1. Discuss the process of creolization from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth century. Be sure to include 1.) both the lectures AND THE READINGS in your response and 2.) The process between Africans and African-Americans, Europeans and Euro-Americans and Native Americans in your response. * Creolization refers to taking two, or more, cultures that were previously individual and combining them. Thus developing new traditions and group identities. However you are still able to tell the difference form the two. Examples of creolization would be, for instance, in the Shannon piece “Dress for Success”, Hendrick dresses in British Clothes in order to fit in and be accepted more with the Britain people. Their clothes gave them a higher social standing and Hedrick seen that so he dressed the part. In the 18th century, as a result to the sugar plantations being so big and the slaves not having any close relations with masters, African cultures were creolized with other African cultures. With the tobacco plantations, however, slaves lived in close proximity and sometimes even with the masters and were able to have the African-European creolization that we know eventually made the African American society. * Columbian exchange would also be an example of creolization. Europeans brought over all types of diseases (Don’t say this was creolization, although it was PART of it, death is NOT creolization), animals (excluding dogs), plants; such as wheat, barley, and oats, and ideas; such as clothing. Also they had the fur trade, which was also part of creolization because they traded the beaver fur for glass and so on…
These are a few parts from the Shannon Piece “Dressing for Success…” that I think is important when discussing creolization… * Scholars of material culture have long noted the importance of clothing in self-presentation. Costume and fashion provide what one cultural anthropologist has called "an expressive medium" through which individuals communicate with others. Such factors as the color, fabric, and fit of the clothing, along with posture and manners, tell us about the wearer's social position, occupation, and elements of personal identity from religious beliefs to sexual preferences. In addition to keeping the body warm and dry, clothing may denote status, signify a rite of passage, or even convey spiritual powers. The importance of clothing to material culture therefore extends far beyond its utility to include a variety of expressive properties that may be manipulated by its wearer.
AND
* Indians adopted these goods when they found them technologically advantageous but valued them also for aesthetic properties, such as color and shape, and for ceremonial uses, such as mourning the dead, that Europeans were slow to comprehend. Indian consumers were selective and demanding, often haggling over prices and refusing inferior goods. In short, they engaged wholeheartedly in the consumer revolution, but on their own terms and in ways shaped by their cultural values and practices.
Both these excerpts discuss how both the Indians and the Europeans adapted to the customs of each other in the 18th an 19th century, which was one of the biggest parts of creolization with them. I’m not sure about the other reading since I didn’t read it (shame on me) but she said one reading is sufficient… If u just kind of browse this one u should be fine…
2. How did the nature of differing staple crops (ie., sugar and tobacco) and the resultant nature of the structure of plantations affect the process of creolization in the plantation colonies? Include both the lectures AND THE READINGS in your response. * Sugar Plantations- * much harder work caused earlier deaths * Slaves weren’t fed really good food, so they weren’t able to have healthy children * More slave men resulted in less children/ less creolization-Jamaica * constantly buying more
