African American Culture
Culture is not a fixed phenomenon, nor is it the same in all places or to all people. It is relative to time, place, and particular people. Learning about other people can help us to understand ourselves and to be better world citizens. One of the most common ways of studying culture is to focus on the differences within and among cultures. Although their specifics may vary form one culture to another, sociologists refer to those elements or characteristics that can be found in every know society as cultural universals. For example, in all societies, funeral rites include expression of grief, disposing of the dead, and rituals that define the relations of the dead with the living. And on the most
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Many of our life lessons were often given by our elders in the form of stories, jokes, and the spirituals which serve often song in the fields, as well as, on Sunday mornings. Yet, as a people, we thought it necessary to hold on these priceless teachings because it has served as the only link to our African ancestry. African American culture is both part of and distinct from American culture. African Americans have contributed literature, agricultural skills, foods, clothing, dance, and language to American culture. There are distinctive patterns of language use among African Americans that arose as creative responses to the hardships imposed on the African American community. Slave-owners forced African Americans to create a language that allowed them to communicate effectively with one another. Slaves were not allowed the opportunity to read and write because most slave owners thought they would find a way to buy their freedom if they knew how to read and write. Significant numbers of people still speak some of the Creole languages they used to communicate so many years ago. Agriculture and food is also a unique aspect of African American culture. The cultivation and use of many agricultural products, such as yams, peanuts, rice, okra, grits, and cotton, can be traced to African and African American influences. African American foods reflect creative
Artwork has been an imperative part of Black culture, and many artist share their inspirations coming from African origins. From the beginning of slave societies to present day, African America artwork has contributed to large parts of United States artistic collection. Beginning in the early 1600 to 1800 “black art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States. These artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa.” The significance of the
Slavery began in the late 16th century to early 18th century. Africans were brought to American colonies by white masters to come and work on their plantations in the South. They were treated harshly with no payments for all their hard work. In addition, they lived under harsh living conditions, and this led to their resistance against these harsh conditions. The racism towards the African Americans who were slaves was at its extreme as they did not have any rights; no civil nor political rights.
“Culture is sometimes described as a lens through which we view the world, meaning that one’s culture influences their perceptions and interactions in everyday life” (Davis, 2006). Every culture has different beliefs and customs
African-American culture is primarily rooted in West and Central Africa, and the majority of African-Americans have ancestry among the Yoruba people. Doing
As Americans, we are privileged with diverse experiences. With this comes a perceived understanding of many cultures and their influences but in fact full cultural literacy is impossible to achieve.
Culture is the characteristics of group that contain their language, religion, music, food, social habits, and arts. Culture can be learned or transmitted by experience and participation. African American culture has been passed through many generations, and still contains many elements like those of a ring shout. African American culture has been changed, but like a tree still contains its roots. From call-and-response to a simple rift or guitar being strung without African American much of today’s music would be much different.
African American culture in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of Americans African descent to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American culture. The distinct identity of African American culture is rooted in the historical experience of the African American people. The culture is both distinct and enormously influential to American culture as a whole. African-American culture is rooted in Africa. It is a blend of chiefly sub-Saharan African and Sahelean cultures. Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Americans of African descent to practice their
African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated; that is 60% of 30% of the African American population. African Americas are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. “Between 6.6% and 7.5% of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011, which were the highest imprisonment rates among the measured sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age groups." (Carson, E. Ann, and Sabol, William J. 2011.) Stated on Americanprogram.org “ The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more likely to be sentenced to prison.” Hispanics and African Americans make up 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population. (Henderson 2000). Slightly 15% of the inmate population is made up of 283,000 Hispanic prisoners.
African Americans fought to keep their culture when they were brought over to America. Slaves were not given education because the slave owners believed that the knowledge would give them too much power (“Celebrate”, 2016). Many African American stories and traditions have been passed down orally since their ancestors did not know how to read or write. Music is important to the African American culture. Music was and is a way to pass on history, teaches lessons, and relay messages. Some popular types of music are ragtime, jazz, blues, swing, and R&B although African Americans enjoy all types of music (“Celebrating”, 2016). African Americans have fought for centuries to keep their cultural traditions alive and some have remained, but their unique culture is not as prevalent as
African American, also known Black American, is a very mixed and compacted culture. From history to present day, traditions taken back from slavery to the hip hop age. Incorporating details from all different times in history. Starting with the Music, African Americans have a very intellectual way of expressing their feelings, pain, history and teaching lessons, which really started from old hymns sung by slaves. From Jazz, to blues, to hip hop, all different forms of music to express the way of their lives. Music isn’t the only thing African Americans have to be proud of, they also so have a strong background of cultural food. Soul Food is very common and eaten by many across the world, and is used a lot with another tradition of African
When figuring out where African American culture derived from many ideas may come to mind. Culture is a set of values, customs, or beliefs held by a group of people. African American culture is composed of many things when it comes to the musical aspect. Today’s music and African American music from slavery days are related. Dances, songs, and performance habits are well alive and being weaved into todays culture.
There are so many more food that relate to other cultures. I just discussed the one I have seen. I have African and Native American friends and I have tried their cultural foods. I would think the food are delicious. Plus, they are quite similar to the food I grew up with. This assignment helped me to see the cross cultural between all the cultures especially in
A small number of themes are present over time, from America’s first settlements of the English to the present day. Of course race is one of these themes, which includes the contact between the natives and the European explorers, along with the issues of multiple ethnicities in America. Over the years, the people in American were becoming more and more conscious about a number of extremely important issues on the topic of ethnicity. The one theme that I think is the most important to single out is the story of the relationship of African Americans to the South, as well as to the rest of the country. There is a significant amount of irony, as well as tragedy, during this period of African American history, but also much perseverance and success.
In order to provide culturally appropriate care, an examination of one's personal views, beliefs, and prejudices must be examined. The first portion of this paper will examine my personal values, beliefs, biases, and prejudices. The remaining paper will analyze the African American culture relating to the Ginger and Davidhizar's Transcultural Assessment Model cited in Hood (2010). This model uses six key cultural elements that include communication, space, social organization, time, environment, and biological variations. This model provides a systematic approach for assessing culturally diverse clients. I will also discuss an aspect of care that I would
In the present time the African American culture changed quite a bit in being removed from where they as a people originated or should I say their homeland from whence they came. African American people are a people who are influenced tremendously from their fore fathers and mothers who lived in the southern part of the United States. The nomenclature for this group is to include African American, Black Americans or people of color. I prefer to use African American at this time since I am preferably writing about my own cultural background.