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Volume 51 / Social Sciences
ANTHROPOLOGY: ETHNOLOGY
West Indies
LAMBROS COMITAS, Gardner Cowles Professor of Anthropology and Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University; and Director, Research Institute for the Study of
Man
DURING THE PAST TWO YEARS OR SO, there has been a perceptible shift in
thematic and territorial emphasis in publications on the social and cultural anthropology
of the Caribbean. Long-enduring research interests, such as rural economy, community
oraganization, and social stratification in Creole societies are outnumbered by studies of
Amerindians in the Guianese interior, Maroons in Suriname, and the Garifuna in Central
America. Annotated below are 30 such publications, an unusually large number for the
reporting period. And, although research on the Caribbean diaspora to the metropoles of
North America and Europe is not usually noted here, the rapidly increasing importance of
this distinctive genre of Caribbean studies provided sufficient justification for including
another 15 which are migration-related articles, almost all drawn from two readers: New
immigrants in New York (edited by Nancy Foner) and Caribbean life in New York
City (edited by Constance R. Sutton and Elsa M. Chaney). Also included are about a
dozen annotations of publications dealing with Caribbean problems or issues in regional
or sub-regional perspective.
Publications in this Handbook period deal with one or more of the following 18
Caribbean countries or dependencies as well as the US: Aruba, the Bahamas, Belize,
Bequia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guyana,
Haiti, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, Suriname, and
Trinidad. The most studied areas, as measured by number of publications, were, in order
of importance, The Guianas (primarily Carib Indian research); New York City (migrant
studies); Jamaica (Rastafarianism, other religions, and popular culture); General
Caribbean (family and women studies); Haiti (primarily religion and health-related
research); and Belize (predominantly Garifuna study).
I am indebted to María Guadeloupe Carmona for helping to prepare annotations of
publications in Spanish.
Volume 53 / Social Sciences
ANTHROPOLOGY: ETHNOLOGY
West Indies
LAMBROS COMITAS, Gardner Cowles Professor of Anthropology and Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University; Director, Research Institute for the Study of
Man
THIS SECTION INCLUDES PUBLICATIONS in sociocultural anthropology dealing
with the Caribbean archipelago, The Guianas, Belize, and the several West Indian
cultural enclaves located in other parts of the Caribbean mainland. Four-fifths of the
section comprises annotations of publications dealing with the following countries or
dependencies: Antigua, Barbados, Barbuda, Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao,
Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras,
Jamaica, Martinique, Nevis, Tobago. The remaining publications deal with the Caribbean
in either regional or sub-regional terms. During this biennium, the territories or units
receiving the most attention were, in order: the Caribbean in general, Suriname, Trinidad
and Tobago, and Jamaica. As usual, publications cited in this section cover a very wide
range of subject matter. Therefore, for the reader's convenience, I have categorized below
most of the included publications into several broad, overlapping classes.
I. THEORY-RELEVANT STUDIES
Interest in theoretical issues has surged over the past two years, particularly as they relate
to our understanding of the nature of West Indian society. In this general class, I list
publications dealing with reviews or critiques of anthropological theory, those that
emphasize the use of particular theoretical perspectives, and those that focus on questions
of group identity. For examples of overarching reviews, see Trouillot on the Caribbean as
a theoretical open frontier (item bi 93008261), Carnegie on native social science in the
English-speaking Caribbean (item bi 93004014), Vertovec on East Indians and
anthropologists (item bi 93008268), and Yawney on Rastafari women and research (item
bi 93008311). For book-length, ethnographic treatments of issues or institutions
ultimately related to questions of theory, see Douglass on the dynamics of Jamaican
upper-class families (item bi 92014228) and Williams on the reproduction of social
cleavages in Guyana (item bi 93008192). The ongoing debate over pluralism and plural
society theory continues unabated. See, for example, M.G. Smith's own version of the
development of the pluralism concept and its relation to social stratification (item bi
93007858) and his long essay which offers a precise definition of pluralism as well as
case studies on pluralism, politics, and ideology in the Creole Caribbean (item bi
93008172). See also Robotham's critique of Smith's corporation theory (item bi
93007869), and Best's tribute to Smith (item bi 93007223). For varying uses made of this
perspective at a more or less ethnographic level, see Stewart on ethnic image and
ideology in a Trinidadian village (item bi 93008202), Dew on ethnic politics in Suriname
(item bi 93007336), and Purcell on transformation and inequality in Limón, Costa Rica
(see HLAS 51:727).
