Semiosis of African American Religion(세미오시스 연구총서 1)

"흑인들은 노예제도를 겪으면서 그들의 아프리카 문화와 전통을 상실했다. 그러므로 그들은 문화가 없는 미개한 민족이다"라고 주장하는 인종주의자들이 많이 있다. 흑인들이 문화가 없는 미개한 민족이라는 주장은 일제 통치 하에서 한국인들은 미개한 민족이므로 보호가 필요하다는 일본 측의 주장과 다를 바 없다. 흑인들은 그들 고유의 문화를 갖고 있으며 특히 흑인 종교가 그들 문화의 토대가 되어온 것이다. "사회 통제 기관, 경제 협력원, 정치 참여의 장, 교육의 후원자, 백인 중심의 삼엄한 세계의 안식처"가 바로 흑인 교회였다. 흑인 교회는 그들 생활에서 중추적인 역할을 수행해 온 것이다. 그럼에도 불구하고 '흑인교회'는 한국에서는 물론이거니와 미국에서도 종교나 문화를 연구하는 학자들이 소홀히 해 온 분야이다. 이 책에서는, 간과되어서는 안 될 주제인 흑인 종교의 기원과 역할 그리고 그 의미를 노예제도와 관련하여 풀어나가고자 한다. 그리하여 흑인 문화와 흑인 종교의 바른 이해를 도모하고자 함이다. 또한 이 책은 흑인 종교의 상징과 의미를 semiosis 측면에서 역동적으로 그려나가고 있어 독자들에게 많은 흥미를 불러 일으켜 줄 것이다.



■ Preface



Franklin Frazier argued that slavery was so devastating in America that it destroyed all African elements among black Americans; African-Americans lost all their African culture and tradition while undergoing slavery; they were in a stated of cultural limbo. African Americans have culture; especially black religious institutions have been the foundation of African American culture. Black church has been "an agency of social control, a sponsor of education, and a refuge in a hostile white world," and it has played a central role in African American life (Raboteau, 1980, p. X).

Nevertheless, the black church was a subject largely neglected or evaded by many scholars of religion or culture in America, not to mention in Korea. Therefore, there has been little work on black religion. This book will help understand the origin, the role, the symbols and meanings of the important subject, African-American religion by investigating slave narratives, black autobiographies, spirituals and the narratives of their religious experiences during slavery and after emancipation.

Moreover, religion is a process of on-going semiotic construction and displacement in which interpreters select paradigmatic elements to form syntagmatic combinations. In accordance with Peirce's triadic semiotics, Firstness in the African American religion has to do with the reality which African American people have faced since slavery, and the feeling which they have had in confronting their adversity. Secondness in black religion is associated with African Americans' reaction to their harsh reality and their way to overcome their agony. Thirdness in African American religion is related to their recognition, thoughts and self-consciousness of their reality or difficulties. This book will display the dynamic phenomena of African American religion, that is, semiosis of African American religion under Peirce's way of interpreting the world and religion.

This book owes much to discussion with my colleagues, Hyug Ahn, Byong-Chang Kang, Eunjeong Kim, Kyung-Nan Koh, Jong-Seok Soh, Jun Rae Cho, Soyeon Eom, Junhyun Kim, Yunhee Lee in Semiosis Research Center of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. A number of other people have contributed to this book in some way or other. My thanks are due in particular to Paig-Ki Kim, Ki Sun Chun, Wonhoi Kim, DaeGeun Lim, Jae Hyup Lee, Sangmi Park, and Frank Concilus. I also wish to thank Noorey Kim, NoJin Chung, Changmin Jeon, Juwon Oh, and Sukha Shin.



Semiosis of Research Center, HUFS

May 2013



M.K.A



■ 표4 텍스트



For African Americans, both during slavery and in its long aftermath, church has functioned as a supporter of a social and political mobilizations as well as spiritual and community orientation. African Americans have found themselves in conflict over interpretation of symbols and norms, public behavior, coping strategies, and a variety of political acts of resistance to structures of domination. The black churches provide a home for thousands of people transplanted by the circumstances of their upward mobility in their economic pursuits. These churches offer a place where their personal, familial and spiritual needs are met where their children can experience a rich environment for their spiritual and moral development. Further, these churches provide an ideal place for politicians and others to rally and have the wherewithal to make change not only on the individual but also on the larger societal level. African American churches still serve as a beacon of hope and community empowerment.



■ 뒷날개 텍스트



African American religion has been the means by which one remembers and cultivates an alternative understanding of one's humanity confronting constant disdains and denials. African American religion is not limited to the institutional church, but spread across the breadth of culture, family, community, and language. This meaning of religion nourishes another experience of reality that nurtures connection to the divine and constitutes a truly human identity.



Religious symbols have both an interpretative and a practical function. Religious symbols generally help us interpret some experiences or reality meaningfully, and they are supposed to be transformative. It is considered that religious symbols are used to facilitate the transformation of personal, social or cultural character. More specifically, religious symbols affect intense transformations such as salvation, enlightenment, or basic attunement. Religious symbols are also dynamic in involving both the ongoing transformation of persons as well as semiotic codes (Neville, 1996, 2006). Peirce's triadic semiotics proposes that the pragmatic act of taking a sign to refer to an object is a constitutive element of interpretation. This means that questions about the meaning, reference, and even truth of an interpretation cannot be separated from the interpreter's actual purposive engagement in context.

01 Introduction / 1

02 World of Signs and Religion / 7

1. Religious symbols __ 7

2. Peirce's triadic semiotics __ 11

3. Nevilles' religious symbolism __ 19

4. Interpretation of Sacred Literature __ 23

5. Corrington's world semiosis and the evolution of meaning __ 27

03 Historical overview of African American Religion / 57

04 African American Religion during slavery / 69

1. Backgrounds of Christianizing Slaves __ 69

2. Difficulties in Slave Conversion During the First Century of

Slavery __ 71

3. Revival and Conversion __ 80

05 Characteristics of African-American Religion / 89

1. White Religion? __ 89

2. Compensatory and Transcendent __ 92

3. Social and Political __ 98

4. African Heritage __ 106

5. Slave religion and archeology __ 132

06 African American religion after emancipation / 143

1. Postbellum black religion __ 143

2. African-American Religious and Food culture __ 148

3. Religion and gender __ 158

4. Mega-churches and charismatic leadership __ 162

5. Religion, spirituality, and the African American Family __ 168

6. Contemporary African-American Worship Practices __ 177

7. Religion and Racial Integration __ 192

8. African American Church and Community Activism __ 201

07 Conclusion / 211



Bibliography __ 217



Index __ 255

안미경 저자 안미경은 1972년 울산에서 태어나 한국외국어대학교 영어학과와 동대학원을 졸업했다. 현재 한국외국어대학교 HK(인문한국) 세미오시스 연구사업단 연구교수로 재직 중이다. 대표 업적으로 논문 "From favor to cause : the English adposition thanks to and its Korean counterpart tekpwuney"와 "Negotiationg common ground in discourse: a diachronic and discourse anslysis of maliya" 등이 있다.



Mikyung Ahn

The author is HK research professor of Semiosis Research Center at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul. Her principal fields of interest are linguistics, sociolinguistics, North American studies, and semiotics. She has authored numerous publications including Emergence of Causality in Grammar, From favor to cause: the English adposition thanks to and its Korean counterpart tekpwuney, Negotiationg common ground in discourse: a diachronic and discourse analysis of maliya.