Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650-1800.

This chapter uncovers the beginnings of a more grounded Ethiopianism in its treatment of nineteenth-century lyric verse by Walt Whitman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and others written on the topic of Ethiopia, when abstract Ethiopianism was a prominent ideology in African America. It addresses the politics of Walt Whitman's poem, particularly in the poem's “recognition” of the Ethiopian flag, in light of the press's treatment of the Anglo-Abyssinian conflict. Paul Laurence Dunbar's interpretation of the Ethiopian flag's symbolic value, in “Ode to Ethiopia” and “Frederick Douglass,” positions him uncomfortably alongside Whitman, a poet he found distasteful. His poems present an “Ethiopia” invigorated with nationalism and, unexpectedly, with militarism. The chapter also talks about two poems about Emperor Tewodros by women: “Magdala,” which appeared in the 1875 book Songs of the Year and Other Poems by “Charlton,” and “The Death of King Theodore,” in E. Davidson's 1874 The Death of King Theodore and Other Poems.

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“FLIPPIN THE SCRIPT”/ “BLOWIN UP THE SPOT”: PUTTIN’ HIP-HOP ONLINE IN (AFRICAN) AMERICA AND SOUTH AFRICA

Global Literacies and the World Wide Web ◽

10.4324/9780203978863-21 ◽

2005 ◽

pp. 262-287

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Hip Hop ◽

African America

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‘Til Death or Distance Do Us Part: Love and Marriage in African America (review)

Callaloo ◽

10.1353/cal.2012.0058 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 558-561

Author(s):

Michael A. Antonucci

Keyword(s):

African America

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An anthropological approach to taboo words and language

The Oxford Handbook of Taboo Words and Language ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198808190.013.20 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 371-390

Author(s):

Stanley H. Brandes

Keyword(s):

Cultural Anthropology ◽

The United States ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Cultural Relativity ◽

African America ◽

Joking Relationships ◽

Supporting Material ◽

Anthropological Approach ◽

Taboo Words ◽

Sub Saharan

The anthropological approach to taboo words and language begins with an understanding and acceptance of cultural relativity. Anthropologists are keenly aware that everyday speech that might be perfectly decorous in one society is often laughable or, in extreme cases, scandalous in another. Anthropologists also identify taboo words and language by popular responses to their utterance. According to anthropological definitions, tabooed behavior—be it verbal or otherwise—must be negatively sanctioned. Sometimes sanctions take the form of public rebuke. At other times they are expressed through collective scorn or ostracism. This essay explores these ideas with ethnographic examples chosen from the closely related fields of cultural anthropology and folklore. Supporting material comes from a variety of societies located in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, Latin America, and—within the United States—Native America and African America. The author analyses nicknaming, verbal dueling, and various types of joking relationships, among other speech forms, as anthropologically prominent forms of tabooed language.

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