525. î Gioll‡in, Dairmuid. "Myth and History, Exotic Foreigners in Folk Belief." Tenemos 23, 1987: 59-80.
An article with potential applicability to acculturation theories. Folk stories about foreigners arise wherever they significantly intrude on the awareness of a group. The nature of the stories about them is largely a function of their spatio-temporal distance from the group holding the beliefs. î Gioll‡in goes on to discuss these folk beliefs (some of which may be accurate) in the light of the historical record of the Danes in Ireland, the Moors in Spain, and other situations of culture contact in less detail. Foreigners are typically identified with/as supernatural or quasi-supernatural figures, which clearly reflects their anomalous status in the home group. Where the Vikings, for example, were frequently identified as beasts, their superior knowledge in some areas was recognized and respected in the stories about them.
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