|
An Examination of the Positive Impact of Black Family
Reunions
By
Germaine Julien-Palmer, PhD
Guest Column
Family reunions and homecomings become important focal
points of interaction between
kin, as they reestablish
ties of descent from key ancestors and hence determine
status within their families. Such events serve to signal
the status of the participant as either a direct descendent
of an important ancestor through blood links, or an affine
whose familial history is centered outside of the area.
Although family reunions
and homecomings are integrative social events, they
articulate the presence of
centrifugal and centripetal forces which operate within the
entire
domain of familial
relationships.
Schneider (1969) stated
that there are two kinds of relatives distinguished in
American culture: those related “by blood” and those related
“by marriage.”
Homecomings are primarily
events of those related “by blood”. Although attended by
“affines”
(those related by blood),
participants emphasize their relationship to the original
founding
ancestors of the “hamlet”
(small settlement), and there is a core of “consanguineal”
(blood kin)
around whom events occur.
Alice Walker’s The
Color Purple (1982) analyzed the family reunion this
way: “’Why us
always have family
reunion on July 4th’, say Henrietta, mouth poke
out, full of complaint. ‘It so
hot’…. White people busy
celebrating they independence from England July 4th’,
say Harpo, ‘so most black folks don’t have to work. Us spend
the day celebrating each other’.”
Most family reunions are
characteristic of extended families, who plan the occasions
around celebration, abundant good food, shared reunion
responsibilities, simple recreational activities, and, above
all, talk.
Although summer is the
most popular season and the Fourth of July a popular date
for
family reunions for black
families, family reunions can happen at any time. Some
families have
them annually, others have
them only once or twice in a generation’s lifetime,
depending on
some members’ initiative
in getting the reunion organized.
The impetus for a family
reunion, if it is not an annually scheduled event, may be a
late-
decade birthday party for
one family member, a holiday, wedding anniversary or the
celebration
of an achievement such as
paying off a home mortgage.
Sometimes a family holds a
reunion for a homecoming of one of its members, as in the
case of Eudora Welty’s novel Losing Battles, which is
a family reunion story focused around the day a son and
husband return from a stay at Parchman, the Mississippi
State Prison.
Families often gather in
someone’s home, though summer picnic versions are commonly
held in state or city parks. Motels, hotels or restaurants
host them, as do clubhouses or community centers, but by far
the most popular settings after homes are churches.
The occasion for catching
up on the relatives’ news and gossip, perhaps for
transacting a little family business, for settling or even
stirring up family disputes, for generally getting in touch
again, a family reunion usually has no program.
There might be an
occasional game or swim or boat ride, but the main
activities are eating and conversation. The time span may be
overnight or even several days, but it will usually include
a meal.
After evaluating the
material included in this article, the takeaway is that any
circumstance we get to fellowship with family who reside
where we are or who may travel to from other states provides
an opportunity for us to bond, reminisce and enjoy each
other’s company.
Germaine Carey-Palmer, PhD
Assistant Professor
Dillard University
References
Walker, A. (1982). The
Color Purple
Welty, E. (1970).
Losing Battles
Whitehead, T. (2009).
Black Family. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.
Yates, G.(2009). Family
Reunions. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.
|
