Alfrieta Parks lecture at the University of Iowa, October 26, 1976

Speaker 1: The following was recorded October 26th, 1976, at the University of Iowa, as part of the 1976, '77 Black Kaleidoscope series. Making the presentation is Alfreda Parks, an anthropologist and an instructor in the Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Iowa. Introducing Ms. Parks is Fred Woodard, an instructor in the department of Afro-American studies at the University of Iowa. Fred Woodard: Good evening. Welcome again to Black Kaleidoscope. As most of you know, Black Kaleidoscope is a year-long cultural series sponsored by the Afro-American Studies program at the University of Iowa. The cultural series is an attempt to bring to the university community, scholars who have an interest in Afro-American and African culture. We have had a rather interesting year this year, a running theme seems to be; Roots, recapturing roots, methods for recovering Afro-American culture. This evening, it is my pleasure to introduce to you an anthropologist whose topic is directly concerned with anthropological methods and the study of Afro-American culture. Fred Woodard: Ms. Parks does not like long introductions, and I will not give her one this evening. I simply want to run through, very quickly, her educational background. Alfreda Parks did her undergraduate study at George Washington University in psychology and sociology. And she is now a doctoral candidate at Princeton University in anthropology. Her research is on kinship and religion in the West Indies. I just like to say, by way of passing here, that we were very fortunate to have Ms. Parks join the Afro-American staff. At the time when she interviewed with us, she was teaching at Hamilton College, and after she interviewed with us, we had to give her up for a year to go to Germany on a Fulbright, to teach at University of [inaudible]? Alfreda Parks: University of Nuremberg. Fred Woodard: University of Nuremberg. So, we're very glad to have her back, and we're very glad to share her with you this evening. Thank you. Alfreda Parks: Thank you, Fred. My lecture tonight will hopefully be brief. And I want to discuss three subjects. I will begin with the definition of culture, continue with the discussion of the anthropological methods specifically, and end up with the topic of native anthropology; what we mean by native anthropology. To begin with; what is culture? What is it that the anthropologist is studying? The anthropologist is interested in the total society, the total social and cultural system. We study not only the interrelationships between parts of a particular culture, but also, we compare particular cultures with others in the universe. The social system... By social system, I mean an arrangement of people within a society that is into group action, actual observable behavior, people on the ground, if you will. Alfreda Parks: The cultural system exists on the cognitive level, and it gives behavior its meaning. The cultural system is an ordered system of symbols and cues. Culture is learned, it is shared, and is passed down from generation to generation. It is culture which you're suddenly aware that you lack when you find yourself in a different country, and you're making mistakes and you're being misunderstood and you don't know why. Because you don't have the system of rules within your head to make you know what behavior is proper. Okay. So the anthropologist is interested in not only behavior, which is something that's observable, which is something that's very concrete, but we're also interested in something that's more abstract, that is, what is it that gives that behavior meaning within a society. Alfreda Parks: Okay. So, we're interested in abstracting patterns from the behavior. And once we abstract these patterns, we can move on from that to the cultural rule. Okay. Now, the question which immediately comes to mind is; do Afro-Americans have a culture? That is, do Afro-Americans have a culture which is separate from that of the larger society in which we live? Now, this is a very old question. And it's one that has been very carefully dealt with in the literature. Melville Herskovits has very adequately demonstrated that Black Americans did not come to this country culturally stripped, as was once believed. And no findings have been made all the time, which attest to the fact that during slavery, the slave not only reacted, but the slave acted. For example, Frazier disagreed with Herskovits and said that any culture that Afro-Americans have now, have to be traced back to the plantation. One does not go beyond to Africa. Alfreda Parks: Now, in light of recent findings, we know that on the plantation itself, Afro-Americans who are very active in determining their own culture, that is in determining what behavior is proper, for example, there's evidence that in the naming system, slaves continued the naming system from their own particular African background, so that males and females were named differently, and this sort of thing was not something that they learned from the master, but this is something that they had in their own head, and that they continued. In line with these new studies, all studies are being revised. For example, if we look at Elkins studies; slavery, this is a good example. Elkins was one of the early historians, if not the earliest historian, to introduce psychological models into historical study. Elkins' work dealt with the damage that the plantation system did to the slave. Alfreda Parks: So, then he came up with a composite personality type which he called the Sambo personality. In the introduction to Elkins' book which is coming out this month, I believe, Elkins refutes much of his earliest studies. And he says that he was very much interested in looking at the damage to the slave personality. And he was not at all interested in resistance. That is, what the slave