Immigration

Immigration Blog

            Most of think that we know everything there is to know about immigration.  We also have our minds made up about how we feel about the problems with the numbers of our illegal immigrants.  What most people don’t have is the cultural background on how our immigration population became so large.  According to our text book our most recent immigrants are called New Immigrants.  New immigrants refers to people who have migrated to the United States  after 1960.  Most of these individuals are refugee’s, indigent, and desperate. Miller, the author of our text book indicates that three trends characterize the new immigrant: Globalization, Acceleration, and feminism.  In 1965 ammendments to the Naturalization Act made it possible for many more immigrants to enter the U.S.  The amendments allowed people with specific skills to enter the country and our workforce.  Later the family reunification clause allowed residents and citizens to bring immediate family members to the United States.  This caused an overflow of immigrants into the population.  Although this group of immigrants caused a shift economically and in the job markets it is not the legal immigrants that we are constantly hearing about. (Miller, 2010)

You cannot open a newspaper, listen to talk radio, or watch the news on television without hearing about illegal immigrants.  If many of the immigrants that enter the country legally are refugees why aren’t the immigrants that cross the Rio Grande prepared to enter legally.  I think that the answer to this question has to do with quotas the government imposes on certain people, with certain occupations, from certain countries.  I can understand that economically an unskilled laborer will not benefit our country as much as an educated immigrant in the medical field would but I can’t help but remember that our country was colonized by people who had been in prison, persecuted for their religious beliefs, or could not pay their debts.  Somehow we survived and developed a political and economical system that grew to be amazing in the process.  Instead of just mere survival our ancestors thrived.  I understand that we are in difficult times.  I realize that we are facing a financial crisis but I am not sure that our present handling of our illegal immigrants will solve our economic problems.

I would like to concentrate on the Mexican immigrants that enter the country by crossing the Rio Grande.  When I think about these individuals I think about how desperate their lives must be that they would attempt to cross a river that is guarded by the police.  These individuals risk incarceration, physical brutality, rape, even death to cross into the United States.  Those who have the resolve and strength to make it into the country may walk hundreds of miles to find work in the fields harvesting crops.  The pay is of course below minimum wage.  Many people are outraged by these illegal immigrants they scream that they are taking American jobs.  I wonder how many Americans would consider accepting the jobs that the illegal immigrants have taken.  I would guess that most Americans would not even consider working under the same conditions that our Mexican brothers and sisters are willing to accept.  We out source jobs in financially distressed countries all over the world.  If we can do this do we have the rights to complain about illegal immigrants taking jobs from Americans inside the country that most American not only do not want but would never work?

We hear Americans lamenting the death of a loved one at the hands of an illegal immigrant.  The pain is very real to these families and I sympathize but how many Americans kill American each year.  Does that mean that all Americans are murderers?

These are a few arguments that we hear voiced against the illegal Mexican immigrants.  What I see are people who have taken tremendous risks to support themselves and their families.  I see hard working individuals who are willing to work under less than optimal conditions.  I also notice that we as Americans villianize and criminalize these individuals whose real crime is wanting a better life.

The illegal immigrants that are caught in our country are put into federal prisons until they can be deported.  The process is not a short one and they are not isolated.  Illegal immigrants are incarcerated with rapists, murderers, and arsonists.  Many of these people are women who have never committed a crime other than illegally entering the country.  If these women have children who were born in the United Sates the mothers are deported while their children stay in the country.

          To me there is something Un-American about the way that we have treated       Mexican illegal immigrants. The Statue of Liberty has an inscription on it written by Emily Lazarus.  The inscription reads:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

If we continue to treat illegal immigrants the way that we do we may have to delete the inscription on the Statue of Liberty.

Work Cited

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014097534_apusillegalimmigration.html

http://www.urban.org/health_policy/url.cfm?ID=1000587  Reem Saad (May 2006). "Egyptian Workers in Paris:, Pilot Ethnography". SRC, American University in Cairo.

The undocumented Africans "of St. Ambroise" Bok.net. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.

