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African American Culture Anthropology

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In order to explore the impactions of black and white standards of beauty (Eurocentric) that influence Black female hair styles in modern day United states, I will utilize concepts and theories from Anthropology and African American studies. According to Robert H. Lavenda, Anthropology is the study of human beings that is holistic, comparative, field-based, and evolutionary. Anthropologists gather a wide range of information from multiple cultures, compare cultural practices, incorporate other disciplines, and join in cultural practices to determine “who they [the people being studied] are and why they do what they do” (Lavenda 2012). Cultural anthropology specifically assumes that culture the individual and communities. Culture is defined …show more content…

Integrating anthropology and African American studies stresses the implications of black and white standards of beauty that influence black female hair styles in modern United States. Anthropology defines culture while African American studies places culture in the context of African Americans. Next, African American studies and anthropology seek to answer the question of self-agency. The African American studies theory of knowledge Production answers the question of self-agency by suggesting that while culture shapes the individual- individuals can choose to reshape themselves once given knowledge. However, cultural anthropology conflicts with self-agency suggesting culture shapes the individual entirely. The difference in view point regarding self-agency allows for a further examination of self- agency as it pertains to African American women, black beauty standards, white beauty standards, and hair. The anthropological concept acculturalization, cultural groups adapting to another culture and taking on traits of that culture, works with Afrocentrism to explain the influence of Eurocentric standards of beauty on African American female hair styles (via straightening practices and relaxing hair), while not invalidating the African American specific hairstyles that preserve black

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Since the abolishment of slavery black women are no long being forced to alter their hair; however the underlying principle still remains as society indirectly forces black women to alter their hair in order to “fit in” as society says having straightened hair symbolizes femininity. Once again these standards exclude black women as their “kinky” hair does not fit into societal norms of feminine. Therefore they must alter their hair, may it be chemically or thermally, in order to come close to the dominant standard of beauty (Donald,year). In essence, among black women hair alteration is done because of outside pressures and as times process they began altering their hair as a means to feeling beautiful within themselves rather then self hatred.

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For Arts, I will be looking at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) as the sponsee and Bank of America (BOA) as the sponsor. I am not sure if this is a good fit. I say this because according to an article published in the magazine American Renaissance by Jared Taylor, BOA was ordered to pay $335 million to settle charges that its discriminated against non-white borrowers (Taylor, J., 2011). They also steered blacks and Hispanics more often than they did whites into costly, risky, sub-prime mortgages. The primary goal for BOA is to improve image.

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She is under pressure to conform to American beauty standards while rejecting her Iranian ancestry. For instance, she says, "My whole life, my mom and aunts had praised me for how American I looked. It was a virtue to have paler skin than most Iranians…” (Saedi 43). This shows the transformed pressure of cultural assimilation and how it can cause people to reject their cultural identity.

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Cultural appropriation is the product of globalisation in the 21st century. Fashion designers from around the globe are continuously appropriating from one another. Cultural appropriation refers to the adoption of cultural elements from other cultures (Young, 2008). Appropriation has given the freedom to the dominant group to dress beautifully; however, it has devastating consequences for the minority group being appropriated, particularly the Native Americans. For decades, social activists were unsuccessful in stopping companies from selling Native inspired designs (Trevor, 2016).

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The cultural appropriation in which Americans take pieces of African culture without even acknowledging where it came from greatly reduces the identity of this culture, and it makes the African American culture seem less unique and special than it is. One of the best examples is with an African cloth called kente, and this cloth represents royalty and each square of the kente “tells a part of the story or represents a character of the weaver” (Hinton), and it once was made in great quality. However, only Ghanan families today have a kente made of good quality that is sacred because through cultural appropriation, it became common in the American society. Kente is a sacred cloth to Africans, but the cultural appropriation of African culture lead to this cloth being mass produced in America and with a poorer quality than once was. Kente, a part of African and African American culture, is taken and turned into this common cloth of poorer quality, and this diminishes the cultural identity of African Americans because now a key part of their culture is common and normal due to cultural appropriation.

