African Americans in the South: issues of race, class, and gender

Abstract

This volume reflects a new commitment by American anthropologists to engage in what has been called the anthropology of racism: the analysis of systems of inequality based on biological differences. Comprising 9 papers and related commentary, African Americans in the South examines racism, class stratification and sexism as they bear on the African-American struggle for social justice, equality and cultural identity in the South. The essays fall into three broad categories: economic survival strategies, health and reproductive problems and religious responses to the larger society. Essays in the first category discuss African-American teen pregnancy and mutual aid societies. The second group focusses on health practices and knowledge among blacks in a Georgia town, African-American midwifery in North Carolina, an AIDS education program in a Tennessee city and eating habits in rural North Carolina. The essays in the last category emphasize the diversity of the African-American religious experience by focussing on black Pentecostals, Jews and Mormons in the South.