Midterm Study Guide

Who is melville herskovits??

ANT 4315 Review of all materials from weeks 1 through 9

Words and phrases highlighted in yellow are key terms

Words and phrases highlighted in blue are key concepts

Words and phrases highlighted in green are important people

Table of Contents

The Myth of the Negro Past..........................................................................................................................2 American Anthropological Association.........................................................................................................3 Fort Mose......................................................................................................................................................3 The Nature of Culture ...................................................................................................................................6 African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, New York ................................................................................7 Vodun............................................................................................................................................................8

Who is carter g. woodson?

Vodun Beliefs............................................................................................................................................8 Vodun Rituals............................................................................................................................................9 Evil Sorcery................................................................................................................................................9 We also discuss several other topics like What did gregor mendel do?

Santeria .......................................................................................................................................................10 Sacrificial Practices..................................................................................................................................10 Gullah..........................................................................................................................................................12 Gullah Attitudes toward Life and Death .................................................................................................12 Africanisms and the Black Family............................................................................................................13 African custom of polygamy and black Americans.................................................................................14 Burial societies........................................................................................................................................14 Sea Island Burial Practices.......................................................................................................................14 Passing of Children over the Coffin.........................................................................................................15 African Religious Retentions in Florida .......................................................................................................15 The Eighteenth Century ..........................................................................................................................15 The Nineteenth Century .........................................................................................................................15 Spirit Possession and Ritual Ecstatic Dance............................................................................................16 Death, Burial, and Funeral Rites .............................................................................................................16 Highlighted People, Concepts and Terms...................................................................................................18

Who is william edward burghardt du bois?

Don't forget about the age old question of Most signal transduction pathways involve multiple steps, often mediated by what?

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 1

The Myth of the Negro Past1 

Melville Herskovits 

∙ Anthropologist and student of Franz Boas

∙ Used the term The Myth of the Negro Past to refer to the belief that African Americans were  inferior due to their deprivation of any culture of their own, and because they had to adopt  European Culture that did not suit them, they were considered inadequate as people

The Myth of the Negro Past 

1. Blacks were childlike and adaptable to many situations, including slavery.

2. Those Africans enslaved were the less intelligent members of the community—those unclever  enough to get caught.

3. The regional diversity of slaves meant that there was no common cultural background among  them.

4. Any residual African traits would have been so inferior that the slaves would have given them  up in favor of the superior European customs.

5. “The Negro is thus a man without a past.”

E. Franklin Frazier 

∙ Sociologist If you want to learn more check out What is the economic arrangement developed in the sixteenth century?
Don't forget about the age old question of Where is the electron transport chain located?

∙ Claimed that virtually no African culture remained, which was a strong disadvantage to blacks in  the United States

∙ Saw African culture as lost in America and lacked understanding of culture and its durability

Carter G. Woodson 

∙ First descendant of a slave to receive a Ph.D. in 1912

∙ Founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History

∙ Originator of Black History Week, which later went on to become Black History Month. ∙ Published The African Background Outlined, which provided proof of African American’s  accomplishments and worked to disprove “the myth of the Negro Past”.

W.E.B. Du Bois 

∙ First African American to receive a Ph.D.

∙ Published Black Folk: Then and Now in 1939, which gave depth to African and African American  History.

2

1 African Americans Chapter 9; Uploaded on  

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ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE If you want to learn more check out Who created the theory of communism in 1800's?

American Anthropological Association

∙ Defines race through genetic variations: genetic variations such as Europeans and Asians are  subsets of the variation in the African population

∙ Population biology defines race by a cluster of local populations that differ genetically from  other clusters of local populations. A race is defined to be the entire group. This concept implies  that each race evolves exhibiting the same amount of uniqueness.  

∙ The essentialist concept defines race as a division of human species based on differences in  physical traits that are determined by heredity. The races are then subdivided into primary/ideal  types and secondary races that are mixtures of the primary races. If you want to learn more check out What is the term in the original belief of how genetics work?

∙ Anthropologists believe that variations in human skin are adaptive traits that correlate to  geography and the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, not race.

Fort Mose  

700-1400: Islamic Moors occupied parts of Iberia  

∙ Islamic Moors: Spanish term for people from north Africa

∙ Moors brought slaves and settlers of many nationalities, familiarizing Spain with Africans (both  free and enslaved) and with the practice of slavery.

∙ Slavery in Moorish Iberia was not defined by race or color. People of many nationalities and  races owned slaves and were enslaved.  

1440: Portuguese ruler Prince Henry the Navigator opened the African trade ∙ This led Portugal to control the slave trade in Iberia and in the early Americas.

1454 & 1456: Catholic popes declared enslavements of Africans was justified on the grounds  that it would bring them Christianity

1492: Spain had slaves who were Jewish, Moorish, “Turkish” (actually Egyptians, Syrians, and  Lebanese), white Christians (Sardinians, Greeks, Russians), Canary Island natives (Guanches),  and black Africans

∙ The Spanish slave code: provided slaves with specific rights

o Slaves could buy their own freedom

o Slaves could maintain family cohesiveness

o Slaves could sue their masters for mistreatment

∙ The Spanish slave code was brought to the Americas and differentiated the treatment of slaves  by the Spanish colonies and the English colonies.

1495: First slaves traveled across the Atlantic

∙ Caribbean Indians enslaved by Columbus

∙ Sent to Ferdinand and Isabella’s court

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 3

1496: Juan Garrido, a free African, made his way from Seville, Spain to Hispaniola ∙ Became known for exploits with Ponce de Leon’s Caribbean expeditions

∙ Joined Cortes in Mexico fighting battles at Tenochtitlan

1526: First African settlers came to the United States in South Carolina  

∙ Spanish explorer Vasquez de Allyon established the town of San Miguel de Gualdape in present day Georgia

∙ 500 Spaniards and 100 African laborers came with him

∙ Colony failed due to Indian hostility and a slave rebellion  

∙ Many Africans remained after escaping to forests to live in freedom with the Indians

1546: Governor of Chile gave Juan Valiente, black slave to Alonso Valiente, a large estate and  several Indian towns that had to pay him tribute.

∙ Joined many expeditions with his master, Alonso, and fought with Spanish soldiers in  Guatemala, Peru and Chile

∙ Married a free black woman, Juana de Valdivia

∙ Killed in action in 1553, still a slave

∙ Alonso sued for Juan’s property and tribute after death

1550s: Black skin came to be mentally associated with hard physical labor in the Americas

1565: Saint Augustine established in Spanish Florida  

∙ Africans from the Caribbean and South America along with Africa were part of the colony since  it was founded

1686: Spain announced that slaves would receive religious sanctuary

1687: First slaves arrived in Saint Augustine

1693: King Charles II of Spain issued royal proclamation in the status of runaways to Florida,  stating that they would “…give liberty to all…the men as well as the women…so that by their  example and by my liberality others will do the same…”

∙ By allowing refugees to come to Spanish Florida, the economy of English colonies suffered  ∙ Added skilled workers and Catholic converts to the Spanish colonies

1726: Francisco Menendez made Captain of the St. Augustine slave militia ∙ Was an escaped slave himself

1738: Over 100 enslaved Africans had escaped to Saint Augustine, prompting the Spanish  government to establish a fort and community two miles north of Saint Augustine, called Gracia  Real de Santa Teresa de Mose

∙ Many male fugitives from Carolina were made members of the Spanish slave militia  ∙ Members from the Spanish slave militia formed a free black company

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 4

∙ Menendez became captain of the Mose militia  

∙ 38 households of men, women and children at Mose

1740: English forces attacked St. Augustine, led by General James Oglethorpe of Georgia ∙ Captured Fort Mose

∙ Mose population escaped and joined St. Augustine  

∙ Oglethorpe’s men occupied Fort Most but were ultimately defeated  

∙ Fort Mose was left with extensive damage and the community was abandoned for 12 years

1752: Fort Mose was reconstructed at a slightly different location

∙ Former residents felt pressured by Spanish authorities to move back to Mose  ∙ Fort Mose served as the first line of defense against the English for St. Augustine ∙ Larger fort than the first, as it had a walled enclosure, a moat, and many buildings. One side was  open along a creek  

1763: Mose was abandoned as an African-American community

∙ The French and Indian war ended  

∙ The Treats of Paris gave Florida to England, and Cuba to Spain

∙ The people of Mose left and sailed to Cuba along with the 86 Indians who lived in St. Augustine ∙ English refurbished Fort Mose and used it as a fort

1784: Spaniards returned and used Mose as a military outpost

1812: Mose was destroyed and abandoned

∙ Fort was occupied by “Florida Patriots” who wanted to capture Florida for the United States ∙ They failed and the fort was destroyed by Spanish, African, and Indian troops. The fort fell into  ruin until it was rediscovered more than 150 years later.

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 5

The Nature of Culture

Culture: a set of shared understandings; consists of ideas in peoples’ heads

o Allows us to predict each other’s behavior and get along with one another

Linking understandings: understandings in a group that are not shared by all members of the group,  there are understandings that link one group to another  

o The more a society grows, the more complex it becomes and subgroups are created by  groups of people that share sets of understandings that are not shared by nonmembers o Linking understandings allow people to share a culture despite their society becoming  more specialized.

Shared understandings are identified as the cultural ideal, not the real.  

o Ideally, our shared understandings would align with physical and social realities and  every member would agree with them

Most societies do not function this way; there are usually those who disagree with certain  understandings and/or attempt to change these understandings

Enculturation: the way people acquire their culture, occurs through socialization

Socialization: the process by which we learn where we stand with regards to all other people, and how  we should operate in the world

o We are often not aware when we are learning our culture, making us believe that  culture in innate, or natural.