II. DIACHRONIC STUDIES
Caribbean anthropology has long been ambivalent in its use of history and historical
perspective. However, a number of publications with diachronic dimensions cited in this
section testify to the growing interest in and value of history for anthropologists. See, for
example, Davis and Goodwin on Island Carib origins (item bi 93003022), Whitehead on
Carib soldiering in the Caribbean (item bi 93008269), González on Carib militarism
(item bi 91009031), and Hulme on Amerindians in European discourse (item bi
93007441). More significantly, anthropological contributions to Surinamese history
continue to escalate. In this regard, see the work of Richard and Sally Price as editors
of Stedman's Surinam (item bi 93008188) and Richard Price's Alabi's world (item bi
93007772). For more on Suriname, see Hoogbergen on the history of the Maroons and
the origins of the Kwinti Maroons (items bi 93007435 and bi 93007437), Rosemary
Brana-Shute on legal resistance to slavery (item bi 93007211), Lamur on slave religion
(item bi 93007532), and Hoefte on the resistance of indentured laborers (item bi
93007433). Morrissey's book on slave women and gender stratification deals with the
region as a whole (item bi 93007764), as do Mintz and Price in their reissue of An
anthropological approach to the Afro-American past (item bi 93007589). Trouillot's
article deals with free people of color in Dominica and St. Domingue (item bi 93008262),
McDaniel with a Grenadian "free mulatto" family (item bi 93007565), Olwig with
Methodism and 19th-century Afro-Nevisians (item bi 91010390), Moberg with
the alcalde system and the Garifuna (item bi 93007740), Desmangles with Maroon
republics in Haiti (item bi 92001903), Chamberlain with the Barbadian plantation
tenantry system (item bi 93007236), and Besson with the development of free Afro-West
Indian communities (item bi 93007199).
III. SYNCHRONIC STUDIES
Interest by anthropologists in lower class West Indian socioeconomics remains high. For
Jamaica, see Drori and Gayle on youth employment strategies (item bi 93007350),
Powell et al. on Kingston street foods (item bi 93007768), and LeFranc on Kingston
higglers (item bi 93007540). Laguerre deals with urban poverty in Martinique (item bi
93007530), while Valdés-Pizzini analyzes Puerto Rican fishermen associations and
critically reviews Caribbean coastal/maritime anthropology (items bi 93008263 and bi
93008264). For Belize, Moberg examines the loss of rural food self-sufficiency (item bi
93007748), socioeconomic change in Stann Creek district (item bi 93007591), and
resistance and hegemony in the citrus industry (item bi 93007640). Miller discusses
consumption and culture in Trinidad (item bi 93007576). For studies of issues or
institutions closely linked to socioeconomics, see Georges' book on the impact of
migration on a community in the Dominican Republic (item bi 93007360) and Grasmuck
and Pessar's interdisciplinary study of Dominican international migration (item bi
93007414). See also Barrow's article on family land in St. Lucia (item bi 93007178),
Young's on household structure in St. Vincent (item bi 93007863), Rubinstein's reply to
Young (item bi 93008118), and Lerch and Levy's analysis of success in the Barbados
tourist industry (item bi 93007544).
Three book-length works on women in the Caribbean appeared during the report period;
see Handwerker on women's power in Barbados (item bi 93007416), Senior on women's
lives in the English-speaking Caribbean (item bi 93008163), and Morrissey, cited above,
on slave women. Georges' article studies women in a transnational community in the
Dominican Republic (item bi 93007359), Gordon investigates changes in women's work
in post-war Jamaica (item bi 93007411), and Lazarus-Black reveals women's use of the
Antiguan magistrate's court (item bi 91007837). Finally, Sargent and Harris explore
gender ideology in Jamaica (item bi 93003696), Dann and Potter the topic of sex- and
race-typing in Barbados (item bi 93007311), and Chernela examines the Garifuna
couvade (item bi 91009129).
Klass' book studies East Indian religious practices in Trinidad (item bi 93007528). For
Sai Baba, see Mahabir and Maharaj's article on Hindu elements in Shango (item bi
93007563). Jha has written a short history of Hinduism in Trinidad (item bi 93007526).
Chevannes explores Rastafari and racism in Jamaica (item bi 93007238), seeing
Rastafarianism as a cultural continuity. For a useful dictionary and sourcebook on
Rastafari and reggae, see Mulvaney (item bi 93007765). Murphy (item bi 93007766) and
Brandon (item bi 93007212) cover various aspects of santería.
The four book-length works on popular culture include Rohlehr's on calypso and
Trinidadian society (item bi 93007860), a collection of essays entitled Caribbean popular
culture (item bi 93007225), a special edition of Caribbean Quarterly entitled Konnu and
Carnival: Caribbean Festival Arts(item bi 93007529), and the republication of Trinidad
carnival (item bi93-8244). Other publications include Neil on the steel band in Laventille
(item bi 93007767), Miller on a new Trinidadian dance form (item bi 93007569), and
Maurer's critical analysis of the literature on Afro-Caribbean dance (item bi 92002890).
The many publications on a single racial or ethnic group in the Caribbean demonstrate
both historical and contemporary concerns. In fact, most of the publications annotated for
this section of the Handbook could have easily been listed in this category. In any case,
for additional material on Afro-West Indians, see Lewis on the African dynamic in
Trinidadian culture (item bi 93008190), Elder on African survivals in Trinidad and
Tobago (item bi 93007358), and Stone on the Afro-Caribbean in Central America (item
bi 93008238). For more material on Surinamese populations see Thoden van Velzen on
the current civil war (item bi 93008242), Gary Brana-Shute on social science research
and electoral politics (items bi 93007200 and bi 93007210), Richard and Sally Price on
Saramaka lifeways (item bi 93007773), Magaña on the Carib speaking Kaliña (items bi
91000770, bi 91000771, and bi 93007548), and Wolfowitz on language style in
Surinamese Javanese (item bi 93008198). For East Indians, see Moutoussamy's study of
contemporary life in the French West Indies (item bi 93007778) and Ehrlich on two
dissimilar East Indian populations in Jamaica (item bi 93007356).
