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Journal ArticleDOI

Group Identity, Individual Creativity, and Symbolic Generation in a BaKongo Diaspora

01 Mar 2003-International Journal of Historical Archaeology (Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers)-Vol. 7, Iss: 1, pp 1-31
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply theories of group dynamics and individual agency to past material expressions of core symbols within particular African American religious beliefs, and demonstrate the ways in which facets of the core symbolic expressions of the BaKongo people of West Central Africa evolved over time and across the trans-Atlantic region.
Abstract: This article applies theories of group dynamics and individual agency to past material expressions of core symbols within particular African American religious beliefs. The past creation and use of such artifacts is analyzed using theories concerning modes of symbolic expression, the interplay of dominant and nondominant religions, formation and maintenance of social group identities, and the role of individual creativity and innovation within those processes. This analysis demonstrates the ways in which facets of the core symbolic expressions of the BaKongo people of West Central Africa evolved over time and across the trans-Atlantic region.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Black Culture and Black Consciousness as mentioned in this paper is a landmark work that was part of the cultural turn in American history, and has been read and taught by an entire generation of historians and scholars.
Abstract: When Black Culture and Black Consciousness first appeared thirty years ago, it marked a revolution in our understanding of African American history. Contrary to prevailing ideas at the time, which held that African culture disappeared quickly under slavery and that black Americans had little group pride, history, or cohesiveness, Levine uncovered a cultural treasure trove, illuminating a rich and complex African American oral tradition, including songs, proverbs, jokes, folktales, and long narrative poems called toasts--work that dated from before and after emancipation. The fact that these ideas and sources seem so commonplace now is in large part due this book and the scholarship that followed in its wake. A landmark work that was part of the \"cultural turn\" in American history, Black Culture and Black Consciousness profoundly influenced an entire generation of historians and continues to be read and taught. For this anniversary reissue, Levine wrote a new preface reflecting on the writing of the book and its place within intellectual trends in African American and American cultural history.

507 citations

01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: This chapter describes a series of arguments and counterarguments through which the ambivalence about analogy noted by recent commentators took definite shape.
Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter describes a series of arguments and counterarguments through which the ambivalence about analogy noted by recent commentators took definite shape. The chapter focuses on an increasingly acute concern that analogy seems to be both indispensible to interpretation and always potentially misleading. At a more fundamental level, these debates can be seen to express a fundamental dilemma that archaeologists confront whenever they seriously undertake to use their data as evidence of the cultural past, namely, that any such broadening of the horizons of inquiry seems to be accomplished only at the cost of compromising actual or potential methodological rigor. Each of the critical reactions against analogy and each of the ameliorating responses represent an attempt to come to grips with this dilemma. Each either endorses one of the methodological options it defines, accepting that research is unavoidably limited or unavoidably speculative, or rejects these options and attempts to show how one or another of the premises yielding the dilemma may be amended and the dilemma itself escaped.

499 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America as discussed by the authors is a book about the first two hundred years of the American slave trade in the United States.
Abstract: (1999). Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 60-61.

166 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

157 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Apr 1998
TL;DR: This paper argued that African naval victories might not necessarily guarantee that the commerce that grew up in place of raiding was truly under African control or necessarily served their interests (or the interests of the wealthy and powerful in African society).
Abstract: The success of Africans in resisting the early European attempts at raiding their coasts meant that the interactions that would follow would be largely peaceful and commercial – for it would not be until 1579 that a major war would develop, in Angola, and even there it rapidly became an indecisive standstill. There would be no dramatic European conquests in Africa, and even the slaves who would flood the South Atlantic and sustain colonization in America would be purchased more often than captured. This state of affairs was already being put in place by Diogo Gomes's expeditions in 1456–62 and would characterize relations between Europeans and Africans for centuries to come. African naval victories might not necessarily guarantee that the commerce that grew up in place of raiding was truly under African control or necessarily served their interests (or the interests of the wealthy and powerful in African society). Indeed, many scholars in recent years have most often seen the commerce of Atlantic Africa with Europeans as destructive and unequal, with Europeans reaping most of the long-range profits and Africans unable to benefit or being forced, through commercial weakness, into accepting trade that ultimately placed Africa in its current situation of dependency and underdevelopment. Perhaps the most influential scholar to advocate such a position was Walter Rodney, whose work on Africa's Atlantic trade concluded that the commerce with Europe was a first, decisive step in the underdevelopment of Africa.

