Catching Sense: African American Communities on a South Carolina Sea Island

(Hardback)

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Plantation membership, an important association that continues to carry meaning in today's African-American communities on the Sea Islands, depends on one's residence between the ages of two and twelve. This is the time when one "catches sense," or learns the difference between right and wrong and the meaning of social relationships. Plantation membership confers rights and duties to its members for life, particularly in the areas of dispute settlement, adjudication and status confirmation. The praise house system, which was the focal point of plantation life, is analysed historically and in terms of the ethnographic present. Patricia Guthrie, an African-American anthropologist, believes that much of what she witnessed on St Helena during her field research was a response to the experience of slavery when identity was derived from plantation residency rather than from mother, father or place of birth.

Reviews

Guthrie's brief but vaulable work on the African American communities of the South Carolina islands (a perennial scholarly concern) focuses on St. Helena. Her thorough anthropological research yields an insightful cultural study that will interest a wide variety of scholars and specialists in American race and ethnicity.-Choice
"Guthrie's brief but vaulable work on the African American communities of the South Carolina islands (a perennial scholarly concern) focuses on St. Helena. Her thorough anthropological research yields an insightful cultural study that will interest a wide variety of scholars and specialists in American race and ethnicity."-Choice

Author Bio

PATRICIA GUTHRIE is director of the Women's Studies Program at California State University, Hayward, where she is Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development. She is the author of many articles on racism, women's lives, and the African American community.