ms folk cultures. choctaw choctaw culture work hard to preserve their culture. most speak the...

MS FOLK CULTURES

CHOCTAW

Choctaw Culture• Work hard to preserve their culture.• Most speak the Choctaw language • Traditional concepts of relationships, nature,

arts, dance, & music • Choctaw Indian Fair – 1st week in July

– At reservation in Neshoba County near Philadelphia

– Recreates the Festival of the Green Corn• Special dances, play stickball, & display

crafts• Influence on Southern cuisine (food customs)

especially corn (hominy, grits, corn meal, etc.)

AFRICAN - AMERICANS

African-American Culture• Favor improvisation and innovation always

searching for new ideas within familiar ways passed down from earlier generations

• First came to MS as slaves and free blacks– Slaves: mostly on plantations and farms– Free blacks: Natchez and along Gulf Coast

• Rich African heritage with borrowed European and Native American traits

Influence on Southern Culture

• Language – words like boogie, gumbo, jazz, & okra

• Folklore – tales of trickster animals & spirits

• Music & Performance – blues, dramatic speechmaking, lively preaching & banjo

• Food – yams, okra, spicy ingredients, deep-fried chicken & fish, peas & greens boiled with pork, barbeque, and gumbo

• Crafts - baskets & colorful quilts

• Afterworld Beliefs - placing personal items on graves to ward off evil spirits & assure the peaceful rest of deceased

EUROPEAN - AMERICANS

Contributions to Southern Culture

• Country Music

• Basket making

• Boat building

• Quilting

• Storytelling

European-American Cultures• Largest group from British Isles

– Celtic tradition: square & clog dancing– Building styles, music, & cuisine

• French & Spanish arrived on the Gulf Coast.– Brought Mardi Gras– Designed the Biloxi schooner and catboat

ideally suited for the shallow waters of MS.

• Other groups:

–Italians (Shaw, Greenville, Gulf Coast) brought language, food, & recreation.

–Greeks (Jackson & Gulf Coast)

–Lebanese (Vicksburg)

–Jews (Natchez)

–Slavonians (Biloxi)

ASIAN - AMERICANS

Asian-American Cultures

• Strong identity with ancestors & ancient customs of loyalty & religious practices

• Largest group from China– Settled the Delta in the late 1800s

• Vietnamese arrived in the 1980s.– Settled on the Gulf Coast– Worked in the seafood industry

Contributions to Southern Culture

• Cuisine

• Holidays– Chinese New Year – private family

celebrations –parade in Clarksdale– Vietnamese Tet – Celebrates the New Year,

national independence, and religious holiday for Buddhists (temple in Biloxi for food and prayers)

• Arts, literature, & music