AAS/ANT 112 Midterm Exam Review

Question 1

African Diaspora

Answer 1

The voluntary and involuntary movement of Africans and their descendants to various parts of the world during the modern and pre-modern periods.​
Unique because united by a past rooted in racial oppression, but not necessarily the desire to return to Africa.
Study of this diaspora must start with Africa. Complex, given the trajectories of people of African descent in different nation-states (ex: Jamaica vs US vs Brazil)

Question 2

Ubuntu

Answer 2

Origin: South African Zulu and Xhosa
I am what I am bc of who we all are
Thinking in terms of collective identity, collective struggle, and communal sharing

Question 3

Foodways

Answer 3

Menas to understand the way food and food customs have shaped group and iniduvuals indientides especially the cultural retentions of West Africa and how these were adapted within the New World
“We are what we eat and we are also what we don’t eat and that our present lives are influenced deeply by what our ancestors did or didn’t eat” (ex: pig intestines, pig feet)

Question 4

Griot

Answer 4

A griot is a West African storyteller, singer, musician, and oral historian. They train to excel as orators, lyricists and musicians. The griot keeps records of all the births, deaths, marriages through the generations of the village or family.
Food = oral performance/ cooks as griots

Question 5

The Clotilda

Answer 5

The schooner Clotilda was the last known U.S. slave ship to bring captives from Africa to the United States, arriving at Mobile Bay, in autumn 1859 or July 9, 1860, with 110 African men, women, and children.

Question 6

Creolization

Answer 6

Not food but mixing of cultures to create something new and distinct
Yam and Sweet Potatoes (new world)
American cuisine is a creolization of food mixing

Question 7

Cuisine

Answer 7

It is a product of history, A distinct body of doof prep and presentation, Presentation: Iconic rituals that mark culture and ethinic identity - ex dress, music, dance)
Cuisine: Product of Two Factors:
Dominant political cultures - African empires, imperialism, and colonization
Cultural exchange - trade, intermarraige, or religious conversation

Question 8

Debt peonage

Answer 8

Large landowners who were also local stores exploited sharecroppers by keeping then in debt by deducting their earnings from purchases in their store, allowed slavery to keep having legally.

Question 9

Sharecroppers

Answer 9

Sublease of land from the initial plantation

Question 10

Food Rebels

Answer 10

Food Rebels: Groups who questioned the wisdom of eating traditional soul food:
Black Muslims (Nation of Islam)
Advocates of Natural Food,
College educated Black Americans

They question it as a means to uplift balck liberation not just saying soul food is bad for you but it is bad for you on black liberation

Question 11

Juneteenth

Answer 11

Juneteenth commemorates an effective end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed

Question 12

Pullman car porters/Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Answer 12

Founded in 1925 by labour organizer and civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) aimed to improve the working conditions and treatment of African American railroad porters and maids employed by the Pullman Company, a manufacturer and operator of railroad cars.

Pullman porters were men hired to work on the railroads as porters on sleeping cars. Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. Pullman porters served American railroads for 100 years from the late 1860s until late in the 20th Century.

Question 13

Buffalo Soldiers

Answer 13

American Plains Indians who fought against these soldiers referred to the black cavalry troops as “buffalo soldiers” because of their dark, curly hair, which resembled a buffalo’s coat and because of their fierce nature of fighting. The nickname soon became synonymous with all African-American regiments formed in 1866.

Given the name by Native Americans who thought they had hair like buffalo. The 9th and 10th regiments of the US responsible for patrolling the Great Plains in New Mexico and Arizona. Experiences significant racial discrimination.

Formerly enslaved black man in charge of looking over the great plains.

Survailing indigenous people

Question 14

What do members of a Diaspora share?

Answer 14

Emotional attachment and ancestral bond; Cognizant of their dispersa; Cognizant of their oppression or alienation in their new settled societies; Poses racial and ethinc, religious identity that transcends geography; Broad cultural similarities; Sometimes articulate a desire to return to their homeland

Question 15

What is the significance of “soul food” as a foodway?