Sharing culture 

o Members of a society share a common set of understandings, allowing us to live  coherently and cooperatively

o Reduces conflicts that occur due to differing interests

Symbols of culture include: 

o Monuments, language, the way stories are told and metaphors used, body  modifications, clothing, flags, religious symbols, use of space

o Embody cultural understandings

o Similar symbols may have different meanings in different cultures

Cultural integration is never a complete or perfect process since culture is always changing. Culture is  integrated when people share common experiences.

o Achieved through:

▪ Common experiences

▪ Education/sharing knowledge in classroom setting

▪ News programs

▪ Family

▪ Valuing certain activities

Culture is conventional

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o Convention: a practice or understanding that we agree to use

o E.g.: Shaking hands as a way of greeting each other in the United States

Cultural relativism: the belief that one cannot understand another culture without first knowing the  cultural understandings of the people in it

Ethnocentrism: viewing things from your own culture’s perspective

o Leads to cultural-bound assumptions: our predisposition to view the world through our  own cultural lenses leads us to many cultural-bound assumptions, like how those in the  United States assume that women and children should always go first in an emergency

Cultural Understandings often overlap each other; these understandings allow us to understand the  social environment, physical environment, and our personal experiences

o Descriptive understandings 

▪ The basic beliefs we share within our own culture, such as Americans believing  in individualism

o Procedural understandings 

▪ Ideas about how things should be done

▪ May take the form of rituals in which a series of prescribed actions are followed o Normative understandings 

▪ Basic values that underlie our assumptions about what is good, right, beautiful  and desirable in life

African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, New York

∙ Rediscovered in 1991

∙ 6.6-acre plot of earth which held both free and enslaved Africans

∙ The remains of 419 people were found; possibly 20,000 graves total

∙ There were no headstones to identify those buried, but some African customs were telling of  who the deceased may have been and where they came from

∙ Most of the people were from West Africa and born in Africa

∙ Signs of murder were obvious in some of the bodies; most were plagued by signs of  malnourishment, arthritis, illness, infection and disease

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 7

Vodun

Vodun is also called Voodoo, Vodoun, Vodou

∙ Name derived from the god Vodun of the West African Yorbua people  

Roots go back 6,000 years in parts of Togo, Benin, and Nigeria

∙ Slaves carried this religion with them when they were taken to Haiti and the West Indies

Became legal to practice freely in Benin in 1989

o 60% of the population practice Vodun

o Declared the official religion of Benin in 1996

Over 60 million followers worldwide

∙ Religion can be found in large cities in the USA, especially in the South

∙ Vodun is practiced as a religion in Benin, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Haiti, Togo, and  various places in the US, primarily where Haitian refugees live

∙ Hollywood has created an evil, nonexistent version of the religion, referred to as Voodoo

Vodun Beliefs

∙ Each group follows a separate spiritual path and worships a different variation of spirits, which  are called Loa, which is Yoruba for “mystery.”

∙ Yoruba traditional belief

o A senior God Olorun

▪ Remote and unknowable

▪ Authorized a lesser God, Obatala, to make the earth and all forms of life

▪ Battle between Olorun and Obatala resulted in Obtala’s temporary banishment o Hundreds of minor spirits

▪ Those that originated from Dhaomey are called Rada

▪ Those who were later included tend to be deceased leaders in the new world,  called Petro

∙ Roman Catholicism and Vodun both:

o Believe in a supreme being

o Catholicism has saints, Vodun has the Loa; both were people who led incredible lives  and are ascribed a specific responsibility

o Both maintain there is life after death

o Both have a ritual sacrifice and consumption of flesh and blood

o Both believe there are invisible demons or evil spirits

∙ Vodun followers believe souls are composed of a “gros bon ange” (a big guardian angel) and a  “ti bon ange” (little guardian angel)

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 8

Vodun Rituals

∙ Male priests are houngan or hungan, female priests are mambo 

∙ Temple called Hounfour or humfort

o At the center of the temple is a pole, called poteau-mitan, where God and spirits  communicate with people

o An altar decorated with candles, pictures of Catholic saints, and symbols related to the  Loa

∙ Rituals include

o Feast before the ceremony

o Creation of a veve

▪ Veve: a pattern of flour or cornmeal on the floor, specific to the Loa that the  ritual is being conducted for

o Drums that have been cleansed and purified

o Chanting

o Dancing by the priest and the hounsis (students studying Vodun)

o Animal sacrifice

▪ Typically humanely killed

▪ Blood collected in a vessel

▪ Possessed dances may drink some of the blood, filling the hunger of the Loa ▪ Animal is then cooked and eaten

Evil Sorcery

∙ Houngan and mambos perform white magic, which is positive and results in healing and good  fortune

∙ Caplatas, or bokors, perform black magic or evil sorcery

∙ Vodun maintains that the dead can be brought back to life, but they will be zombies controlled  by others

o Zombies are actually people who did not die, but are heavily influenced by drugs given  by an evil sorcerer

o Few records of people who have become “zombies”

∙ The idea of “voodoo dolls” came from come followers in New Orleans that would stick pins in a  doll to curse an individual and is practiced sometimes in South America

o This practice became representative of Voodoo to the public through horror movies

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 9

Santeria

New World African-based religion with a clear dual heritage

First appeared in Cuba in the 1840s, when there was a large influx of Yoruba slaves2 

∙ Catholicism heavily influenced Santeria

∙ Yoruba pantheon deities, the Orisha, identified with the saints of Roman Catholicism

Santeria in Puerto Rico is called Santerismo 

∙ Cuban Santeria mixed with Puerto Rican style Espiritismo

Differences between Santeria and Santerismo3 

∙ Yoruba gods come down as spiritist centros

∙ Drums traditionally used may be replaced by recordings of cult music

∙ No collective dancing

∙ Saints have different personalities and are treated differently

∙ Specialized divination techniques are not used

Main characteristics of Santeria that remained:4 

∙ Names and personalities of the African deities

∙ Divination procedures

∙ Ceremonial spirit possession and trance

∙ Liturgical music and musical instruments

∙ Yoruba language

∙ Beliefs in ancestor veneration and reincarnation

∙ Dance as a vehicle of worship

∙ Sacrificial practices

∙ Herbal medicine and healing ritual

∙

Sacrificial Practices5 

∙ Ebo is the term for “sacrifice”

∙ Ebo includes offerings, sacrifices, and purification

∙ Ebo is a religious act that allows communication between people and spiritual beings through  ritual procedures; typically done on behalf of an individual in order to alter their condition, or on  behalf of objects with which they are concerned

∙ Sacrifices are necessary and important for followers, and failure to make ebo can result in the  divinities abandoning the neglectful follower

∙ Ebo is the only way for those suffering from illness, poverty, bad luck, or stress to alter their  fates

∙ Certain deities have to be “fed” by their priests at regular intervals, other sacrifices are  aperiodic, signaled by special events like personal, interpersonal, and spiritual problems  

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2 Africanisms 250-251 3 Africanisms 253

4 Africanisms 251-252 5 Africanisms 255-260

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE

requiring the advice of a diviner, or by initiations into the various ranks of the religion’s  membership.

Ebo Guoni6 

∙ “Reaching for the other world”

∙ Sacrifice done during the initiation of a priest

o Slaughter of a four-legged animal and a series of rites over three days

Ebo Yure 

∙ Sacrifice without a waiting period; all done in the same day

o Animal sacrifice followed by a drum dance, or bembe 

Ebo Itutu 

∙ Propitiatory sacrifice in a sequence of mortuary rites

Ebo Lire 

∙ Sacrifice to the head, a “strengthening” or “cleansing” of the head

Priest-diviners prescribe these sacrifices for illnesses, atonement, personal problems, and initiations7 ∙ Food plants and plant products: Cuban plantain, Malanga, yams, okra, lompe, sarguey, tea,  flour, gourds, oils, grass wet with dawn’s dew, and ground black-eyed peas wrapped in plantain  leaves and seasoned with salt

∙ Animals and objects used: Hens, roosters, pigeons, goats, mice, turtles, woodchucks, guinea  birds, scrubbing pads, pieces of wood, dirt from the corners of a house, money, a basket, a flag,  drums made from cowhide or the skin of a sacrificed goat, and candles

Sacrifices for offerings made to the deities and the dead (almost always offered in conjunction with  communal feasts)

∙ Bread, cigars, water, food cooked without salt, and candles

Many Cuban immigrants who brought Santeria with them to the United States practice as a way of  coping with being surrounded by a new culture and living in a foreign land8 

∙ They use rituals to cope with unemployment, illness, endangered personal relationships,  disappointed expectations, isolation, discrimination, etc.

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6 Africanisms 255 7 Africanisms 259

8 Africanisms 270

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Gullah

Gullah: African-based traditions, beliefs, and customs that incorporate elements of Christianity

∙ White plantation owners in the South Carolina/Georgia region had strong Christian roots. This  environment influenced enslaved Africans and integrated with their own cultural customs. ∙ Enslaved Africans were forced to work on plantations to grow indigo, rice, and cotton, beginning  in 1750

Gullah dialect consists of a mix between English and African languages

An estimated 500,000 to 750,000 people in the United States carry on the Gullah language and spiritual  traditions

Rhythm is important in celebrating Gullah

∙ Traditional dances are performed and dancers carry sticks to produce a rhythm

Gullah Attitudes toward Life and Death

There is a small community that still lives on the plantation that enslaved Africans were forced to work;  the land was granted to them during a dispute at the time of the Civil War. The community keeps the  Gullah traditions alive

∙ Fears of elimination are present among all those who live in the community; many outside  businesses want to purchase the land, ruining the cultural preservation that the community has  fought to protect  

Freedom was often discussed and focused on by Gullahs9 

∙ Acted as the theme for many Gullah spirituals

Gullah methods of admission to church membership

∙ Seekin’10: The time between an expressed desire to become a Christian and acceptance by the  elders of one’s religious experience; based on the Methodist phrase “to seek Jesus”

o Began with a personal decision not devoid of community pressure, followed by the  choosing of a lifelong “spiritual parent,” that taught the seeker correct conduct and  

“how to pray”

∙ Striving11: a long process of self-examination and solitary prayer ‘in the bush’

o Devotion during this stage is so important that even school is thought to interfere with  the action of the spirit

∙ Travel12: Each seeker meets with warnings and has a vision of a white man who warns and talks  with the seeker, eventually leading the seeker to a river. The spiritual parent decides when it is  complete when the seeker is ready to be presented to the praise house, where the house and  his committee examine the seeker until approving baptism.  

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9 Africanisms 158 10 Africanisms 164

11 Africanisms 164 12 Africanisms 165

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Africanisms and the Black Family

Melville Herskovits argued that the African family structure among blacks in the New World survived  and along with it many elements of their African Past

The family structure did endure a major change of the absence of the father13 

∙ Families were easily separated through sale during slavery

∙ While the mother and children would usually sold together, the fathers were often separated ∙ The bond between the mother and child strengthened as the role of the male diminished and  the role of the female grew dominant

Herskovits does not believe that slavery caused the maternal family, but it continued certain elements in  the cultural endowment brought to the New World by Africans, and that families of this type are not  African but they show important African survival traits and they show how new circumstances can  reinforce old traditions.

∙ Nanice L. Gonzales disagrees with Herskovits, stating that matrifocality formed as a result of  African migration into the New World under slavery14 

∙ Both Gonzales and Herskovits agree that matrifocality is common among persons of African  descent

Women in the West and Central African society control the local markets, giving them a large role in the  family economy15 

∙ North American slave women also operated similar markets for slaves, working the family patch  and selling items and animals in town

∙ Women were also responsible for cooking, raising the children, and transferring their culture to  the children

The concept of extended family was important in African culture and carried over to the United States16 ∙ Extended family consisted of two or more families of different generations united by  consequences of kinship ties in a common residence under a single head, and also several  brothers in the same compound with their families.

∙ In Africa, it is common for land to be held or owned by lineage groups. This communal  relationship recreates ties of lineage and of the extended family as they exist in Africa. Blood  relationships are replaced with community membership.

