Angolan and North American Culture
Within the boundless field of cultural anthropology, the cross-cultural comparison is a staple of classroom discourse. This is simplybecause one of the best ways in which to become aware of culturaldifferences and nuance (indeed, many would say the only way), is throughthe comparison of another culture with one's own. With regard to theextremely complex cultural landscape of the African nation of Angola, onecan see that specific cultural traits not only differ from those found inthe United States, but, in other instances, are strikingly similar.Indeed, these similarities and differences can be noted in the areas of artand music, language and linguistic practice, religious and socialstructure, as well as racial and political characteristics and trends. The nation of Angola, itself, is little understood by people in theUnited States. Aside from the occasional "war correspondent" blurb on theevening news, few are aware of the many interesting facts and culturalinfluences that make up the country. In specific, Angola is located in southern Africa, and is comprisedof 486,213 square miles. Interestingly, the nation is divided intoeighteen individual provinces, and is bordered by the
About this, Sonia Silva writes inher article, Cultural Community in Exile: Chokwe women of Angola who have fled the country's civil wars withtheir families and settled illegally in Zambian villages along theborder still take great pride in the creation of baskets. However, unlike north America, in which theimmigrant influx largely supplanted (and killed off, through war,relocation and imported disease) the native American population, theoriginal Angolan native groups remained in force, while, at the same time,due to colonization and the immigration of individuals from Portugal andher colonies, there emerged yet another "group" or class of so called"mixed" or mastic peoples, "who had a sense of neither belonging to thetraditional Angolan cultures, nor of being Portuguese (Oxfam, 2003). Indeed, the Washington Post described Angola asparticularly marked by its cultural affinity for musical and danceexpression-yet also one in which traditional visual and representationalart holds a strong influence: Angola has been described as a country in perpetual dance. In specific, one of the most fascinating aspects of thisculture to Americans is the drum-based music and dynamic, "fluid" dance,often emulated in the west (Sounddevelopment, 2002). When compared to the United States, one immediately notes that, for acountry roughly twice the size of the state of Texas, its internal ethnic,cultural, linguistic, and physical barriers rival the whole of the UnitedStates in its complexity. The effect of this is strongly found in the pull toward"urbanization," or the mass exodus of workers into the cities to find work(which was also inspired by the effects of war) (Newton, 2000)-the resultof which is the eventual cultural assimilation and linguistichomogenization found in nations suffering from similar trends. This environment, especially during the armedand bloody conflict starting in 1975, made the outside study of the variouscultures and societies within Angola extremely difficult. Unfortunately,one of the effects of this difficulty is the relative lack of informationabout the nature of native cultures before colonialization, especially inrelation to the "actual workings" of indigenous social systems. As previously stated, Angola is a nation divided into a strikingamount of different languages and ethnic communities. Like within the United States, where English is used as the commonlanguage by which to link different linguistic sub-groups, Portuguese isspoken by the educated, and in urban areas, however, the language is farless utilized as a daily language among the groups than English is withinthe United States, perhaps due to the negative connotations of its positionas a language of colonialization. Angolansdance anywhere and everywhere, in joy, in grief, in life, in death,so music is inevitably the strongest element of local culture. Indeed, this verydivision makes the discussion of an "Angolan culture" as a wholeparticularly difficult (as is perhaps the case in most nations marked byany ethnic or cultural diversity, including the United States). (Frank, 2002) Although representational art does play a role in Angolan culture, itis significantly more abstract or sculptural in form than mainstream northAmerican art as a whole. " Linguistically, the majority of Angolan citizens speak one of theoriginal native languages as their primary language, while also speaking orunderstanding one or several of the others (especially the language orlanguages of neighboring linguistic groups).
Common topics in this essay:
Angola Angolan,
Carvalho Frank,
United Due,
Exile Chokwe,
,
Kimbundo Bakongo,
AllReference Finally,
Washington Post,
Japan USFrank,
Zambia Namibia,
angolan culture,
particularly strong,
north america,
found united,
nation angola,
mother daughter,
north american,
marked strong reliance,
craft art,
found north,
passed mother,
form passed mother,
art form passed,
passed mother daughter,
angolan culture particularly,
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Acceptance Essays