Answer 15

Speaks to social and economic inequality in the Black community
Explores the changing role of women
Uncovers culinary and cultural histories of oral traditions of Black culture
Used to lens to discuss health, race, and class issues
Seen as a means of maintaining community identification

Question 16

Five Streams of the African Diaspora:

Answer 16

Pre Modern Era Movements:
1. Early humankind (100,000 years ago)
2. Bantu movement (3,000 BC)
3. Trading diaspora (beginning 5th century BC)
Modern Era Movements:
4. Transatlantic slave trade (5th centry)
5. 19th century until today (post emancipation)

Question 17

What were the contested identities illustrated in the film, Black Is, Black Ain’t?

Answer 17

Test with a cone, shade of black, where they live, and kind of hair
Multiple identities not just one
Purpose of this film was to challenge what blackness was.
b. Masculinity
c. African American Homosexuality
d. Plight of a black women/ Sexuality, religion, education (Femininity)
e. Black and educated
f. Economic status

Question 18

How was gumbo used as a metaphor about Black identity in Black Is, Black Ain’t?

Answer 18

The gumbo alludes to the diverse black community, symbolizing unity, communion, and inclusiveness.
Acknowledging differences in our community under this one pot of black identity
Communion: understand and respect differences but still part of the black identity

Question 19

What are some of the parallels that the Black community faced in Black Is, Black Ain’t that still resonate today?

Answer 19

employment discrimination, occupational segregation, and unequal pay

Film made in the mid 1990s the director is detailing with dying from aids and how aids today continue to borrow in poor or discriminated sections, any type of public health is more in marginalized people. It is the system itself that makes them more volurbanle. Clips showed the aftermath of the police being arrested for beating a black person and then the charges were dismissed. Immediately following the charges being dismissed a rebellion happens with looting fires and violence. Similar to the George Floyd situation. Still dealing with police brutality, health issues, and taking to the streets still.

Question 20

What were the contributions of the Igbo and Mande tribal people to the New World (US)?

Answer 20

Igbo traditions and use: Use of yam, palm oil, and kola nut - Hail from Biafra region for Nigeria

Mande traditions and use: Rice cultivators, curries
Both examples of impacts through food by slaves

Both from the West and want the rice cultivation
Mande people rice cultivars wanted by people in carolinas

Question 21

What social movements were active in the United States in the 1960’s?

Answer 21

Mass mobilization against the Vietnam conflict, for civil rights and black liberation movements, and for women’s rights
i. Civil Rights Movement
ii. 1962: First black student enrolled in College; Lunch counter protests
iii. 1963: I have a dream
iv. 1964: 1st Civil Rights act passed
v. 1965: Civil rights march

Question 22

What was happening on the continent of Africa during the 1960’s?

Answer 22

Reframing the Year of Africa: Independence as a Process

The year 1960 is known as the “Year of Africa,” when 17 countries across the continent celebrated the joy, excitement, and possibilities of independence. But liberation in Africa was more than this one moment in the global process of decolonization.

The Sharpeville massacre in South Africa took place on 21 March 1960, triggering mass underground resistance as well as international solidarity demonstrations. This event is sometimes cited as the beginning of worldwide struggle against apartheid.

Question 23

How did activities lead to “food rebels”?

Answer 23

During civil rights and black power movements, breaking away from soul food became another way of resisting white man’s culture and returning to an idealized African culinary heritage

Nation of Islam and the White food conspiracy - the nation called for a site restricting pork, processed foods like white flour, white rice, bread, and sugar

Natural Health Food Advocates
Dick Gregory’s natural diet for folks who eat cooking with mother nature (1973)
Physical liberation through food
Quickest way to wipe out a group of people is having them eat soul food
African Americans eat properly will help their food and mind - plant based

Question 24

Why is the Haitian revolution significant in the history of the African Diaspora as depicted in the film, Egalite?

Answer 24

Anti slavery document
Haiti was the first black republic
Haiti the only place were slaves created a nation
The Haiti revolution was a domino effect for the rest of the world
The constitution was very important because it made people recognize what was happening
USA reaction to Haiti becoming the first black republic they were shocked, USA did not recognize Haiti as a country 60 years later

Question 25

What was the fate of Haiti’s revolutionary leader, Toussaint L’Ouverture?