∙ In the Sea Islands, the elderly parents live in one residence while their children and  grandchildren live in another, allowing easy movement from one household to another along  with economic support and family participation in activities like fishing, hunting, and farming.17 

In the South, older males and females tend to be referred to as “aunty” and “uncle” as a sign of respect ∙ This tradition may be traced back to the bond established between men and women in costal  African factories that were established on the decks of the slave ships.18 

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13 Africanisms 188 14 Africanisms 189 15 Africanisms 189

16 Africanisms 189-190 17 Africanisms 190 18 Africanisms 190

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African custom of polygamy and black Americans19 

∙ Many African societies that were short of men practiced the concept of polygamy 

o Men could have as many wives as they could afford to maintain in their separate  

compounds

o This custom continued to influence Africans enslaved in Carolina, but planters regarded  it as a tradition of sexual promiscuity

Burial societies

Carter G. Woodson mentions that secret societies were developed around the idea of taking care of the  sick and dead20 

∙ Once they arrived in America, Africans were no longer allowed to continue secret functions, so  they created insurance and burial societies from these secret societies

Herskovits states that there were three major black insurance businesses21 

∙ The Afro-American

∙ The Knights and Daughters of Tabor

∙ The Universal Life Insurance Company

W.E.B. Du Bois declared that there was a direct connection between African secret societies and the  founding of Black Insurance companies in the United States22 

Sea Island Burial Practices

The preparation of the body23 

∙ A group of women would lay the body in the bed and bring in water for the final wash, use soap  and towels to wipe the body clean, and bring coffee to be placed under the arms, legs, and open  spaces before rubbing it over the body

∙ The body would be kept for two or three days  

∙ The women would then dress the body and place it in the casket

∙ Following preparation, they would sing and shout over the body until it was time for the funeral

The final wash would first take place, then the wake, where family, friends, guests, and members of the  burial society would sit around the dying person until their last breath. When they stopped breathing,  everyone in the room would shriek in order to notify that another soul had crossed over into the spirit  world.24 

Above-ground decorations—everything that the deceased person used—would be placed on the  grave.25 

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19 Africanisms 192-193 20 Africanisms 194 21 Africanisms 194 22 Africanisms 194

23 Africanisms 196-197 24 Africanisms 197 25 Africanisms 198

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Passing of Children over the Coffin

The child attending a funeral would be passed over the coffin in order to separate the spirits of the child  and the deceased26 

∙ The spirit of a child is believed to be weaker than that of the deceased, so the spirit of the dead  may attach to the child and cause them to be followed by the spirit of fall ill and die

∙ For this reason, children would be passed over the coffin at a funeral to protect the child and  sever the bond between the dead person and the living children, preventing the spirit from  coming back into the house. Children who were not passed over the coffin would be at risk of  passing away, because the person who has passed may love the child so much that they want to  take the child with them.27 

African Religious Retentions in Florida

The Eighteenth Century

Enslaved Africans in Florida experienced a slave system similar to that of Carolina and Georgia ∙ “Low-country” plantation system28 

o Those in the low-country system were said to have brought a stronger sense of West  African culture with them to the plantations where they lived and worked than other  

enslaved Africans elsewhere in the country.

o Slaveholders noticed a distinct language and speech style among slaves in the low

country,

Maroon tradition was established in Florida by black fugitives from South Carolina and Georgia, where  many slaves were able to receive asylum under Spanish rule in St. Augustine. 29 

1764-1773: peak of colonial import trade in slaves30 

∙ During 21 year occupation of Florida by the British  

∙ Refugee Loyalists are thought to have brought slaves to Florida directly from Africa to be sold

The Nineteenth Century

Zephaniah Kingsley31 

∙ Slave owner and importer

∙ Brought about 50 Africans to Florida to work for him

∙ Did not interfere with their culture while working for him; maintained a policy of 

“nonintervention” 

o Did not interfere with their connubial concerns or domestic affairs and allowed them to  continue living by their culture while they worked

o Slaves continued their native dances, African styles of worship, and indigenous religious  patterns

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29 Africanisms 227 30 Africanisms 227 31 Africanisms 229

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Some fugitives that came to Florida settled in “Negro towns,” similar to “Indian towns” ∙ Africans and Native Americans in Spanish Florida had a good relationship

Florida became part of the United States in 1821

Many Christians, both black and white, before and after the Civil War, held cultural folk beliefs that held  considerable power and heavily influenced their lives and religious practices

∙ Beliefs in medicine men, root doctors, and voodoo deaths, as explained in the example of the  two young girls on the Leon County plantation32 

Beginning during the Reconstruction and continuing after, black ministers believed in the power of  Divine Providence (a higher power) and folk beliefs33 

In the late nineteenth century, basket-making styles, grave markers, mortuary customs, and  shouting/spirit possessions became apparent in African American rituals

Spirit Possession and Ritual Ecstatic Dance

High Emotionalism34 

∙ Commonly associated with black religious life

∙ Black churches in Florida have been known for their frequency, long duration, and emotionality o “Emotionality” includes clapping, screaming, fainting, singing, dancing, jumping, etc. o Many white Christians criticized this way of worship

∙ Common in Baptist and Methodist denominations

∙ The Gullah-speaking black people of the Sea Islands also perform the ring shout ritual35 o The ritual is a ceremony representing the survival of African tradition in the New World o Called the “ring shout” because in antebellum times, the physical form of the shout was  an actual ring, as the furniture in the cabins would be moved to the side and leave an  

empty space in the center of the building.

∙ Possession behaviors would be learned informally as well as formally

∙ Drums would product a beat that contains multiple frequencies transmitted along different  nerve pathways in the brain, making it possible to transmit more energy to the brain than with a  high frequency noise.

o Drum rhythms would be used in a consistent rhythm to produce a state of  

disassociation/trance

o Beats with around seven to nine cycles per second causes possession behavior

Death, Burial, and Funeral Rites

Often, slaves in the lower South would distinguish between “burying” and “preaching the funeral”36 ∙ May be two to three months after the burying until the funeral sermon is preached  ∙ The Igbo society in Africa traditionally practiced a “second burial”

o Believed that without a proper second burial, the extended family of the deceased  would be harassed and victimized by the spirit of the dead, who would be unable to find  rest.

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∙ In Florida, some free slaves had been observed repreaching a funeral service for a deceased  child, who had already been buried and preached over two months prior. This resembled the  Igbo’s “second burial”

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 17

Highlighted People, Concepts and Terms

The following is a complete list of the people, concepts, and key terms highlighted in the notes above,  along with the page numbers on which they appear.

Melville Herskovits 2, 13, 14

E. Franklin Frazier 2

Carter G. Woodson 2, 14

W.E.B. Du Bois 2, 14

Prince Henry the Navigator 3

Juan Garrido 4

Vasquez de Allyon 4

Juan Valiente 4

King Charles II of Spain 4

Nanice L. Gonzales 13

Zephaniah Kingsley 15

Myth of the Negro past 2

Definition of race through genetic  variations 3

Sharing culture 6

Cultural integration 6

Symbols of culture 6

Cultural understandings 7

African family structure 13

African women’s role in local markets 13 Extended Family 13

“Aunty” and “Uncle” 13

Polygamy 14

“Low-country” plantation system 15 High emotionalism 16

“Burying” and “preaching the funeral” 16

Population biology 3

The Essentialist theory 3 Islamic Moors 3

Spanish Slave Code 3

Culture 6

Linking understandings 6 Shared understandings 6 Enculturation 6

Socialization 6

Convention 7

Cultural relativism 7

Ethnocentrism 7

Descriptive understandings 7 Procedural understandings 7 Normative understandings 7 Loa 8

Houngan 9

Mambo 9

Hounfour 9

Poteau-mitan 9

Veve 9

Hounsis 9

Caplatas 9

Orisha 10

Santerismo 10

Ebo 10

Ebo Guoni 11

Ebo Yure 11

Ebo Itutu 11

Ebo Lire 11

Bembe 11

Gullah 12

Seekin’ 12

Travel 12

Striving 12

Black insurance businesses 14 Policy of Nonintervention 15 Emotionality 16

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 18

Midterm Study Guide

ANT 4315 Review of all materials from weeks 1 through 9

Words and phrases highlighted in yellow are key terms

Words and phrases highlighted in blue are key concepts

Words and phrases highlighted in green are important people

Table of Contents

The Myth of the Negro Past..........................................................................................................................2 American Anthropological Association.........................................................................................................3 Fort Mose......................................................................................................................................................3 The Nature of Culture ...................................................................................................................................6 African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, New York ................................................................................7 Vodun............................................................................................................................................................8

Vodun Beliefs............................................................................................................................................8 Vodun Rituals............................................................................................................................................9 Evil Sorcery................................................................................................................................................9

Santeria .......................................................................................................................................................10 Sacrificial Practices..................................................................................................................................10 Gullah..........................................................................................................................................................12 Gullah Attitudes toward Life and Death .................................................................................................12 Africanisms and the Black Family............................................................................................................13 African custom of polygamy and black Americans.................................................................................14 Burial societies........................................................................................................................................14 Sea Island Burial Practices.......................................................................................................................14 Passing of Children over the Coffin.........................................................................................................15 African Religious Retentions in Florida .......................................................................................................15 The Eighteenth Century ..........................................................................................................................15 The Nineteenth Century .........................................................................................................................15 Spirit Possession and Ritual Ecstatic Dance............................................................................................16 Death, Burial, and Funeral Rites .............................................................................................................16 Highlighted People, Concepts and Terms...................................................................................................18

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 1

The Myth of the Negro Past1 

Melville Herskovits 

∙ Anthropologist and student of Franz Boas

∙ Used the term The Myth of the Negro Past to refer to the belief that African Americans were  inferior due to their deprivation of any culture of their own, and because they had to adopt  European Culture that did not suit them, they were considered inadequate as people

The Myth of the Negro Past 

1. Blacks were childlike and adaptable to many situations, including slavery.

2. Those Africans enslaved were the less intelligent members of the community—those unclever  enough to get caught.

3. The regional diversity of slaves meant that there was no common cultural background among  them.

4. Any residual African traits would have been so inferior that the slaves would have given them  up in favor of the superior European customs.

5. “The Negro is thus a man without a past.”

E. Franklin Frazier 

∙ Sociologist

∙ Claimed that virtually no African culture remained, which was a strong disadvantage to blacks in  the United States

∙ Saw African culture as lost in America and lacked understanding of culture and its durability

Carter G. Woodson 

∙ First descendant of a slave to receive a Ph.D. in 1912

∙ Founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History

∙ Originator of Black History Week, which later went on to become Black History Month. ∙ Published The African Background Outlined, which provided proof of African American’s  accomplishments and worked to disprove “the myth of the Negro Past”.

W.E.B. Du Bois 

∙ First African American to receive a Ph.D.

∙ Published Black Folk: Then and Now in 1939, which gave depth to African and African American  History.

