BULGARIAN-SPEAKING MUSLIMS - Lalev

lack and white communities in Louisiana, clearly projecting both groups’ sense of identity. While the
black performance conveys a symbolic defiance of a former condition of subjugation (slavery), the
white one projects a sense of confidence in tradition (as the historically dominant race). Thus, the
singing, dancing, and costuming of the black community are markedly warlike, heroic, and enacting
mock battles that express rejection of white control, whereas the white performances are less
concerned with emblems of oppression and resistance. This status quo highlights at least three
crucial aspects of asserting heritage as identity: First, negotiating a desirable identity within the
public space is important to previously marginalized groups (African Americans). Second, the
process of constructing a desirable identity often involves defiance of the mainstream (white) culture
and borrowing from other vernacular cultures (from Native Americans) to dignify one’s heritage.
Third, the group negotiating their identity through defiance and borrowing feels the need to affirm
this constructed self-image in the public domain (via Mardi Gras performance). 16
In “Melungeons and the Politics of Heritage,” Melissa Schrift further elaborates on the
complexities of negotiating a cultural identity. Similar to Brundage’s Acadian stipulation, she
suggests that the term Melungeonness in eastern Tennessee constitutes an imposed identity that
originally was rejected by the majority of those whom it concerns. For the Appalachian population,
known to outsiders as Melungeon, the notion evoked popular racial slurs of “dark-skinned,” “dirty,”
“untrustworthy” people – epithets originating in outside perceptions of the locals as being of mixed
African American, Native American, and European American pedigree. Negotiating an acceptable
Melungeon identity, therefore, becomes paramount for the community. It stems from their need to
attain a heritage of their own making and find a safe niche within the mainstream cultural discourse,
where Melungeonness can be both distinct and respectable. As local Melungeon enthusiasts put
themselves to the task of constructing a desirable identity, Schrift observes how at reunions and
through the World Wide Web lively discussions ensue about physical characteristics that set the
Melungeons apart in a dignified way. Claiming Mediterranean ancestry – Portuguese and/or Turkish
16 Kathryn VanSpanckeren, “The Mardi Gras Indian Song Cycle: A Heroic Tradition,” in Southern Heritage on
Display: Public Rituals and Ethnic Diversity with Southern Regionalism, ed. Celeste Ray (Tuscaloosa: University of
Alabama Press, 2003), 57-78.
6