The deaths of Gordon Lewis, Derek Gordon, and M.G. Smith during this reporting period
are sadly noted. All three were eminent social scientists and major contributors to our
understanding of West Indian life. Their passing marks the end of a glorious chapter in
Caribbean studies.
Volume 55 / Social Sciences
ANTHROPOLOGY: ETHNOLOGY
West Indies
LAMBROS COMITAS, Gardner Crowles Professor of Anthropology and Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University, and Director, Research Institute for the Study of
Man
THIS SECTION IS DESIGNED to include publications in sociocultural anthropology
dealing with the Caribbean archipelago, the Guianas, Belize, and the several West Indian
cultural enclaves located in other parts of the Caribbean mainland. In this issue, roughly
two-thirds of the publications annotated deal with 20 countries or dependencies: Antigua,
Barbados, Barbuda, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, the Dominican Republic,
French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Nevis, Puerto Rico, St.
Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The remaining publications deal
with the Caribbean in general or intra- or inter-regional comparisons of one sort or
another. The territories or units receiving the most anthropological attention were, in
order: the Caribbean in general, Trinidad, and French Guiana. For the reader's
convenience, I list below, in several broad categories, those items annotated which deal
with the most representative subjects or orientations.
I. DIACHRONIC AND HISTORICAL STUDIES
As I indicated in HLAS 53, Caribbean anthropology has long been ambivalent in its use
of historical perspective. Nonetheless, as reflected in the number of publications with
diachronic dimensions cited in that last issue, the interest in and value of history for
anthropologists appeared to have grown considerably. This tendency has persisted during
this report period. See, for example, Baker on the ethnohistory of Dominica (item bi
95024469), Dreyfus on native political networks in western Guiana (item bi 00000000),
González on ethnic identity and inter-ethnic relations during and after the Carib War
(item bi 94002859), Lazarus-Black on law and society in Antigua and Barbuda (item bi
95024474), and Olwig on the development of Nevisian cultural identity (item bi
95024460). Anthropological contributions to the understanding of slavery also continue
apace. For these materials, see Binder's collection on slavery in the Americas (item bi
95024467), Hoogbergen on marronage and slave rebellions in Suriname (item bi
95018234), Jamard's intra-regional comparison of slavery (item bi 93010926), Mintz on
food and eating habits of slaves (item bi 95018229), Mörner on patterns of social
stratification in the 18th and 19th centuries (item bi 95001211), Palmie on ethnogenetic
processes in Afro-American slave populations (item bi 95018227), and the reedition of
Rubin and Tuden's work on comparative perspectives of slavery in New World plantation
societies (item bi 95024398).
II. SYNCHRONIC STUDIES
a) Ethnicity and Identity. A great deal of the contemporary research on the Caribbean
seems to be focused on questions related to ethnicity and identity. In addition to the
studies of González and Olwig listed above, publications dealing with these themes from
a more synchronic perspective include the following on the Dominican Republic: Davis
on music and black ethnicity (item bi 95018241), Douany on ethnicity, identity and the
merengue (item bi 95018242), and Nyberg-Sorensen on Creole culture and Dominican
identity (item bi 94001450). For publications with a Trinidadian focus, see Birth on coup,
carnival, and calypso (item bi 94014621), Eriksen on multiple traditions and cultural
integration and on ethnicity and nationalism (items bi 93001659 and bi 95024463),
Gosine on the East Indian odyssey (item bi 95024592), Houk on the Africanization of the
Orisha tradition (item bi 95018230), Khan on food pollution and hierarchy, and on what
is a "Spanish" (items bi 94002786 and bi 95018231), the Premdas collection on the
enigma of ethnicity (item bi 95019098), Sampath on the creolisation of East Indian
adolescent masculinity (item bi 95018225), Segal on race and color in pre-independent
Trinidad (item bi 94002782), Vertovec on Hindu Trinidad (item bi 95024521), and
Yelvington's edited work entitled Trinidad ethnicity (item bi 93006782), together with his
two contributions to that volume, a substantive introduction, and a chapter on ethnicity at
work (items bi 95018251 and bi 95018252). For other contributions to these themes, see
Lefever (item bi 93020237) and Purcell (item bi 95021281) on West Indians in Costa
Rica, Spencer-Strachan on problems of self-identity among diasporic Africans (item bi
95024473), M.G. Smith on theoretical aspects of race and ethnicity (item bi 95018248),
and Young on becoming a West Indian in St. Vincent (item bi 94006746).
