Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness – Who Owns Cultural Identity?
I am looking forward to seeing this film and to learn more about Melville J. Herskovits. The question and answer of Diversity and the importance of Culture in the United States may have started here.
Screening
Sept 23, 11:30AM to 2:00PM and Sept 24, 9:00AM to 11:00AM
Mesa Community College Southern & Dobson Campus
Paul A. Elsner Library
“The film raises unsettling questions, asking who has the authority to define a culture, especially if people from that culture are denied the opportunity to engage in the scholarly discourse of defining themselves. Vincent Brown provocatively sums up Herskovits as “the Elvis of anthropology,” a man who appropriated African culture, but simultaneously mainstreamed its study into the American academe and popular consciousness.
Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness will challenge students to think of “knowledge” as a socio-political construct, shaped by the implicit values and underlying power dynamics of the society in which it is produced. It calls on each viewer to ask “Who controls my cultural identity?” As a result, the film promises to become a core text in Introductory Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Sociology of Knowledge, African Studies, African American Studies, and Race Relations classes.” California Newsreel
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