Vocabulary

Marie Madeleine Hachard

Clifton and Cleveland Chenier

Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Louis Armstrong

Antoine "Fats" Domino

Jerry Lee Lewis

Grand Isle

Monroe

Houma​

Natchitoches

Eunice

Thibodauz

Lafayette

Morgan City​

​People/Places

​Breaux Bridge

Mamou

Opelousas

Ville Platte

Springfiled

Kenner

Covington

New Iberia

Independence​

​Terms

​Culture

architecture

cultural diffusion

cultural anthropologist

urban

Acadians

ethnic group

African American

Anglo

Creole​

Hispanic

Isleno

Gumbo​

​jambalaya

zydeco

blues

jazz

Mardi Gras​

Many people say that LA has a distinct culture or is home to some of the most distinctive groups of people in the United States. Culture is the way of life of a group of people. Ideas, beliefs, customs and behavior all help to shape culture. Culture can be expressed and understood through religious beliefs, architecture, art, literature, clothing, music and food. Where people live and what they do for work also contribute to the development of culture.

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​Section 1

​What is Culture?

No matter what form it takes, culture is the way people tell stories about themselves and their place in the world. In LA, there are many different cultural stories. In the three centuries since its founding, people from many different backgrounds have come to LA. Often they brought new ideas and practices with them. Over time, these new customs blended with older ideas and practices to form entirely new cultural expressions. This process is called cultural diffusion.

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​Cultural Diffusion

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Cultural Regions

Just as Louisiana has natural regions, it also has cultural regions. The boundaries of cultural regions are open to interpretation. Cultural anthropologists are scholars who study communities and help identify areas where similar pasts and patterns make a region distinct from its surroundings.

Some people think that the cultural differences in Louisiana can be understood by dividing the state in half, somewhere around Alexandria.​

Section 2 pg. 47

North and South Louisiana

There are differences between those two areas of the state. South Louisiana was settled by Catholics while North Louisiana was settled by Protestants. South Louisiana is thought to owe its cultural identity to its French and Spanish colonial past. North Louisiana was settled by immigrants from England and English colonies and is thought to have more in common with other parts of the upland South. The differences between North and South Louisiana are not as great as they once were, but they continue to affect aspects of social, political, and economic culture in the two areas.

Sone scholars and state officials think that dividing the state and its people into 5 cultural regions provides a better model for understanding how the physical features and natural resources of an area drew people to those places. Such a division also shows how people created a way of life and culture that is recognizable as a part of each area’s past and present.

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​Cultural Regions Cont.

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The northernmost cultural region of Louisiana, the Sportsman’s Paradise, gets its name because its rolling hills, forests, and numerous lakes provide opportunities for outdoor recreation, especially hunting and fishing. Most people who settled this part of the state were Anglo-Saxon or Celtic, meaning their ancestors came from England, Scotland, or Ireland. Many settlers came into this region after Louisiana became part of the United States in 1893. In the 19th century, this area was mostly made up of small farms. But Shreveport became an important trade and transportation center after it was founded in 1836. In northeast LA, the most populous area is Monroe-West Monroe.

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​Sportsman’s Paradise

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The Crossroads region stretches across the center of the state and takes its name from the way in which its culture serves as a crossroads between the northern and southern portions of Louisiana. Small towns are spread across this region, and many have main streets with small stores, government buildings, and churches.​ Today, the region’s largest urban centers are Alexandria and Pineville. The Crossroads region is also home to LA’s oldest city, Natchitoches.

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​Crossroads

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The first European settlers in Cajun Country were Acadians (Cajun​s for short)-- French Canadians who came to LA beginning in the 1760s. Cajun Country extends across a triangle-shaped area of southwest LA. Within this region, the culture can be further divided into prairie and wetlands areas. On the prairie, the Cajun culture centered on farming and raising livestock, especially cattle. The arrival of the oil industry in the 20th century changed life for many Acadian families. Some Acadians still rely on farming, ranching, fishing, and trapping, but many others have taken jobs in oil production and related industries. These new industries led to the development of urban areas in modern Cajun Country. They include Houma, Lafayette, Morgan City, and Thibodaux. Lafayette is the largest city in this region.

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​Cajun Country

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Plantation Country takes its name from the many plantations that once dominated the region's geography and culture. The profits from growing sugar and cotton on the region's rich farmlands made possible the building of large plantation houses. This area has more remaining planation homes than any other similar-sized region in the South. Today, chemical companies rather than agriculture dominate the areas along the Mississippi River in this region. Baton Rouge is the state's capital city and the urban center of this region. It is home to the State Capitol and is headquarters for many state agencies. It is also home to Louisiana State University (LSU). Following LSU sports is an important part of the culture of enjoyment in Baton Rouge.