Mark Taylor. "The Drivers of Immigration in Contemporary Society: Unequal Distribution of Resources and Opportunities". Human Ecology. 35(6), December, 2007. Available at http://www.springerlink.com/content/3194641502768341/. Accessed December 10, 2009 http://www.cis.org/Kephart/Cecilia-Munoz-Embraces-Amnesty

Chapter 8 Politics

Chapter 8 Political and Legal Systems

            Chapter 8 discusses two types of anthropology political anthropology and legal anthropology.  Legal anthropology addresses social order, social conflicts, and how those conflicts are brought to resolution. Political anthropology is the study of power, authority, and influence. The political and legal systems are important part to each culture in the world. Politics is the vehicle by which power, authority and influence are gained. One point that was made by Barbara Miller in the text is that power is the strongest incentive for decision making and probably the least moral. It is not an accident that the world dictators may start out benevolent and end up corrupt or that some congressmen and senators are law abiding citizens when running for office but after election find them in ethical or legal trouble.  Absolute power does have a tendency to corrupt.  There are four types of political organizations that are responsible for decision making, leadership, maintaining order, protecting group rights, and protecting the society from external threats.  The political organizations are:

1.      The Band

a)      Characterized by informal Leadership

b)      Flexibility

c)      If a band member has a serious disagreement with another person or spouse he/she leaves the Band and joins another.

2.       The Tribe

a)      More formal than the Band

b)      The Tribe consists of many Bands

c)      The Tribe has a headman or head woman leader

d)     Big-man/Big-woman political systems exert influence over several different villages.

3.       The Chiefdom

a)      Include several thousand people

b)      Rank is inherited

c)      Social division exists,  linage and commoners

4.        The State

a)        Centralized political unit

b)        Includes many communities

c)        Possesses coercive power

d)       Most states are hierarchical and patriarchal

     Legal anthropology studies social order and conflict.  Recently legal anthropologists have determined that legal institutions often times support and therefore maintain social inequities and injustice.  Social control rather than punishment is the main goal of small scale societies.  The State on the other hand uses punishments as severe as the death penalty or imprisonment.  Interestingly legal anthropologists have determined that high levels of violence in societies are not universal and are associated with the State than with the Band, Tribe, or Chiefdom.  Presently cultural anthropologists are attempting to determine a solution to global conflicts by studying peace keeping solutions.

    One of the most interesting items in Chapter 8 was the information given about Hawaii.  Hawaii was ruled in 1891 by Queen Lili’uokalani.  In an immoral display of power several businessmen both American and European deposed her. Queen Liliuokalani was the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Islands. She felt her mission was to preserve the islands for their native residents. In 1898, Hawaii was annexed to the United States and Queen Liliuokalani was forced to give up her throne.

     Queen Liliuokalani was born in Honolulu to high chief Kapaakea and the chiefess Keohokalole, the third of ten children. Her brother was King Kalakaua. Liliuokalani was adopted at birth, at age 4; her adoptive parents enrolled her in the Royal School. There she became fluent in English and influenced by Congregational missionaries. She also became part of the royal circle.
     Upon the death of her brother, King Kalakauam Liliuokalani ascended the throne of Hawaii in January 1891. One of her first acts was to recommend a new Hawaii constitution, as the "Bayonet Constitution" of 1887 limited the power of the monarch and political power of native Hawaiians.  This of course was not acceptable to American or European businessmen who had a financial interest in Hawaii they used power, money and influence to put in to place a legal maneuver to oust the rightful ruler the Queen.  In 1890, United States used economic tactics to ensure power in the Hawaiian Islands. The McKinley Tariff began to cause a recession in the islands by withdrawing the safeguards ensuring a mainland market for Hawaiian sugar. American interests in Hawaii began to consider annexation for Hawaii to re-establish an economic competitive position for sugar. In 1893, Queen Liliuokalani sought to empower herself and Hawaiians through a new constitution which she herself had drawn up and now desired to proclaim as the new law of the land. It should Queen Liliuokalani's right as a sovereign to issue a new constitution through an edict from the throne. A group led by Sanford B. Dole, the pineapple giant sought to overthrow the institution of the monarchy. The American minister in Hawaii, requested troops to take control of governmental buildings. In 1894, the Queen, was deposed, the monarchy abrogated, and a provisional government was established which later became the Republic of Hawaii. On July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawaii with Sanford B. Dole as president was proclaimed. It was recognized immediately by the United States government.

  Sadly this is a good example of how power and influence can be used not for the good of the people but for financial gain.  This leads credence to the statement that power is not necessarily moral.

Work Cited

             History of the Hawaiian Kingdom by Norris W. Potter, Lawrence M. Kasdon, ARayson

Kuykendall, R.S. (1967) The Hawaiian Kingdom, 1874–1893. Honolulu: University of      Hawaii Press, p. 474.

