CULTURAL BACKGROUND

Talisha Sampson

What Is Meant By The Term Culture?

• Culture is a way of describing the thoughts, languages, practices, beliefs, values, customs and traditions of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group.

• Example: People often see themselves as belongings to number of different cultures. A person may have an African background (race), grow up in Haiti (ethnicity), following the Baptist faith (religion) and be a recent immigrant to the United States (social).

• Some parts of my culture may be easy to recognize, such as skin color or the language that you speak and other parts of your cultural background are hard for others to know about unless you choose to tell them or if they ask you.

• You can learn a lot about your cultural beliefs, attitudes, values and traditions from parents or other family members,

A Little History About My Cultural

• My great great grandparents and great grandparents on both my mother and father sides of the family were descents of West African slaves that was brought into the United States around the 1700s. They were forces to work in rice paddies, cotton fields and indigo plantations along the South Carolina-Georgia seaboard where the moist climate and fertile land were similar to their African homelands.

• My descendants were of the Gullah and Geechee culture. Our culture have been linked to specific West African ethnic groups.

Tightly Knit CulturalThe Gullah/Geechee nation is an extremely tightly knit cultural. It is as tightly knit as a swell grass basket that’s sewn together and as tightly knit as a cast net is sewn together there’s strength in it and that means if you pull on it you can’t just get it to break apart.I have some uncles, aunts and cousins that live by the above motto of our cultural as of today.

Generation to Generation

Our Gullah/Geechee family are still trying to hold steadfastly to the way of life of our Africans ancestors passing on the traditions from one generation

to the next.

Parents and Siblings Father- Decease Mother Still living

at the age of 80

Joyce oldest sister Cheryl- Sister Mervin-Brother Rhonda-Sister Carlos- Brother

Decease Me Watisha-Sister Ria-Sister

Marriage My parents for married for 56 years

at the time of my father’s death in 2007.

Out of all my sisters and brother, I am the only one that is married.

I have been married for 10 years and we have a blended family.

Children and Grandchildren

4 daughters and 2 sons (Blended family)

2 son-in-law and 1 daughter-in-law 16 grandchildren 12 great grandchildren 1 brother-in-law 2 sister-in-law

Schooling and Religious Beliefs

I have an AA in Business Management

I have numerous certification that I have received over the years.

I am employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the past 25 years as Director of Medical Coding and Auditing.

My religious beliefs is Baptist. My husband is Chairman of the Deacon Ministry at our church.