Louisiana's Traditional Cultures: An Overview

Introduction

A basic principle in the study of folklore and anthropology is that in order to understand a cultural feature, one must understand the context in which it exists. Therefore, to understand a basket, dance, song, ritual, or story, one must know about the maker, dancer, singer, practitioner, or teller. One must understand the culture or setting in which it is made or performed. Only then can one know its significance and function within the cultural region for the people. One must take a holistic look at the integrated system to understand each part.

Therefore, when one examines the traditions of an entire state, it is important to understand the cultures within the state and how they relate to each other. This is particularly true of Louisiana, because of the state's complex cultural milieu. Hence, here follows a brief overview of Louisiana's traditional cultures. Although no article can do justice to the folk cultures of the state, it is important to provide a sketch of the peoples and their regions as a background for the stories that follow.

Czech-American dance costume displays elaborate embroidery. Photo by Rosie Walker.

It is trite to say that Louisiana is culturally diverse. The truth is that few people realize the degree of complexity and variation in the cultures of the state. Many are aware that New Orleans and French-speaking South Louisiana are juxtaposed against the African-American/British-American culture of North Louisiana, but few are familiar with subtle differences within these regional groups and the cultural complexities resulting from the presence of Native Americans and the waves of immigrations by Irish, Germans, Italians, Czechs, Hungarians, Croatians, Filipinos, Latins (Isleño, Mexican, Cuban, Guatemalan), and East Asians (Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai). Each group has added to the cultural environment of Louisiana and in varying ways influenced the traditions found here.

Geographers and historians have documented many of the settlement patterns and the waves of immigration into most parts of Louisiana. Louisiana State University geographer Fred Kniffen laid the foundation for understanding Louisiana's settlement patterns during the 1930s (Kniffen 1936). More recently, Malcolm Comeaux (1972) investigated the Atchafalaya Basin settlement patterns and folk occupations, University of Southwestern Louisiana historian Carl Brasseaux focused on French Louisiana settlement patterns (Brasseaux 1987 and 1992), and historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall documented the earliest influx of Africans into Louisiana via slavery from the Senegambian region of West Africa (Hall 1992).

Building on this base of cultural geography and history, Louisiana folklore research has led to several publications that provide a foundation, stimulating further study. The Louisiana Folklife Program's Louisiana Folklife: A Guide to the State (1985), edited by the program's first director, Nicholas R. Spitzer, is the most comprehensive state publication of its type. Frank de Caro's Folklife in Louisiana Photography (1990) provides a comprehensive overview of the photographic record. Other publications have focused tightly on a specific group, region, or genre: for example, Gifts from the Hills: The Folk Traditions of North Central Louisiana (Roach-Lankford 1984), Folklife in the Florida Parishes ([Gardner et al.] 1989), Doing It Right and Passing it On: North Louisiana Crafts (Gregory 1981), Cajun and Creole Folktales (Ancelet 1994), and The Spanish Tradition in Louisiana (Armistead 1992).

Since the advent of the Louisiana Folklife Program in 1978, many researchers have worked with the program to present their research in various formats to the general public. These researchers have explored numerous topics, but most generally focus on certain aspects of particular ethnic communities or folklore genres, including North Louisiana quilters (Roach 1986), north-central Louisiana British- and African-American folk cultures (Roach-Lankford 1984), Cajun musicians and culture (Ancelet 1984 and 1989a; Ancelet et al. 1991; Savoy 1984), Creole language (Ricard 1977, Snyder 1990), South Louisiana wooden boatbuilding (Knipmeyer 1976, Comeaux 1985, Brassieur 1989), Mardi Gras Indians (Smith 1984 and 1994), Hungarian dance and costume (Romero 1989), African-American gospel (Jackson 1989), Cajun Mardi Gras (Ancelet 1989b, Lindahl 1996a, Lindahl 1996b, Mire 1993, Ware 1994), Czechs (Walker 1989), Louisiana crafts (Bergeron 1988, de Caro and Jordan 1980, Roach-Lankford 1984), commercial fisherfolk (Knipmeyer 1956, Comeaux 1985, Gregory 1966), and Native American cultures (Gregory 1992, Kniffen, Gregory, and Stokes 1987), languages (Kimball 1989, Dreschel 1979), and crafts (Medford, Gregory, and Sepulvado 1990).

