ipl-logo

Audre Lorde's Dual Inheritance Theory

1963 Words8 Pages

A READING IN THE POETRY OF THE AFRO-GERMAN MAY AYIM FROM DUAL INHERITANCE THEORY PERSPECTIVE: THE IMPACT OF AUDRE LORDE ON MAY AYIM
Yasser K. R. Aman, Minia University, Egypt
Abstract
Dual Inheritance Theory (DIT) asserts that both genetic and environmental factors have a formative impact on the physical as well as psychological upbringing of people. Audre Lorde, a famous Afro-American poet and a model (according to DIT) has influenced Afro-German women writers. For the forging of a collective Black German consciousness of identity, Audre Lorde’s connections with Black Germans were pivotal and marked the beginning of a cross-cultural movement that was seminal for the building of various organizations like the Initiative of Black Germans (ISD), …show more content…

“Genetic and cultural evolution interact and impact one another” (Stone and Lurquin 129). Three theoretical bases support this point. First, according to “Dual Inheritance Theory”, the storage and transmission capacity in the human mind is caused by an evolved psychological mechanism. Consequently, by governing the formation of the human brain and its structure and through psychological predisposition, genes influence the human capacity for cultural learning (qtd. in Aman 23). For example, the psychological atmosphere surrounding Afro-American households develop a tendency in young children towards embracing jazz and blues. This tendency had been transmitted by Afro-American biological fathers and cultural models. Jazz played a cultural role and was an instrumental mode of expression, “the debate about jazz, whether in the United States or Germany was a debate about inclusion, democracy, freedom, and race” (Lusane 196). The Nazi leaders banned jazz dance, particularly from 1939 to 1940, and categorized as “black and Jewish” (Lusane 202). Although Nazi leaders opposed jazz, it remained popular and Lindy Hop was the most favorite dance by German jazzers. In fact “dancing was a functional means of cultural identity and release from the growing deprivations and consequences of the war” (Lusane 204). Second, culture evolution and transmission is different from genes’, and therefore, the former’s effects are different yet helpful …show more content…

The developing gonad, with its affected protoplasm, develops into a new individual of the F2 generation (i.e., offspring), carrying changed soma. New metabolic substances in the F1 organism are passed on to the organism of the newly developing individual, which consequently shows the same variation as the parent, albeit removed from the inducing environment in question. These substances might be of such a nature as to stimulate the formation of antibodies, thus causing a reaction in a later generation. (Schönpflug, “Theory and Research in Cultural Transmission: A Short

Show More
Related

Right Decisions In The Film Swing Kids, Directed By Thomas Carter

998 Words | 4 Pages

However, this young group of rebels chose to challenge Nazi’s by listening to the American banned Swing music.

Read More

Katherine Dunham: A Very Brief History Of Jazz Dance

1158 Words | 5 Pages

Despite its complexity and evolution throughout history, jazz dance, at its core is a form of communication that was developed within West African culture. During the Atlantic slave trade, slave owners restricted slaves from dancing unless it was for their entertainment, resulting in it to develop a discreet meaning, only known amongst the slaves. As time progressed and black social dances recieved attention from white people, these dancers were later imitated and used for the benefit of white people. Hypocritically, the same dances that were originally resitricted against, were later used as entertainment and mockery of the black community. These series of events resulted in the need for pioneers of jazz dance to establish what jazz dance

Read More

Lorde Ethos Pathos Logos

511 Words | 3 Pages

In September of 1979, Audre Lorde, poet, spoke about the impossibility of dismantling the patriarchy through oppressive means. The black feminist woman, Lorde, who has cancer at the point of this speech, uses ethos, pathos, and logos in order to guilt the audience into making a change of how black feminists are represented. Ethos is the building of the author's credibility in order to become more persuasive because people tend to believe people who they deem likable or respectable. “I agreed to take part in a New York University Institute for the Humanities conference a year ago, with the understanding that I would be commenting upon papers dealing with the role of difference within the lives of American women: difference of race, sexuality, class, and age. The absence of these considerations weakens any feminist discussion of the personal and the political.”

Read More

Swing Kids Sociology

560 Words | 3 Pages

During this time, Hitler banned American swing music because it posed a great threat to German culture. Since it was foreign, its influence on children could have resulted in a Nazi resistance, these

Read More

Summary Of Jane Desmond's Article 'Embodying Difference'

1098 Words | 5 Pages

In her article, Embodying Difference, Jane Desmond argues that dance offers important insights into the ways moving bodies articulate cultural meanings and social identities. In other words, she explains the importance of studying the body’s movement as a way of understanding culture and society. She has two main arguments. First, she argues for the importance of the continually changing relational constitutions of cultural forms. Desmond further explains that the key to shedding light on the unequal distribution of power and goods that shape social relations are the concepts of cultural resistance, appropriation, and cultural imperialism (49).