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American Anthropological Association

∙ Defines race through genetic variations: genetic variations such as Europeans and Asians are  subsets of the variation in the African population

∙ Population biology defines race by a cluster of local populations that differ genetically from  other clusters of local populations. A race is defined to be the entire group. This concept implies  that each race evolves exhibiting the same amount of uniqueness.  

∙ The essentialist concept defines race as a division of human species based on differences in  physical traits that are determined by heredity. The races are then subdivided into primary/ideal  types and secondary races that are mixtures of the primary races.

∙ Anthropologists believe that variations in human skin are adaptive traits that correlate to  geography and the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, not race.

Fort Mose  

700-1400: Islamic Moors occupied parts of Iberia  

∙ Islamic Moors: Spanish term for people from north Africa

∙ Moors brought slaves and settlers of many nationalities, familiarizing Spain with Africans (both  free and enslaved) and with the practice of slavery.

∙ Slavery in Moorish Iberia was not defined by race or color. People of many nationalities and  races owned slaves and were enslaved.  

1440: Portuguese ruler Prince Henry the Navigator opened the African trade ∙ This led Portugal to control the slave trade in Iberia and in the early Americas.

1454 & 1456: Catholic popes declared enslavements of Africans was justified on the grounds  that it would bring them Christianity

1492: Spain had slaves who were Jewish, Moorish, “Turkish” (actually Egyptians, Syrians, and  Lebanese), white Christians (Sardinians, Greeks, Russians), Canary Island natives (Guanches),  and black Africans

∙ The Spanish slave code: provided slaves with specific rights

o Slaves could buy their own freedom

o Slaves could maintain family cohesiveness

o Slaves could sue their masters for mistreatment

∙ The Spanish slave code was brought to the Americas and differentiated the treatment of slaves  by the Spanish colonies and the English colonies.

1495: First slaves traveled across the Atlantic

∙ Caribbean Indians enslaved by Columbus

∙ Sent to Ferdinand and Isabella’s court

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1496: Juan Garrido, a free African, made his way from Seville, Spain to Hispaniola ∙ Became known for exploits with Ponce de Leon’s Caribbean expeditions

∙ Joined Cortes in Mexico fighting battles at Tenochtitlan

1526: First African settlers came to the United States in South Carolina  

∙ Spanish explorer Vasquez de Allyon established the town of San Miguel de Gualdape in present day Georgia

∙ 500 Spaniards and 100 African laborers came with him

∙ Colony failed due to Indian hostility and a slave rebellion  

∙ Many Africans remained after escaping to forests to live in freedom with the Indians

1546: Governor of Chile gave Juan Valiente, black slave to Alonso Valiente, a large estate and  several Indian towns that had to pay him tribute.

∙ Joined many expeditions with his master, Alonso, and fought with Spanish soldiers in  Guatemala, Peru and Chile

∙ Married a free black woman, Juana de Valdivia

∙ Killed in action in 1553, still a slave

∙ Alonso sued for Juan’s property and tribute after death

1550s: Black skin came to be mentally associated with hard physical labor in the Americas

1565: Saint Augustine established in Spanish Florida  

∙ Africans from the Caribbean and South America along with Africa were part of the colony since  it was founded

1686: Spain announced that slaves would receive religious sanctuary

1687: First slaves arrived in Saint Augustine

1693: King Charles II of Spain issued royal proclamation in the status of runaways to Florida,  stating that they would “…give liberty to all…the men as well as the women…so that by their  example and by my liberality others will do the same…”

∙ By allowing refugees to come to Spanish Florida, the economy of English colonies suffered  ∙ Added skilled workers and Catholic converts to the Spanish colonies

1726: Francisco Menendez made Captain of the St. Augustine slave militia ∙ Was an escaped slave himself

1738: Over 100 enslaved Africans had escaped to Saint Augustine, prompting the Spanish  government to establish a fort and community two miles north of Saint Augustine, called Gracia  Real de Santa Teresa de Mose

∙ Many male fugitives from Carolina were made members of the Spanish slave militia  ∙ Members from the Spanish slave militia formed a free black company

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 4

∙ Menendez became captain of the Mose militia  

∙ 38 households of men, women and children at Mose

1740: English forces attacked St. Augustine, led by General James Oglethorpe of Georgia ∙ Captured Fort Mose

∙ Mose population escaped and joined St. Augustine  

∙ Oglethorpe’s men occupied Fort Most but were ultimately defeated  

∙ Fort Mose was left with extensive damage and the community was abandoned for 12 years

1752: Fort Mose was reconstructed at a slightly different location

∙ Former residents felt pressured by Spanish authorities to move back to Mose  ∙ Fort Mose served as the first line of defense against the English for St. Augustine ∙ Larger fort than the first, as it had a walled enclosure, a moat, and many buildings. One side was  open along a creek  

1763: Mose was abandoned as an African-American community

∙ The French and Indian war ended  

∙ The Treats of Paris gave Florida to England, and Cuba to Spain

∙ The people of Mose left and sailed to Cuba along with the 86 Indians who lived in St. Augustine ∙ English refurbished Fort Mose and used it as a fort

1784: Spaniards returned and used Mose as a military outpost

1812: Mose was destroyed and abandoned

∙ Fort was occupied by “Florida Patriots” who wanted to capture Florida for the United States ∙ They failed and the fort was destroyed by Spanish, African, and Indian troops. The fort fell into  ruin until it was rediscovered more than 150 years later.

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 5

The Nature of Culture

Culture: a set of shared understandings; consists of ideas in peoples’ heads

o Allows us to predict each other’s behavior and get along with one another

Linking understandings: understandings in a group that are not shared by all members of the group,  there are understandings that link one group to another  

o The more a society grows, the more complex it becomes and subgroups are created by  groups of people that share sets of understandings that are not shared by nonmembers o Linking understandings allow people to share a culture despite their society becoming  more specialized.

Shared understandings are identified as the cultural ideal, not the real.  

o Ideally, our shared understandings would align with physical and social realities and  every member would agree with them

Most societies do not function this way; there are usually those who disagree with certain  understandings and/or attempt to change these understandings

Enculturation: the way people acquire their culture, occurs through socialization

Socialization: the process by which we learn where we stand with regards to all other people, and how  we should operate in the world

o We are often not aware when we are learning our culture, making us believe that  culture in innate, or natural.

Sharing culture 

o Members of a society share a common set of understandings, allowing us to live  coherently and cooperatively

o Reduces conflicts that occur due to differing interests

Symbols of culture include: 

o Monuments, language, the way stories are told and metaphors used, body  modifications, clothing, flags, religious symbols, use of space

o Embody cultural understandings

o Similar symbols may have different meanings in different cultures

Cultural integration is never a complete or perfect process since culture is always changing. Culture is  integrated when people share common experiences.

o Achieved through:

▪ Common experiences

▪ Education/sharing knowledge in classroom setting

▪ News programs

▪ Family

▪ Valuing certain activities

Culture is conventional

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o Convention: a practice or understanding that we agree to use

o E.g.: Shaking hands as a way of greeting each other in the United States

Cultural relativism: the belief that one cannot understand another culture without first knowing the  cultural understandings of the people in it

Ethnocentrism: viewing things from your own culture’s perspective

o Leads to cultural-bound assumptions: our predisposition to view the world through our  own cultural lenses leads us to many cultural-bound assumptions, like how those in the  United States assume that women and children should always go first in an emergency

Cultural Understandings often overlap each other; these understandings allow us to understand the  social environment, physical environment, and our personal experiences

o Descriptive understandings 

▪ The basic beliefs we share within our own culture, such as Americans believing  in individualism

o Procedural understandings 

▪ Ideas about how things should be done

▪ May take the form of rituals in which a series of prescribed actions are followed o Normative understandings 

▪ Basic values that underlie our assumptions about what is good, right, beautiful  and desirable in life

African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, New York

∙ Rediscovered in 1991

∙ 6.6-acre plot of earth which held both free and enslaved Africans

∙ The remains of 419 people were found; possibly 20,000 graves total

∙ There were no headstones to identify those buried, but some African customs were telling of  who the deceased may have been and where they came from

∙ Most of the people were from West Africa and born in Africa

∙ Signs of murder were obvious in some of the bodies; most were plagued by signs of  malnourishment, arthritis, illness, infection and disease

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 7

Vodun

Vodun is also called Voodoo, Vodoun, Vodou

∙ Name derived from the god Vodun of the West African Yorbua people  

Roots go back 6,000 years in parts of Togo, Benin, and Nigeria

∙ Slaves carried this religion with them when they were taken to Haiti and the West Indies

Became legal to practice freely in Benin in 1989

o 60% of the population practice Vodun

o Declared the official religion of Benin in 1996

Over 60 million followers worldwide

∙ Religion can be found in large cities in the USA, especially in the South

∙ Vodun is practiced as a religion in Benin, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Haiti, Togo, and  various places in the US, primarily where Haitian refugees live

∙ Hollywood has created an evil, nonexistent version of the religion, referred to as Voodoo

Vodun Beliefs

∙ Each group follows a separate spiritual path and worships a different variation of spirits, which  are called Loa, which is Yoruba for “mystery.”

∙ Yoruba traditional belief

o A senior God Olorun

▪ Remote and unknowable

▪ Authorized a lesser God, Obatala, to make the earth and all forms of life

▪ Battle between Olorun and Obatala resulted in Obtala’s temporary banishment o Hundreds of minor spirits

▪ Those that originated from Dhaomey are called Rada

▪ Those who were later included tend to be deceased leaders in the new world,  called Petro

∙ Roman Catholicism and Vodun both:

o Believe in a supreme being

o Catholicism has saints, Vodun has the Loa; both were people who led incredible lives  and are ascribed a specific responsibility

o Both maintain there is life after death

o Both have a ritual sacrifice and consumption of flesh and blood

o Both believe there are invisible demons or evil spirits

∙ Vodun followers believe souls are composed of a “gros bon ange” (a big guardian angel) and a  “ti bon ange” (little guardian angel)

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 8

Vodun Rituals

∙ Male priests are houngan or hungan, female priests are mambo 

∙ Temple called Hounfour or humfort

o At the center of the temple is a pole, called poteau-mitan, where God and spirits  communicate with people

o An altar decorated with candles, pictures of Catholic saints, and symbols related to the  Loa

∙ Rituals include

o Feast before the ceremony

o Creation of a veve

▪ Veve: a pattern of flour or cornmeal on the floor, specific to the Loa that the  ritual is being conducted for

o Drums that have been cleansed and purified

o Chanting

o Dancing by the priest and the hounsis (students studying Vodun)

o Animal sacrifice

▪ Typically humanely killed

▪ Blood collected in a vessel

▪ Possessed dances may drink some of the blood, filling the hunger of the Loa ▪ Animal is then cooked and eaten

Evil Sorcery

∙ Houngan and mambos perform white magic, which is positive and results in healing and good  fortune

∙ Caplatas, or bokors, perform black magic or evil sorcery

∙ Vodun maintains that the dead can be brought back to life, but they will be zombies controlled  by others

o Zombies are actually people who did not die, but are heavily influenced by drugs given  by an evil sorcerer

o Few records of people who have become “zombies”

∙ The idea of “voodoo dolls” came from come followers in New Orleans that would stick pins in a  doll to curse an individual and is practiced sometimes in South America

o This practice became representative of Voodoo to the public through horror movies

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 9

Santeria

New World African-based religion with a clear dual heritage

First appeared in Cuba in the 1840s, when there was a large influx of Yoruba slaves2 

∙ Catholicism heavily influenced Santeria

∙ Yoruba pantheon deities, the Orisha, identified with the saints of Roman Catholicism

Santeria in Puerto Rico is called Santerismo 

∙ Cuban Santeria mixed with Puerto Rican style Espiritismo

Differences between Santeria and Santerismo3 

∙ Yoruba gods come down as spiritist centros

∙ Drums traditionally used may be replaced by recordings of cult music

∙ No collective dancing

∙ Saints have different personalities and are treated differently

∙ Specialized divination techniques are not used

Main characteristics of Santeria that remained:4 

∙ Names and personalities of the African deities

∙ Divination procedures

∙ Ceremonial spirit possession and trance

∙ Liturgical music and musical instruments

∙ Yoruba language

∙ Beliefs in ancestor veneration and reincarnation

∙ Dance as a vehicle of worship

∙ Sacrificial practices

∙ Herbal medicine and healing ritual

∙

Sacrificial Practices5 

∙ Ebo is the term for “sacrifice”

∙ Ebo includes offerings, sacrifices, and purification

∙ Ebo is a religious act that allows communication between people and spiritual beings through  ritual procedures; typically done on behalf of an individual in order to alter their condition, or on  behalf of objects with which they are concerned

∙ Sacrifices are necessary and important for followers, and failure to make ebo can result in the  divinities abandoning the neglectful follower

∙ Ebo is the only way for those suffering from illness, poverty, bad luck, or stress to alter their  fates

∙ Certain deities have to be “fed” by their priests at regular intervals, other sacrifices are  aperiodic, signaled by special events like personal, interpersonal, and spiritual problems  

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ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE

requiring the advice of a diviner, or by initiations into the various ranks of the religion’s  membership.

Ebo Guoni6 

∙ “Reaching for the other world”

∙ Sacrifice done during the initiation of a priest

o Slaughter of a four-legged animal and a series of rites over three days

Ebo Yure 

∙ Sacrifice without a waiting period; all done in the same day

o Animal sacrifice followed by a drum dance, or bembe 

Ebo Itutu 

∙ Propitiatory sacrifice in a sequence of mortuary rites

Ebo Lire 

∙ Sacrifice to the head, a “strengthening” or “cleansing” of the head

Priest-diviners prescribe these sacrifices for illnesses, atonement, personal problems, and initiations7 ∙ Food plants and plant products: Cuban plantain, Malanga, yams, okra, lompe, sarguey, tea,  flour, gourds, oils, grass wet with dawn’s dew, and ground black-eyed peas wrapped in plantain  leaves and seasoned with salt

∙ Animals and objects used: Hens, roosters, pigeons, goats, mice, turtles, woodchucks, guinea  birds, scrubbing pads, pieces of wood, dirt from the corners of a house, money, a basket, a flag,  drums made from cowhide or the skin of a sacrificed goat, and candles

Sacrifices for offerings made to the deities and the dead (almost always offered in conjunction with  communal feasts)

∙ Bread, cigars, water, food cooked without salt, and candles

Many Cuban immigrants who brought Santeria with them to the United States practice as a way of  coping with being surrounded by a new culture and living in a foreign land8 

∙ They use rituals to cope with unemployment, illness, endangered personal relationships,  disappointed expectations, isolation, discrimination, etc.

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Gullah

Gullah: African-based traditions, beliefs, and customs that incorporate elements of Christianity

∙ White plantation owners in the South Carolina/Georgia region had strong Christian roots. This  environment influenced enslaved Africans and integrated with their own cultural customs. ∙ Enslaved Africans were forced to work on plantations to grow indigo, rice, and cotton, beginning  in 1750

Gullah dialect consists of a mix between English and African languages

An estimated 500,000 to 750,000 people in the United States carry on the Gullah language and spiritual  traditions

Rhythm is important in celebrating Gullah

∙ Traditional dances are performed and dancers carry sticks to produce a rhythm

Gullah Attitudes toward Life and Death

There is a small community that still lives on the plantation that enslaved Africans were forced to work;  the land was granted to them during a dispute at the time of the Civil War. The community keeps the  Gullah traditions alive

∙ Fears of elimination are present among all those who live in the community; many outside  businesses want to purchase the land, ruining the cultural preservation that the community has  fought to protect  

Freedom was often discussed and focused on by Gullahs9 

∙ Acted as the theme for many Gullah spirituals

Gullah methods of admission to church membership

∙ Seekin’10: The time between an expressed desire to become a Christian and acceptance by the  elders of one’s religious experience; based on the Methodist phrase “to seek Jesus”

o Began with a personal decision not devoid of community pressure, followed by the  choosing of a lifelong “spiritual parent,” that taught the seeker correct conduct and  

“how to pray”

∙ Striving11: a long process of self-examination and solitary prayer ‘in the bush’

o Devotion during this stage is so important that even school is thought to interfere with  the action of the spirit

∙ Travel12: Each seeker meets with warnings and has a vision of a white man who warns and talks  with the seeker, eventually leading the seeker to a river. The spiritual parent decides when it is  complete when the seeker is ready to be presented to the praise house, where the house and  his committee examine the seeker until approving baptism.  

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Africanisms and the Black Family

Melville Herskovits argued that the African family structure among blacks in the New World survived  and along with it many elements of their African Past

The family structure did endure a major change of the absence of the father13 

∙ Families were easily separated through sale during slavery

∙ While the mother and children would usually sold together, the fathers were often separated ∙ The bond between the mother and child strengthened as the role of the male diminished and  the role of the female grew dominant

Herskovits does not believe that slavery caused the maternal family, but it continued certain elements in  the cultural endowment brought to the New World by Africans, and that families of this type are not  African but they show important African survival traits and they show how new circumstances can  reinforce old traditions.

∙ Nanice L. Gonzales disagrees with Herskovits, stating that matrifocality formed as a result of  African migration into the New World under slavery14 

∙ Both Gonzales and Herskovits agree that matrifocality is common among persons of African  descent

Women in the West and Central African society control the local markets, giving them a large role in the  family economy15 

∙ North American slave women also operated similar markets for slaves, working the family patch  and selling items and animals in town

∙ Women were also responsible for cooking, raising the children, and transferring their culture to  the children

The concept of extended family was important in African culture and carried over to the United States16 ∙ Extended family consisted of two or more families of different generations united by  consequences of kinship ties in a common residence under a single head, and also several  brothers in the same compound with their families.

∙ In Africa, it is common for land to be held or owned by lineage groups. This communal  relationship recreates ties of lineage and of the extended family as they exist in Africa. Blood  relationships are replaced with community membership.

∙ In the Sea Islands, the elderly parents live in one residence while their children and  grandchildren live in another, allowing easy movement from one household to another along  with economic support and family participation in activities like fishing, hunting, and farming.17 

In the South, older males and females tend to be referred to as “aunty” and “uncle” as a sign of respect ∙ This tradition may be traced back to the bond established between men and women in costal  African factories that were established on the decks of the slave ships.18 

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16 Africanisms 189-190 17 Africanisms 190 18 Africanisms 190

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African custom of polygamy and black Americans19 

∙ Many African societies that were short of men practiced the concept of polygamy 

o Men could have as many wives as they could afford to maintain in their separate  

compounds

o This custom continued to influence Africans enslaved in Carolina, but planters regarded  it as a tradition of sexual promiscuity

Burial societies

Carter G. Woodson mentions that secret societies were developed around the idea of taking care of the  sick and dead20 

∙ Once they arrived in America, Africans were no longer allowed to continue secret functions, so  they created insurance and burial societies from these secret societies

Herskovits states that there were three major black insurance businesses21 

∙ The Afro-American

∙ The Knights and Daughters of Tabor

∙ The Universal Life Insurance Company

W.E.B. Du Bois declared that there was a direct connection between African secret societies and the  founding of Black Insurance companies in the United States22 

Sea Island Burial Practices

The preparation of the body23 

∙ A group of women would lay the body in the bed and bring in water for the final wash, use soap  and towels to wipe the body clean, and bring coffee to be placed under the arms, legs, and open  spaces before rubbing it over the body

∙ The body would be kept for two or three days  

∙ The women would then dress the body and place it in the casket

∙ Following preparation, they would sing and shout over the body until it was time for the funeral

The final wash would first take place, then the wake, where family, friends, guests, and members of the  burial society would sit around the dying person until their last breath. When they stopped breathing,  everyone in the room would shriek in order to notify that another soul had crossed over into the spirit  world.24 

Above-ground decorations—everything that the deceased person used—would be placed on the  grave.25 

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Passing of Children over the Coffin

The child attending a funeral would be passed over the coffin in order to separate the spirits of the child  and the deceased26 

∙ The spirit of a child is believed to be weaker than that of the deceased, so the spirit of the dead  may attach to the child and cause them to be followed by the spirit of fall ill and die

∙ For this reason, children would be passed over the coffin at a funeral to protect the child and  sever the bond between the dead person and the living children, preventing the spirit from  coming back into the house. Children who were not passed over the coffin would be at risk of  passing away, because the person who has passed may love the child so much that they want to  take the child with them.27 

African Religious Retentions in Florida

The Eighteenth Century

Enslaved Africans in Florida experienced a slave system similar to that of Carolina and Georgia ∙ “Low-country” plantation system28 

o Those in the low-country system were said to have brought a stronger sense of West  African culture with them to the plantations where they lived and worked than other  

enslaved Africans elsewhere in the country.

o Slaveholders noticed a distinct language and speech style among slaves in the low

country,

Maroon tradition was established in Florida by black fugitives from South Carolina and Georgia, where  many slaves were able to receive asylum under Spanish rule in St. Augustine. 29 

1764-1773: peak of colonial import trade in slaves30 

∙ During 21 year occupation of Florida by the British  

∙ Refugee Loyalists are thought to have brought slaves to Florida directly from Africa to be sold

The Nineteenth Century

Zephaniah Kingsley31 

∙ Slave owner and importer

∙ Brought about 50 Africans to Florida to work for him

∙ Did not interfere with their culture while working for him; maintained a policy of 

“nonintervention” 

o Did not interfere with their connubial concerns or domestic affairs and allowed them to  continue living by their culture while they worked

o Slaves continued their native dances, African styles of worship, and indigenous religious  patterns

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Some fugitives that came to Florida settled in “Negro towns,” similar to “Indian towns” ∙ Africans and Native Americans in Spanish Florida had a good relationship

Florida became part of the United States in 1821

Many Christians, both black and white, before and after the Civil War, held cultural folk beliefs that held  considerable power and heavily influenced their lives and religious practices

∙ Beliefs in medicine men, root doctors, and voodoo deaths, as explained in the example of the  two young girls on the Leon County plantation32 

Beginning during the Reconstruction and continuing after, black ministers believed in the power of  Divine Providence (a higher power) and folk beliefs33 

In the late nineteenth century, basket-making styles, grave markers, mortuary customs, and  shouting/spirit possessions became apparent in African American rituals

Spirit Possession and Ritual Ecstatic Dance

High Emotionalism34 

∙ Commonly associated with black religious life

∙ Black churches in Florida have been known for their frequency, long duration, and emotionality o “Emotionality” includes clapping, screaming, fainting, singing, dancing, jumping, etc. o Many white Christians criticized this way of worship

∙ Common in Baptist and Methodist denominations

∙ The Gullah-speaking black people of the Sea Islands also perform the ring shout ritual35 o The ritual is a ceremony representing the survival of African tradition in the New World o Called the “ring shout” because in antebellum times, the physical form of the shout was  an actual ring, as the furniture in the cabins would be moved to the side and leave an  

empty space in the center of the building.

