Daniel and Smitherman’s “How I Got Over” Communication Dynamics in the Black Community: Traditional World View

What do Daniel and Smitherman mean by a "Traditional African World View"?

The traditional African worldview upholds a unity between the spiritual and the material. 

“Our hypotheses is, of course, the rest of the conviction, that there is a traditional African World View.” pg 5. Why did Daniel and Smitherman italicize Is?

Is: to get readers to pay attention to an important part of the text which is ‘Traditional African World View'. They want readers to understand their hypotheses on the Traditional African World.

A world view is a individual outlook on the world but what is a African World View?

A outlook throughout the African Continent based off their values and beliefs.

A Traditional African Outlook: An older African world view

Most African American religious beliefs and traditions comes from African traditions.

On page 5 Daniel and Smitherman gives their two hypotheses on the Traditional African World View.

Hypotheses 1: There are similarities in the world views of geographically disparate Africans which we refer to as the "Traditional African World", This View, though possibly not distinctive to Africans, is nevertheless significant for understanding the patterns of Black communication in the United States.

Hypotheses 2: The call-response pattern, exhibited most clearly in traditional Black worship service, is reflective of the Traditional African World View. Upon close examination, we find that is pervasive in secular dimensions of Black Culture and communication and that it reveals not simply a surface difference between white and Black Americans, but a more profound "deep structure" difference rooted in the Traditional African World View.