Shared Traditions : Southern History and Folk Culture

by Joyner, Charles W.

• ISBN13: 9780252015212
• ISBN10: 0252015215
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

Grounded 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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(10)
Southern Folk Culture: Unity in Diversity	11	(18)
Part 1: The Old South
``Let Us Break Bread Together'': Cultural Interaction in the Old South	29	(12)
``In His Hands'': The World of the Plantation Slaves	41	(52)
History as Ritual: Rites of Power and Resistance on the Slave Plantation	93	(10)
``Guilty of Holiest Crime'': The Passion of John Brown	103	(38)
Part 2: Three Historiographical Forays
The South as a Folk Culture: David Potter and the Southern Enigma	141	(10)
The Bold Fischer Man: David Hackett Fischer and the British Sources of American Folk Culture	151	(15)
The Narrowing Gyre: Henry Glassie, Irish Folk Culture, and the American South	166	(11)
Part 3: The New South
A Community of Memory: Assimilation and Identity among the Jews of Georgetown	177	(16)
The Sounds of Southern Culture: Blues, Country, Jazz, and Rock	193	(15)
Sweet Music: Tradition, Creativity, and the Appalachian Dulcimer	208	(20)
Sea Island Legacy: Folk Tradition and the Civil Rights Movement	228	(15)
Part 4: Folklore and History: A Dialogue
``Alice of the Hermitage'': A Study in Legend, Belief, and History	243	(11)
A Model for the Analysis of Folklore Performance in Historical Context	254	(8)
Folklore and Social Transformation: Historians and Folklorists in the Modern World	262	(13)
Part 5: The Future of Folk Culture
Endangered Traditions: Resort Development and Cultural Conservation on the Sea Islands	275	(8)
Notes	283	(66)
Index	349