Book
Drums and shadows: survival studies among the Georgia coastal Negroes
University of Georgia Press • Athens • Published In 1986 • Pages:
By: Georgia Writers' Project. Savannah Unit, Joyner, Charles W., Bell, Muriel Barrow, Bell, Malcolm.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a pioneering study in demonstrating the continuing influence of African folklore among Georgian coastal Negroes as it existed in the latter part of the 1930s. The research was undertaken by members of the Federal Writers' Project -- unemployed novelists, poets, Ph.D.'s, journalists and free-lance writers -- who operated as an agency of the New Deal's Work Projects Administration. These fieldworkers interviewed sharecroppers and ex-slaves, studied court records, inventoried cemetaries, and collected oral histories and folklore. The major bulk of the material in this source focuses on interviews with informants in a number of small Sea Island communities (e. g., Old Fort, Tin City, Yamacraw, etc.). Most of the questions asked of the informants are particularly concerned with various aspects of religious customs, such as conjuring (sorcery), death practices, belief in spirits, magic and curing, and baptism, but there is also information here on naming practices, music and musical instruments (particularly drums), dance, and knowledge and beliefs about the Sea Islanders African ancestors. The comments of the informants are recorded in the dialect of the Coastal Blacks of Georgia and South Carolina, a form of creole language which played an important part in shaping the culture of the area. Notes in the text refer to the appendix at the end of this source and to specific African parallels described therein (see Category 'Comparative Evidence' (171), pp. 195-249).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Sorcery
- Magic
- Organized ceremonial
- Ethnosociology
- Religious denominations
- General character of religion
- Eschatology
- Comparative evidence
- Revelation and divination
- Personal names
- Music
- Musical instruments
- Dance
- Medical personnel
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Gullah Geechee
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypesThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Organization Document
- Report
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1990-1991
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1936-1940
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Georgia, United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- [by] the Savannah Unit, Georgia Writer's Project, Work Projects Administration, introduction by Charles Joyner, photographs by Muriel and Malcolm Bell, Jr.
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-263) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 86003370
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Sea Islands/Gullahs