∙ Possession behaviors would be learned informally as well as formally

∙ Drums would product a beat that contains multiple frequencies transmitted along different  nerve pathways in the brain, making it possible to transmit more energy to the brain than with a  high frequency noise.

o Drum rhythms would be used in a consistent rhythm to produce a state of  

disassociation/trance

o Beats with around seven to nine cycles per second causes possession behavior

Death, Burial, and Funeral Rites

Often, slaves in the lower South would distinguish between “burying” and “preaching the funeral”36 ∙ May be two to three months after the burying until the funeral sermon is preached  ∙ The Igbo society in Africa traditionally practiced a “second burial”

o Believed that without a proper second burial, the extended family of the deceased  would be harassed and victimized by the spirit of the dead, who would be unable to find  rest.

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∙ In Florida, some free slaves had been observed repreaching a funeral service for a deceased  child, who had already been buried and preached over two months prior. This resembled the  Igbo’s “second burial”

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 17

Highlighted People, Concepts and Terms

The following is a complete list of the people, concepts, and key terms highlighted in the notes above,  along with the page numbers on which they appear.

Melville Herskovits 2, 13, 14

E. Franklin Frazier 2

Carter G. Woodson 2, 14

W.E.B. Du Bois 2, 14

Prince Henry the Navigator 3

Juan Garrido 4

Vasquez de Allyon 4

Juan Valiente 4

King Charles II of Spain 4

Nanice L. Gonzales 13

Zephaniah Kingsley 15

Myth of the Negro past 2

Definition of race through genetic  variations 3

Sharing culture 6

Cultural integration 6

Symbols of culture 6

Cultural understandings 7

African family structure 13

African women’s role in local markets 13 Extended Family 13

“Aunty” and “Uncle” 13

Polygamy 14

“Low-country” plantation system 15 High emotionalism 16

“Burying” and “preaching the funeral” 16

Population biology 3

The Essentialist theory 3 Islamic Moors 3

Spanish Slave Code 3

Culture 6

Linking understandings 6 Shared understandings 6 Enculturation 6

Socialization 6

Convention 7

Cultural relativism 7

Ethnocentrism 7

Descriptive understandings 7 Procedural understandings 7 Normative understandings 7 Loa 8

Houngan 9

Mambo 9

Hounfour 9

Poteau-mitan 9

Veve 9

Hounsis 9

Caplatas 9

Orisha 10

Santerismo 10

Ebo 10

Ebo Guoni 11

Ebo Yure 11

Ebo Itutu 11

Ebo Lire 11

Bembe 11

Gullah 12

Seekin’ 12

Travel 12

Striving 12

Black insurance businesses 14 Policy of Nonintervention 15 Emotionality 16

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 18

Midterm Study Guide

ANT 4315 Review of all materials from weeks 1 through 9

Words and phrases highlighted in yellow are key terms

Words and phrases highlighted in blue are key concepts

Words and phrases highlighted in green are important people

Table of Contents

The Myth of the Negro Past..........................................................................................................................2 American Anthropological Association.........................................................................................................3 Fort Mose......................................................................................................................................................3 The Nature of Culture ...................................................................................................................................6 African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, New York ................................................................................7 Vodun............................................................................................................................................................8

Vodun Beliefs............................................................................................................................................8 Vodun Rituals............................................................................................................................................9 Evil Sorcery................................................................................................................................................9

Santeria .......................................................................................................................................................10 Sacrificial Practices..................................................................................................................................10 Gullah..........................................................................................................................................................12 Gullah Attitudes toward Life and Death .................................................................................................12 Africanisms and the Black Family............................................................................................................13 African custom of polygamy and black Americans.................................................................................14 Burial societies........................................................................................................................................14 Sea Island Burial Practices.......................................................................................................................14 Passing of Children over the Coffin.........................................................................................................15 African Religious Retentions in Florida .......................................................................................................15 The Eighteenth Century ..........................................................................................................................15 The Nineteenth Century .........................................................................................................................15 Spirit Possession and Ritual Ecstatic Dance............................................................................................16 Death, Burial, and Funeral Rites .............................................................................................................16 Highlighted People, Concepts and Terms...................................................................................................18

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 1

The Myth of the Negro Past1 

Melville Herskovits 

∙ Anthropologist and student of Franz Boas

∙ Used the term The Myth of the Negro Past to refer to the belief that African Americans were  inferior due to their deprivation of any culture of their own, and because they had to adopt  European Culture that did not suit them, they were considered inadequate as people

The Myth of the Negro Past 

1. Blacks were childlike and adaptable to many situations, including slavery.

2. Those Africans enslaved were the less intelligent members of the community—those unclever  enough to get caught.

3. The regional diversity of slaves meant that there was no common cultural background among  them.

4. Any residual African traits would have been so inferior that the slaves would have given them  up in favor of the superior European customs.

5. “The Negro is thus a man without a past.”

E. Franklin Frazier 

∙ Sociologist

∙ Claimed that virtually no African culture remained, which was a strong disadvantage to blacks in  the United States

∙ Saw African culture as lost in America and lacked understanding of culture and its durability

Carter G. Woodson 

∙ First descendant of a slave to receive a Ph.D. in 1912

∙ Founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History

∙ Originator of Black History Week, which later went on to become Black History Month. ∙ Published The African Background Outlined, which provided proof of African American’s  accomplishments and worked to disprove “the myth of the Negro Past”.

W.E.B. Du Bois 

∙ First African American to receive a Ph.D.

∙ Published Black Folk: Then and Now in 1939, which gave depth to African and African American  History.

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1 African Americans Chapter 9; Uploaded on  

BlackBoard

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE

American Anthropological Association

∙ Defines race through genetic variations: genetic variations such as Europeans and Asians are  subsets of the variation in the African population

∙ Population biology defines race by a cluster of local populations that differ genetically from  other clusters of local populations. A race is defined to be the entire group. This concept implies  that each race evolves exhibiting the same amount of uniqueness.  

∙ The essentialist concept defines race as a division of human species based on differences in  physical traits that are determined by heredity. The races are then subdivided into primary/ideal  types and secondary races that are mixtures of the primary races.

∙ Anthropologists believe that variations in human skin are adaptive traits that correlate to  geography and the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, not race.

Fort Mose  

700-1400: Islamic Moors occupied parts of Iberia  

∙ Islamic Moors: Spanish term for people from north Africa

∙ Moors brought slaves and settlers of many nationalities, familiarizing Spain with Africans (both  free and enslaved) and with the practice of slavery.

∙ Slavery in Moorish Iberia was not defined by race or color. People of many nationalities and  races owned slaves and were enslaved.  

1440: Portuguese ruler Prince Henry the Navigator opened the African trade ∙ This led Portugal to control the slave trade in Iberia and in the early Americas.

1454 & 1456: Catholic popes declared enslavements of Africans was justified on the grounds  that it would bring them Christianity

1492: Spain had slaves who were Jewish, Moorish, “Turkish” (actually Egyptians, Syrians, and  Lebanese), white Christians (Sardinians, Greeks, Russians), Canary Island natives (Guanches),  and black Africans

∙ The Spanish slave code: provided slaves with specific rights

o Slaves could buy their own freedom

o Slaves could maintain family cohesiveness

o Slaves could sue their masters for mistreatment

∙ The Spanish slave code was brought to the Americas and differentiated the treatment of slaves  by the Spanish colonies and the English colonies.

1495: First slaves traveled across the Atlantic

∙ Caribbean Indians enslaved by Columbus

∙ Sent to Ferdinand and Isabella’s court

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 3

1496: Juan Garrido, a free African, made his way from Seville, Spain to Hispaniola ∙ Became known for exploits with Ponce de Leon’s Caribbean expeditions

∙ Joined Cortes in Mexico fighting battles at Tenochtitlan

1526: First African settlers came to the United States in South Carolina  

∙ Spanish explorer Vasquez de Allyon established the town of San Miguel de Gualdape in present day Georgia

∙ 500 Spaniards and 100 African laborers came with him

∙ Colony failed due to Indian hostility and a slave rebellion  

∙ Many Africans remained after escaping to forests to live in freedom with the Indians

1546: Governor of Chile gave Juan Valiente, black slave to Alonso Valiente, a large estate and  several Indian towns that had to pay him tribute.

∙ Joined many expeditions with his master, Alonso, and fought with Spanish soldiers in  Guatemala, Peru and Chile

∙ Married a free black woman, Juana de Valdivia

∙ Killed in action in 1553, still a slave

∙ Alonso sued for Juan’s property and tribute after death

1550s: Black skin came to be mentally associated with hard physical labor in the Americas

1565: Saint Augustine established in Spanish Florida  

∙ Africans from the Caribbean and South America along with Africa were part of the colony since  it was founded

1686: Spain announced that slaves would receive religious sanctuary

1687: First slaves arrived in Saint Augustine

1693: King Charles II of Spain issued royal proclamation in the status of runaways to Florida,  stating that they would “…give liberty to all…the men as well as the women…so that by their  example and by my liberality others will do the same…”

∙ By allowing refugees to come to Spanish Florida, the economy of English colonies suffered  ∙ Added skilled workers and Catholic converts to the Spanish colonies

1726: Francisco Menendez made Captain of the St. Augustine slave militia ∙ Was an escaped slave himself

1738: Over 100 enslaved Africans had escaped to Saint Augustine, prompting the Spanish  government to establish a fort and community two miles north of Saint Augustine, called Gracia  Real de Santa Teresa de Mose

∙ Many male fugitives from Carolina were made members of the Spanish slave militia  ∙ Members from the Spanish slave militia formed a free black company

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 4

∙ Menendez became captain of the Mose militia  

∙ 38 households of men, women and children at Mose

1740: English forces attacked St. Augustine, led by General James Oglethorpe of Georgia ∙ Captured Fort Mose

∙ Mose population escaped and joined St. Augustine  

∙ Oglethorpe’s men occupied Fort Most but were ultimately defeated  

∙ Fort Mose was left with extensive damage and the community was abandoned for 12 years

1752: Fort Mose was reconstructed at a slightly different location

∙ Former residents felt pressured by Spanish authorities to move back to Mose  ∙ Fort Mose served as the first line of defense against the English for St. Augustine ∙ Larger fort than the first, as it had a walled enclosure, a moat, and many buildings. One side was  open along a creek  

1763: Mose was abandoned as an African-American community

∙ The French and Indian war ended  

∙ The Treats of Paris gave Florida to England, and Cuba to Spain

∙ The people of Mose left and sailed to Cuba along with the 86 Indians who lived in St. Augustine ∙ English refurbished Fort Mose and used it as a fort

1784: Spaniards returned and used Mose as a military outpost

1812: Mose was destroyed and abandoned

∙ Fort was occupied by “Florida Patriots” who wanted to capture Florida for the United States ∙ They failed and the fort was destroyed by Spanish, African, and Indian troops. The fort fell into  ruin until it was rediscovered more than 150 years later.