Speckled People Irish

 Hugo Hamilton is the author of the Speckled People a novel about identity, heritage, and of where a person belongs in society. Hamilton describes his background, his mother’s background and his father’s background. Within these three stories Hamilton explores his understanding of heritage and the place that you come from. Hamilton’s childhood as written in his book is a memorial to the understanding of language, beliefs, and values that relates to anthropology of culture.
    When reading the first two paragraphs of The Speckled People   it is easy to be struck by the child like simplicity of the writing.  It occurs to the reader that the narrator is indeed a child.  One might wonder why Mr. Hamilton chose his child self to tell his story.  It also is curious as to why he choses to tell his life story in the form of a novel.  There has been so much written about “discovering the inner child” or “embracing the child within” that one might be tempted to surmise that the author was attempting to heal from a tragic past, discover himself, or attempt to tell his story through the eyes of an innocent child without the political bias and views of an adult.  The Speckled People is a life-story that needs to be told through the eyes of an innocent, naïve, observant, child devoid of adult baggage and sophistication and told in the manner of a novel.  A child can love a German mother and her culture without loving the Arian Brotherhood or being a fascist.  He can endure the teasing and taunting of other children, he can even stand trial for being a Nazi, because he realize his mother and her family tried to save the persecuted in their country.  A child could love a country for its food, people, language, and culture without loving its politics.  A child can also just simply love his mother for what she is, German.

      The author also narrates the story of how he grew up in Dublin in the 1950s and 1960s with his brother Franz and Sister Maria and later siblings like Ciaran.  The names of his siblings are as speckled as he is, both German and Irish (Gaelic).  Hamilton’s three stories: his own, his mother’s and his father’s dwells a lot on the lives of his parents and the background information that he obtains about them as he grows up. The child-narrator sees and hears about the sadness, spiritual hunger, beliefs, secrets, hurt, conflicts, histories and beliefs of his parents. He talks about incidents that reveal the social shortcomings and double standards of Ireland, though without understanding the issues that lie behind such incidents.  Hugo feels his father’s panic over the inevitable loss of the Irish identity by the death of a language no longer widely used.  He feels the depression of their young Connemara nanny Aine after she was forced to give up her illegitimate child in London is  He observes and reports many incidents as a child without knowing their significance. The reader, with a little knowledge of the time period, is able to draw the right conclusions, although as the author matures he begins to understand all the various events he has narrated.
      The author grows up in a home in Dun Laoghaire, divided by two cultures and languages, German and Irish, and in turn largely cut-off from the English speaking outside world of South Dublin. The author describes his home as a separate country. The story depicts a struggle between the author/narrator and his father over what language to use. Father, named Sean, is a campaigning Gaelic speaker with a mission to regenerate the Gaelic language. He pretends England never existed, that it left no lasting cultural or linguistic impact on Ireland. He is a committed old fashioned nationalist who exerts firm control over his children’s lives.  He believed that he could start a transformation of Ireland into a sort of Connemara version of Germany with his hard work ethic, his amateur inventions and inspired imports of German products.  In other words his father who yearned for a truly Irish Ireland respected and wished for part of the German culture.  What appears to be a mystery at the beginning of the book is cleared up later.  Why would Sean who wants old Ireland back marry a German speaking bride? It the reader wonders if Sean actually would like a Speckled Ireland even though he worked so hard against it.  Hamilton realizes that his entire family is coming to grips with their cultural differences.  As a young boy Hamilton explores the differences and similarities of two cultures  

and languages one of German and one of Irish decent. His views of being German as lost to an identity that would rather be identified as an Irish.   Hamilton’s story line is also about homesickness; for a dream of Ireland, and the lost Germany.   He yearns for a homeland of his own where he can be himself and create his own culture.                

      In additional to culture, in Chapter 1 of Speckled People, Hugo starts out by describing the history that surrounds his childhood.  Hugo describes: WWII and Ireland by the sea, with the visualization, conflict, and simplicity indicative of a child’s thinking.  Although the young Hugo would rather identify himself as Irish he can’t quite erase thoughts of Germany and to be a German to be scary and a negative of life.

