Melungeon-L Archives

Archiver > Melungeon > 2000-11 > 0973634844


From: Mike Matherne & Lindsey Love <>
Subject: Re: [Melungeon] Re:melange!!!!
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2000 16:07:24 -0600
References: <bf.872f6f4.2739be9a@aol.com>


It's OK, Nancy, LOL!

This is a good discussion. It's getting people to get their minds
moving, whether melange is the root word of Melungeon or not. I did see
a posting several years ago by a visitor to the US from Turkey who
outlined the word in Turkish. It seems to me he was, being a native
speaker of the tongue and raised in the country, much more trustworthy
than a brainstorm of suppositions. Still, anything is possible...... If
I can ever make it to a Melungeon gathering, I'll have to do a Turkish
folk beledi (dance) and see if anybody recognizes any steps. One of the
last pow wows I went to featured a 'mixing dance' that was a two-step
like my father taught me. It looked a lot like a Virginia Reel, which is
a descendant of a Scottish Reel, which is a descendant of a much older
line/circle dance. Since these things can be traced, too, maybe the
music and dance is another avenue to explore besides food, architecture,
clothing, and so on. Some of the Cherokee and Choctaw clothing resembled
Levant clothing, such as the turban like head dresses, wound fabric
sashes, loose pantaloons and so on.

If I can find the letter by the Turkish guy I'll post it, but I may have
erased it when we got our new computer a couple of years ago.

Lindsey



This thread: