Hortense Powdermaker’s book, Stranger and Friend, chronicles her experiences doing fieldwork throughout her career. In it, she discusses culture as shared meaning, where context and history give different components of a society social value. Through this process, essential qualities of a culture develop. The theory with which Powdermaker views culture, cultural essentialism, is one which uses these essential qualities as means of identification to form groups of people. This differs from Malinowski’s functionalist view, which claims that culture serves the needs of individuals rather than of larger communities. Thus, according to Powdermaker, cultural and social life is described not by the purpose they serve to singular people, but by the
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One of the principle dynamics she discusses is that between the white residents and the black residents and the tension that existed between them. She notes, referring here to her usage of the terms Mr. and Mrs. with black people in the community, “I learned that the white man’s consistent withholding of respect from Negroes was the foundation of relations between the two races. The symbolism of social titles for Negroes was strong and deep for both groups. For the Negroes, the titles represented their strivings; for the white, the titles symbolized their fears” (153). Culture, here, is a nested phenomenon. On the outer layer, there is the widespread racism which defines the social code in Indianola. The concrete and firmly established discrimination is so ingrained in their dealings, perceptions, and daily interactions with one another. To break this pattern was to completely disregard their culture. Powdermaker recalls a warning which Durkheim passed onto her, “breaking a taboo is a crime against the communal solidarity” (153). Racism, and the disrespect which comes with it, is a part of their community the way that, in general, patriotism is a part of the community of the United States today. On the inner layers of this dynamic, contained within the city-wide culture, are the ways in which this defines both the white community and the black community. For the white community, their mass fear of black power defines their experience in Mississippi. It is an essential part of their society and of their perceptions. For the black community, their probably unspoken yet shared ambitions unite them in an enormously powerful characteristic of their community, which is their struggle against the white populace. For both groups, the “taboo” is the norm. Though racism did serve a purpose for individual needs, it is not the purpose which makes it definitive. Instead, it is, through cultural
One of the principle dynamics she discusses is that between the white residents and the black residents and the tension that existed between them. She notes, referring here to her usage of the terms Mr. and Mrs. with black people in the community, “I learned that the white man’s consistent withholding of respect from Negroes was the foundation of relations between the two races. The symbolism of social titles for Negroes was strong and deep for both groups. For the Negroes, the titles represented their strivings; for the white, the titles symbolized their fears” (153). Culture, here, is a nested phenomenon. On the outer layer, there is the widespread racism which defines the social code in Indianola. The concrete and firmly established discrimination is so ingrained in their dealings, perceptions, and daily interactions with one another. To break this pattern was to completely disregard their culture. Powdermaker recalls a warning which Durkheim passed onto her, “breaking a taboo is a crime against the communal solidarity” (153). Racism, and the disrespect which comes with it, is a part of their community the way that, in general, patriotism is a part of the community of the United States today. On the inner layers of this dynamic, contained within the city-wide culture, are the ways in which this defines both the white community and the black community. For the white community, their mass fear of black power defines their experience in Mississippi. It is an essential part of their society and of their perceptions. For the black community, their probably unspoken yet shared ambitions unite them in an enormously powerful characteristic of their community, which is their struggle against the white populace. For both groups, the “taboo” is the norm. Though racism did serve a purpose for individual needs, it is not the purpose which makes it definitive. Instead, it is, through cultural