The Gullah People and Their African Heritage Book

The Gullah people are one of our most distinctive cultural groups. Isolated off the South Carolina-Georgia coast for nearly three centuries, the native black population of the Sea Islands has developed a vibrant way of life that remains, in many ways, as African as it is American. This landmark volume tells a multifaceted story of this venerable society, emphasizing its roots in Africa, its unique imprint on America, and current threats to its survival.

With a keen sense of the limits to establishing origins and tracing adaptations, William S. Pollitzer discusses such aspects of Gullah history and culture as language, religion, family and social relationships, music, folklore, trades and skills, and arts and crafts. Readers will learn of the indigo- and rice-growing skills that slaves taught to their masters, the echoes of an African past that are woven into baskets and stitched into quilts, the forms and phrasings that identify Gullah speech, and much more. Pollitzer also presents a wealth of data on blood composition, bone structure, disease, and other biological factors. This research not only underscores ongoing health challenges to the Gullah people but also helps to highlight their complex ties to various African peoples.

Drawing on fields from archaeology and anthropology to linguistics and medicine, The Gullah People and Their African Heritage celebrates a remarkable people and calls on us to help protect their irreplaceable culture.

Library Journal

The Gullah-speaking people of the South Carolina and Georgia sea islands have long fascinated scholars and anthropologists because their culture retains a greater African influence than the culture of African Americans generally. Their creolized language, naming practices, handicrafts, musical styles, folktales, and folk beliefs all give strong evidence of the sea islanders' African roots. Pollitzer, an anthropologist and native of the South Carolina Low Country, presents a thoughtful and thorough examination of the language, culture, history, and population genetics of the Gullah-speaking people. His research into the customs and languages of modern African groups, along with a detailed history of the slave trade, provides tantalizing clues to the regional African origins of some aspects of Gullah culture. Pollitzer's work is scholarly but wide-ranging and engagingly written. Recommended for academic collections in anthropology and African American studies.--Elizabeth Anne Salt, Otterbein Coll. Lib., Westerville, OH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.