation a form of genocide. Nonetheless, members of the Rainbow Family continue to claim that they are in tune with Native American spirituality, perhaps even more than actual Native Americans today.
The new epilogue focuses on two relatively recent Rainbow trends. The first is the spread of Rainbow Gatherings all over the world. The first Rainbow Gathering outside the US was held in Switzerland in 1983, and now European Rainbows have their choice of several gatherings a year. The annual World Gatherings have been held on six continents. At any given moment, a Rainbow Gathering is going on somewhere. Unfortunately, this section is much less detailed than I expected. There are some notable differences in culture and logistics between North American Rainbow Gatherings and ones in other countries, but Niman does not describe them.
The second recent trend is the appalling crackdown on Rainbow Gatherings in the United States by government. Niman was present at the 2008 North American Rainbow Gathering when law enforcement, in the pursuit of one man reported to be in possession of marijuana, fired weapons into a children's day care camp. (He was helping to film the documentary "We Love You", which has video of this incident.) He charts how law enforcement at Gatherings are becoming militarized, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on strategies that only encourage conflict with these peaceful hippies who cause little trouble (Niman cites arrest figures at Gatherings, which turn out to be quite low, with many charges thrown out in court). It is easy to dismiss a law enforcement crackdown if the people involved are a weird subculture (much like what is happening with Open Wall Street protests as I write this), but Rainbow Gatherings reflect the changing relationship of the American people with their government. As Niman writes in the closing words of the book, "The Rainbow Family, with its persistent insistence on maintaining what it sees as a constitutionally protected right to gather, has become the proverbial canary in the mineshaft of freedom."
I must say that I'm appalled by the print quality of this book. It is on cheap paper that looks like it will yellow or become brittle in short order. Half of the pages have ink stains from the facing page, and the text is set in an unsightly sans serif typeface. There are photographs, but one cannot make out any detail because they are printed on this awful paper instead of plates. But at least the 2nd edition is accompanied by a website where one can download many source documents, including the results of Freedom of Information Act requests from the Forest Service and other government agencies.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
