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MS FOLK CULTURES
CHOCTAW
Choctaw Culture• Work hard to preserve their culture.• Most speak the Choctaw language • Traditional concepts of relationships, nature,
arts, dance, & music • Choctaw Indian Fair – 1st week in July
– At reservation in Neshoba County near Philadelphia
– Recreates the Festival of the Green Corn• Special dances, play stickball, & display
crafts• Influence on Southern cuisine (food customs)
especially corn (hominy, grits, corn meal, etc.)
AFRICAN - AMERICANS
African-American Culture• Favor improvisation and innovation always
searching for new ideas within familiar ways passed down from earlier generations
• First came to MS as slaves and free blacks– Slaves: mostly on plantations and farms– Free blacks: Natchez and along Gulf Coast
• Rich African heritage with borrowed European and Native American traits
Influence on Southern Culture
• Language – words like boogie, gumbo, jazz, & okra
• Folklore – tales of trickster animals & spirits
• Music & Performance – blues, dramatic speechmaking, lively preaching & banjo
• Food – yams, okra, spicy ingredients, deep-fried chicken & fish, peas & greens boiled with pork, barbeque, and gumbo
• Crafts - baskets & colorful quilts
• Afterworld Beliefs - placing personal items on graves to ward off evil spirits & assure the peaceful rest of deceased
EUROPEAN - AMERICANS
Contributions to Southern Culture
• Country Music
• Basket making
• Boat building
• Quilting
• Storytelling
European-American Cultures• Largest group from British Isles
– Celtic tradition: square & clog dancing– Building styles, music, & cuisine
• French & Spanish arrived on the Gulf Coast.– Brought Mardi Gras– Designed the Biloxi schooner and catboat
ideally suited for the shallow waters of MS.
• Other groups:
–Italians (Shaw, Greenville, Gulf Coast) brought language, food, & recreation.
–Greeks (Jackson & Gulf Coast)
–Lebanese (Vicksburg)
–Jews (Natchez)
–Slavonians (Biloxi)
ASIAN - AMERICANS
Asian-American Cultures
• Strong identity with ancestors & ancient customs of loyalty & religious practices
• Largest group from China– Settled the Delta in the late 1800s
• Vietnamese arrived in the 1980s.– Settled on the Gulf Coast– Worked in the seafood industry
Contributions to Southern Culture
• Cuisine
• Holidays– Chinese New Year – private family
celebrations –parade in Clarksdale– Vietnamese Tet – Celebrates the New Year,
national independence, and religious holiday for Buddhists (temple in Biloxi for food and prayers)
• Arts, literature, & music