b) Maroon Culture and Society. Mainland research of this genre remains active. For
instance, see Bilby et al. on vocabulary related to food and its usage among the Boni and
Djuka (item bi 93020234), Bruleaux on descriptions of native food resources in French
Guiana (item bi 93020232), Groot et al. on Aluku/Boni history (item bi 93020234),
Hurault on material culture and art styles of the Boni, Djuka, and Saramaka (item bi
93020235), and Price's diary of an ethnographic expedition to collect maroon artifacts
(item bi 93020233).
c) Gender Relations and Women's Studies. See Abraham on industrialization and femaleheaded households in Curaçao (item bi 95018222), D'Amico on a reconsideration of
female-headed households in Jamaica (item bi 95018240), Greene on race, class, and
gender in the future of the Caribbean (item bi 95021273), Handwerker on empowerment
and fertility transition on Antigua (item bi 95018239), Schnepel on language and gender
in the French Caribbean (item bi 95024397), and Sobo on health, sickness, and gender
relations among the Jamaican poor (item bi 95024470).
d). Rural Studies/Peasantry. See Alvarado Ramos on rural settlement types in Cuba (item
bi 94004423), Crichlow on family land tenure (item bi 95018244), Griffith et al. on the
proletarianization in Puerto Rican fisheries (item bi 93001802), LeFranc on land tenure in
St. Lucia, and on a small farming village in Dominica (items bi 95024746 and bi
95021270), and Wylie's comparison of crises of glut in the Faroe Islands and Dominica
(item bi 95018249).
e) Language and Society. See Cooper on orality and gender in Jamaican popular culture
(item bi 95024465), Schieffelin and Doucet on Haitian Creole (item bi 95018224), and
Schnepel on the Creole movement and East Indians in Guadeloupe (items bi 95018223
and bi 95018254).
f) Religion. Five books or collections make up this category: see Brandon on santería
(item bi 95024466), Murphy on working the spirit (item bi 95024461), the Simposio
Internacional on ancestor cults (item bi 94006744), Spiritual Baptists on African-derived
religions in the Caribbean (item bi 95018246), and Traditional spirituality in the African
diaspora (item bi 95018248).
g) Reviews and assessments. I include here Guanche Pérez and Campos Mitjans on
Cuban cultural anthropology in the 20th century (item bi 93023944), Kimber's
geographical review of aboriginal and peasant cultures (item bi 94003956), Olwig on
Danish scholarship on the West Indies (item bi 95024459), and Oriol's appreciation of the
anthropological work on Haiti by Louis Price Mars (item bi 93009488).
Volume 57 / Social Sciences
ANTHROPOLOGY: ETHNOLOGY
West Indies
LAMBROS COMITAS, Gardner Cowles Professor of Anthropology and Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University and Director, Research Institute for the Study of
Man
THIS SECTION INCLUDES annotations of publications on sociocultural dimensions of
anthropology that cover the Caribbean archipelago, The Guianas, Belize, and several
other West Indian or West Indian-like enclaves located on other parts of the CircumCaribbean mainland or world. Slightly more than three-quarters of these annotations deal
with the following countries or dependencies: Antigua, Barbados, Barbuda, Belize,
British Virgin Islands, Colombia, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, the Dominican Republic,
French Guiana, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Nevis,
Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad, and Venezuela. The remaining
deal with the Caribbean in either regional or subregional terms. The countries, territories,
or regional units receiving the most attention during this biennium were Jamaica
(supporting, in part, Michael Manley's pungent contention a number of years ago that
Jamaica is the most studied and least understood country in the Caribbean), followed by
Trinidad, the Caribbean in general, Guyana, and Suriname.
As in the past, the publications cited cover a wide range of subject matter, including a
very few examples (of a rapidly growing genre) that deal with migratory experiences of
Caribbean folk away from the Caribbean. Therefore, for the reader's convenience, I have
organized most of the works cited into several broad, overlapping topical categories, in
order of quantitative importance.
a) Ethnicity and Identity. During the past few years, a great deal of the anthropological
research on the Caribbean has been focused on questions related to these two linked
themes. This biennium is certainly no exception, more than thirty of the citations in this
section are devoted to either ethnicity or identity or both including the following four
readers or collections of articles: Across the dark waters: ethnicity and Indian identity in
the Caribbean (item bi 98014871), Ethnicity in the Caribbean: essays in honor of Harry
Hoetink (item bi 98002386), Ethnicity, race and nationality in the Caribbean(item bi
98002384), and Les Indes antillaises, présence et situation des communautés
indiennes (item bi 98002382). Among other citations, see also Angrosino on the IndoCaribbeans (item bi 98014895), Austin-Broos on heritable identity in Jamaica (item bi
95004079), Chalifoux on the Hmong in French Guiana (item bi 94008201), Duany on
transnational migration from the D.R. (item bi 98015106), Eguchi on the reconstruction
of Carib ethnic identity (item bi 98015107), Henry and Tracey on multi-ethnicity in
Trinidad (item bi 98015567), Khan on Muslims in Trinidad (item bi 98015895),
Koningsbruggen on Trinidad carnival (item bi 98015862), Kumar Misra on a separate
East Indian identity in Trinidad (item bi 97008499), Mintz on ethnic difference and
plantation sameness (item bi 98016018) and on the concept of ethnicity (item bi
96005663), Oostindie on the Dutch Caribbean predicament (item bi 98016058), Price and
Price on museums and ethnicity (item bi 99000052), and Tracey on adaptive responses to
race and ethnic conflict in Trinidad (item bi 99000487).
b) Religion. If one includes publications on Rastafari, it would appear that there has been
a significant increase in writings about religion-related phenomena during this biennium.
