The African American community in the United States has had a protracted and torturous history since the days of slavery, and this has contributed to the formation of their unique subculture as part of their identity. As a result, I decided to visit the African American neighborhood in New York City for this ethnographic study that lasted for eight weeks. In this study, I stayed with an African American family for two weeks to observe their way of life. I interviewed an elderly person and a young person from the community to get different perspectives on the African American subculture. As a participant observer, I got immersed in the lives of the African American group to understand their beliefs and cultural patterns. I collected my data through observation and in-depth interviews. The African American subculture is critical component of the overall American culture and history. Like other cultures around the world, the African American culture has undergone a unidirectional evolution under the evolutionism theory (Diah et al. 157). There has been evolution in kinship, art, religion, food, economic activities, and social interactions. As a minority community in the United States, African Americans have over the years, shared their identity and culture that merit an ethnographic study. This ethnographic study will explore the underlying meanings of actions and behaviors in the African American community based on relevant ethnographic theories and concepts.
The focus of this study was to understand the day-to-day life of the African American community in their natural settings by observing their behavior, material culture, way of organizing society, relationship with other cultures, and systems of meaning. According to Nader, culture cannot be assumed, and that is why an ethnographic study is critical for some consensus to be reached (211). As is the case, in other major cities in the U.S., African Americans live in ethnic enclaves that form African American neighborhoods. As learned from the senior citizen I interviewed in this ethnography, these ethnic enclaves are products of social norms, formal laws, and the history of social segregation in the United States. He argued that it is being confined to these ethnic enclaves that played a significant role in the entrenchment of the African American culture. Most of these neighborhoods are normally referred to as “ghettos” to signify poor urban neighborhoods. This is a stereotype used by the White majority to portray African Americans as inferior from a socio-economic perspective even if the neighborhoods are not poverty-stricken or have dilapidated houses. This profiling and prejudice have made Black neighborhoods to be ignored in terms of social and economic development. In other words, the ghettos represented the struggles and suffering of African Americans. Thus, Harlem is considered a ghetto like other African American neighborhoods in the country.
The African American cuisine consists of a combination of traditional “soul food.” The foods have African influences and a typical dinner can include; collard greens, candied yams, fried chicken, cheese, macaroni, and cornbread. However, the subculture has adopted food features from other cultures within and outside the United States. Diffusionism is an anthropological school of thought that is real and practical because it involves “the spread of certain ideas, customs, or practices from one culture to another” (Diah et al. 158). Apart from the traditional African influences, African Americans have also adopted food ideas from Europeans and Latinos, as I discovered in my study. Barbecuing, frying, and boiling are the common methods of preparing food. The food culture is the most spread culture around the world and that is why it was not a surprise to learn that the African American cuisine has some foreign influences. Moreover, I realized the group loves home-baked cakes. The ingredients have African roots and spicy seasonings are common.
African American foods are a reflection of economic and racial oppression. Despite the fact that the food culture has some foreign elements, there is some aspect of historical particularism when it comes to African American dishes. Their unique history of slavery and racial marginalization helped shape their unique cuisine in different ways. According to the historical particularism theory, “each culture of each society has its own uniqueness and the society has its own distinctive historical development” (Diah et al. 159). The unique African American cuisine can be traced to the days of slavery when African Americans had no access to better cuts of meat and had to improvise inexpensive products to come up with a hearty cuisine. Simple preparation of rice, greens, black-eyed peas, cornbread, fish, and chicken is common in most households. Mustard and tunic greens were also a common delicacy in the house I was staying for two weeks. I learned from my interviewee that the simple cuisine was common among the African American community in the rural South during and after the days of slavery. Most of the food products were produced through fishing, subsistence hunting, and farming. What caught my attention was how neck bones and ham hocks were being used as seasoning for beans and soups.
The other aspect of this subculture I observed closely was their attire. The group has a unique traditional dressing style that combines West African influences and Western style fashions. The Kente fabric, casual jeans, casual t-shirts, vibrant suits, and vibrant dresses. Most of the current attires have their influences from the 1960s cultural explosions. When it comes to appearance for worship in churches, decency is still a major factor because women where decent dresses and elaborate Sunday hats while men wear presentable suits. The older men could be seen in the formal bow ties when attending Church and other special occasions. Older men love their hair natural or completely shaved while younger men prefer styles such as dreadlocks, braids, or the afro style. For women, hair styling includes tightly coiled curls, application of chemical processes, and simple straightening of the hair. The women are still under immense pressure to conform to the Western beauty standards. Generally, most of the dressing in this group is modest and conservative as many subscribe to the Christian faith that advocates for decent dressing.
