AFRO-BAPTIST WOMENS CHURCH AND FAMILY ROLES - TRANSMITTING AFROCENTRIC CULTURAL-VALUES

Gender-defined roles in Floridian Afro-Baptist church and family empha size matrifocal social organization, kinship ties, and valorization of motherhood complemented by male corporate leadership. This article ex amines the transmission by African-Americans, within their religion, o f selected traditional African beliefs and practices that at once refl ect and shape contemporary social reality to be harmonious with their core cultural values. Following Geertz's model of the dual nature of r eligious patterns, which simultaneously explain and shape reality, thi s article argues that Afro-Baptist women's church roles in Florida ref lect and transmit African-derived cultural values and social forms whi ch are materially significant to day-to-day family life. Ethnohistoric al and ethnographic data support the argument.