contribute to his own environment, to his own world. What kind of behavior did this slave make in response to the conditions in which he found himself. So that this difference then between damage and resistance is something that's come to light recently because Elkins, among others, has been made aware of the fact that the slave, not only reacted but did act and did, in some way, determine what he was. Alfreda Parks: Now, an anthropologist, Charles Valentine, in his book, Urban Blues, which is a study of the black blues singer, also states that, indeed the Afro-American is the only ethnic group in America with a culture to preserve. I would agree with Valentine among others because it seems to me that the African heritage, along with the legacy of the plantation, the legacy of slavery, and the adaptation with which Afro-Americans have had to make to the social and economic conditions in which he's found himself, and along with the fact that Afro-Americans have been largely isolated because we live in a society that is racist, all of these factors, I think have combined to make the Afro-American what he is, and that is bicultural. That is; Afro-Americans do maintain a separate culture as well as being participants in the larger, dominant culture. Therefore, there is something that's separate there and unique for the anthropologists to study. Alfreda Parks: The anthropologist then is interested in the interplay between action and meaning. The meaning of the action being determined within the cultural context. That is; the meaning of the action being determined by the people themselves and their own worldview, their own way of looking at the world, and interpreting their behavior. Now, we all know that studies are conducted all the time, and which this is not done. That is, native action is not interpreted in native terms, especially in the area of Afro-American studies. I would respond to this by saying that if we consider Afro-Americans to mean people of African descent living in North Central and South America, yes, it's true. Anthropologists have been very, very active in conducting and publishing results of research on Afro-Americans, especially in the West Indies, which has been bad. Meaning that they've failed to come up with any kind of useful theories or concepts which may be applied to Afro-Americans in a meaningful way. Alfreda Parks: However, most of the research which is being done among people of African descent in the United States, which is probably what most of you are familiar with, has been done by scientists and fields other than anthropology. For example, in kinship, the Moynihan report comes to mind, versus a study which was done by Carol Stack; All Our Kin, in which an anthropologist use network analysis and native concepts in order to analyze lower-class households. Now, I want to turn more specifically, then to the anthropological method itself. Now that you have an idea of what culture is. I said the anthropologists study the logical patterns or the symbolic relationships which exist on a cognitive level in society. Their goal is to interpret particular events, particular actions, in terms of these general patterns, in the patterns and loss which they have formulated. Alfreda Parks: And I should mention that these patterns are really analytic constructs. They're not anything that exists out there. They're not anything that the anthropologist goes out and learns from observing objective reality. These are our analytic constructs which the anthropologists formulate in order to better understand or to better analyze the society. And they're constantly testing these laws or these rules. And they do this the way other scientists do, that is they build models. The anthropologist is a model builder like most social scientists. And hopefully, these models will prove useful in understanding particular societies. And while at the same time, they should provide the anthropologist with concepts which can be used cross-culturally. And I hope I don't confuse you there. Alfreda Parks: On the one hand, the anthropologist is interested in building a model which can be applied to a particular society, but at the same time, they want models which can be used cross-culturally, so that the same model should be able to make sense out of the diversity that's found in the universe and still be applicable in a particular situation. In order to build these models, then the anthropologists must first conduct in-depth research in a particular society. And in doing this research, they employ the traditional anthropological methods of participant observation. This participant observation is augmented by interviews, archival research, and so forth. Okay. Alfreda Parks: Now, obviously, this participation has some restrictions. That is, there are age restrictions, depending upon what society you're studying; age restrictions, sexual restrictions, racial restrictions, depending upon your marital status, you might be restricted, and so forth. For example, women studying and are trying to conduct research in an Arab country would be restricted because of her sex, or a female trying to gather research on male sexual behavior, as I was in the West Indies, is at a disadvantage, because, depending upon how she handles herself, she can be misunderstood. Alfreda Parks: Now, in studying Afro-American societies, obviously, race is very important. And it enters in different ways. A white researcher studying Afro-American societies has a more difficult time, for example, establishing rapport initially. And a white researcher may or may not be trusted. I should say that this also extends to black researchers. Although you may not think that on the surface. You may think, "Well, people will be more receptive to a black researcher." And they are more receptive, but still that distrust exists because, quite frankly, I think Afro-Americans are tired of being researched. They've