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1870 Words | 8 Pages

This has led to the belief that African American women hold character traits that are more masculine in nature and are viewed as being stronger, reliable and independent; while African American men display feminine traits and are seen as the weaker sex with negative characteristics such as undependable and unemotional. It is understood that there is a greater sense of egalitarian gender roles amongst the African American community in comparison to whites in the United States. With African American men having a more liberal view towards the gender roles of women more so than white Americans (Kane,

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Throughout the world we have a view of what Nike is and how Nike is used in relation to our everyday lives. Everything is defined in popular cultures encompassing scope even if the popular cultures definition is further from truth, reality or even solid facts. So what does popular cultures controlling images of African American women say about them globally? “Because the authority to define societal values is a major instrument of power, elite groups, in

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806 Words | 4 Pages

The product that is a “need” for me personally is relaxers for my hair. African Americans have a need for this product, because we have different textures of hair. Some African American have, “the natural look”, and that is ok for some people. I choose to relax my hair, so I have a need for this product.

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Immigrants have once migrated to our country in tiny groups and they made up a miniscule part of our population. Over time, they have strived, reproduced, and are just as stable as they should be. The African immigrants of Jamaica Avenue are relevant in this situation. They all have a particular kinship and bond that other groups may not. They have worked hard and have worked together along the journey.

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The people from Africa were generally part of early American history; however, Africans had experience slavery under better conditions compared to the conditions imposed by other civilized society. From the Egyptian Empire to the Empire of Songhai, slavery was practice for the betterment of their society, however, foreigners invaded these regions and took their slave, their ports and impose these people to a life of servitude in the Caribbean islands and in the English’s colonies. Furthermore, the African American slaves were an active agent of society in the earliest period of American history; they have brought new religious practices to their community; for instance, they constructed networks of communities; they had fought in war alongside

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My grandmother, my mother and I all have the same views on our racial/ethnic cultural heritage. We are proud to be African Americans but we do not deeply identify with our heritage. We are glad to be African Americans but our goal in life is to just be successful. We acknowledge our African American history to educate ourselves on ethnic culture, but we do not think heavily about our racial culture. This may be because we do not really have a specific African heritage that we can deeply identify with.

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African Americans have always struggled with fitting into the nation but that doesn’t mean we should categorize them as second class citizens. We have many African Americans today that have well structured lives and have good income, but the percentage rates weigh down the success we see in them today. Poverty rates for African Americans (26%) in 2014 were more than two and a half times that of non-Hispanic whites (10%)(Feeding America, 4). African Americans were and are still treated as second class citizens socially, economically, and politically.

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1021 Words | 5 Pages

African American Studies was a great experience. Has opened my eyes to my surrounding and the world around me. This course with Dr. Sheba Lo, was something out of me confront zone. I learned so many things from race to cultural to the importance aspect of African American. We are isolated to an environment that hide so much history that we all don’t think they are important to who we have become.

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777 Words | 4 Pages

In Sherman Alexie’s short stories (and poems), there usually three central themes that the story rotates. In this paper, I will be exploring how he (Alexie) explores the themes losing culture, a cycle of regret, and using drugs (mainly alcohol) to escape. In Indian Education, the short story, Alexie seems to show that whenever young Victor tries to express himself through his culture, he is punished. Take the section “First Grade” for example. In first grade, Junior (the main character and narrator) says that “The little warrior in me roared to life that day..” and makes comparisons to traditional Native American warriors, such as describing the brusies on the other boy’s face as “war paint” or how Junior chants “it’s a good day to die”, which is phrase typically associated with Crazy Horse, who was a Native American chief.

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According to Britton (2012), last 2008, YWCA USA developed a report Beauty at Any Cost wherein they discuss the consequences of beauty obsession of every woman in America. It shows that beauty obsession results from a decrease in the level of self-esteem. It also gives a problem to the Americans because it’s also putting a dent in their pockets. It states that because of those cosmetics many people have decreased the level of self-esteem because of those cosmetics.

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