Both are unique cultural forms, with a French base combined with elements drawn from American Indian, Spanish, African, British, and German cultures. ." As algae covers the 800 acres of Lake Martin in Breaux Bridge, Champagne’s Cajun Swamp Tour gives both locals and visitors a glimpse into the past of Cajun culture, a history … In 1754, France went to war with Great Britain in North America over lucrative fishing … ." Both have also changed over the years as new features have been added. However, the date of retrieval is often important. Cajun Renaissance. Identification. There, they cleared land for pasture grazing and began growing crops such as cotton and rice. Cattle ranching has declined, and sugar cane, rice, cotton, and maize are now the major crops. Trade. POPULATION: About 10.4 million ." Towns and villages throughout Acadiana celebrate every season with their special blend of music, food and the colorful Cajun heritage. Seafood sourced straight from Louisiana. Parents emphasized the teaching of economic and domestic skills and participation in the activities of the kinship network. On the other hand, the church was a visible and active participant in family and Social life in every community. Settlements included isolated houses, small farms, towns, ranches, and families living on houseboats. ." . Encyclopedia.com. Cajun French is a mix of Acadian French, standard 19th-century French, Creole and English. Many speakers statewide speak English as their primary language but use French at home. In the 1970s there were about 800,000 Cajuns in Louisiana. Retrieved December 21, 2020 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cajun. Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. The last quarter of the 20th century brought a renewed interest in Cajun culture and traditions, which helped make Cajun style cooking popular worldwide. Encyclopedia.com. Public school education played a major role in weakening the traditional culture, as it resulted in many children never learning or even forgetting Cajun French and provided skills and knowledge useful in mainstream society, thus giving younger Cajuns the opportunity for upward socioeconomic mobility. This was still apparent when the Acadians lived in Canada off of the Atlantic coast. Zydeco developed from the Creoles, a people of French (those not descended from Acadian refugees), Spanish, and Indigenous multiracial descent. Cajun, descendant of Roman Catholic French Canadians whom the British, in the 18th century, drove from the captured French colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia and adjacent areas) and who settled in the fertile bayou lands of southern Louisiana. Some later styles of dwellings were elaborations on the basic style, though all have now been replaced by modern-style homes made from mass-produced materials. Cajun French is the language commonly associated with the Cajun culture, though many Cajuns no longer speak it fluently and its use has declined markedly in the younger generation. All came as part of the Acadian Diaspora, which resulted from their forced exile by the British from Acadia in 1755. The Cajuns’ exile from Nova Scotia in 1755 is a story more worthy of … The end of World War II and the return of Cajun veterans to their homes was the beginning of a new era in Cajun culture, one characterized by continuing involvement in mainstream life and by the birth of Cajun ethnicity, reflected in pride in one's heritage and efforts to preserve some traditional beliefs and practices. Aspects of the traditional technology that are of interest today are the Cajun cottage, the various tools and techniques used in collecting crawfish, crabs, and moss, and the pirogue (a narrow canoe made from a dugout log or planks). Within the regional class structure, Cajuns were considered better than Blacks but the lowest group of Whites. In the levee-land region, the early Cajun settlers grew maize and rice for consumption and cotton for sale. Children lived at home until they married. This traditional pattern of marriage and family began to change after World War I and then changed even more rapidly after World War II. Cajun pronunciation and slang is used by many characters in the novel, despite the fact that most of them identify with African-American rather than Cajun culture. RELIGION: M…, Finns The Cajun people have held onto their cultural traditions, including their unique cuisine. Identification. Some migrated directly from Acadia, whereas others came after stays in France and the West Indies. In the swampland region, fishing and the hunting and gathering of crawfish, ducks, crabs, turtles, frogs, and moss were the major economic activities. Like the Appalachians and Ozarkers, they are considered by outsiders to be a traditional folk Culture with attention given to their arts and crafts, food, music, and dance. ." . Cajun culture, even in today’s world, is best affiliated with the geography. These new environments led to the development of new subsistence and commercial pursuits in Louisiana as well as variation in activities from one region to another. World Encyclopedia. The Acadian cottage, a small, nearly square dwelling with a covered front porch and high-pitched roof, was a distintively Cajun house type in the 1800s. Political Organization. Cajun culture began with the arrival of French Acadians (the French-speaking people of the territory that is now mainly Nova Scotia in Canada) who migrated to and settled