博主在南卡罗来纳大学做学术报告

5月4日中午12点至下午2点，博主在南卡罗来纳大学Gambrell大楼成功举行了题为“大西洋视野中的北美黑奴新教”的学术报告，报告由南卡罗来纳大学历史学院的Mark Smith教授主持，吸引了几十名包括专家、学者和研究生在内的听众。
报告开始，首先由Mark Smith教授做开场白。随后对课题做了大约二十分钟的讲演，然后是现场提问和交流。听众轮番提出问题，涵盖北美黑人宗教的特色、地区差异和非洲因素残留等问题，特别是集中于天主教所蕴含的非洲因素评估问题上。另一类问题主要是针对中国的美国史研究情况以及民族政策等问题，特别是中国学界对美国黑人史的研究概况。热爱中国文化的Krista Hang 教授出席，以备在沟通存在问题下提供翻译服务。这是南卡大学网站主页发布的关于本人讲座的新闻图片，详情可到南卡大学IAAR的网站，Current News里面对该报告有介绍。

下面是前20分钟的presentation的大概情况：
Hello, everyone!
Thanks very much for your participation. Your warmth reminds of me the strong basis of Sino-American relationship in the grassroots level and thus a great comfort to me. To borrow some words from John Kennedy, “The torch of friendship between China and U.S. has been passed to the new generation of you young Americans”. It’s also a great honor for me to be here, for few Chinese historians can have such an opportunity of coming personally here and holding a dialogue with you. Without the invitation of Professor Mark Smith, I cannot imagine speaking in USC and having such marvelous experiences in South Carolina. It’s also his idea to hold a dialogue today rather than just making a presentation. Next I must thanks the staff of IAAR, especially Francesca Fair. It is her that has introduced me into the great family of USC and has prepared the presentation for me. Lastly I must thank Professor Krista Hang. When I first came to USC, I found everyone can speak fluent English except me and the squirrels. Thus before her presence, I am rather worrying that my limited English might puzzle you and even annoy you. It occurred to me that I must master the skills of former President George Bush. When he made a speech at a conference in Iraqi, a man angrily threw shoes at him,perhaps because he did not know English, but he could flexibly avoid them. But now your presence has eased my mind. So thank you very much.

Now let’s turn to the topic.
The title of my paper is “slavery religion in colonial America from an Atlantic perspective”. Since it is very difficult to collect primary materials in China, especially in local universities, I have chosen a grand topic and in many aspects it is not mature. Thus you’d better regard it as a introductory paper in this area. As for the “Atlantic perspective”, I mainly refer to comparison among Africa, Europe and North America.
Herskovits, Frazer and other scholars have disputes on the retention of African culture in Americas, I am also very interested in the very nature of slave religion in North America, especially in colonial times. Mechel Sobel stresses the transplantation of “a quasi-African Sacred Cosmos”, instead I put emphasis on the basic structure of the Sacred Cosmos itself.
For this purpose, in the first part of my paper I borrow some terms from Mircea eliade to analyse the nature of West African religion, namely “the sacred”, “the prophane” and “hierophany”. Since “hierophony” indicates a perspective up to below, I adopt the term “heavenly ladders” to describe the bridge between the sacred and the propane, mainly referring to religious rituals.
By this instrument, next I list the main factors in West African religion. The first is the Supreme Being, the second is the lesser deities, and the third is the ancestral spirits, all of which belong to the Sacred World. Except for the Supreme Being, the lesser deities and the ancestral spirits all continuously intervene in human life, either by possession, dreams or by reincarnation.
As for the Heavenly Ladders, we can find corporate religious rituals, household rituals and magic rituals, respectively held by priests, elders and magicians.
Thus we can reach a short conclusion that West African religion mainly has three characters. Firstly it has ambiguity between the Sacred and the Propane, namely, deities and human can respectively go into the other side. Secondly, West African religion has obvious practical aims, and its existence is mainly to solve human problems. Thus it has a strong conjuring tradition of asking spirits to do something for human. Thirdly, the core of western African religion perhaps is its strong character of shamanism. That is to say, to enter the Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) at will. By drumming, dancing or other sensory deprivation, Africans can have the experiences trance, possession and soul journey.

In the second part of my paper, I will discuss motivations of slave conversion in North America.
Firstly I will review three models of conversion, including those of Robin Horton, Humphrey and J.D.Y. Peel. The main contribution of Robin Horton is his creation of two terms, “microcosm” and “macrocosm” and their connection with local community lives. Humphrey Fisher’s contribution is to point out the role of missionaries and divide three stages of conversion, while Peel stresses the importance of power structure and local environments.
When referring to North America, I mainly concern about three factors. Firstly it is the importance of local environments. I think the production of crops and consequential job and population distribution are one key factor. Thus I borrow the terms of “slave society” and “society with slaves” and analyze four districts in North America.
Secondly I contrast the similarities between West African religion and Christianity. I think the religious differences between blacks and whites at that time were often exaggerated, while human being has many common pursuits in religion, which are the starting point of slave conversion and the basis of dialogue between slaves and missionaries.
Thirdly I discuss the missionary activities. I think the quarantine stage is inapplicable, at least for SPG and George Whitefield. I also relate to the habitual effects of slaves, especially of its first generation, and the legality of Christianity, whose importance became weakened as the second and the third generations grew up.
Three are other factors not mentioned in the paper, such as the tolerance of Catholics in Louisiana and the experiences of Atlantic creoles, which are worth of my further study.

In the third part of my paper, I focus on the nature of slave religion in North America, also through the analytic frame of “the Sacred-the heavenly ladders-the profane”.
Firstly I generalize the multiple character of the Sacred in slave religion, which includes Jesus, transformed lesser deities such as the saints and Moses, the harmful spirits and the lingering ancestral spirits.
Secondly I emphasize the continuous intervention of Jesus in slave’s religious lives, by such means of so called “bodily exercises”, art forms and holy words, which all constitute the ‘heavenly ladders”. It’s noteworthy that African possession tradition here is very obvious. As the slave narratives “God Struck me Dead” shows, there are rich examples of possession by Holy Ghost, rebirth and soul journey ( Trabelin’ on to Jordan river”. The Sea Islands’ folk customs such as Ring Shout and spiritual seekers also remind us of ASCs. Except being without drumming, there are many similarities with those in Africa of inducing ASCs, such as long time of praying, dancing, or miserable conditions.
And thirdly, I sum up two characters of slave religion in North America. One is the Evangelical tradition, which perhaps has a strong influence on mainstream Christianity. The other is “liberation theology”, which reflects the aspect of practicality in slave religion, including its pursuit of secular freedom and getting rid of an inferiority complex.
In a word, when we talk about syncretism of slave religion in North America, I emphasize the transplantation of the basic structure of West African religion. Its contents are mostly Christianized, though there are still some traditional remains there. Thus I think there are really some differences between black and white cultures, and the interaction between African and European Civilizations in North America has mad amazing outcomes.
Thanks very much!