       Ireland and being Irish is the right path to follow.  This path seems positive, living free, and alive. Hugo Hamilton‘s story of the quest for self identity is mixed with German/ Irish conflicts but finally results in assimilation.   His goal is to understand who he belongs to, who he is, what he should be, and understanding the different between his mother and father’s backgrounds.
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cultural roots paper russia

Cultural roots

Galina

When I first started studying kinship I thought, “Just how complex can kinship be, what is it all about, and what my Kinship has to do with other cultures?” As I reflected on my family relationships I began to recognize what a big role kinship has played and is playing in my life.  Not only is my life affected by kinship but my adoptive family’s life as well. Who I am today is the result of a unique set of values and mores, distinct but blended from my adoptive family and my biological family. All sides interact differently with totally different blood relationships, culture, family relationships and descents. In addition to studying kinship and relating it to my cultural background plus my adoptive American family heritage, it is clear to see two worlds, how they assimilate and the differences between my Russian family heritage and my adoptive family’s heritage.

Galina at the Russian Orphanage, waiting for her new parents.                               

GGG

                It all began in Moscow Russia, in the 1900s during the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) Communism era. All of Russian life was controlled by and ruled by the government.  As a result, this is the cultural background of my Russian family starting out with my Russian parents: mother:  Valentine Petrovna Vitchikova, born on MAY 15, 1953. She lives in Moscow, Oblast: Naro Fominskly,  District: Sovkhoz Pervomaisky, Moscow. As years went on, during Communist control, Valentine Vitchikova, met my father: Alexandre Vaslievich Vitchikov, born in 1949, he became an unsung soviet hero trying to free Russia from communist tyranny. Valentine gave birth to my sister Svetlana Vitchikova, in 1978. After my sister’s birth my mother and father married a year later in 1979. My mother, Valentine worked in the Gagarinskly fruit and vegetable store at the time of my birth in Russia. My father Alexander’s life long struggle against communism ended in imprisonment as a political prisoner and although his life was spent striving  to make peace within the country, he died in 1989, before the end of communism and before I was born.  After the death of my father I was born in a delivery house in Moscow were I was to see the light of the world and start my life in Russia.  After my birth, I was sent to Chertanovskaya Street Moscow orphanage number 17, to initiate my own line of descent. My name became Galina Vitchikova. 

                       Galina’s Russian Passport

                During my time in Russia in the orphanage I was being cared for and was emersed in Russian culture.  I learned to speak Russian; I ate Russian food, and enjoyed Russian entertainment.   In the orphanage I developed a close bond to another orphan named: Alexandre Yurlevich Gavrilov who later became my bother, (Stephen Michael Rolf).   We were baptized as Catholics before we were adopted.  I was four years old and Stash (Alexandre) was two when we began a new life with the two of the most loving Americans to ever become parents, Joan Rolf and Micheal Rolf decided to adopt the both of us.   In August 1993 our lives changed forever.   I was introduced to the United States of America.  All at once I was an American able to live life in freedom without the government being in control.

       My adoptive family’s ethnicity is unique with totally different blood relationships, culture, family relationships and descents. In addition to studying kinship and relating it to my cultural background, researching my adoptive American family’s heritage, I took note of the two worlds and the differences between my Russian family heritage and my adoptive family heritage

    From the fruit of my research I learned of my adoptive parent’s cultural background and I learned that my mother and father’s families came from different areas of the world; Germany and Norway.   On my American mother’s side, Joan Martin Rolf‘s father was William George Martin. Who was my great father.  Who I had the pleasure to get to know before. George N Martin was William Martin’s father, he was married to  Agness Martin.  Joan’s mother Adeline Hanson Martin married William George Martin. Her father was Hanson Martin her father’s father was Axel Hanson.  Axel Hanson and was married to Minnie Redness Hanson both came from Norway.  Joan Martin Rolf’s heritage and family roots are Norwegian.

                My adoptive fathers side Michael M Rolf is of German decent.  They immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio.  Cincinnati Ohio is the oldest German settlement in the United States.  In the early 1800’s the settlement of Cincinnati had a German born leader, Erick Scherdt.   Eric Scherdt met the German immigrants in New York’s Harbor and transported them to Cincinnati, Ohio.  Michael Rolf’s father was Stanley Francis Rolf he was married to Margaret Hermine Donnermeyer.  Margaret’s father was Frank Donnermeyer and her mother was Gertrude Scherdth.  Stanley Francis Rolf’s father was John Rolf and his mother was Eizabeth Fishoct.

