cover image African Americans in the South: Issues of Race, Class, and Gender

African Americans in the South: Issues of Race, Class, and Gender

. University of Georgia Press, $15 (181pp) ISBN 978-0-8203-1376-4

These 10 essays presented at a Southern Anthropological Society symposium address economics, health and religion, aiming to demystify what the editors call ``a political economy that exploits African Americans.'' While most essays are too detailed for the general reader and a few predictably criticize structural racism, others offer intriguing analysis. Holly Mathews documents how North Carolina officials slowly eliminated lay midwifes, mostly black women in rural areas, even as the state finally concluded that such traditional practices could combat a high infant mortality rate. Tony Whitehead suggests that the high-risk diet of many Southern blacks is based not on ignorance but on traditional patterns and can provide a badge of pride and identity. Daryl White and O. Kendall White assert that the once-segregated Mormon church has gained black adherents because it proclaims the American gospel of progress and offers immediate participation in religious activity, though they caution that it reinforces the patriarchal family. Baer and Jones are anthropology academics at the universities of Arkansas and Louisville, respectively. (Mar.)