Southern Theory Summary

Trethewey’s use of the terms ‘tangle’ and ‘dialectic’ highlights conflict of intermingling black and white opinions. Furthermore, Trethewey also alludes to the past by claiming there is an ‘understory’ to these dissimilarities, one rooted in ingrained Southern prejudices. Her insightful word choice in both these instances emphasizes lingering racial conflicts, which consequentially reinforces the idea of the past’s influence on the modern-day society. To contrast the description of the pine grove, Trethewey includes the palmetto plants. The references to palmetto plants complicate the metaphor, but also enable Trethewey to address the influence of perpetual Southern racial intolerance on ethnic discrimination today. Trethewey equates this sentiment with the palmetto plant, and its establishment on the southern coast, a “…coast/ clear cut…// mangrove, live oak, gulfweed/ razed and replaced by thin palms—/ palmettos—symbols of victory//or defiance” (9-14). The Palmetto plant has a grand stature in the South, standing for both the triumphs of the Revolutionary War, and stigma of the Confederacy. The “palmetto became symbolic after the Battle of Fort Moultrie in 1776”, where the American troops used palmetto logs to defeat the British (“South Carolina Palmetto Flag”). But, this symbol, which once stood for freedom and victory, was tainted in 1861 when it was adopted as the official emblem of the South Carolinian flag once state seceded from the Union (“South Carolina

Imagine a historian, author of an award-winning dissertation and several books. He is an experienced lecturer and respected scholar; he is at the forefront of his field. His research methodology sets the bar for other academicians. He is so highly esteemed, in fact, that an article he has prepared is to be presented to and discussed by the United States’ oldest and largest society of professional historians. These are precisely the circumstances in which Ulrich B. Phillips wrote his 1928 essay, “The Central Theme of Southern History.” In this treatise he set forth a thesis which on its face is not revolutionary: that the cause behind which the South stood unified was not slavery, as such, but white supremacy. Over the course of

In many societies, the relationships between people differ and in some ways are all alike. None so obscure as the relationship between man and woman. It is especially intriguing to witness the compatibility of both especially in marriage. Using the three novels Pillars of Salt, by Fadia Faqir, A Woman of Five Seasons, by Leila Al-Atrash, and A Balcony over the Fakihani, by Liyana Badr one might begin to analyze the different relationships between men and women in Arab culture. While any relationship is uniquely different, these novels will aid in getting a better idea about Arab women and their husbands.

Beigel, Fernanda. “Mariategui y las antinomias del indigenismo.” Utopia y Praxis Latinoamericana 6.13 (2001) : 36-57. Print

Ibn Battuta’s 1331 journey to West Africa provides a contrast of two worlds: Battuta’s pre-modern Islamic culture conflicting with African societies’ interpretation of Muslim beliefs and tribal traditions. He is especially critical of the various roles of women he observes—thus, allowing us insight into his own judgments formed by his culture and society.

Writing Women's Worlds is some stories on the Bedouin Egyptian people. In this book, thwe writer Lia Adu-Lughod's stories differ from the conventional ones. While reading, we discover the customs and values of the Bedouin people.

The thesis of the book is that segregation of black and whites was developed later in life than it did when slavery was just introduce. In the earlier years blacks and white would live within the same residence and or property, sharing the same premises if not equal facilities. The black and white would attend the same church and sit in the pews. As life progress and economics and Political conflicts took place that’s when the segregation began.

William W. Freehling's book The South vs. The South: How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War tells a unique story about the Civil War and one that is not typically discussed in history books. The book is about divisions within the southern culture, which might have led to the outcome of the war in favor of the Union. Perhaps all black southerners had a vested interest in the North's victory, but many white southerners felt the same way for many reasons. In The South vs. The South, Freehling discusses the way the Union used divisions in the south as a war strategy, such as by recruiting potentially neutral Americans living in border states. Recruiting soldiers from border states and western states with less entrenched plantation cultures versus their Dixie counterparts was one of Lincoln's key strategies and also helped General Grant secure some key military victories.

Through its ethnocentric tales and family based beliefs, Elizabeth Warnock Fernea’s Guests of the Sheik suggests that to find the true representation of Islamic culture, one must leave ethnocentrism behind. Not only will we discuss ethnocentrism and the cultural differences between Western and Middle Eastern societies, we will also take a look at the women of El Nahra and family within the differing societies.

There have been many instances throughout history in which indigenous people have unwillingly suffered the consequences of foreigners’ interaction with their culture. In the case of the Huaorani two foreign groups, the oil companies and the missionaries, invaded their land and gravely affected the life they led in the Ecuadorian amazon. In the book Savages Joe Kane gives a firsthand account at how the Huaorani fight to preserve their land and traditional way of life.

There are many countries in the world and every country is unique and individualistic with many exclusive qualities. Everyone in the world has a culture but it is not easy to accept or agree with other people’s culture. The ethnography, “Guests of the Sheik”, written by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea really captures what it is like to live and to be immersed into another culture. Ethnography is “comprised of the writings of the anthropologist, detailing the life ways of a particular culture, investigated by means of direct fieldwork” (Arenson, and Miller-Thayer 1). Elizabeth Fernea lived in a small village of El Nahra in southern Iraq for two years to gather data for her anthropologist husband Bob. In the beginning, she had limited knowledge of Iraq, its religion or culture, but as she started connecting with the women of the society, she came to learn both about this foreign country and about herself. Acculturation is “the process of acceptance resulting for the contact between two cultures, or an individual interacting in at least two cultures” (517). As she builds relationships with the woman’s, she is acculturated.

When reading The South vs. The South I come across the problem that the white Southerners had with the Republican wanting to free slaves. The problem persisted as the war continued. The view of white Southerners and Republicans which were led by the president Lincoln were different.

The Bedouin culture Rafea lives in, is based on patriarchy where men are in control and have a huge domination over women and their role in the society; moreover the idea

Southernization has played a crucial role in the advancement of the Eastern Hemisphere throughout the fifth century, and beyond. According to Shaffer, southernization contributed greatly to the development of Southern Asia, where it was later spread to various other places around the world. This spread of new ideas has catalyzed the development of the Western world in in a myriad of different ways. Economically, Western Europe benefitted enormously from the introduction of new food crops and other commodities. Intellectually, intellectual concepts, especially that of math, have greatly stimulated not only the economy, but also novel new innovations. Technologically, new inventions and discoveries served as a gateway to a more industrialized Western Europe.

The Southern Renaissance was a time during the 1920s and 1930s where there was a change in southern literature. Even though most of the Southern Renaissance took place during the 1920s and 30s it was still affected by WWII. The Southern Renaissance is important because it saw a bunch of new southern writers and affected southern literature.