African American, African, Haitian Group and Heritage

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Cultural Groups
Cultural Heritage
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The United States is made of different cultural groups.
This presentation focuses on the African and African American cultural groups.
It also addresses the African American and Haitian heritages.
Haiti is a North American independent nation.
Its culture is a fusion of the African, West Indian and French cultures.
The African American is a group with an African descent (Kittler & Sucher, 2007).

Cultural Groups

African American

This is a cultural group of the African ancestry and sub-Saharan decent living in the Americas.
Their way of life, religion, and beliefs differ from others cultural groups.
This cultural group is made up of the black people.
This group has created a distinctive language (Smith, 2011).
They have a unique traditional attire.
This has been borrowed from the West Africa’s dress code.
They practice rites of passage borrowing from their African roots.
The ‘jump the broom’ is still an important ritual during their weddings (Smith, 2011).
African Americans have different burial ceremonies.
They provide spiritual and emotional support to the bereaved family (Robinson, Russell & Salzman, 2001).
A weak African American nuclear family structure exists.
Slavery made the strong bond between families to break.
The African Americans have been assimilated into the American Cultural group (McLoyd, 2005).
However, they still face racism and stereotypes.
Their neighborhoods are commonly known as “Ghetto”.
They have poor access to health care services (McLoyd, 2005).

African Cultural Group

They are people in the African region.
They have a very rich in terms of traditions.
However, they have changed their culture due to modernization (African Cultural Group, 1962).
Despite adopting modern religion, they have some traditional beliefs and taboos.
Traditionally, they used to dress in animal skins.
However, this has changed to modern clothes such as the West Africa’s kitenge.
The African cultural group uses many languages to communicate.
They have a strong nuclear family bond where the father as head of the family.
The family is valued and a strong bond exists unlike in the African American group (African Cultural Group, 1962).
Traditionally, they used herbal medicine and had medicine men.
They practiced healthy eating as they ate natural foods.
This was before the advent of modernism.
Their song and dance is vigorous and captivating.
They value this aspect of their culture.
They bury their dead in accordance with religious practices.
There are a lot of similarities between the two cultural groups.
This is in terms of beliefs and other cultural practices.
In addition, they live in poverty, and their health practices are poor (African Cultural Group, 1962).

Cultural Heritage

The African American Heritage

The heritage of their experience and history in the American history is preserved in museums.
Through art, they also preserve their culture.
Major artists in this group include David Hammons, Eugene J. Martin, Charles Tolliver, and Kara Walker.
They also have literally works in which they have preserved their culture.
The literature has its roots to oral traditions that slaves told stories and fables.
The African Americans observe holidays as a way of preserving their culture (Kittler & Sucher, 2007).

Haitian Heritage

Haiti has preserved its culture through artistic work.
The art work has won the hearts of many people across the world.
The Haitian culture has been able to preserve its culture through music.
The Haitians are Roman Catholics.
There is also an ancient religion – Voodoo.
The staple food is rice and beans.
Haiti is a very rich nation in terms of culture (New York (N.Y.). Board of Education, 1996).

Conclusion

The cultural heritage of people is very important.
It educates people about their origins.
It also enables people to understand their culture and traditions.
There is a lot to learn from the rich culture of the cultural groups.
This is especially for the people who study history and even the anthropology students.

References

African Cultural Group. (1962). The African Cultural Group present “African Symphony”: Featuring the music of FelaSowande M.B.E. (African composer) : Carnegie Hall … Friday, June 1, 1962, 8:30 p.m. in aid of an African Cultural Center. New York: The Group.

Kittler, P. G., & Sucher, K. (2007). Food and culture. Australia: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

McLoyd, V.C. (2005). African American family life: Ecological and cultural diversity. New York: Guilford Press.

New York (N.Y.). Board of Education. (1996). Haitians : a people on the move: Haitian cultural heritage resource guide. Brooklyn, N.Y: Board of Education of the City of New York.

Robinson, G., Russell, T., & Salzman, J. (2001). Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history: Suppl. New York, NY [u.a.: Macmillan Reference USA.

Smith, J. C. (2011). Encyclopedia of African American popular culture. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood.