HUMAN 1C Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Orlando Patterson, Involuntary Servitude, Ethnography
5 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Involuntary servitude = usually to pay something off w/labor instead of 26815 Prisoners, indentured servants (allowed for continuation of social ties) Consistent belief in the spirit + idea that spirits return. Many communities had hope that once family member in slavery died -> spirit would return home. Difference between slavery + involuntary servitude -> social death of unwilling laborer. Degradation + dismantling of belief system + sense of kinship. Complete foreclosure of possibility of returning home. No longer will see family members again. Thousands of tribes in africa speaking different languages -> enslaved individuals typically could not communicate with other slaves. Social death can be accomplished through law (lack of legal recognition of slave genealogical relationships) or repetitive practices, rituals, + symbols denoting unworthiness. Dismantling of families in order to weaken the individuals -> weaken possibility of revolt. Transfiguring black bodies through gentle branding of women + children.