Twenty-one citations are listed in this category including the three-volume conference
proceedings (one each on cults, voodoo, and Rastafari) entitled AyBoBo: Afro-Karibische
Religionen/African Caribbean religions (item bi 98014905) and Rastafari and other
African-Caribbean worldviews(item bi 98015101). See also Austin-Broos on State and
religion in Jamaica (item bi 98014896 ), Bernard on popular religion in Haiti (item bi
95010191), Besson and Chevannes on the continuity-creativity debate (item bi
97006188), Brea and Millet on Africanisms in Cuban carnivals (item bi 98014945),
Chevannes on revivalism and identity in Jamaica (item bi 98015102), Glazier on funeral
practices in Trinidad (item bi 95003129) and new religious movements in the Caribbean
(item bi 98015582), Houk on Orisha in Trinidad (item bi 98015780), Kremser on Kélé in
St. Lucia (item bi 98015864), Pollak-Eltz on anima worship in Venezuela (item bi
98016068), etc. For writings on Rastafari, see also Chevannes on a new approach to
Rastafari (item bi 98015029) and the symbolism of dreadlocks in Jamaica (item bi
98015101), Savishinsky on the global spread of the Rastafarian movement (item bi
95004077), Simpson on recollections of 1953 work with Rastafari (item bi 95015885),
Yawney on the appeal of Rastafari religion (item bi 99000555).
c) Aspects of social relations and social organization. See Berleant-Schiller on labor to
peasantry (item bi 98014912), Besson on peasant adaptation (item bi 98014914) land,
kinship, and community in the Leewards (item bi 98014915) and on a rejoinder to
Crichlow (item bi 98014913), Birth on transracial kinship in Trinidad (item bi
97015264), Browne on informal economy in Martinique (item bi 96023124), Drayton on
Caribbean textbooks (item bi 98015104), Gmelch on Barbadian return migrants (item bi
98015583), Gmelch and Gmelch on St.Lucy Parish, Barbados (item bi 98002385),
Handwerker on domestic violence (item bi 98015163 ), King on Belizean management of
marine resources (item bi 98015861), Lazarus-Black on kinship and family policy in
Antigua (item bi 98015881), LeFranc on a re-examination of the Jamaican family system
(item bi 98015897), Lowes on decline of Antiguan elites (item bi 98015908), Martinez
on the Haitian bracero in the D.R. (item bi 98015926), Maurer on common property in
the Caribbean (item bi 98010098) and on family land in the British Virgin Islands (item
bi 98010101), Mintz on the Caribbean as oikoumen (item bi96005663), Moberg on
transnational labor in Belize (item bi 98016021), Phillips on street children in Trinidad
(item bi 98016067), Price on a comparison of Martinican and Saramaka Maroon race
relations (item bi 96008602), R.T. Smith on racial violence in Guyana (item bi
99000339), and Yelvington on flirting in a Trinidadian factory (item bi 99000559).
d) Women's studies and gender relations. Seventeen citations are listed in this section
including the collection entitled Women and change in the Caribbean; a pan-Caribbean
perspective (item bi 99000494). See Abraham-van der Mark on mating patterns of
Curaçaoan Sephardic elites (item bi 98014874), Allen on Curaçaoan women and Cuban
migration (item bi 98014889), Barrow on small-scale women farmers in Barbados (item
bi 98014908), Berleant-Schiller and Maurer on women's roles in Barbuda and Dominica
(item bi 98014912), Besson on reputation and respectability (item bi 98014916), Bolles
on women and work in Jamaica (item bi 98014942), LaFont on family courts in Jamaica
(item bi 98015866), Lake on Rastafarian women (item bi 95004078), McKay on tourism
in Negril, Jamaica (item bi 98015918), Miller Matthei and Smith on Garifuna women
(item bi 97008606), Olwig on Nevisian women at home and abroad (item bi 98016041),
Parry on gender in the classroom (item bi 98016064), Pereira on violence and sex (item
bi 98016066), and Yelvington on gender, ethnicity, and class in a Trinidadian factory
(item bi 99000492 and bi 99000560).
e) Maroon/Amerindian studies. See Besson on Jamaican Maroon land tenure patterns
(item bi 98010103), Bilby on Aluku identity development (item bi 94008220) on oral
traditions of Jamaican Maroons and the Aluku of the Guianas (item bi 98014932 ) and on
the meaning of oaths and treaties for Maroons (item bi 98014936), Forte on Guyanese
Amerindians for the non-specialist (item bi 98002388) and on Guyanese Amerindian
culture, economics, politics, and language (item bi 98002389), Groot on Maroon
pacification in Suriname (item bi 98015611), Mentore on the Waiwai and distribution of
the hunt (item bi 98015991), Myers on the Makushi Caribs (item bi 98016027), Price on
State violence against Surinamese Maroons (item bi 96000443), Sanders on the protected
status of Guyanese Amerindians (item bi 99000119), Thoden van Velzen on collective
fantasies of the Surinamese Nydukas (item bi 99000486), Vernon on Ndjuka
ethnomedicine and Maroon identity (item bi 98015792), and Zips on Jamaican influences
on African diasporic discourses (item bi 99000596) and on the history and contemporary
situation of Jamaican Maroons (item bi 99000597).
