6. Acadiana and the Cajun Cultural Space: Adaptation, Accommodation, and Authenticity

This chapter evaluates the French culture of the Acadiana area of Southwest Louisiana, which comprises 22 of the state’s 64 parishes and 30 percent of the state’s population of some 4 million. It is called Acadiana, after the original Canadian land from which the population came, what was called Acadie (comprising what is now Nova Scotia with parts of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island). The word Cajun is most likely a corruption of Acadian although, as will be seen time and again herein, very little about folkloric tradition can be stated with certainty. The original French Canadians of Acadie were intentionally expelled by the British form the North American territory ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Urecht in 1715. This is referred to as Le Grand Dérangement and is immortalized in Longfellow’s poem “Evangeline.”