Community in a Black Pentecostal Church: An Anthropological Study

In this descriptive analysis of a contemporary, viable social group--a black Pentecostal church in the Hill District of Pittsburgh--Williams vividly recreates a society that most people have only glimpsed. He looks beyond "social and cultural deprivation," "social disorganization," and the "poverty-stricken and disadvantaged" and discovers human vitality within black lifestyles--the meaning that must reside in every cohesive human group. It is not only the first anthropological book of its kind, but also a penetrating look at the black southern peasant transplanted to the urban north, the role of the black church in this transition, the concept of community in modern society, and the cultural content of poverty.