     I found the ethnic backgrounds of my Norwegian mother, my German father and my Russian Mother and Father fascinating.  Knowing where I have come from gives me insight into my personality and various ideocyracies. The hunt for pictures of my ancestors gave me a  look into the past that will assist me in learning who I am and where I might be going.  I was amazed at the diversity of my own family. While I was researching the past I also researched some of the newer music and dance from Russia.  It was curiosity that drove me to research how Russian Young adults live.  I have embedded a video that gives an example of current Russian culture.

Kinship

Kinship

Galina Rolf

            What is kinship? The word Kinship is defined in many different ways in many cultures.  Kinship is defined as a bond or a sense of a relationship between people that share a genealogical origin, culture, and/or historical descent.   Kinship is connection by blood, marriage, or adoption. Family relationships define kinship.  Kinship plays a major role in society and throughout cultures; including being one of the most basic principles for individuals in social groups, roles, categories, and genealogy. Kinship is an important part of family identities, and descents, principles of descents, and the facets of adoptions and fostering.  The different facets of descents are all part of the Kinship relationships of family and cultures. of the facets of Adoption and Adoption is a form of transferring a child or children from birth parents to care for someone else. Fostering  is similar to adoption. Adoption or Fostering takes place in most countries.  Although there are no blood ties, adoption and fostering are  part of kinship.

            Kinship bonds in cultures are chained with a mode of livelihood and reproductions of family ties as one towards blood relationships, adoption, and marriage. In addition to Kinship bonds in cultures, there is a system or role that different cultures provide and is defined as a Kinship system.  Kinship systems are mechanisms that link conjugal families (and individuals not living in families) in ways that affect the integration of the general social structure and enhance the ability of the society to reproduce itself in an orderly fashion. Kinship performs these social functions in two ways:

1.       Through relationships defined by blood ties and marriage, kinship systems make possible ready-made contemporaneous networks of social ties sustained during the lifetimes of related persons  

2.        Enabling the temporal continuity of identifiable family connections over generations, despite the limited lifespan of a family’s members.  

     The Kinship system is a form of relationships in a culture and behaviors that are complex and involved.  Kinship can be shown in a kinship diagram which is a way of presenting the kinship relationships of an individual. These diagrams play an important part in society and other cultures, because it shows and demonstrates traits of family backgrounds, ancestry and historical decent. In the fact, knowing your family history can be both fascinating and interesting.  A kinship diagram of family traits can also be part of how family traits can be related to bloodline.

EXAMPLE OF KINSHIP DIAGRAM

    

    Kinship has many aspects and principles and is connected in many ways to society and throughout other cultures relating it to family backgrounds and descents of history.  What is descent? Descent is the tracing of Kinship relationships through parentage or where you come from or ancestry. Descent is a historical process of a line of people from whom someone is descended throughout history.  Descent can go through records of generation to generation through time and during the immigration.

Descent relates to four principles relating to descent:

1.      Bilineal descent

2.      Unilineal descent

3.      Partrilineal descent

4.      Matrilineal descent.

            Bilinear descent traces ancestry through both parents. Unilineal descent is reorganizing through only one parent.  These two roles of descent are different modes of livelihood corresponding to kinships of blood links of equal importance.  For instance, in the article: “Unlineal and Bilineal Descent: “How Various Cultures Trace Their Heritage: states that “Bilineal Descent is practiced by approximently 33% of cultures.” And “Unilineal Descent is practiced by approximently 60% of cultures.”  The different practices of Bilineal and Unilineal have a difference of level of percentage point for cultural practices for each.

            Unilineal lineages can be matrilineal or patrilineal, depending on whether they are traced through mothers or fathers, respectively. Whether matrilineal or patrilineal descent is considered most significant differs from culture to culture. These two types of unilateral descent play a major role in kinship. Descent can often play a large roll on the social texture of a society.    Patrilineal descent is one in which the line of descent is traced through the male kin while matrilineal is through the female line.  The Masai culture is a good example of a unilineal descent system with a patrilineal grouping.   In general a patrilineal descent system places more importance on males and their place in the society while a matrilineal shifts the focus of the society to the females.  Another subset of unilineal descent is clans.  Clans are unilineal descent groups who are descended from either a common male line or a common female line.  A good example of a patriclan or clan with male focus is the ancient Chinese samurais.  Two other forms of descent are Cognatic where there is no formal association between male or female and Bilateral where descent is traced equally through male and female lines.  The Hawaiians are a good example of Cognatic while the United States is a good example of bilateral.    Patrilineal is recorded through the male line and the matrilineal is outlined through the female line. http://www.veoh.com/watch/e149535DXpwd56f   

