Book

Drums and shadows: survival studies among the Georgia coastal Negroes

University of Georgia PressAthens • Published In 1986 • Pages:

By: Georgia Writers' Project. Savannah Unit, Joyner, Charles W., Bell, Muriel Barrow, Bell, Malcolm.

Abstract
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).
Subjects
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
culture
Sea Islanders
HRAF PubDate
2000
Region
North America
Sub Region
Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
Document Type
Book
Evaluation
Creator Types
Organization Document
Report
Document Rating
5: Excellent Primary Data
Analyst
John Beierle ; 1990-1991
Field Date
no date
Coverage Date
1936-1940
Coverage Place
Georgia, United States
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
LCCN
86003370
LCSH
Sea Islands/Gullahs