The praise house is well described as a traditional site for such rituals. In addition, a certain cultural separateness was cultivated by which these rituals confirmed the slaves' transcendent existence as full-fledged moral and social beings. This very early adaptation to a dual cultural heritage is sustained in the separate roles played by church and praise house. While churches are the domain where Christian religious preference and affiliation are openly expressed, praise houses are hidden sites where practices that precede the adoption of Christianity dominate. Praise houses have as their central value maintenance of a moral and self-sufficient community.
Islanders hold continued and simultaneous membership in both church and praise house.
As is the case with many ethnographies, much of the ethnographic present is of a time in the past - both distant and recent in this case. The system of community in which catching sense holds a central role is passing. The suburban enterprise that privileges individual alienation is making rapid inroads, and the sacred place of memory for a people who came through slavery with dignity and survived the many generations in prideful community is undergoing change. The creative will that drew on deep spiritual resources to forge a stance against dehumanizing plantation slavery and contemporary marginalization now must face the challenge of crack cocaine, AIDS, and the emergence of affluent, gated communities. By 1992 community was coming to replace plantation as the site of belonging, and by 1993 the island had only one remaining praise house building.