     Bilateral descent is a system of family lineage in which the relatives on the mother's side and father's side are equally important for emotional ties or for transfer of property or wealth. It is a family arrangement where descent and inheritance are passed equally through both parents.   Families who use this system trace descent through both parents simultaneously and recognize multiple ancestors; it is not used to form descent groups.  While bilateral descent is increasingly the norm in Western culture, traditionally it is only found among relatively few groups in West Africa, India, Australia, Melanesia and Polynesia. Anthropologists believe that a tribal structure based on bilateral descent helps members live in extreme environments because it allows individuals to rely on two sets of families dispersed over a wide area.

   http://youtu.be/rBAX6oLqBJs

what is culture? blog 2 part 1

What is Culture?

	Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917)

     The word culture has many different meanings. For some it refers to an appreciation of good literature, music, art, and food. One definition of culture is “…people’s learned and shared behaviors and beliefs.” (Miller, 2009)  For anthropologists and other behavioral scientists, culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns. The term was first used in this way by the pioneer English Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor in his book, Primitive Culture, published in 1871. Tylor said that culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Since Tylor's time, the concept of culture has become the central focus of anthropology.

     When I thought about culture I thought about country, language, food, dress, routines, architecture style, customs and celebrations. I felt that the only way that you could study culture was to go to an exotic land and study a foreign way of life.  I still feel that this is one way of studying culture but there are many sub-cultures imbedded into our own culture.  One example is a group of Cuban-American women tied together by language, food, dress, and the customs of Cuban. Certainly these women are American but they have kept Cuban traditions in their lives. Culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is a fragile phenomenon. It is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our minds. Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are merely the products of culture. They are not culture in themselves. For this reason, archeologist cannot dig up culture directly in their excavations. The broken pots and other artifacts of ancient people that they uncover are only material remains that reflect cultural patterns--they are things that were made and used through cultural knowledge and skills.  The shared cultural traits of subcultures set them apart from the rest of their society. Examples of easily identifiable subcultures in the United States include ethnic groups such as Vietnamese Americans, African Americans, and Mexican Americans. Members of each of these subcultures share a common identity, food tradition, dialect or language, and other cultural traits that come from their common ancestral background and experience. As the cultural differences between members of a subculture and the dominant national culture blur and eventually disappear, the subculture ceases to exist except as a group of people who claim a common ancestry. That is generally the case with German Americans and Irish Americans in the United States today. Most of them identify themselves as Americans first. They also see themselves as being part of the cultural mainstream of the nation.

These Cuban American women in Miami, Florida have a shared subculture identity that is reinforced through their language, food, and other traditions

     I decided to explore another sub-culture that is in the United States.  When I was in high school I had a teacher who described her teaching experiences in Glouchester, Virginia.  Reportedly, in the mid- seventies National Geographic did a special on the Big Island, a small island off the shore of Glouchester, Virginia but part of Glouchester County.  It was reported that the people who inhabited the Big Island (Guineamen) were descendents of Cornwallis’s deserters.  Out of necessity (fear of being captured and tried for treason) the Guineamen stuck together and did not mix with the people on the mainland.  Through the early seventies most of the Guinea children did not go to school.  Those that did came by boat.  After the National Geographic Special the Big Island was closed down by social services.  The children were sent to school and placed in the grade that was commensurate with their age even though they had not been to school.  To make matters even harder for the children they spoke a dialect of Old English which had not evolved over the last 200 years.  The Guineamen were watermen.  They made their living by fishing the waters around Glouchester.  The name Guineamen came from the fact that during the war the British paid for their services as soldiers with Guineas.  Regardless of their clannish behavior the Guineamen, reported the teacher, were big hearted people.  If they felt like you were trying to help their children they would do anything to express their gratitude.  It was common place to receive lobster as a Christmas Gift or homemade clam chowder left on the desk as a token of appreciation.  When I started reading about different cultures and languages I thought about this story.  I researched the story that I had been told and the facts were very close to that of the story.  I was able to find a video which included the language of the Guineamen.  In the video it explains that the culture and language the Guineamen worked so hard to preserve is dying out.  I find it disturbing that this is the case because their heritage is so rich.  Below is the link to the Video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxyevXniIlA

             

chapter 1-2

I love culture and its very fun and interesting