Shared Traditions: Southern History and Folk CultureGrounded in Charles Joyner's unique blend of rigorous scholarship and genuine curiosity, these thoughtful and incisive essays by the eminent southern historian and folklorist explore the South's extraordinary amalgam of cultural traditions.By examining the mutual influence of history and folk culture,Shared Traditionsreveals the essence of southern culture in the complex and dynamic interactions of descendants of Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans. The book covers a broad spectrum of southern folk groups, folklore expressions, and major themes of southern history, including antebellum society, slavery, the coming of the Civil War, economic modernization in the Appalachians and the Sea Islands, immigration, the civil rights movement, and the effects of cultural tourism.Joyner addresses the convergence of African and European elements in the Old South and explores how specific environmental and demographic features shaped the acculturation process. He discusses divergent practices in worship services, funeral and burial services, and other religious ceremonies. He examines links between speech patterns and cultural patterns, the influence of Irish folk culture in the American South, and the southern Jewish experience. He also investigates points of intersection between history and legend and relations between the new social history and folklore.Ranging from rites of power and resistance on the slave plantation to the creolization of language to the musical brew of blues, country, jazz, and rock,Shared Traditionsreveals the distinctive culture born of a sharing by black and white southerners of their deep-rooted and diverse traditions. |
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African African-American Albion's Seed Alice Allston American Folklore American Slave Anthropology Appalachian Appalachian dulcimer backcountry ballads Baton Rouge black southerners blues Bruh Buh Rabbit called Carawan Charles Joyner Charleston Christianity context country music crisis Delaware Valley dulcimer England Esau Jenkins European Fischer folk culture folklife Folklore folklore performance folklorists folkways former slave freedom Georgetown County Georgia Gullah Harpers Ferry historians Hogan Jazz Archive Homer Ledford Ibid idem interaction James Henry Hammond Jazz Jewish Jews John Brown Johns Island legend lived master Mississippi mistress musicians narratives Negro nigger North Old South Orleans plantation played Rawick regional rice plantations ritual Saints Parish scholars Sea Islands singing slave community slave plantations slave recalled slaveholders slavery social drama society songs South Carolina southern culture southern folk culture Southern History speech story symbolic tion told tradition trickster Union Virginia whip white southerners William wrote York