Humanism in Black Culture

Abstract

we can identify black culture in terms of certain institutions and values which they share as members of an ethnic group, while recognizing that individual families and communities identify in important respects with other groups. The ascription of a humanistic character-defined as those values and institutions which black Americans have in common that are not shared by the majority of Americans-is a prevalent theme in the black movement. This view is counterposed to that of American society generally as materialistic in its emphasis. Humanism refers to a recognition of essential human characteristics-experience, feelings, a sense of personal worth-as contrasted with an instrumental evaluation in terms of success, competence, "personality". As an alternative to pejorative or apologetic approaches to the study of black society, anthropologists might consider the proposition that black Americans, constituting a minority that has been, in turn, despised, patronized, or tolerated, but never granted full membership in this society, have nevertheless maintained a tradition in which personal and social integrity, as expressed in cultural, political, and intellectual achievements, are manifest. It can be argued that the circumstances under which black Americans have created a life way necessitated a strongly integrated social organization and a resolute adherence to a system of values in order to survive as a people.

Race, culture, and history: Charles Wagley and the anthropology of the African Diaspora in the Americas

“…It has evolved as an individual and a group adaptive strategy in Afro-American cultures. Structures and forms appear amorphous and ever-changing but they vary in accordance with a deeper and often unconscious set of values at what Mintz and Price (1973) labeled, in speaking of African survivals, the "grammatical level" and that Aschenbrenner (1976) has described as the "Humanism" of black culture.…”