f) Aspects of culture. See Allen on resistance as a creative factor (item bi 98014890),
Birth on Trinidadian models of time (item bi 98014941), Crooks on bicultural factors in
Belizean school achievement (item bi 98015103), Hoogbergen on resistance (item bi
98015779), Losonczy on African slave beliefs (item bi 95003563), Maynard on the
translocation of the Yoruba esusu (item bi 98015969), Miller on mass consumption in
Trinidad (item bi 98015992), Olwig on the cultural complexity (item bi 98016032) and
national culture of Nevis (item bi 94011838), Price and Price on museum openings in
Guyane, Spain and Belize (item bi 98016070), Stevens on symbolism of manje in Haiti
(item bi 99000485), Vargas on Dominican villages (item bi 99000489), and Zips on the
"continuity of Black resistance" (item bi 94009052).
I am indebted to Dennis St. George, Lewis Burgess, and Lisa Citron for their generous
assistance in compiling this section.
Volume 59 / Social Sciences
ANTHROPOLOGY: ETHNOLOGY
West Indies
LAMBROS COMITAS, Gardner Cowles Professor of Anthropology and Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University
THIS SECTION INCLUDES annotations of publications dealing with ethnographic and
ethnological studies of territories located in the Caribbean archipelago, the Guianas, and
Belize. About four-fifths of the annotations included this volume deal with the following
countries or dependencies: Antigua, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands,
Carriacou, Cuba, Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Grenada,
Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. John, St. Martin, St.
Vincent, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The remaining fifth of this section deals
with publications on the Anglophone Caribbean or general Caribbean. The countries or
clusters receiving the most attention were Jamaica, followed by general Caribbean,
Trinidad, and Barbados. As in the past, the publications cited cover a wide range of
subject matter. For the convenience of the reader, I have grouped descriptions of all
publications into six broad and somewhat overlapping categories which I describe below
in order of their numerical importance: a) religion, b) national and cultural identity, c)
women's studies, gender relations, and family d) changing socioeconomic orders, e)
cultural minorities, f) health and disease, and g) biographical essays.
a) Religion. It appears that there has been a relatively dramatic increase in writings about
religion and religion-related phenomena during this biennium, perhaps because I include
publications on Rastafari in this category. In any case, slightly more than one quarter of
all publications focus on religion, including three substantial anthologies: Chanting Down
Babylon: The Rastafari Reader (item #bi2002000149#), Religion, Diaspora, and
Cultural Identity: A Reader in the Anglophone Caribbean (item #bi2002000195#),
and Sacred Possessions: Voduou, Santeria, Obeah, and the Caribbean (item
#bi2002000196#). Most studies on religion-centered phenomena during this biennium are
focused on Jamaica. See, for example, Austin-Broos on religion and politics of moral
orders (item #bi2002000132#), women and Pentecostalism (item #bi2002000133#), and
Pentecostal community and Jamaican hierarchy (item #bi2002000134#); Bilby on notions
of "community" in Jamaican religious traditions (item #bi2002000140#) and on new
evidence on Jonkonnu (item #bi2002000206#); Chevannes on Rastafari and the
"exorcism" of racist and classist ideology (item #bi2002000150#) and on the apotheosis
of Rastafari heroes (item #bi2002000151#); Garcia Franco on the function of Obeah man
(item #bi 98005896#); Pubis on a way of reading practiced by Rastafari (item
#bi2002000193#); and Simpson on personal reflection on early Rastafari (item
#bi2002000199#). For more items dealing with religion in other parts of the Caribbean,
see Barrow on the Anglican Church and common-law union in Barbados (item
#bi2002000135#), Brown on Haitian women in voduou (item #bi2002000142#) and on
healing and voduou (item #bi2002000143#), Glazier on Spiritual Baptist music (item
#bi2002000165#), Green on the Hallelujah controversy in Trinidad Carnival (item
#bi2002000167#), Handler and Bilby on the origin of the term "Obeah" in Barbados
(item #bi2002000170#), Houk on changes in the Orisha religion (item #bi2002000173#),
Khan on Indo-Trinidadian interpolations of religion (item #bi2002000174#), McDaniel
on the Carriacou big drum ritual (item #bi 98013592#), Pradel on religion and panCaribbean cultural unity (item #bi 98012814#), Valentine on Garifuna understanding of
death (item #bi 99006576#), and van Dijk on Caribbean Rastafarianism outside of the
Caribbean (item #bi2002000202#).