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Plantation Country

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New Orleans, the first capitol of Louisiana, forms the heart of the Greater New Orleans region. Due to its location near the mouth of the Mississippi River, it had the second-largest port in the nation and was the largest city in the South until the 1860s. New Orleans is very different from the rest of Louisiana and from most cities in the United States as well. Some visitors come to see the architectural history of the city's French and Spanish colonial periods in the buildings and streets of the historic French Quater. Since the 1960s, thriving urban areas have developed both to the west and the north of the city. Jefferson Parish and its cities of Metairie and Kenner are considered part of the Greater New Orleans region.

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Greater New Orleans

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People and Culture

In the past as in the present, Louisiana's culture has been shaped by the diversity of its people, the places they have settled, and the ways in which different groups interacted with one another. Just as the state has distinctive cultural regions, it also has groups of people who are distinctive. An ethnic group is a group of people who are or who consider themselves to be different from other members of their community based on several factors. Within an ethnic group, people also tend to exhibit cultural, religious, and linguistic similarities.

Section 3

The French established Louisiana, but the group of French speakers called Acadians did not come directly to LA from France. The Acadians were French migrants and their descendants who lived in a part of New France (now Canada) called Acadie. The English gained control of Acadie in 1710. Because of ongoing disagreements, the English expelled the Acadians from their homes and farms between 1755 and 1763. In the 1760s, several hundred Acadians settled in LA. By 1800, their descendants numbered in the thousands, and they had developed a distinctive way of life that made them a recognizable ethnic group within LA. On a modern map, 22 parishes remain home to Acadian (Cajun) culture. Thousands of Acadians still speak only Cajun French.

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​Acadians

African American is a relatively modern term. It refers to all people descended from the Africans brought to North America during its colonial and early national periods. Like the Acadians, the earliest Africans to settle in LA arrived as a result of difficult circumstances. People destined to be slaves were shipped from ports on the west coast of Africa. After LA became a part of the US in 1803, most new slaves came from other states rather than from other countries. Most of these descendants of Africans spoke English and had a different culture than the descendants of slaves brought to LA during the colonial period.

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​African Americans

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The term Anglo is used to refer to people who came into LA from the American colonies established by the English. These people were descended from English-speaking migrants to North America. In addition to the English, they include the Irish and Scots-Irish. Anglos began coming into LA in significant numbers in the 1780s, when LA was a colony of Spain. Their numbers and influence grew after LA became a part of the US in 1803. Many Anglos settled in the northern and northeastern parts of the state where they established small farms and often raised cotton. Anglos spoke English and were Protestant. Other Anglos settled in New Orleans, where they came to dominate business activities like banking and the export of cotton and sugar.

​Anglos

The descendants of Louisiana's earliest settlers called themselves Creole, but the term has had several different meanings over time. The word Creole originated from the Portuguese term Criollo, which meant someone born in the New World. In its earliest usage, Creole referred simply to someone born in a colony rather than in the nation that claimed that colony. In colonial LA, the term Creole was used to describe anyone born in LA whose ancestors were from some other place. Thus, there were French, Spanish, and African Creoles. St. Landry Parish is home to several modern-day Creole of color communities. Some continue to speak French, as their ancestors did during the colonial period.

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​Creoles

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Like many other terms that describe ethnicity, the term "Hispanic" has had several different meanings over time. The first large numbers of Hispanics came when Louisiana became a Spanish colony in the 1760s. The Spanish government focused on population growth and brought Spanish-speaking people from two of their other colonial possessions. The most prominent group came from the Canary Islands. Over time, many of these immigrants from the Canary Islands settled in St. Bernard Parish. Today they are known as Islenos, and members of this group have worked hard to keep their cultural traditions alive.

​Hispanics

Italians began arriving in Louisiana in the 19th century. Most of them came after 1860. Many Italians came from rural areas and had farming experience. Those who could afford to do so set up farms outside New Orleans and brought their produce into the city to sell. A large group of their descendants live in Independence and Tangipahoa parish.

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​Italians

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At the time of French settlement, there were seven distinct groups of Native Americans who lived in what is now the state of Louisiana. Each of those groups shared important cultural or linguistic similarities. Today there are four Native American groups recognized as sovereign Indian nations by the US government. Those sovereign nations are the Chitimacha, the Jena Band of Choctaw, the Coushatta, and the Tunica-Biloxi. Several other groups of Native Americans from LA have sought federal recognition but have so far failed to achieve it. The largest of these groups is the United Houma Nation, which claims more than 16 thousand members scattered across a six-parish area of coastal southeast Louisiana.

Native Americans

Culture is expressed in many ways. Sometimes we can locate those similar cultural expressions in regions or in groups of people. Families are also important sites for the creation and preservation of cultural activities. (section 4)

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Forms of Cultural Expression

Gumbo is one of the foods most commonly associated with Louisiana. It is a thick soup or stew usually prepared with meats, like duck and sausage, or with fresh local seafood. The French brought the tradition of roux (a thickening agent made from oil or butter and flour cooked together). Africans brought okra with them and they knew that it, too, could thicken soups. In fact, one African word for okra was gombo, and this is how many people think gumbo got its name.

