The Birth of African-American Culture: An Anthropological Perspective [Paperback]

Sidney Wilfred Mintz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807009172 | ISBN-13: 978-0807009178 | Publication Date: July 1, 1992

This compelling look at the wellsprings of cultural vitality during one of the most dehumanizing experiences in history provides a fresh perspective on the African-American past.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This long essay, written in 1972 by two anthropologists in an attempt to prevent ideology from diverting the course of African American studies, posits that the Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the New World cannot "be said to have shared a culture ," having been "drawn from different parts of the . . . continent, from numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, and from different societies in any region." On the contrary, the authors conclude that the roots of African American culture lie in the cooperative efforts of the enslaved to create a new society here. Drawing heavily on examples from the Caribbean experience, Mintz and Price believe that so-called African retentions in the cultural realm must be examined in light of social structures and relationships established in the Americas. They examine, for instance, the development of unilineal vs. aggregate family groups in different contexts and the apparent reversion to African gender roles in the economic autonomy of women in Jamaica. This provocative book is bound, even now, to raise the ire of supporters of narrow Afrocentrism, while the general reader may find its arguments too technical.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This book is a long-delayed publication of a speech given at the 1973 Schouler Lecture Symposium. The authors argue that the various African American cultures, while rooted in African values, cannot be attributed to any one tribe or geographical area, because no colonial power took Africans from only one place. Furthermore, geographical area is not meaningful because tribes from the same area had differing cultures. As one would expect, the authors provide footnotes and a bibliography (updated to include items published in 1990) that give a fine background in the anthropology of African culture. The book would have been enhanced by an afterword suggesting avenues of research for this decade or issues raised in 1973 that are still unaddressed. Colleges and universities with anthropology or black history programs will want this book, but it will be of little interest to general readers.
- Anita L. Cole, Miami-Dade P.L. System, Fla.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (July 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807009172
• ISBN-13: 978-0807009178
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.3 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > History > Americas > Caribbean & West Indies

More About the Author

Sidney W. Mintz is professor emeritus, department of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. He founded the department there in 1975. He has done extensive field research in Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Haiti, as well as in Iran. He launched a research program in Hong Kong to study the consumption and production of soybean and examine soy products in the United States.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Old Wine/New Bottle? Depolarizing African-American Culture, August 19, 2003

By 

Saer Maty Ba (Exeter, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Birth of African-American Culture: An Anthropological Perspective (Paperback)

'The Birth of African-American Culture: An Anthropological Perspective' is an early 1970s reaction to the `swift' establishment of Afro-American and Black Studies programmes within the U.S. American Universities, in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. Its authors-Sidney Mintz and Richard Price-feared that, with the `explosion' of general interest in Black History, ideological concerns might sidetrack the invaluable `scholarly quest' previously established by the likes of W.E.B. Du Bois and Zora Neale Hurston (in the U.S.A.) Jean Price-Mars (in Haiti) or Fernando Ortiz (in Cuba) to name a few. Therefore, 'The Birth of African-American Culture' cautiously offers strategies/approaches to study the Afro-American past that would do justice to the complexity of the subject. Its central thesis, supported both by documentary material and speculation, is straightforward: continuities between the so-called `Old' and `New' Worlds must be established on a comprehension of the `basic conditions' under which the migrations of `enslaved Africans' took place.
Today, that the analysis of the development of Afro-American culture should focus on `process' is no longer an issue; the works of renowned scholars such as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Lawrence W. Levine are a testimony to it. In a sense, these academics vindicate Mintz and Price who, two decades earlier, have emphasised the need for more analytical subtlety, flexibility, and sound socio-historical research in Afro-American Studies. What is more, Mintz and Price are aware of the book's achievement, even though, in its 1992 re-edition, caution is still strong in the way they reassert their belief in a two decade-old thesis. For example, in the new preface, Mintz and Price repeat that the unavoidable fact in the study of Afro-America is `the humanity of the oppressed, and the inhumanity of the systems that oppressed them.' Both believe that such oppression `has by no means ended should be clear to everyone, as it is to us.'
The text of 'The Birth of African-American Culture', including introduction and conclusion, is eighty-five pages long; yet amazingly it covers a broad range of complex issues focused on slave society, from the origins and beginnings of Afro-American societies and cultures to questions of kinship and sex roles therein. In their rigorously balanced, albeit too tentative at times, analysis of Afro-American Culture the authors rightfully argue that the transfer of culture intact from Africa to the Americas is more fiction than reality. Mintz and Price believe that `Retentions' and `Survivals' are more the exception than the rule in any group's transport of beliefs and values from one locale to another (Europeans included).
The Birth of African-American Culture is thought provoking; it is still very useful in the scholarship on slavery, and issues of the origins and development of Afro-American culture. It is also a must-read for those Africans who refuse to be carelessly melted in the pot of global Blackness. Because of never-ending and multifaceted oppression, contemporary Africans and Afro-Americans still need to negotiate an awful number of complex issues before being `brothers' and `sisters': it has been so for centuries despite the numerous bonds that (do) exist between members of the Black Diaspora. Like Mintz and Price, it is my profound conviction that `the nature of oppression, while obvious in its most familiar forms, involves subtleties as well, one of these being the way it divides and confuses honest [souls] by perpetuating suspicion and fear.' However, in its future editions, 'The Birth of African-American Culture''s authors need to:
(1) Go beyond offering startegies/approaches to the study of the Afro-American past, and present results of such studies, albeit selectively, if only to corroborate and strengthen their own thesis/be bolder in their arguments. I believe that Mintz and Price missed this opportunity two decades after the first publication of their book but, still, it can be done;
(2) Spend time to explain to the reader how `Caribbeanist' scholars like themselves can write about (Afro-) `American' culture. In other words the intertwined issues of what `America' is, what `Americans' are and how they relate to the subject matter of 'The Birth of African-American Culture' must be tackled in much detail and clarity.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Academic Study, February 10, 2010

By 

Michael Sallwasser - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Birth of African-American Culture: An Anthropological Perspective (Paperback)

Even though I am versed in the topic, I am not a social scientist. I found the writing too technical to engage me as a casual reader.