African Americans adopt traditional American names drawn from the same language groups. Africans were forced to abandon their African names when they moved to the United States as slaves and this is still the naming practice to this day. This is one way of cultural integration and fitting into the broader American culture. Therefore, their names have no cultural significance because adopt some of the popular names in the country when naming their children. However, some innovative African American parents have tried to create their unique identity by creating names based on sound, such as Shandra and Latasha. There are neither African nor traditional American names. There was a girl named Latasha in the family that was hosting me during my ethnographic study. The other important thing I observed was that African American families have strong familial bonds. There is a strong bond among siblings, cousins, and non-blood family friend. This is common in predominantly African American neighborhoods like Harlem. There are systems for economic and emotional support among members of the extended families, and the African American neighborhoods have a sense of community where residents live like one family.
The other interesting observation about the African American subculture is that kinship goes beyond the nuclear family. The community adopts the structuralist school of thought, where family is viewed in the larger context of the community. In this case, a “single-unit family is a unit of a larger kinship system which is generally considered as secondary (Diah et al. 160). Therefore, everyone is considered “family” in this neighborhood because kinship goes beyond blood relationships. Also, the group’s history of marginalization and oppression contributed to the present solidary and co-existence as a family. Therefore, the structuralism theory advocates for using the greater structure when analyzing kinship. A nuclear family structure is seen from the larger structure of the community and this shapes the social relationships between the community.
As mentioned earlier, religion is a major aspect of the African American subculture. As critical social institutions, the different religions among the African American community in Harlem help promote order and stability in the society. According to Diah et al., social institutions like religion shape the behavior and norms in a particular society (159). The functionalist theory is based on the premise that the social structure and institutions in a particular culture shape the system of relationships in the society that in turn determine its functionality Diah et al. 159). From my study, social and economic institutions are critical to the functionality of the African American community. African Americans are very religious people and belong to different religions. The most popular region is Protestant Christianity, followed by Islam. I attended an African American church in the neighbourhood and realized that the Church has a more enthusiastic singing. After the harrowing past of racial discrimination and prejudice, the Church remains their refuge and source of hope. Also, a small percentage of African Americans belong to Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism religion.
I inquired in one of my interviews about the major life events for the African Americans and realized most of their events align with the mainstream culture in the United States. They celebrate the normal national holidays and ceremonies. The funeral ceremonies or rituals vary based on location or religion. In terms of music, I realized that the elderly group love jazz and reggae music while the youthful group love hip hop or rap music. This group embraces rap music because it acts as a voice for the voiceless and speaks against oppression and racial discrimination. Also, rap music highlights the sheer survival of African Americans on American streets and the anger of being marginalized. Thus, the African American culture considers music as a medium for airing their grievances and frustrations in American society.
This ethnographic study was based on the Grounded theory because I was able to ask deep questions when learning about the community’s structures, meaning of actions, and context. Also, I was able to develop theoretical categories to understand the subculture by taking time to ask controversial questions. I was able to pursue topics of great interest to me like kinship, the African American cuisine, and rap music because I was open to the action and setting. This was full participation as opposed to passive observation. I focused on different topics and contexts in my study. This means that my aim was to make a conceptual depiction of actions as opposed to what was happening in the setting (Kim 517). According to Aldiabat, Grounded theory helps and ethnographer to understand the cultural background and behavior of my target subculture from the social interaction perspective (3). Therefore, this theory helped me understand the values and beliefs of the African American community in Harlem.
In conclusion, this was comprehensive exploratory study of the African American subculture in Harlem that provides an overview of the group’s values, behaviors, and way of life. This ethnographic study involved participate observation and in-depth interviews by two members of the subculture. This study revealed that despite the adoption of some cultural features from other cultures, the African American community has some unique cultural values and norms that shapes its identity. Anthropological theories such as evolutionalism, structuralism, diffusionism, Grounded theory, and historical particularism are relevant to this subculture that is an important part of the American culture. This ethnography was theory driven and that is why there are more detailed findings about the subculture under study.
Works Cited
Aldiabat, Khaldoun. “Clarification of the blurred boundaries between grounded theory and ethnography: Differences and similarities.” Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 2, no. 3, 2011: 1-13.
Diah, Nurazzura Mohamad, et al. “An overview of the anthropological theories.” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 4, no. 1, 2014: 155-164.
Kim, Sun S. “The experiences of young Korean immigrants: A grounded theory of negotiating social, cultural, and generational boundaries.” Issues in Mental Health Nursing, vol. 25: 517–537.
Nader, Laura. “Ethnography as theory.” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, vol.1, no. 1, 2011: 211-219.
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