Part of the Indiana University series on Blacks in the Diaspora, this book brings together ten essays on the impact of African roots on African American cultural patterns. Two of the essays are general in nature, the other eight focus on specific cultural domains such as religion, music, folklore, and art

Ottenheimer, Harriet

English

VCU Scholars Compass

Hine ends this book on a seemingly positive note-the NACGN voluntar­ily disbands when black nurses are accepted into the ANA as full members in 1950; the implication here is that they had finally achieved their goal­"agency." Something must be amiss ,  however, since black nurses have seen the need to establish the National Black Nurses' Association ( 1971)  and continue to press ANA to demonstrate concern for the special needs of black nurses. But then this may be the stuff of another book. - Celia J. Wintz Houston Community College Joseph E. Holloway, ed. Africanisms in American Culture. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990) xxi, 249 pp., $29.95. Part ofthe Indiana University series on Blacks in the Diaspora , this book brings together ten essays on the impact of African roots on African American cultural patterns. Two of the essays are general in nature, the other eight focus on specific cultural domains such as religion, music, folklore, and art. It is the general essays which appear to be the most successful in the book. Holloway's discussion of the Bantu influences on African American culture provides essential data on slave origins and is a good general introduction to the other essays. Philips' discussion of the African heritage of white America provides an outstanding concluding essay while raising significant questions about American culture in general. Most of the other essays are more focused in nature and nearly all of them touch on religion in one way or another. Thompson, for example, discusses Kongo influences on African American grave markers and belief systems. In addition, there are four separate essays on various aspects of religion: Mulira's essay on African survivals in New Orleans' voodoo tradi­tions, Creel's essay on continuities in Gullah folk religious beliefs, Hall's on African religious retentions in Florida, and Brandon's on African elements in Santeria. Of special note are the essays by Asante, Maultsby and Thompson. Writing about language (Asante), music (Maultsby) and art (Thompson), each of these authors takes an uncommonly general approach to his or her subject, using specifics ofform to discuss continuities of style and aesthetic, and providing excellent insights into the mechanisms of retention, reinterpretation and transformation of cultural style. Robinson's approach to folklore is also notable here. The book would have benefitted from a single comparable essay on religion, rather than four distinct essays. One also misses having good treatments of some of the more elusive areas of social, political and economic aspects of African American culture. As a result the book is somewhat unevenly balanced. Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 11 (Summer 199 1) 33 It is the focus on Bantu cultures that makes this an unusual book. From Holloway's introduction to the various essays which explore the Bantu roots in American culture (Thompson, Mulira, and Hall are outstanding here) it is clear that a reexamination of the degree to which Bantu cultures are represented in the Mrican American "mix" is long overdue. Holloway's book is a welcome step in a very important direction. - Harriet Ottenheimer Kansas State University Sheila K. Johnson. The· Japanese Through American Eyes. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988) x, 191 pp., $22.50. For those interested in relations between Japan and the United States, this book is timely. It traces American stereotypes and attitudes about Japan from World War II to the later 1980s. The author, an anthropologist who has lived in that nation, uses examples of popular American culture­books, magazines, films and public opinion poll results-to trace attitudi­nal shifts in the U.S. She effectively uses illustrations and cartoons from magazines and newspapers-New Yorker, Time, Playboy, and the New York Times-to indicate how American opinions have ranged over this period. The book is divided into nine chapters: the Legacy ofthe War; the Legacy of Hiroshima; the Legacy of the Occupation; the Sexual Nexus; the Cultural Nexus; Of Shoguns and Ninjas; the Business Nexus. The final chapter deals with the Dilemma of Japanese Americans. Dealing with the "kernel of truth" approach to racial stereotypes, the author observes that certain themes have shaped American thinking about Japan during the past half century, described in the first eight chapters. A number of articles in magazines and books written by such authors as John Hersey, Elizabeth Gray Vining, William Manchester, John Marquand, James Michener, Norman Cousins, Lafcadio Hearn, Ruth Benedict, John Embree and others are cited. She even draws from Ian Fleming's You Only Live Twice (made into a James Bond movie). Lists of Japanese-U.S.  trade figures from 1952 to 1987 and a chart showing growth of American visitors to Japan (6,600 in 195 1 to nearly 500,000 in 1986) are revealing. Her thesis is that American popular culture has served to reinforce our shifting stereotypes, and how these images have ranged from a "Madame Butterfly" image to a "cruel, sneaky, unfeeling samurai warrior image ." The current stereotype involves admiration and frustration regarding Japanese products, a far cry from an earlier image that Japanese products were "inferior copycats" of American ones. Americans, she observes,  his­torically have had ambivalent feelings about the Japanese-and the Chi­nese. At one time the Chinese were our allies during World War II, and the Japanese were cruel. Then Americans felt guilty about dropping the nuclear 34 Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 11 (Summer 1991)  

[Review of] Joseph E. Holloway, ed. Africanisms in American Culture

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1542&amp;context=ess

[Review of] Joseph E. Holloway, ed. Africanisms in American Culture

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