88 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1973
TL;DR: The INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ Books files are available at the online library of the University of Southern California as mentioned in this paper, where they can be used to find any kind of Books for reading.
Abstract: THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ PDF Are you searching for THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ Books files? Now, you will be happy that at this time THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ PDF is available at our online library. With our complete resources, you could find THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ PDF or just found any kind of Books for your readings everyday.

20,105 citations

Book
01 Jan 1967
TL;DR: Turner as mentioned in this paper presents a collection of ten essays dealing with various aspects of symbolism and ritual among the Ndembu of Zambia, Central Africa, and provides one of the few postwar studies sure to rank as an ethnographic classic.
Abstract: THIS is a collection of ten essays dealing with various aspects of symbolism and ritual among the Ndembu of Zambia, Central Africa. Nine have been published previously; the tenth—over a quarter of the text—is a new and richly detailed account of male initiation. The volume contains the greater part of Professor Turner's published work on religion. Using data of extraordinary richness, it presents some of the most provocative and suggestive theories recently advanced in the study of ritual behaviour and symbolism. Complemented by his earlier accounts of Ndembu social structure, this provides one of the few post-war studies sure to rank as an ethnographic classic. These essays were written over a period of ten years, and thus display a course of gradual analytical development. It is unfortunate that Professor Turner has made no attempt to consolidate his theories in the brief introduction; but the first chapter does present many of his central ideas so that the reader may follow the basic line of argument. Turner is concerned with two interdependent questions: (1) What are the peculiar properties of symbols which give them their enduring force in both the conception and the ritual enactment of moral values ? (2) What are the relations between symbolic behaviour and ideology and the broader problems of social relations ? In both his definition and his scheme for investigation Turner insists upon the essential ambiguity of symbols and of their associated ritual behaviour. For him, symbols condense and unify complex and disparate themes, synthesizing both ideological and sensory items through a process he terms polarization. Turner accounts for this by means of certain universal psycho-physiological processes through which socialization and ideation are effected in each individual. For him, the appetitive and sensory aspects of men are tamed in the interest of society. Psycho-physiological forces find expression through symbolic acts, yet are kept within socially safe bounds by the very formal structures which specific symbols involve. Thus, the moral code of society is vitalized by its association with sensory cues and libidinous urges; and these socially destructive urges of individuals are constrained within socially workable bounds, even as they are vented in repressed form. These repressed forms of expression account for further cathartic effects of ritual. The artifice of culture and ritual supports yet constrains chaotic, natural man according to a model parallel to the current work of LeVi-Strauss, though Turner's theories lead through Christian and Freudian channels rather than toward the former's own type of relativistic pessimism. Turner emphasizes symbols as expressions of forces; LeVi-Strauss emphasizes their nominal qualities but both see symbols as links between the natural and cultural aspects of men. Turner is more sophisticated psychologically and utilizes data with greater detail and reliability than LeVi-Strauss. On the other hand, he lacks appreciation of those logical and formal qualities which all symbolic systems also possess. We have a superb account of the detailed operation of Ndembu symbols within narrow ritual fields of action, but no broad account ofNdembu cosmology and its relation to any of these symbolic sub-systems.

2,058 citations

Book
01 Jan 1971
TL;DR: The best book is the best book for each of us as mentioned in this paper, and we offer the best here to read, after deciding how your feeling will be, you can enjoy to visit the link and get the book.
Abstract: We present here because it will be so easy for you to access the internet service. As in this new era, much technology is sophistically offered by connecting to the internet. No any problems to face, just for this day, you can really keep in mind that the book is the best book for you. We offer the best here to read. After deciding how your feeling will be, you can enjoy to visit the link and get the book.

1,757 citations


"Group Identity, Individual Creativi..." refers background in this paper

  • ...In many social settings, however, those persons who are in controlling positions in the society place their religious belief system in a dominant position over other beliefs and practices (Thomas, 1971; Yoder, 1965)....

    [...]

  • ...In time, they may adopt the dominant religion which holds sway in that new setting and attend its public ceremonies, all the while practicing the beliefs of their previous religion in private surroundings (Gundaker, 1998, pp. 75–76; Thomas, 1971, pp. 221–232; Yoder, 1965, pp. 36–39)....

    [...]

  • ...These nondominant religions are often referred to as “folk religions” by historians, folklorists, and anthropologists (e.g., Thomas, 1971; Yoder, 1965)....

    [...]

Book
01 Jan 1969

1,219 citations