in what is now Louisiana mainly between 1765 and 1785. In addition, Roman Catholicism as practiced in Acadiana created an atmosphere that allowed the celebration of life, or "la joie de vivre," so characteristic of Cajun culture. Beginning in Canada, the earliest music was often sung a cappela, with only occasional hand claps and foot stomps. Most Cajuns are of French descent. (December 21, 2020). Those in the east grew maize and cotton, supplemented by sweet potatoes. It was not until after World War I that mainstream Society entered Acadiana and began to influence Cajun life. Dorman, James H. (1983). Creoles in New Orleans have played an important part in the culture of the city. LANGUAGE: Dutch (called Flemish in its regional spoken version); French; German Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. The basic social and economic unit in traditional times was the patrilineally extended family, whose members often lived near one another. This is the result of a number of factors, including dishonest land agents, Cajun ignorance or misunderstanding of real estate laws, and patrilineal inheritance of property coupled with patrilocal residence which meant that once sizable farms were divided into smaller and smaller units over the generations. . Dictionary of American History. Most Cajuns moved elsewhere; those that stayed lived by subsistence farming in the backwaters until well into the twentieth century. Regular contact with the outside economy, which influenced all regions by about 1920, has changed the traditional economy. Both the country butchery (la boucherie de campagne ), where kin met every few days to butcher hogs for meat, and the weekly public dance (fais do-do ) provided opportunities for regular socializing by family members. ELIZABETH KNOWLES "Cajun Linguistic Affiliation. In 1968 Lousiana created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) as a mechanism to encourage the teaching of French in public schools. In the 1900s, Edwin Edwards, "the Cajun Governor" was first elected in 1972. The Acadians were the original French settlers in North America. The Creole culture that eventually took hold in Louisiana was an amalgamation of all the cultures that were brought into the area by the various groups of settlers. Cajuns love to cook with seafood, a nod to their historic ties to Atlantic Canada and the waterways of southern Louisiana. The area settled by the Acadians and other cultures became known as the Territory of Orleans. The Cajuns who settled on the Louisiana prairies developed two economic adaptations. A main ingredient in Louisiana Cajunseafood cooking is crawfish. Location. ." Yup! Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana. "Cajuns With public interest in the Cajuns as a folk culture developing in the 1960s, tourism has also become a source of income. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Ceremonies. . The late 1800s introduced the accordion to Acadiana as well, expanding the rhythms and sounds of Cajun music. With Natchitoches being the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase, it is no surprise that the Creole culture with its deep rooted and complex history would be written about in Literature. festival time in Cajun Country. Today, lumbering, fossil fuel, and agricultural corporations own much land in the Cajun region, and in some locales, many Cajuns lease the land they farm. Cajuns rejected formal education outside the home except for instruction provided by the church. It is a blend of blues, R&B and indigineous music. Encyclopedia.com. Travelers in the south have commented on the friendliness with which the Cajun people welcomed guests and strangers into their homes, and also their willingness to share whatever they had, even if it was just a little. . All life events such as birth, marriage, and death required church rituals as did many daily events, with the blessing of fields, tools, boats, and so on an integral part of the work cycle. A population always geared more to rural countryside, Cajuns settled in South Louisiana from the parishes west of New Orleans extending all the way to Texas. Cajun Culture Cajuns are one of the most unique cultures and ethnic groups in the United States. The People Called Cajuns. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. Some migrated directly from Acadia, whereas others came after stays in France and the West Indies. ELIZABETH KNOWLES "Cajun Numerous other festivals are held in Acadiana each year, many of which are harvest festivals focusing on local crops such as sugar cane, rice, crawfish, and shrimp. Divorce was rare and difficult to justify. ." © 2019 Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. A Cajun Food Truck in Pennsylvania? Most festivals feature live music of all sorts, contests, native crafts and food and, of course, dancing. Encyclopedia.com. All the major Roman Catholic holidays were celebrated by the Cajuns. With Cajuns residing in southeast Texas for more than a century, their culture is intertwined with the Golden Triangle mainstream, says Tom Neal, director of the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur. Originally hailing from a French-Canadian community, modern Cajuns often have a mixed background, including French, English, German, Native American and Creole ancestry. "Cajun Rushton, William Faulkner (1979). Because of conflicts over which French to teach—standard French or Cajun French—the program has not been a total success, though many Cajun children do participate in French-language programs. 