All 3 Uses of
heathen
in
The Souls of Black Folk
- War, murder, slavery, extermination, and debauchery,—this has again and again been the result of carrying civilization and the blessed gospel to the isles of the sea and the heathen without the law.†
Chpt 9 *heathen = someone who is not civilized or not moral OR an offensive term for a person who does not believe in a preferred religion
- Thus, as bard, physician, judge, and priest, within the narrow limits allowed by the slave system, rose the Negro preacher, and under him the first church was not at first by any means Christian nor definitely organized; rather it was an adaptation and mingling of heathen rites among the members of each plantation, and roughly designated as Voodooism.†
Chpt 10
- My grandfather's grandmother was seized by an evil Dutch trader two centuries ago; and coming to the valleys of the Hudson and Housatonic, black, little, and lithe, she shivered and shrank in the harsh north winds, looked longingly at the hills, and often crooned a heathen melody to the child between her knees, thus: Do ba-na co-ba, ge-ne me, ge-ne me!†
Chpt 14
Definitions:
-
(1)
(heathen) someone who is not civilized or not moral -- typically said humorously
or:
an offensive term for a person who does not believe in a preferred religion -- especially someone who grew up in a culture that is not familiar with the religion -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, heathen can refer to a person who lacks culture or good taste.