Download or read book Black Family Rituals written by Edward Sims and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2008 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The two social institutions which have enabled Americans of African descent to survive and standfast in this "foreign and hostile land," has been the Black family and its constituent, the Black Church. The treatise rendered here is intended to present an Afrocentric view of rites of passage, namely, birth, coming of age, marriage, passing (death) and celebration, instead of the prevailing Eurocentric motifs which have become the norm in American culture. "We have attempted to concretize and synthesize the most helpful interpretations of African and African-American culture, into meaninfully ritualistic forms." In essence, Black Family rituals allows all readers, irrespective of race, ethnicity, color, religion, etc., to become aware of an African/African-American ethos. The book is historical, sociological, theological, ethnomethodological, but most of all, pragmatic. These rituals are endemic and systemic to us as an African People. Aluta Continua..."the struggle c ontinues."