8 - Transformations of African culture in the Atlantic world

Summary

African slaves arriving in Atlantic colonies did not face as many barriers to cultural transmission as scholars such as Mintz and Price have maintained. However, they probably also did not simply recommence an African culture in the New World. If they met sufficient people from their nation to keep language and culture from dying out, this did not mean that they maintained them intact. They were, after all, in a new environment, with a new political and economic system. They had communication with people who did not share their heritage or that of their near African neighbors, including Europeans and Euro-Americans. Even if they were able to transmit their culture to a new generation, the culture passed on was not the original African culture. Afro- Atlantic culture became more homogeneous than the diverse African cultures that composed it, merging these cultures together and including European culture as well. The evidence suggests that the slaves were not militant cultural nationalists who sought to preserve everything African but rather showed great flexibility in adapting and changing their culture.

Culture change in the Atlantic world: dynamics of culture

In order to understand the process of cultural maintenance, transformation, and transmission, one must first understand something about what is meant by culture and particularly cultural dynamics. Anthropologists define it as a total lifeway for a society, including among other things kinship, political structure, language and literature, art, music and dance, and religion.