Food is an everyday necessity. We must eat in order to live. Some people say that in Louisiana we like food so much we live to eat! The people who came to Louisiana brought traditions of food preparations with them. Over time, they combined those techniques from home with local ingredients to create new dishes that have become part of LA's culture.

Food

Jambalaya is another food created in Louisiana. Jambalaya always includes rice and has some combination of meat, seafood and sausage. Many people believe the Spanish who came to LA are responsible for the beginnings of this dish because it is similar to a Spanish dish called paella.

Crawfish is another food associated with LA. Eating crawfish began in the swamps of South LA. At one time, it was considred a food only for the poor. In addition, oysters, fish, and shrimp are harvested or caught in the Gulf of Mexico are popular in LA​

Country music is often associated with the Sportsman's Paradise and Crossroads regions of the state. In part, this is because so many of this area's settlers migrated into Louisiana from the nearby states where country music originated. Another reason is because of a radio program called The Louisiana Hayride, which was broadcast from the Municipal Auditorium in downtown Shreveport. The radio played artist such as: Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.

LA's musical traditions are as rich and varied as its food culture. Early explorers described the music created by Native Americans who played drums and sang songs in their native languages. French immigrants brought the music of Catholic worship with them. Africans brought songs, drumming, and dancing from their homelands.

Music

The Cajun Country region of LA is known for two types of music. Descendants of the Acadians created Cajun music. The early Cajuns often had dance parties where friends and family came together in a single home. the parties went on late into the night. When the children were sleepy, they were put on blankets on the bedroom floor and told to go to sleep, which in French is fais-do-do. This became a nickname for these parties.​

In New Orleans, different groups of people and their musical traditions combined to create different types of music. At the beginning of the 20th century, African American and Italian American musicians in New Orleans gradually created a new form of music. Piano players and brass band musicians, especially trumpet players, led the way in creating songs and rhythms that were entirely new. This unique music came to be known as jazz and is now recognized as an important American art form.

Zydeco is the other form of music that began in southwest LA. It was created by black Creoles who lived in this rural region. Zydeco bands feature fiddles and accordions, and the music is lively, upbeat and inspires dancing.

The Planation Country region of LA is associated with a type of music called the blues. Blues music has its origins in the songs and chants created and sung by slaves and later sharecroppers as they worked in the fields of the region's plantations.​

Music Cont.

Festivals are an important way people in Louisiana share and celebrate all aspects of their culture and heritage. Every year there are more than three hundred festivals in the state's cities and towns. There is even a calendar dedicated to listing all of the festivals that take place throughout the state each year.

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Festivals

There are dozens of festivals that celebrate the state's musical forms. Attending one of these festivals is a fun way to learn about Louisiana music. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival takes place the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May each year and features many types of LA music and musicians. Other LA music festivals focus on a single types of music. They include the Baton Rouge Blues Festival in April and the Zydeco Extravaganza in Opelousas in May. In August, there are Cajun Music Festivals in both Mamou and Lafayette.

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Musical Celebrations

Early festivals were developed to celebrate religious holidays or to honor particular saints. Many festivals also have their roots in the harvest celebrations that took place in agricultural communities. Some festivals in LA continue this tradition of celebrating the crops or food products associated with a given place. Examples include the Andouille Festival in LaPlace, the Cotton Festivals in Bastrop and Ville Platte, the Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge, the Rice Festival in Crowley, and the Strawberry Festival in Ponchatoula. Other festivals celebrate the kind of work people do or the industries that provide jobs to people in the local area.

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Festivals of Agriculture & Industry

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Some festivals honor backgrounds of the people who settled in an area. There are more than a dozen Cajun Festivals that celebrate the culture and history of the Acadians. There is a Greek Festival in New Orleans, a Hungarian Celebration in Springfield, and festivals that honor Italian heritage in Tickfaw, Kenner, and Independence.

Ethnic Festivals​

Mardi Gras, which means "Fat Tuesday" in French, is the state's most famous festival. Its religious associations are often overlooked, but the Carnival season beings on the religious holiday of Epiphany (January 6th or Twelfth Night) and continues through Fat Tuesday. The next day, Ash Wednesday, is the first day of Lent, a period of solemn religious observation leading up to Easter. The earliest Mardi Gras parades were disorganized, but by the 1870s, krewes had begun to sponsor individual parades and balls at specific times during the Carnival season. The largest parade schedule is found in New Orleans where dozens of krewes sponsor elaborate parades during the two weeks leading up to Mardi Gras. In rural areas of southwest LA, there is a form of Mardi Gras celebration called courir.

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Mardi Gras

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