After two years of field work in the islands off the northern tip of Scotland, American-trained folklorist Lange explores how people in Orkney present ideas of who they are in their everyday speech. He begins with a brief history of the surprisingly heavy traffic in the northern islands over the past few millennia. Then he considers current thinking on such matters as being tangled in the web of relationships, language and authenticity, the genetics of heritage, revising history, and the Orkney brand in commerce. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)