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 5

The Nature of Culture

Culture: a set of shared understandings; consists of ideas in peoples’ heads

o Allows us to predict each other’s behavior and get along with one another

Linking understandings: understandings in a group that are not shared by all members of the group,  there are understandings that link one group to another  

o The more a society grows, the more complex it becomes and subgroups are created by  groups of people that share sets of understandings that are not shared by nonmembers o Linking understandings allow people to share a culture despite their society becoming  more specialized.

Shared understandings are identified as the cultural ideal, not the real.  

o Ideally, our shared understandings would align with physical and social realities and  every member would agree with them

Most societies do not function this way; there are usually those who disagree with certain  understandings and/or attempt to change these understandings

Enculturation: the way people acquire their culture, occurs through socialization

Socialization: the process by which we learn where we stand with regards to all other people, and how  we should operate in the world

o We are often not aware when we are learning our culture, making us believe that  culture in innate, or natural.

Sharing culture 

o Members of a society share a common set of understandings, allowing us to live  coherently and cooperatively

o Reduces conflicts that occur due to differing interests

Symbols of culture include: 

o Monuments, language, the way stories are told and metaphors used, body  modifications, clothing, flags, religious symbols, use of space

o Embody cultural understandings

o Similar symbols may have different meanings in different cultures

Cultural integration is never a complete or perfect process since culture is always changing. Culture is  integrated when people share common experiences.

o Achieved through:

▪ Common experiences

▪ Education/sharing knowledge in classroom setting

▪ News programs

▪ Family

▪ Valuing certain activities

Culture is conventional

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 6

o Convention: a practice or understanding that we agree to use

o E.g.: Shaking hands as a way of greeting each other in the United States

Cultural relativism: the belief that one cannot understand another culture without first knowing the  cultural understandings of the people in it

Ethnocentrism: viewing things from your own culture’s perspective

o Leads to cultural-bound assumptions: our predisposition to view the world through our  own cultural lenses leads us to many cultural-bound assumptions, like how those in the  United States assume that women and children should always go first in an emergency

Cultural Understandings often overlap each other; these understandings allow us to understand the  social environment, physical environment, and our personal experiences

o Descriptive understandings 

▪ The basic beliefs we share within our own culture, such as Americans believing  in individualism

o Procedural understandings 

▪ Ideas about how things should be done

▪ May take the form of rituals in which a series of prescribed actions are followed o Normative understandings 

▪ Basic values that underlie our assumptions about what is good, right, beautiful  and desirable in life

African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, New York

∙ Rediscovered in 1991

∙ 6.6-acre plot of earth which held both free and enslaved Africans

∙ The remains of 419 people were found; possibly 20,000 graves total

∙ There were no headstones to identify those buried, but some African customs were telling of  who the deceased may have been and where they came from

∙ Most of the people were from West Africa and born in Africa

∙ Signs of murder were obvious in some of the bodies; most were plagued by signs of  malnourishment, arthritis, illness, infection and disease

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 7

Vodun

Vodun is also called Voodoo, Vodoun, Vodou

∙ Name derived from the god Vodun of the West African Yorbua people  

Roots go back 6,000 years in parts of Togo, Benin, and Nigeria

∙ Slaves carried this religion with them when they were taken to Haiti and the West Indies

Became legal to practice freely in Benin in 1989

o 60% of the population practice Vodun

o Declared the official religion of Benin in 1996

Over 60 million followers worldwide

∙ Religion can be found in large cities in the USA, especially in the South

∙ Vodun is practiced as a religion in Benin, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Haiti, Togo, and  various places in the US, primarily where Haitian refugees live

∙ Hollywood has created an evil, nonexistent version of the religion, referred to as Voodoo

Vodun Beliefs

∙ Each group follows a separate spiritual path and worships a different variation of spirits, which  are called Loa, which is Yoruba for “mystery.”

∙ Yoruba traditional belief

o A senior God Olorun

▪ Remote and unknowable

▪ Authorized a lesser God, Obatala, to make the earth and all forms of life

▪ Battle between Olorun and Obatala resulted in Obtala’s temporary banishment o Hundreds of minor spirits

▪ Those that originated from Dhaomey are called Rada

▪ Those who were later included tend to be deceased leaders in the new world,  called Petro

∙ Roman Catholicism and Vodun both:

o Believe in a supreme being

o Catholicism has saints, Vodun has the Loa; both were people who led incredible lives  and are ascribed a specific responsibility

o Both maintain there is life after death

o Both have a ritual sacrifice and consumption of flesh and blood

o Both believe there are invisible demons or evil spirits

∙ Vodun followers believe souls are composed of a “gros bon ange” (a big guardian angel) and a  “ti bon ange” (little guardian angel)

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 8

Vodun Rituals

∙ Male priests are houngan or hungan, female priests are mambo 

∙ Temple called Hounfour or humfort

o At the center of the temple is a pole, called poteau-mitan, where God and spirits  communicate with people

o An altar decorated with candles, pictures of Catholic saints, and symbols related to the  Loa

∙ Rituals include

o Feast before the ceremony

o Creation of a veve

▪ Veve: a pattern of flour or cornmeal on the floor, specific to the Loa that the  ritual is being conducted for

o Drums that have been cleansed and purified

o Chanting

o Dancing by the priest and the hounsis (students studying Vodun)

o Animal sacrifice

▪ Typically humanely killed

▪ Blood collected in a vessel

▪ Possessed dances may drink some of the blood, filling the hunger of the Loa ▪ Animal is then cooked and eaten

Evil Sorcery

∙ Houngan and mambos perform white magic, which is positive and results in healing and good  fortune

∙ Caplatas, or bokors, perform black magic or evil sorcery

∙ Vodun maintains that the dead can be brought back to life, but they will be zombies controlled  by others

o Zombies are actually people who did not die, but are heavily influenced by drugs given  by an evil sorcerer

o Few records of people who have become “zombies”

∙ The idea of “voodoo dolls” came from come followers in New Orleans that would stick pins in a  doll to curse an individual and is practiced sometimes in South America

o This practice became representative of Voodoo to the public through horror movies

ANT 4315 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE 9

Santeria

New World African-based religion with a clear dual heritage

First appeared in Cuba in the 1840s, when there was a large influx of Yoruba slaves2 

∙ Catholicism heavily influenced Santeria

∙ Yoruba pantheon deities, the Orisha, identified with the saints of Roman Catholicism

Santeria in Puerto Rico is called Santerismo 

∙ Cuban Santeria mixed with Puerto Rican style Espiritismo

Differences between Santeria and Santerismo3 

∙ Yoruba gods come down as spiritist centros

∙ Drums traditionally used may be replaced by recordings of cult music

∙ No collective dancing

∙ Saints have different personalities and are treated differently

∙ Specialized divination techniques are not used

Main characteristics of Santeria that remained:4 

∙ Names and personalities of the African deities

∙ Divination procedures

∙ Ceremonial spirit possession and trance

∙ Liturgical music and musical instruments

∙ Yoruba language

∙ Beliefs in ancestor veneration and reincarnation

∙ Dance as a vehicle of worship

∙ Sacrificial practices

∙ Herbal medicine and healing ritual

∙

Sacrificial Practices5 

∙ Ebo is the term for “sacrifice”

∙ Ebo includes offerings, sacrifices, and purification

∙ Ebo is a religious act that allows communication between people and spiritual beings through  ritual procedures; typically done on behalf of an individual in order to alter their condition, or on  behalf of objects with which they are concerned

∙ Sacrifices are necessary and important for followers, and failure to make ebo can result in the  divinities abandoning the neglectful follower

∙ Ebo is the only way for those suffering from illness, poverty, bad luck, or stress to alter their  fates

∙ Certain deities have to be “fed” by their priests at regular intervals, other sacrifices are  aperiodic, signaled by special events like personal, interpersonal, and spiritual problems  

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requiring the advice of a diviner, or by initiations into the various ranks of the religion’s  membership.

Ebo Guoni6 

∙ “Reaching for the other world”

∙ Sacrifice done during the initiation of a priest

o Slaughter of a four-legged animal and a series of rites over three days

Ebo Yure 

∙ Sacrifice without a waiting period; all done in the same day

o Animal sacrifice followed by a drum dance, or bembe 

Ebo Itutu 

∙ Propitiatory sacrifice in a sequence of mortuary rites

Ebo Lire 

∙ Sacrifice to the head, a “strengthening” or “cleansing” of the head

Priest-diviners prescribe these sacrifices for illnesses, atonement, personal problems, and initiations7 ∙ Food plants and plant products: Cuban plantain, Malanga, yams, okra, lompe, sarguey, tea,  flour, gourds, oils, grass wet with dawn’s dew, and ground black-eyed peas wrapped in plantain  leaves and seasoned with salt

∙ Animals and objects used: Hens, roosters, pigeons, goats, mice, turtles, woodchucks, guinea  birds, scrubbing pads, pieces of wood, dirt from the corners of a house, money, a basket, a flag,  drums made from cowhide or the skin of a sacrificed goat, and candles

Sacrifices for offerings made to the deities and the dead (almost always offered in conjunction with  communal feasts)

∙ Bread, cigars, water, food cooked without salt, and candles

Many Cuban immigrants who brought Santeria with them to the United States practice as a way of  coping with being surrounded by a new culture and living in a foreign land8 

∙ They use rituals to cope with unemployment, illness, endangered personal relationships,  disappointed expectations, isolation, discrimination, etc.

