Blog Entry 1

Early African American Culture and Modern Cultural Retentions

Holloway mentions cultural interaction, integration, and assimilation as being important to the early formation of an African/American culture. He gives several examples of these processes in his discussion of the heterogeneous nature of African cultures brought to America during the slave trade. A good example of cultural interaction that he mentions is certain members of the Wolof tribe and their common position as house servants. Holloway writes that "the Wolofs... were mostly house servants who had extensive and close contact with European Americans." (22). This interaction between slave owner and house servant is an early example of a two cultures coming head to head with one another and beginning the process of integrating certain elements to form a distinct new culture. This was the case with Gullah. Holloway is quick to point out that many different African cultures from many different tribes were brought to South Carolina and began mixing with one another. He describes Gullah as "the melding of numerous West and Central African elements in a culture..." (28). A new African American culture arose in America as a result of the cultural interaction of various different African cultural groups mixing with one another over time. Cultural interaction is also closely tied to the assimilation of African slaves. This idea is of assimilation is also exemplified by the African house servant:

"Slave artisans and domestics servants... worked in close proximity to European Americans and were forced to give up their cultural identities to reflect their masters' control and capacity to 'civilize' the Africans."(Holloway 35)

These house servants began to be absorbed into the more dominant European American culture and, as a result, began to adopt new customs, attitudes, and creeds that they were previously unexposed to. This interaction and integration worked in both directions as African culture influenced and shaped early American culture as well.

There have been many African contributions to American culture. Holloway mentions contributions in the fields of "aesthetics, animal husbandry, agriculture, cuisine, food culture, folklore, folk medicine, and language." (40). Of the several examples given by Holloway, some of the most intriguing are the contributions to folklore (children's tales such as Chicken Little and Brer Rabbit), culinary and food culture (soul food), and music and dance (formerly popular dances such as the Charleston are the result of African influence). These cultural retentions are obviously very significant to this day. Many of the old stories from African culture are still told to children today, soul food is still a popular cuisine choice for many, and African influence into music and dance are an enormous part of American musical culture. Many of these African contributions to American culture are persistent and exist in modified form in modern times. Without African influence, American culture would lack important and influential musical genres and cuisine choices.

Turner/Herskovits

I would say that the most inspiring idea I've gleaned from reading the piece of Lorenzo Turner and Melville Herskovits is that both men were successful at following and developing their passions in life. In a time that it was almost certainly very difficult for black men to get a good education, both men persevered and gained college degrees. They were able to study areas that they were passionate in (African anthropology for Herskovits and African language for Turner). In a time when African studies did not even exist as an academic institution, both men developed their theses and ideas and helped to cement African Studies as a legitimate piece of academia. This is inspiring to me from an academic and career standpoint because both these men pursued their own ideas and goals and by doing so were able to show the rest of the world that these studies that were so personally important are also intrinsically important to academia and culture as a whole.