The Fetishization of Firearms in African-American Folklore and Culture

THE FETISHIZATION OF FIREARMS IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN FOLKLORE AND CULTURE A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School University of Missouri-Columbia In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by RAYMOND MELTON JAVON SU8MMERVILLE Dr. Anand Prahlad, Dissertation Supervisor DECEMBER 2016 © Copyright by Raymond Melton Javon Summerville 2016 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled: The Fetishization of Firearms in African-American Folklore and Culture presented by Raymond Summerville, a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Anand Prahlad Professor Karen Piper Professor Joanna Hearne Professor Richard Callahan For my mother, Mrs. Sheila Bernice Almond Summerville September 24, 1956—March 1, 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my parents, Melton and (the late) Sheila Summerville for instilling in me their work ethic and strong values. All of my friends, immediate and extended family who have volunteered their generous support over the years. I would especially like to thank my advisor Dr. Anand Prahlad for all of his creative insights, constructive feedback, and guidance. He has been an exceptional role model who has encouraged me to continue to strive to reach my personal and professional goals. I would like to thank Dr. Lawless for her valued teachings and for supporting my initial interest in folklore studies. I would also like to thank all of my committee members, Dr. Hearne, Dr. Callahan, and Dr. Piper. Their continued support has been vital. I would also like to thank the English Department for fostering an academic community that is conducive to learning and for promoting intellectual freedom. I would also like to thank the Student Folklore Society for their continued interest in folklore studies. The conferences, meetings, and discussions have always been an important motivating factor. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………….........ii Abstract………………………………………………………………………...........iv Chapter Introduction: The Fetishization of Firearms in African-American Folklore and Culture……………………………………………………...…...1 Chapter One: Young Guns, Folklore and the Fetishization of Firearms among Juveniles at an All-Male Correctional Facility in Tucson Arizona and in Hip- Hop……………………………………………………………………………42 Chapter Two: Violence as Folk Ritual in Film: Representations of Dueling in Harlem Nights (1989) and A Rage in Harlem (1991) ……………………......93 Chapter Three: The Fetishization of Firearms in Stagolee Narratives…………...131 Chapter Four: Guns, Loss, and Racial Identity in Blues Lyrics....……………….167 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...…203 Works Cited…..……………………………………………………………...…....217 Vita…………………………………………………………………………..…….230 iii THE FETISHIZATION OF FIREARMS IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN FOLKLORE AND CULTURE Raymond Melton Javon Summerville Dr. Anand Prahlad, Dissertation Supervisor ABSTRACT The following work analyzes the fetishization of firearms across a number of different mediums including, the corporeal world, African-American folklore, film, and music. The overarching theme is that firearms are sometimes fetishized, meaning that they are sometimes used as ways of negotiating various aspects of identity. It examines a number of ways that guns are used across the aforementioned mediums that fall outside of their utilitarian uses. The majority of the evidence suggest that a significant amount of symbolic power is attached to guns regardless of the medium. Guns are used to signify different aspects of identity (i.e. gender, sex, and ethnicity) and they are also used to negotiate interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, the fetishization of firearms in the physical world mirrors ways that guns are fetishized in other representational realms such as music, folklore, and film. The representational magnitude of guns indicate that they are often fetishized for real purposes including to navigate violent and often unpredictable environments. Introduction Guns, commodity fetishism, male juveniles, and hip-hop are topics that together, seem to over extend the very possibilities of interdisciplinary work. This dissertation seeks to explain ways in which these subjects can be used in concert in order to begin conversations concerning a growing predicament in American culture—gun violence among male youth. Guns have been a part of American culture and American folklore for centuries. While the presence of guns in folk music and tales predate the arrival of modern technology, what was once only passed on by word of mouth is now also shared by more advanced forms of transmission. Guns are frequently depicted in film, television, music, print, and other forms of popular media such as the internet and video games. Representations of firearms can also be seen in conventional art, jewelry, clothing designs and even body art. The way that guns are presently represented and discussed in American culture has created a strong passion for the firearm that has surpassed any perception of the various general functional uses for firearms that people have traditionally recognized. Furthermore, many of the current representations of guns that most American youth are exposed to today are also parts of extensive marketing schemes that are directed towards young people for the sole purpose of generating capital. Of course, that is where hip-hop comes in. Although violence is clearly visible in all aspects of the entertainment industry, the popularity of hip-hop music among youth make it a relevant source of influence for some teens. Likewise, it is also a genre that has been influenced the most by commodity fetishism and capitalism. Millions of people world-wide from a variety of different ethnicities listen to hip-hop, in part, due to its characteristic heavy hitting bass lines, clever rhymes, and catchy hooks. However, the music, in and of itself, isn’t 1 always the only attraction. Many hip-hop artists also feature guns in their music. Many teens consume hip-hop annually and coincidentally much of the negative repercussions of firearm usage are also felt by the same group—more specifically, the young black male population. The Origins of Fetish Theory According to, Alphonzo Maurizio Iacono, The History and Theory of Fetishism (2016), “Many contemporary philosophers, historians, psychoanalysts, art historians, sociologists, and psychologists have employed the notion of fetish or fetishism, sometimes drawing on de Brosses, sometimes on Marx and other times on Freud. Still, one of the most substantial contributions to the history of this concept has been made by William Pietz, who recently declared: ‘The continuous changes in the use of this word, the innumerable transmutations of its meaning, represent the most fascinating chapter in the history of theory; a history that keeps unfolding and whose semantics are constantly enriched. Ultimately, this is what happens to every fetish worthy of the name’” (qtd. in Iacono 8,9). As suggested by this statement about Pietz’s archeology of fetishism, fetish theory presents us with a way of interpreting human behavior and interaction. It is a field that is continually growing, due in part, to the fact that it both recognizes and addresses the idea that semantically, there is always the threat of erasure when dealing with material objects and the meanings that human beings attach to them, but where did the concept of fetish theory originate? Fetishism has its early origins in the Western study of “primitive” religions, Freudian psychoanalysis, and the late 19th century French school of psychiatry. However, the term fetishism first came into usage as Portuguese and Dutch explorers came into contact with West 2 African religions. They used the term “fetisso” in order to describe the seemingly minute, intricate items and religious ornaments that they would collect from the West African indigenous traders (Pietz and Apter). As a theoretical concept the term “fetishism” was first coined in 1757 by Charles de Brosses in his Du culte des dieux fétiches (1760) (Pietz and Apter). Some sources cite Alfred Binet as being the first to coin the term “fetishism” (Steele; Macey), but Binet’s essay “Le fétichisme dans l’amour” wasn’t written until 1887. According to Pietz “Historians of religion around the turn of the century, especially Germans such as Christoph Meiners and Philipp Christian Reinhard, but also French writers such as J.A. Dulare, discussed fetishism extensively as the earliest stage of religion” (Pietz and Apter 131). “This notion of the fetish worshiper’s desire-driven delusion regarding natural objects, his blindness to the unprovidential randomness of physical events, was an element in de Brosses’s original theorization of fétichisme as the pure condition of un-enlightenment” (Pietz and Apter 136). Another influential early text came in the 1840s from the founder of sociology, August Comte, who according to Pietz “published a theory of fetishism so elaborate and so important to his theory of positivism that subsequent writers in the emerging social sciences were forced to react …” (131, 2). Comte’s views on fetishism led to other sociological theories that relied heavily on the ethnographic documentation of indigenous groups. Studies such as these sought to relegate fetishism to ancestor worship, kinship organization, and totemism—as a way of preserving and perpetuating the

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