21 Dec. 2020 . Encyclopedia.com. Encyclopedia.com. (December 21, 2020). Acadian settlements in the past varied in size, style, and structure among the four major environmental zones. "Cajuns With the exception of those in the levee-land region who lost their land to Anglos, most Cajuns lived in relative isolation in rural communities where they farmed, fished, or raised cattle. Encyclopedia.com. Cajun cooking is influenced by the cuisine of the French, Acadian, Spanish, German, Anglo-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Native American cultures. Encyclopedia.com. Cajun music involves a band, singing, and sometimes foot-stomping. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Dec. 2020 . The Cajuns were and are mainly Roman Catholic. Popular recipes include Maque Choux, a vegetable-based dish with tomatoes, onions, corn, and peppers and Crawfish Etoufee, a thick, often spicy seafood stew. (December 21, 2020). This region includes coastal marshes, swamps, prairies, and levee land. “It’s a standing joke that I hear from time to time that Port Arthur ought to be part of Louisiana. France acquired Louisiana from Spain in 1800, only to sell the area to the United States of America three years later in the Louisiana Purchase. Orientation All came as part of the Acadian Diaspora, which resulted from their forced exile by the British from Acadia in 1755. They quickly adapted to their strange new environment and were soon harvesting crawfish, shrimp, crabs, and oysters. Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. Rather, Cajuns generally participated in Louisiana and national politics as voters. Relations between the Cajuns and other groups in Louisiana Including Anglos, Creoles, Black Creoles, and others were generally peaceful because the Cajuns were largely self-sufficient, lived in distinctly Cajun regions, were numerically dominant in those regions, and chose to avoid conflict. LOCATION: central and western part of the Balkan Peninsula (Southeastern Europe) , Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo…, Belgians That policy was abandoned in the 1970s when there was a reversal in sentiment to retain local cultures… They navigated the Mississippi River. Marriage and Domestic Unit. It was raised a few feet above the ground and constructed from cypress wood and infilled with clay and moss. The traditional economy centered on cooperation among members of the extended family and kindred. “To us, the Cajun people and their culture is our culture,” Neal says. "Cajuns Those in the west grew rice and raised cattle, with local variation in terms of which was the more important. Lafayette: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana. Refer to each style’s convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. That they were Roman Catholic while others were mainly Protestant further contributed to group segregation. ETHNONYMS: Karelians or Karjalaiset, Suomalaiset, Tavastians or Hämäläiset American settlers poured into the Territory soon after, eager to make money. Most Cajun families are now integrated into the mainstream economy and purchase goods and services. Experts suggest that the traditional culture cannot be understood unless the central role of the Catholic church is considered. This area is known as Acadiana due to the influence from Cajun culture. The Cajuns today form small, compact, generally self-contained communities. . Authentic Cajun … RELIGION: R…, Culture Name As mentioned, the Cajuns fished the waterways of Louisiana providing the cuisine with its strong seafood influences. LOCATION: Nicaragua; Honduras In the late 1960s, however, various racial and ethnic groups across the United States embraced their cultural heritage. Inspired by rural French cooking, Cajun cuisine was developed by a population that lived off the land, adapting over centuries of cultural influences and geographical changes. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The prohibition of the teaching of French in Louisiana schools has created a generation gap in some families with grandparents speaking Cajun French, parents speaking some Cajun French, and the grandchildren speaking only English. 21 Dec. 2020 . Cajuns are a group of people largely residing in southern Louisiana, a region rich with the history of several cultures. . Social Control and Conflict. The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. ." There was no overarching political structure governing Cajun life, nor was there any purely Cajun political organization at the local level. In the marshland region, on the Chernier Plain, Cajuns raised cattle, trapped, and Gardened; on the Deltaic Plain they farmed, fished, hunted, and trapped. Social cohesiveness in Cajun Communities as well as a general sense of being Cajun was maintained through various informal mechanisms that brought Cajuns together both physically and symbolically. Traditionally, children were raised by the extended family. Retrieved December 21, 2020 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cajun. In recent years, there has been a marked trend to settlement in towns and cities through migration from the rural areas. Cajun Culture Food Truck and Catering, LLC. In recent decades, as the region has experienced economic development and population shifts, the boundaries of Acadiana have blurred. 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