Use of images from the collections of the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center is strictly prohibited by law without prior written consent from the copyright holders. The responsibility for the use of these materials rests exclusively with the user. The Bradley Center may assist in obtaining copyright/licensing permission to use images from the Richard Cross collection. http://www.csun.edu/bradley-center/contact
Description
A wedding couple is standing in a room. More people are gathered around the couple. From a very early age, children of the same age group, both male and female, stay and play together in a group (or cuagro), and name female and male leaders. Later, it is traditional that people will marry a person of the same cuagro. After the wedding, each group headed by the newlyweds makes a pilgrimage through the homes of relatives, first to the house of the parents of the bride; then to those of the groom, grandparents, and uncles. San Basilio del Palenque, a town located 31 miles from Cartagena, is considered the first free-slave community of the Americas because on August 23, 1691, the Spanish King Charles II signed a royal charter recognizing the freedom of the runaway slave communities in the María Mountains. Local authorities, however, did not sign a treaty with the communities of free slaves until January of 1714 acknowledging its freedom and ordering the establishment of the town of Palenque San Basilio Magno. Colombian anthropologist Nina S. de Friedemann had been studying the Afro-Colombian community of San Basilio del Palenque since 1973 for the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and Richard Cross joined her to do work as a visual anthropologist in June 1975. This image illustrates Cross’s anthropological category: Social organization. A wedding couple is standing in a room. More people are gathered around the couple. Desde una edad muy temprana, los niños del mismo grupo de edad, tanto hombres como mujeres, permanecen y juegan juntos en un grupo (o cuagro), y nombran líderes femeninos y masculinos. Más tarde, es tradicional que las personas se casen con una persona del mismo cuagro. Después de la boda, cada grupo encabezado por los recién casados hace una peregrinación por las casas de parientes, primero a la casa de los padres de la novia; luego a las de los del novio, los abuelos y los tíos. San Basilio del Palenque, un pueblo ubicado a 31 millas de Cartagena, se considera la primera comunidad de esclavos libres de América porque el 23 de agosto de 1691, el rey español Carlos II firmó una cédula real que reconocía la libertad de las comunidades de esclavos fugitivos en las Montañas de María. Sin embargo, las autoridades locales no firmaron un tratado con las comunidades de esclavos libres sino hasta enero de 1714, reconociendo su libertad y ordenando el establecimiento del poblado Palenque San Basilio Magno. La antropóloga colombiana Nina S. de Friedemann había estado estudiando la comunidad afrocolombiana de San Basilio del Palenque desde 1973 para el Instituto Colombiano de Antropología y Richard Cross se unió a ella para trabajar como antropólogo visual en junio de 1975. Esta imagen ilustra la categoría antropológica de Cross: Organización Social.
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