been over-researched, and they're distrustful when someone else comes up with a notebook and pencil, and start asking questions. Alfreda Parks: So, I can attest to the fact that my own colleagues who are black, who've done research in this country, have had a bad time. I certainly had problems in the Caribbean, but maybe they weren't as bad as they might've been had I been white. Okay. On the other hand, the black researcher does have problems maintaining distance, and also in establishing objectivity. Now, if a black researcher does research in the Western Indies, of course, the distance is there, and there is some objectivity because it's all very strange. But if you try to do research in this country and you're black, trying to maintain objectivity, and also to establish enough distance so that you can conduct your work effectively, that's become a problem. Alfreda Parks: Now, ideally, the anthropologist gathers data and then abstracts from the data to a theory or to a model. Actually, it doesn't happen this way. Anthropologists go to the field, and when they go to the field, they're not a vacuum. They don't just go out and collect and write down everything they see. They're collecting data in a very specific way. They're collecting data which is in keeping with a particular theory in the particular problem that they're going there to investigate. Not only is the kind of data that they gather affected, also, they go to the field with their own particular cultural biases and prejudices. Although, again, they're not supposed to let these affect their work. Alfreda Parks: Now, this brings up a question which anthropologists have dealt with for a long time, and that's the distinction between etic and emic categories. That is, when an anthropologist goes to the field and starts collecting data and learning native categories, how much can they count, or to what extent can they use these native categories in building their models? Those anthropologists who think that the emic approach is the best, say that you have to go into the field, learn native categories in order to understand that particular culture within native terms. Okay. But the person who is interested in feeding the data or feeding whatever they've learned into a broader classification, I have problems because what might be defined as family in one society may not be so within another, and so forth. And some societies may not even have a concept of a family, although we don't know of one. Alfreda Parks: So, there's always this question, this pulling and tugging; what are you going to do with the data? Are you really interested in gathering data which is going to shed as much light as possible on that specific society, or are you trying to abstract from the specific society, cultural categories, which will help you to understand man as a whole? Okay. So, then there is this contradiction, and it's something that anthropologists are dealing with all the time. Okay. Now, this brings me to the second step in the anthropological method. And that is the comparison. After using the method of participant observation, or as you get data, anthropologists must compare the data which they find in one society with other societies, and they must also compare the concepts and the behavior which they see in one society, in various contexts in that society, so that they use the comparative method. And after making comparisons with other societies, they draw tentative hypotheses, draw tentative conclusions. Alfreda Parks: All right. Now, there are problems with this, especially, again, in the area of Afro-American research. As I said, Afro-Americans have been over-researched, and I don't mean just in this country, but in the West Indies, all throughout the new world. And they're distrustful, and I think with reason, and they're asking, "What's in this for us?" For example, when I went to the Caribbean, I had to sit down with representatives of the government and tell them "Are you just gathering data so you can get your thesis and feed this into some larger anthropological bank, or a data bank, or are you going to give us something that's going to help us? Are you going to publish something that we can use here in Trinidad?" And this sort of thing is being repeated over and over throughout the Caribbean. They want to know; "What's in this for us?" And it's also true among Black Americans in this country. Alfreda Parks: When you go to black communities in order to conduct research, the people in the community ask, "What's in this for us? What are you going to do with this research?" And this is something that's relatively recent. Before, anyone could go into the black community and do their research, get their degree and so forth, and take off. And the people involved may or may not ever hear from them again. Now, this pretty much brings me to... But the third topic that I want to discuss, and that is this idea of a native anthropology. Now, when I say native here, I guess most of you know... would assume this... But when I say native, I just mean the indigenous people. So, I talk about the natives of Iowa city, the natives of Washington. Now, I don't mean natives in any kind of a derogatory way, like with the old stereotype of the native in Africa, naturally. And I just want to mention that. Alfreda Parks: Now, when I talk about a native anthropology, this concept was raised about six years ago by Delmos Jones. Jones mentions that very few social scientific theories on third world people have been formulated from a native perspective. Generally, he points out anthropologists have traditionally studied non-Western societies using analytic models with underlying assumptions which are developed in Western societies, and which are more appropriate to Western societies. For example, the British structural functionalists have developed what's called a functional model, in which they posit that all