Read More

1930s Music Dbq

2089 Words | 9 Pages

There were never any restrictions on who could participate even when integration was not believed in, and before woman were influential members of society. Jazz encouraged individualism to be strongly believed in, which is a critical component that should be instilled into everybody’s life. Even through hardships of anti-jazz campaigns and constant criticizing, jazz music worked its way to the top of the charts and became a national obsession. Today Jazz is played regularly in cities all over the globe. The original home of jazz, America, has jazz weaved into the school system in a way that is unlike any other country in the world.

Read More

Of How It Feels To Be Colored Me By Zora Neale Hurston

870 Words | 4 Pages

Zora Neale Hurston in the essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” explains that despite the cultural backgrounds, everyone is essentially the same. Hurston supports her explanation by comparing the way she grew up compared to white people. The author’s purpose is to inform a multi-racial audience in order to decrease racial tension and increase unity and awareness. Hurston talk about racial identity and her idea that being black is the same as being white, except for a few cultural differences.

Read More

An Indian Father's Pea And Everyday Life

396 Words | 2 Pages

From Sarah Sincero, she says, “Personality is obtained thru culture and not biology. ”(3) Now, no one knows how much culture really affects our views on the world or biology. From this quote, culture is a tremendous part of our views on the people and the world In An Indian Father's Plea and Everyday Use have a great example of how culture effect on how people view the world. Wind-Wolf in An Indian Father's Plea asked, “... why the other kids in school are not taught the power, beauty, and essence of nature…”(1)

Read More

Jazz And Racial Identity

233 Words | 1 Pages

Despite Jazz being formed out of two cultures, the issues of social stratification and racial identity never had to be addressed in early jazz history. But as Jazz grew in popularity in a prewar 1930s America, the issue of racism started to form. As Jazz prospered within the economy and as a musical style, it’s roots revealed it’s racial identity. Jazz emerged from the music used formerly to entertain slaves and was a tool of rebellion against the white man, Jazz’z roots were very much embedded in slave culture. As free slaves moved north, they brought their Jazz influence to parts of the country such as Chicago and New York.

Read More

Somalian Culture Vs American Culture

1722 Words | 7 Pages

To dance is to be knowledgeable about the stories of the ancestral heroes. Dancing, unlike painting and singing, is learnt at an early age. This allows large groups of people to demonstrate their clan rights in front of an audience. Dance is also seen as an occasion to entertain and to be entertained and through the work of dance to show their love for families and kin. It is for this reason that dance may be performed at the end of every day in some communities.

Read More

Media Article Summary

726 Words | 3 Pages

Summary of Media Article: Researchers recently did the experiment in diamond ,which can provide a nitrogen-vacancy center. They use varied laser light to draw paths for the electronic spin in diamond. By doing that, quantum operation could do resilience to outside influence. Their research depends on the Berry Phase,"when a quantum mechanical object, such as an electron, is cycled along some loop, it retains a memory of the path that it traveled"(Peter,P2).

Read More

Elements Of Dance Analysis: Singing In The Rain

720 Words | 3 Pages

The dancers were observed to be full of energy which showed through their movements and dancing. Every movement was sharp and clean. Furthermore, the action portion of the basic dance elements was seen through the dancer’s basic movements that turned into dancing. For example, in one scene, the actor jumped off the table and broke into a little skip-glide dancing movement.

Read More

Dehaene's Argumentative Analysis

475 Words | 2 Pages

According to Dehaene “cultural artefacts can deviate considerably from the natural world in which we have evolved” (Dehaene) and therefore “each of them must find its “ecological niche” in the brain, or a neuronal circuit whose initial function is close enough and whole flexibility is sufficient to be converted to this new role” (Dehaene). These niches can be things or objects that we find in nature and perhaps outgrown their usefulness in our lives e.g. animal tracks due to natural selection. Which are then converted to perhaps us learning to read. Furthermore Dehaene states that “cultural learning never totally undoes these pre-existing biases – it merely works around them”

Read More

Mexican Culture

1265 Words | 6 Pages

In today's society, there are many cultures that influence many teenagers and my self-included to collect them as some part of their identity. People tend to pick out popular culture to pursue what they identify and relate to the most and feel more comfortable in that atmosphere. My parents are both from Mexico and are very involved with the Mexican culture. I was born in Los Angeles my mother wanted me to grow up in America instead of Mexico and from that moment she decided that she wanted me to be more American than Mexican. I began a journey of being Americanized instead of embracing my ethnicity.

Read More

John B. Watson's Theory Of Behaviorism

1558 Words | 7 Pages

According to his theory, individuals are born without built-in knowledge. Everybody learns through experience, perception and parental guidance. One answer to providing more effective circumstances to children could be a much more self-critical, reflective and differentiated strategies of instruction developed through meaningful observations, noticing and recognizing what is important, influencing and significant to the child and about the child, and reacting in a supportive way. This kind of healthy interaction between individual child’s genes and the environmental context in which they develop would mean a good initial start. Moreover, chances of positive pathways in life seem to be enhanced by heredity vulnerabilities and complex behaviors.

Read More

More about Audre Lorde's Dual Inheritance Theory

Related Topics

Open Document