Question

What are some examples of the impact of Ancient African culture that can be found in our present-day society?

Answer 1

Traditional Sub-Saharian music is polyrhythmic and based on drums, and also dances involve the movement of the whole body. These features evolved throught the Middle Passage and Trans-Atlantic slave trade and its influecne can be seen in jazz, rap music and Afro-latin music and dance like mambo, or salsa.

In Ancient Egypt, they used a calendar of 12 months of 30 days each, what gave them 360 days. They added 5 more days, conforming the calendar we use today. These 5 days were considered bad-luck days and people would stay at home to avoid misfortune. These days were called "dog days", as we call those days in which we are not doing okay.

Egyptians are also credited as the first beer brewers, a beverage we still consume today.

Answer 2

African culture has had large contributions to our nowadays society. Its high culture is the basis to many different cultural venues in the western world. Beginning by music, African influence has an important role in the spiritual / religious realm of America; as it blended its traditional chants held in African rituals into Protestanism meetings, it had an important repercussion in the gospels and gave structure to the singing tradition in the Christian community. But besides that, its contribution in the secular world is even greater. Its rhythmic patterns and beats became the basis to many forms of western music such as Jazz, Hip Hop, Rock & Roll, and House, as they originate in Soul, Funk and Blues music coming directly from African music expression.

Their sculptures have also been the pillar for the development of Modern and Contemporary art as their sophisticated approach to the abstraction of the human figure have been the inspiration for Surrealism, Cubism and, in general, the development of Avant-Garde movement, found in the artworks of Picasso, Henri Matisse, and wilfredo Lam.

Their folk tales have nowadays taken the shape of social satire in the U.S., and their dance compose the basis to many contemporary dances. It is good to notice that African heritage nowadays find place in the development of concepts in the areas of Mathematics, Science, Astronomy, Literature, among others.