aspects of the society, function in such a way so that the ongoing functioning of that society is insured. Okay. So, then all institutions in that society cooperate so that one of them supports the other if anything should go wrong. That the perpetuation of that society is insured. Alfreda Parks: Now, Jones doubts very much that this sort of equilibrium model or this balanced model of society, could have been developed by a person of African descent living in the new world. Now, he says, and I quite agree with him, that because of the chaotic circumstances of his entrance into this hemisphere, and also because of the social stigma attached to his color, and also his political and economic position, vis-a-vis, the larger society, the life of Afro-Americans, historically had been dominated by a struggle to survive in a very hostile society. So that from his position, the various elements of the society may not be cooperating at all. They may be at war, they may be very much out of balance and illogical, and they may be full of contradictions. The Afro-American lives in a world in which a worldview is developed, and which there are many contradictions. And as a matter of fact, the very regularity of unexpected occurrences and the impermanence of the very impermanence which exists in the society, might itself provide some element of consistency. Alfreda Parks: Now, Jones says that many anthropologists think that the emic view is more accurate. That is, anthropologists very often think that you have to get the native perspective of the world in order to get the most accurate idea of what's really happening, of what reality is. But still, he points out that insiders and the outsiders may have very different realities or may be dealing with very different realities. So, the kinds of data which they gather might be different, the kinds of questions raised and the kinds of perspectives which they bring to bear on this data may be quite different. Alfreda Parks: Now, this is interesting, because, if you look at the studies anthropologists have done in third world countries and South America and Africa and so forth, anthropologists will look at religion, will look at witchcraft, and look at the study of spirits or the presence of witches within a society. All anthropologists say that we have to get the emic perspective. Look at how the natives view things. But no anthropologists would ever dare state that perhaps witches really exist, or perhaps there really are demons, or perhaps a sickness should be explained in terms of cosmology versus biology. That sort of thing is always explained a way. That is, it's always explained in Western terms. On the one hand, the emic perspective is very much louder, on the other hand, this can only go so far. Alfreda Parks: Because again, the two, the insider and the outsider, are dealing with very different realities. If you had a native of South America coming up with theories such as scientific theories, this may be assumed that spirits do exist, that there's spirits throughout this room, and that there are forces of evil around, we have to deal with, and so forth and so on. So, the starting points would be different. This is just one example that he gives. But he says that we really have to come up with a native anthropology. That is, an anthropology which is based on non-Western assumptions, non-Western precepts. Alfreda Parks: Now, this doesn't mean that if you get native anthropologists in the field, that you will come up with a native anthropology. That is, natives can go out to the field and still gather data and feed it into the discipline as it exists. The very presence of natives does not make for a native anthropology, but there is a need, a real need to develop alternative models of Afro-American experience. We haven't yet developed new models of the Afro-American experience, even though we have native anthropologists in the area. We're working on and so forth, but we haven't come up with new ideas, new assumptions, new theories, with which to deal with the Afro-American experience. Alfreda Parks: One of the most characteristic aspects of Afro-American society is its diversity. There's very much diversity existing within the society. For example, if you look at the literature on the Black family, writers are trying to deal with the great variety of marriage patterns and family forms which exists at the same time within the community. And those writers who are dealing with religion, for example, are puzzled by the phenomenon of people participating in more than one religion at the same time. Writers have confused certain religious practices and family forms with social class and economic standing. And at the same time, they've ignored the fact that there's a lot of diversity of form and practice within each class. So, Jones and other Afro-American anthropologists have called on students of Afro-American culture to develop a new framework in which all of the diversity could be made more meaningful, all the diversity which is found within the black community, and which would allow one to deal with these societies in their own terms. Alfreda Parks: In the case of the new world black, I think that the model of society has to be formulated from the perspective of the person, from the perspective of the [inaudible] from his own viewpoint. And that this would have to encompass, not only regularity and evenness and balance, which you find in most of the anthropological theories, functionalism, structuralism, and so forth, but it also has to... We had to develop a model which can deal with conflict and with differences and with oppositions. And I think that we haven't yet developed the theoretical tools in which we need to build these models. And lastly, the model will have to be able to schematize the multidimensionality which you find within the community. And at the same time, be very flexible. Okay. Any question?