Based on over a decade of research, this book connects dream studies to cognitive anthropology, to perspectives in the humanities on mimesis, ambiguity, and metaphor, to current dream research in psychology, and to recent work in economic and political relations. Traveling the dreamscapes of a variety of young people, Mimesis and the Dream explores their encounters with American cultures and the identities that derive from these encounters. While ethnographies typically concern shared social habits and practices , this book concerns shared aspects of subjectivity and how people represent and think about them in dreams. Each chapter grounds theory in actual cases. It will be compelling to scholars in multiple disciplines and illustrates how dreaming offers insights into twenty-first century debates and problems within these disciplines, bringing a vital theoretically eclectic approach to dream studies. “With characteristic erudition and creative energy, anthropologist Jeannette Mageo traces both strangeness of dreams and cultural plasticity to a common source: mimetic sleep mentation. Examining Americans' dreams, she identifies metaphorical reframings that ‘comment on’ and change ideals even as they are copied into memory.” (Roger Ivar Lohmann, Ph.D., editor of Dream Travelers: Sleep Experiences and Culture in the Western Pacific (2003, Palgrave Macmillan) “This is an important study of dreams and culture, one that offers a compelling interpretation of how dreams work and what they tell us about ourselves, and about being human.” (Steven M. Parish, Professor, Department of Anthropology, The University of California, San Diego) The book should be commended for its intellectual and theoretical achievement, for the way it explores its theoretical perspective in ways that make dream life palpable through rich and well-chosen examples and cases. I certainly found the dream accounts fascinating; I think students will respond as well. Very teachable, the manuscript is also a thought-provoking contribution to the scholarly and scientific literature on dreams. Mimesis wrapped around, or threaded through, cultural models offers a powerful perspective. There is a vital insight on almost every page. ―Steven M. Parish, Professor, Department of Anthropology, The University of California, San Diego Based on over a decade of research, this book connects dream studies to cognitive anthropology, to perspectives in the humanities on mimesis, ambiguity, and metaphor, to current dream research in psychology, and to recent work in economic and political relations. Traveling the dreamscapes of a variety of young people, Mimesis and the Dream explores their encounters with American cultures and the identities that derive from these encounters. While ethnographies typically concern shared social habits and practices , this book concerns shared aspects of subjectivity and how people represent and think about them in dreams. Each chapter grounds theory in actual cases. It will be compelling to scholars in multiple disciplines and illustrates how dreaming offers insights into twenty-first century debates and problems within these disciplines, bringing a vital theoretically eclectic approach to dream studies. Jeannette Mageo is Professor of cultural anthropology at Washington State University. Her work focuses on dreaming and the self, on child development, and on how subjectivity, identity, and emotion evolve out of cultural and historical experiences. Her manifold writings on dreams show that cultural models tie the most profound aspects of subjectivity to politics and public culture, inscribing relations of privileging and marginalization within the self that generate anxiety and resistances registered and negotiated in the imaginary realm. Jeannette Mageo is Professor of cultural anthropology at Washington State University. Her work focuses on dreaming and the self, on child development, and on how subjectivity, identity, and emotion evolve out of cultural and historical experiences. Her manifold writings on dreams show that cultural models tie the most profound aspects of subjectivity to politics and public culture, inscribing relations of privileging and marginalization within the self that generate anxiety and resistances registered and negotiated in the imaginary realm.