Blackface Minstrels in Cross- Cultural Perspective

Abstract

American that available have studies notion a claim that on needs professional is spacious a concept concern. enough of culture, to The relate need it all is for the of holistic the only discourses perspecreadily available notion that is spacious enough to relate all of the discourses that have a claim on professional concer . The need for holistic perspective becomes all the greater as specialization increasingly disperses our attention.1 Touchstone concepts such as, among others, race, ethnicity and gender have generated much productive work, but it only takes a moment's reflection to recall that the phenomena to which they point are all interrelated. No American articulation of gender can be studied convincingly without race or ethnicity being intimately involved; an adequate understanding of race demands a profound assessment of gender and ethnic factors, and so on. Culture is the best word we have for the larger entity, grandly known as the American way of life, in which they all play a part. Culture , once we identify a workable definition of it, is indispensable because it is so incorrigibly interdisciplinary. It dismisses no American phenomenon as prima facie irrelevant; all discourses, all concepts deserve a hearing. To formulate a workable conception of culture we need comparative perspectives. Comparing cultures invites us to build inclusive visions of each individual instance. Each culture constitutes a real historical entity which works to distinguish itself from all the others. Cultures change slowly because they are basic to the way of life of a people. The function of a culture is to reassure participants that their lives together make sense, a goal enjoining discretion. All human beings are subject to processes of enculturation that work on them to accept the premises into which they are born. Every culture is systematic in the sense that it offers explanation and/or consolation for every sort of event that can be anticipated in the experience of the group. Every culture is coherent in

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