Answer 25

The black George Washington Toussaint Louverture was a general, he became a free slave
Toussaint Louverture created the constitution for St. Domingue which eliminated slavery and made him the only head of state, an anti slavery document
Haiti was the first black republic
France reaction to Haiti becoming the first black republic: Napoleon was against it because it lost France money. Naeoplen restablishes slavery and France takes over and they take Toussaint Louverture and he later dies.

Question 26

How has Haiti “paid the price” for its independence?

Answer 26

France reaction to Haiti becoming the first black republic: Napoleon was against it because it lost France money. Naeoplen restablishes slavery and France takes over and they take Toussaint Louverture and he later dies. Dasmien comes after Toussaint Louverture was taken away and he takes back the Island from France and makes it a true Republic. Haiti had to pay reparations to France when they were one of the richest colonies. France said they had to pay reparations because they said Haiti people ruined their crops and their stuff. The reparations are keeping Haiti in a state of poverty. Going from the richest colonie to the poorest country today.

Question 27

The moron

Answer 27

The moron was runaway slaves who established their own cities

Question 28

How did the French Revolution impact the Haitian Revolution?

Answer 28

The French Revolution provided the necessary spark for the revolution in Haiti to occur: it was the inspiration the cause of the abolition of slavery in Haiti needed to actualize its goals.

Question 29

Post Emancipation, some Blacks sought fortune in the West; what were some routes of westward expansion?

Answer 29

Philadelphia free blacks advocated moves to Texas
Blacks accompanying Native Americans on the Trail of Tears
Gold Rush territories (Claifroiona and Colorado)
Spurred by the 1862 Homestead Act (especially in Kansas and Oklahoma)
As black cowboys relied upon African knowledge of cattle herding

Question 30

What is significant about the lives (and fortunes) of the American West’ self-made entrepreneurs Mary Ellen Pleasant?

Answer 30

Mary Ellen Pleasant was a 19th-century entrepreneur, financier, real estate magnate and abolitionist. She was arguably the first self-made millionaire of African-American heritage, preceding Madam C. J. Walker by decades. She identified herself as “a capitalist by profession” in the 1890 United States census.
Mother of California Civil Rights Movement
Hailed as the mother of civil rights in California, Mary Ellen Pleasant was a self-made millionaire and leading abolitionist during the Gold-Rush era.
She owned boarding houses and heard tips about the stock market and they tried to make her legacy invisible.

Question 31

What is significant about the lives (and fortunes) of the American West’ self-made entrepreneurs Barney Ford?

Answer 31

In the 1870s Ford was perhaps the most notable black businessman in Denver. He also became more active in civic affairs. Already in 1866 he had helped establish the first adult education classes in Denver. In 1872 he became the first black man to serve on a federal grand jury in Colorado.
Over the course of his life, Barney Ford made several fortunes in mining, restaurants, barbershops, real estate and other investments. He also lost several to swindlers, fires, bankruptcy and war, but was always able to get back up and reinvent himself.

Question 32

Name & describe the four key characters in the book?

Answer 32

Kevin- Dana’s husband and his white and a writer
Rufus- slave owner that rapes and enslaves some workers, not racist and helps Dana but he is in love with Alice
Dana- protagonist and narrator who works for rufus, constantly saves rufus
TomWylin-Rufus’s father. A cruel, vicious man, Weylin beats slaves for minor insubordination and never breaks a promise
Alice- A slave forced to bear Rufus’s children.

Question 33

How many times did Dana travel back in time? What situation “pulled” Dana into the past? What situations “returned” Dana to the present (1976)? What is Dana’s goal? Did she succeed or fail?

Answer 33

Dana travels back to Maryland in the 1800s seven times. The first time she arrives in 1815 to save Rufus, her ancestor from drowning. She did not know that her ancestor was white and a slave master. It is June 9th, 1976 and Dana’s 26th birthday. She returns to California 1976 when she fears for her life. Her goal is to not be captured and keep her freedom while waiting for her ancestor Hagar to be born.

Question 34

How do race, gender, and class work in this novel?

Answer 34

Throughout history, women have been viewed as the less dominant and less powerful gender. Gender has been used as a primary way of signifying relationships of power.