b) National and cultural identity. As noted in HLAS 57, Caribbeanists are devoting
considerable attention to questions of identity as well as to the controversy over processes
of creolization. This biennium is certainly no exception, with almost a quarter of all
publications in this section devoted to these linked items including two
collections: Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean: Social Dynamics and
Cultural Transformations (item #bi 99006582#) and History, Power, and Identity:
Ethnogenesis in the Americas, 1492–1992 (item #bi2002000171#). For related
publications see Baj Strobel on Creole landscapes (item #bi 99004103#), Besson on
common tenures, capitalism, and Accompong Maroons (item #bi2002000139#), Burton
on the designation Afro-Creole (item #bi2002000147#) and on Afro-Caribbean names
and naming (item #bi 00003050#), Cohen on nation building in the British Virgin Islands
(item #bi2002000154#), Dávila on contending Puerto Rican nationalisms (item
#bi2002000156#) and on "national" television in Puerto Rico (item #bi 98010507#), De
Freitas on Carnival "feminization" and Trinidadian national identity (item #bi
00003049#), Duany on cultural identities in Puerto Rico (item #bi2002000157#), Fouron
and Schiller on Haitian identities (item #bi2002000160#), Hoetink on mobility and
stratification in the Dominican Republic (item #bi2002000172#), Olwig on cultural
politics of heritage in St. John (item #bi2002000186#), Premdas on ethnic identity in the
Caribbean (item #bi 99010180#), Price on competing interpretations of Afro-American
continuity (item #bi2002000190#), Schnepel on the history of language conflict in
Guadeloupe (item #bi2002000197#), Trouillot on a general approach to the issue of
creolization (item #bi2002000201#), and Wilk on food and Belizean identity (item
#bi2002000203#). Four articles deal with cricket and its linkages to issues of national
identity: see Manning on the relationship of Bermudian cricket and associated activities
to the symbolic construction of politics (item #bi2002000178#), Patterson on cricket as
ritual (item #bi2002000188#), and Yelvington on cricket, colonialism, and the cultural
context of Caribbean politics (item #bi2002000204#) and on the Indian cricket tour and
the 1976 Trinidad and Tobago elections (item #bi2002000205#).
c) Womens' studies, gender relations, and family. Eighteen publications dealing with
these themes are listed below, including three collections: Barrow's Family in the
Caribbean: Themes and Perspectives (item #bi 97015970#), Daughters of Caliban:
Caribbean Women in the Twentieth Century(item #bi2002000155#), and Gender: A
Caribbean Multi-Disciplinary Perspective (item #bi2002000163#). For related
publications, see Barrow on masculinity and family (item #bi2002000136#), Behar on a
working woman's life in Cuba (item #bi2002000137#), Besson on changing perceptions
of gender (item #bi2002000139#), Bolles on women trade union leaders (item
#bi2002000141#), Browne on a multisite study of female entrepreneurship (item
#bi2002000146#), LaFont and Pruitt on gendered laws in Jamaica (item
#bi2002000175#), Lazarus-Black on class and gender inequities in Antiguan lower courts
(item #bi2002000176#) and on domestic violence in Trinidad (item #bi2002000177#),
McClaurin on Belizean women (item #bi2002000180#), Murray on narratives by gay
Martinican men (item #bi2002000184#), Olwig on functions of family land in St. John
(item #bi 98010100#), Pool and Singh on indentured Indian women in the British Empire
(item #bi2002000189#), and Sidnell on Indo-Guyanese male peer groups (item
#bi2002000198#).
d) Changing socioeconomic orders. Ten publications deal with the human and/or
ecological impacts of recent transnational and national economic initiatives in the
Caribbean. See Andreatta on transformations of the agro-food sector (item #bi
99004107#) and on banana growers and the agro-food sector in the Dominican Republic
(item #bi2002000131#), Moberg on the ethnically differentiated labor market of the
Belizean banana industry (item #bi2002000183#), Olsen on sustainable development and
tourism in Jamaica (item #bi2002000185#), Raynolds on contract farming in the nontomato-processing industry of the Dominican Republic (item #bi2002000194#),
Rubenstein on problems of cannabis research in St. Vincent (item #bi 99003624#) and on
cannabis and globalization (item #bi2002000207#), and Turner on Bahamanian straw
work (item #bi 99000389#).
e) Cultural minorities. Included are nine publications that focus on the cultured and/or
behavior of populations considered cultural minorities in their respective territories. See,
for example, Abraham van der Mark on the Ashkenazi Jews of Curaçao (item
#bi2002000130#), Coupeau on Arab traders in Haiti (item #bi2002000153#), Drewal and
Mason on Yoruba beadwork in Cuba, US, and Brazil (item #bi 99006584#), Forte on
Karinya gold mining in Guyana (item #bi 00003051#), Marceaux on Hmong migrants in
French Guiana (item #bi 99006579#), Palacio on Garifuna cultural retrieval in Belize
(item #bi2002000187#), Richard Price on the different treatment meted out to Maroons in
Suriname and in Brazil (item #bi 99003625#), Sally Price on art worlds in the African
diaspora (item #bi2002000191#), and Price and Price on Maroon art (item
#bi2002000192#).
f) Health and disease. This topic continues to be of substantial interest to Caribbeanists,
particularly as it relates to folk traditions. See Benoit on sex, AIDS, and prostitution in St.