The Louisiana Crafts Program and Folklife Program also produced publications featuring individuals involved with specific programs: Fait à la Main: A Sourcebook of Louisiana Crafts (Bergeron 1988) and Keeping It Alive: Cultural Conservation Through Apprenticeship (Dunbar and Owens 1993). This essay draws on these publications and the research conducted by cultural specialists (folklorists, cultural anthropologists, cultural geographers, ethnomusicologists) and the non-academically-trained community scholars. Readers seeking more detailed information should refer to these publications and for a historical overview of folklife research to de Caro's article in Louisiana Folklife: A Guide to the State (1985, 12-34).

Many of the folk crafts mentioned in this article are displayed in The Creole State: An Exhibition of Louisiana Folklife located in the Louisiana State Capitol. First curated by Nicholas R. Spitzer in 1985 and renovated by myself in 1994, this permanent exhibit by the Louisiana Folklife Program presents folk crafts from Louisiana's traditional cultures in seven sections: folk toys; folk instruments; occupational crafts; domestic crafts; decorative folk arts; ritual, festival, and religion; and cultural conservation.

Scholars divide the state into three major cultural regions, New Orleans, South Louisiana, and North Louisiana, each of which contains pockets of cultural groups.

New Orleans

Contrary to some tourism promotions, New Orleans is not a Cajun town, even though many Cajuns moved to New Orleans after World War II and grew to dominate certain parts of the city, such as Westwego and Marrero on the West Bank. The first and largest migrations of the French to New Orleans were not Acadian. French nobles and army officers blended with the Spanish to create a Creole community. "Creole," as used in New Orleans, refers either to the descendants of the French and Spanish settlers or to people of French, Spanish, and African descent who were known as gens de couleur libres or free-people-of-color (Snyder 1990, Tregle 1992). These two groups were culturally intertwined, yet maintained separate identities.

Most Africans in Louisiana arrived as slaves from Francophone West Africa, but later some arrived as free-people-of-color from the Caribbean. Two-thirds of the Africans arriving before 1730 were from the Senegambia region of West Africa. Senegambia was home to many culturally related groups with similar languages, but most Africans brought to Louisiana during this time were either Wolof or Bambara (Hall 1992). After the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, another influx of Africans, including many free-people-of-color, arrived by way of the Caribbean. Most of these Africans from the Caribbean were originally from Dahomey (now the Republic of Benin) and Nigeria (Hunt 1988).

The fact that a significant number of Africans from closely related cultures came to Louisiana was a factor in their ability to retain many cultural traits and contribute to the Creole culture that was developing in New Orleans and South Louisiana. For example, the Haitians brought the shotgun house and the voodoo religion to Louisiana. The word "voodoo" is derived from the African word voudun, which means "deity" in Yoruba or "insight" in Fon (Bodin 1990). Free-people-of-color dominated many building trades in New Orleans, were often highly educated, and as chefs played an important role in the development of Creole cuisine for which the city is known (Reinecke 1985). Okra, an important ingredient of gumbo, and the word "gumbo" itself (derived from Bantu nkombo) are African.

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Americans, referred to as Les Américains, arrived and settled upriver or uptown from the central Creole district, with Canal Street being the dividing line. Irish fleeing the potato famine of the 1840s settled in the area that became known as the Irish Channel between the Mississippi River and the Uptown Garden District. The 1850s saw an influx of Germans. After the Civil War, even more English-speaking African Americans arrived to join the population of freed slaves. The distinction between African Creoles and African Americans began to blur after 1918 (Reinecke 1985, 58-59), but still today Louisianans at times refer to people not descended from the French or Creole culture as Americans. Jazz played a role in this cultural fusion because ethnic groups that did not otherwise mingle were drawn together through jazz. African Americans, African Creoles, Italians, Germans, and Irish were all instrumental in the development of this new art form. In New Orleans, musical traditions range from brass jazz bands to African Creole and African-American Mardi Gras Indians chanting call-responses that have been called the most African of all musics found in North America. African-American Delta blues and Latin salsa are some of the most frequently heard musics today in local clubs, along with the distinctive New Orleans rhythm & blues made famous by the likes of Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, and the Neville Brothers (Smith 1990).