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Gullah

Gullah: African-based traditions, beliefs, and customs that incorporate elements of Christianity

∙ White plantation owners in the South Carolina/Georgia region had strong Christian roots. This  environment influenced enslaved Africans and integrated with their own cultural customs. ∙ Enslaved Africans were forced to work on plantations to grow indigo, rice, and cotton, beginning  in 1750

Gullah dialect consists of a mix between English and African languages

An estimated 500,000 to 750,000 people in the United States carry on the Gullah language and spiritual  traditions

Rhythm is important in celebrating Gullah

∙ Traditional dances are performed and dancers carry sticks to produce a rhythm

Gullah Attitudes toward Life and Death

There is a small community that still lives on the plantation that enslaved Africans were forced to work;  the land was granted to them during a dispute at the time of the Civil War. The community keeps the  Gullah traditions alive

∙ Fears of elimination are present among all those who live in the community; many outside  businesses want to purchase the land, ruining the cultural preservation that the community has  fought to protect  

Freedom was often discussed and focused on by Gullahs9 

∙ Acted as the theme for many Gullah spirituals

Gullah methods of admission to church membership

∙ Seekin’10: The time between an expressed desire to become a Christian and acceptance by the  elders of one’s religious experience; based on the Methodist phrase “to seek Jesus”

o Began with a personal decision not devoid of community pressure, followed by the  choosing of a lifelong “spiritual parent,” that taught the seeker correct conduct and  

“how to pray”

∙ Striving11: a long process of self-examination and solitary prayer ‘in the bush’

o Devotion during this stage is so important that even school is thought to interfere with  the action of the spirit

∙ Travel12: Each seeker meets with warnings and has a vision of a white man who warns and talks  with the seeker, eventually leading the seeker to a river. The spiritual parent decides when it is  complete when the seeker is ready to be presented to the praise house, where the house and  his committee examine the seeker until approving baptism.  

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Africanisms and the Black Family

Melville Herskovits argued that the African family structure among blacks in the New World survived  and along with it many elements of their African Past

The family structure did endure a major change of the absence of the father13 

∙ Families were easily separated through sale during slavery

∙ While the mother and children would usually sold together, the fathers were often separated ∙ The bond between the mother and child strengthened as the role of the male diminished and  the role of the female grew dominant

Herskovits does not believe that slavery caused the maternal family, but it continued certain elements in  the cultural endowment brought to the New World by Africans, and that families of this type are not  African but they show important African survival traits and they show how new circumstances can  reinforce old traditions.

∙ Nanice L. Gonzales disagrees with Herskovits, stating that matrifocality formed as a result of  African migration into the New World under slavery14 

∙ Both Gonzales and Herskovits agree that matrifocality is common among persons of African  descent

Women in the West and Central African society control the local markets, giving them a large role in the  family economy15 

∙ North American slave women also operated similar markets for slaves, working the family patch  and selling items and animals in town

∙ Women were also responsible for cooking, raising the children, and transferring their culture to  the children

The concept of extended family was important in African culture and carried over to the United States16 ∙ Extended family consisted of two or more families of different generations united by  consequences of kinship ties in a common residence under a single head, and also several  brothers in the same compound with their families.

∙ In Africa, it is common for land to be held or owned by lineage groups. This communal  relationship recreates ties of lineage and of the extended family as they exist in Africa. Blood  relationships are replaced with community membership.

∙ In the Sea Islands, the elderly parents live in one residence while their children and  grandchildren live in another, allowing easy movement from one household to another along  with economic support and family participation in activities like fishing, hunting, and farming.17 

In the South, older males and females tend to be referred to as “aunty” and “uncle” as a sign of respect ∙ This tradition may be traced back to the bond established between men and women in costal  African factories that were established on the decks of the slave ships.18 

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16 Africanisms 189-190 17 Africanisms 190 18 Africanisms 190

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African custom of polygamy and black Americans19 

∙ Many African societies that were short of men practiced the concept of polygamy 

o Men could have as many wives as they could afford to maintain in their separate  

compounds

o This custom continued to influence Africans enslaved in Carolina, but planters regarded  it as a tradition of sexual promiscuity

Burial societies

Carter G. Woodson mentions that secret societies were developed around the idea of taking care of the  sick and dead20 

∙ Once they arrived in America, Africans were no longer allowed to continue secret functions, so  they created insurance and burial societies from these secret societies

Herskovits states that there were three major black insurance businesses21 

∙ The Afro-American

∙ The Knights and Daughters of Tabor

∙ The Universal Life Insurance Company

W.E.B. Du Bois declared that there was a direct connection between African secret societies and the  founding of Black Insurance companies in the United States22 

Sea Island Burial Practices

The preparation of the body23 

∙ A group of women would lay the body in the bed and bring in water for the final wash, use soap  and towels to wipe the body clean, and bring coffee to be placed under the arms, legs, and open  spaces before rubbing it over the body

∙ The body would be kept for two or three days  

∙ The women would then dress the body and place it in the casket

∙ Following preparation, they would sing and shout over the body until it was time for the funeral

The final wash would first take place, then the wake, where family, friends, guests, and members of the  burial society would sit around the dying person until their last breath. When they stopped breathing,  everyone in the room would shriek in order to notify that another soul had crossed over into the spirit  world.24 

Above-ground decorations—everything that the deceased person used—would be placed on the  grave.25 

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19 Africanisms 192-193 20 Africanisms 194 21 Africanisms 194 22 Africanisms 194

23 Africanisms 196-197 24 Africanisms 197 25 Africanisms 198

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Passing of Children over the Coffin

The child attending a funeral would be passed over the coffin in order to separate the spirits of the child  and the deceased26 

∙ The spirit of a child is believed to be weaker than that of the deceased, so the spirit of the dead  may attach to the child and cause them to be followed by the spirit of fall ill and die

∙ For this reason, children would be passed over the coffin at a funeral to protect the child and  sever the bond between the dead person and the living children, preventing the spirit from  coming back into the house. Children who were not passed over the coffin would be at risk of  passing away, because the person who has passed may love the child so much that they want to  take the child with them.27 

African Religious Retentions in Florida

The Eighteenth Century

Enslaved Africans in Florida experienced a slave system similar to that of Carolina and Georgia ∙ “Low-country” plantation system28 

o Those in the low-country system were said to have brought a stronger sense of West  African culture with them to the plantations where they lived and worked than other  

enslaved Africans elsewhere in the country.

o Slaveholders noticed a distinct language and speech style among slaves in the low

country,

Maroon tradition was established in Florida by black fugitives from South Carolina and Georgia, where  many slaves were able to receive asylum under Spanish rule in St. Augustine. 29 

1764-1773: peak of colonial import trade in slaves30 

∙ During 21 year occupation of Florida by the British  

∙ Refugee Loyalists are thought to have brought slaves to Florida directly from Africa to be sold

The Nineteenth Century

Zephaniah Kingsley31 

∙ Slave owner and importer

∙ Brought about 50 Africans to Florida to work for him

∙ Did not interfere with their culture while working for him; maintained a policy of 

“nonintervention” 

o Did not interfere with their connubial concerns or domestic affairs and allowed them to  continue living by their culture while they worked

o Slaves continued their native dances, African styles of worship, and indigenous religious  patterns

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Some fugitives that came to Florida settled in “Negro towns,” similar to “Indian towns” ∙ Africans and Native Americans in Spanish Florida had a good relationship

Florida became part of the United States in 1821

Many Christians, both black and white, before and after the Civil War, held cultural folk beliefs that held  considerable power and heavily influenced their lives and religious practices

∙ Beliefs in medicine men, root doctors, and voodoo deaths, as explained in the example of the  two young girls on the Leon County plantation32 

Beginning during the Reconstruction and continuing after, black ministers believed in the power of  Divine Providence (a higher power) and folk beliefs33 

In the late nineteenth century, basket-making styles, grave markers, mortuary customs, and  shouting/spirit possessions became apparent in African American rituals

Spirit Possession and Ritual Ecstatic Dance

High Emotionalism34 

∙ Commonly associated with black religious life

∙ Black churches in Florida have been known for their frequency, long duration, and emotionality o “Emotionality” includes clapping, screaming, fainting, singing, dancing, jumping, etc. o Many white Christians criticized this way of worship

∙ Common in Baptist and Methodist denominations

∙ The Gullah-speaking black people of the Sea Islands also perform the ring shout ritual35 o The ritual is a ceremony representing the survival of African tradition in the New World o Called the “ring shout” because in antebellum times, the physical form of the shout was  an actual ring, as the furniture in the cabins would be moved to the side and leave an  

empty space in the center of the building.

∙ Possession behaviors would be learned informally as well as formally

∙ Drums would product a beat that contains multiple frequencies transmitted along different  nerve pathways in the brain, making it possible to transmit more energy to the brain than with a  high frequency noise.

o Drum rhythms would be used in a consistent rhythm to produce a state of  

disassociation/trance

o Beats with around seven to nine cycles per second causes possession behavior

Death, Burial, and Funeral Rites

Often, slaves in the lower South would distinguish between “burying” and “preaching the funeral”36 ∙ May be two to three months after the burying until the funeral sermon is preached  ∙ The Igbo society in Africa traditionally practiced a “second burial”

o Believed that without a proper second burial, the extended family of the deceased  would be harassed and victimized by the spirit of the dead, who would be unable to find  rest.

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∙ In Florida, some free slaves had been observed repreaching a funeral service for a deceased  child, who had already been buried and preached over two months prior. This resembled the  Igbo’s “second burial”

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Highlighted People, Concepts and Terms

The following is a complete list of the people, concepts, and key terms highlighted in the notes above,  along with the page numbers on which they appear.

Melville Herskovits 2, 13, 14

E. Franklin Frazier 2

Carter G. Woodson 2, 14

W.E.B. Du Bois 2, 14

Prince Henry the Navigator 3

Juan Garrido 4

Vasquez de Allyon 4

Juan Valiente 4

King Charles II of Spain 4

Nanice L. Gonzales 13

Zephaniah Kingsley 15

Myth of the Negro past 2

Definition of race through genetic  variations 3

Sharing culture 6

Cultural integration 6

Symbols of culture 6

Cultural understandings 7

African family structure 13

African women’s role in local markets 13 Extended Family 13

“Aunty” and “Uncle” 13

Polygamy 14

“Low-country” plantation system 15 High emotionalism 16

“Burying” and “preaching the funeral” 16

Population biology 3

The Essentialist theory 3 Islamic Moors 3

Spanish Slave Code 3

Culture 6

Linking understandings 6 Shared understandings 6 Enculturation 6

Socialization 6

Convention 7

Cultural relativism 7

Ethnocentrism 7

Descriptive understandings 7 Procedural understandings 7 Normative understandings 7 Loa 8

Houngan 9

Mambo 9

Hounfour 9

Poteau-mitan 9

Veve 9

Hounsis 9

Caplatas 9

Orisha 10

Santerismo 10

Ebo 10

Ebo Guoni 11

Ebo Yure 11

Ebo Itutu 11

Ebo Lire 11

Bembe 11

Gullah 12

Seekin’ 12

Travel 12

Striving 12

Black insurance businesses 14 Policy of Nonintervention 15 Emotionality 16

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