America has a dark history of slavery and few of us take time out of our daily lives to think about what life was really like in those days. But Octavia Butler wants us to consider just how much this history still informs American culture today. The main character Dana, for example, feels pretty removed from slavery until she goes back in time and feels just what it was like to live as a black person at this time. When she finally comes back to the present, she starts seeing all kinds of patterns in people’s behavior that definitely continue on from slave times. It’s just that no one realizes the connections.

He is referring to the social norm of referring to slave owners as a master to emphasize the slaves’ subordination. The upper class member, Rufus and the lower class members, slaves, were both taught different societal norms regarding social hierarchy. The slaves assimilated the acceptance of their lower status The Weylin plantation’s practice of systematic oppression by social class is similar to the educational system’s method of providing education after segregating social and economic classes. The implementation of social class in the academic curriculum leads to the adaptation to a class’ common lifestyle, preparing them to assume the same status in the future.

Question 35

Why is Kevin’s race an essential component to the novel?

Answer 35

Kevin is white and Dana is black, there interracial marragie is extremmly not allowed in the 1800s but also frowned upon in the 1970s. Their relationship shocked people in the old south and Rufus wishes it would be allowed so he could marry Alice.
His race offered Dana protection each time they went back in time and he was white so they could pretend she was his slave

Question 36

How does Margaret’s class affect her nervous behavior and constant anxiety?

Answer 36

She felt the need to be cruel to Dana to show that she was above her, even though she was very poor.

Question 37

Rufus says that Dana and Alice are the “same woman”. How are they (for him)? And how are they not?

Answer 37

I think it had to do with the idea that he used Dana as someone to confide in and talk to (Personal relationship) and Alice for sex (Physical relationship)

Question 38

Why does Dana return to the present (1976) for the final time, with a missing arm?

Answer 38

The writer of the novel felt that there was no way she could go through everything she had went through unscathed. She had to lose a part of her old self in order to make it more real. Couldn’t have gone through everything she did and come back a whole person.
He lies with his arm around her, and for a few moments she thinks it would not be so bad to sleep with him. Then she decides she can’t be his lover. She stabs him twice. He screams, and Nigel comes in. Rufus goes limp, his hand on Dana’s arm. She time travels home. Her arm is fused to the wall exactly where Rufus’s hand gripped it.

Question 39

The Columbian Exchange

Answer 39

a. The exchange flowed both ways:
i. External influences brought maize, cassava, tomatoes, and potatoes to African cuisine.
ii. Oceanic trade brought spices, herbs and new fruits to African cuisine.
iii. African & Asian influences on European diets of gumbos, curries, and porridge.
b. After Columbus discovered the Americas..
c. Major exchange of products/ first level of globalization
i. Europe, Africa, And Asia to Americas
1. Fruits, grapes, bananas, sugar cane, honeybees
ii. Americas to Europe, Africa and Asia.
1. Turkeys, corn, potatoes, tomatoes and peanuts
d. Diseases exchanged as well….

Question 40

Transatlantic Slave Trade (route, major sites for slaves received/sent)

Answer 40

a. Differs by African American, Afro-Brazilian or Afro0Caribbean people due to volume of slave & fertility rates.
b. By 1810 over 90% of the U.S. Black population (primarily slaves) had been born in the U.S.
i. For African Americans and descendents of slaves, they have more time to create a distinctive African American culture.
ii. A U.S. slave did not have contact with the African slave. Latin American and Caribbean identities and foodways reflect stronger African retention.

Question 41

Map of African Countries

Answer 41

Most countries gained independence in the 1960s during the time of Civil Rights Movement in the US.
-Ethiopia was always an independent country

Question 42

The River

Answer 42

Dana saves Rufus from drowning

Question 43

The Fire

Answer 43

Rufus is standing in front of her burning drapes using a charred stick

Question 44

The Fall

Answer 44

Rufus has just fallen out of a tree and broken his leg

Question 45

The Fight

Answer 45

Issac knocks Rufus unconscious

Question 46

The Strom

Answer 46

Rufus is lying in a puddle drowing in the storm when Dana returns

Question 47

The Rope

Answer 47

Alice hangs herself