Martin (item #bi2002000138#), Brown on Haitian women healers (item
#bi2002000142#) and on a case study of voduou-centered healing in Haiti (item
#bi2002000143#), DuToit on folk healing in the Caribbean (item #bi2002000158#),
Halberstein on gender differences in herbal practices linked to hypertension (item
#bi2002000168#), Handler on slave medicine and Obeah in Barbados (item
#bi2002000169#), and Sobo on women's health traditions in Jamaica (item
#bi2002000200#).
g) Biographical essays. Biographies of senior Caribbeanists are beginning to appear in
print on a somewhat regular basis. One example published in recent years is Douglas
Hall's biography of M.G. Smith, see HLAS 57:840. These publications, while of great
general interest, are also a kind of in-print confirmation of Caribbean anthropology as a
mainstream field of regional specialization. For biographical sketches in HLAS 59, see
Barrow on the intellectual preparation and professional life of the late Edith Clarke (item
#bi 99004689#), Ghani's interview of Sidney Mintz (item #bi2002000164#), and FluehrLobban's appreciation of the scholarly work of the 19th-century Haitian anthropologist
Anténor Firmin (item #bi2002000159#).
Volume 61 / Social Sciences
ANTHROPOLOGY: ETHNOLOGY
West Indies
LAMBROS COMITAS, Gardner Cowles Professor of Anthropology and Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University
THE HLAS 61 CHAPTER ON WEST INDIAN ETHNOLOGY includes publications of
a social and cultural anthropological nature dealing with the Caribbean archipelago, the
Guianas, Belize, and the several West Indian cultural enclaves located in other parts of
the surrounding mainland. It contains 80 annotations of publications, approximately fourfifths of these dealing with the following countries or dependencies: Antigua, Barbados,
Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, French
Guiana, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Trinidad
and Tobago, and Venezuela. The remaining fifth deals with the Anglophone Caribbean or
the Caribbean in general. Numerically, the countries or regions best represented are
Jamaica (23 percent) followed by general Caribbean (15 percent), Guianas (14 percent),
Trinidad and Tobago (11 percent) and Haiti and Barbados (each with 10 percent). The
publications cited cover a wide range of subject matter that, for the convenience of the
reader, can be sorted into three somewhat overlapping categories: contemporary social
issues, traditional research topics, and diachronic and historical studies.
Contemporary Social Issues
There is increasing interest in politics, regional linkages and attendant problems, and in
public and domestic manifestations of violence. For annotations on politics, see Scott's
critique of classic approaches to the study of Jamaican politics (item #bi2005000357#),
Gray's intriguing analysis of rogue culture and the Jamaican lumpenproleteriat (item
#bi2005000328#) and Klein on new directions for drug control in the Commonwealth
Caribbean (item #bi2005000337#). About regional matters, see Amit on citizenship,
labor, and expatriacy in the Caymans (item #bi2005000301#), Maurer (item
#bi2005000344#) on the links between telecommunications and politics in the creation of
the off-shore financial services industry, and Sheller on the exclusion of the Caribbean
from the imagined time-space of Western modernity (item #bi2005000358#). For locallevel issues, see Waters on the trials and tribulations of heritage tourism in Port Royal
(item #bi2005000365#), Wardle's innovative ethnography of cosmopolitanism in
Kingston (item #bi2004001798#), as well as Minn's exploration of a folk illness in rural
Haiti (item #bi2005000346#). With reference to current realities in Haiti, see Kovats-
Bernat on pragmatic strategies for fieldwork amid violence and terror (item
#bi2005000338#). For other studies dealing with violence, see Chevannes on confronting
the culture of cruelty (item #bi2005000321#), Trotz on women and violence in Guyana
(item #bi2005000362#), Lazarus-Black on the "success" of the Trinidad and Tobago
Domestic Violence Act of 1991 (item #bi2005000339#) and Chucho and Camacho's
compilation of country reports on racism and associated problems in Venezuela and Latin
America (item #bi2004001794#).
Traditional Research Themes
Religion. See Taylor's (item #bi2005000360#) collection of articles dealing with religion,
identity, and cultural differences in both the Hispanic and non-Hispanic Caribbean. Two
authors deal with religious phenomena in Jamaica: Austin-Broos on Pentecostal and
Baptist churches and their relation with the state (item #bi2005000303#) and Barnett on
Rastafari dialectism (item #bi2005000304#). Two authors discuss religious practices in
Cuba: Hearn focuses on Afro-Cuban religions and the consequences of commercial
development in Havana (item #bi2005000330#) and Hernandez provides a guide to
santeria (item #bi2004001792#). The bulk of work on religion in this section has been on
Haiti and Vodou. For example, see Apter's excellent work on African origins and
creolization (item #bi2005000302#), Dubois' review of four recent works on the study of
Vodou (item #bi2005000326#), Michel's essay in praise of Vodou as mode of survival
(item #bi2005000345#), and Aracena on a Haitian-born Gagá in the DR and the issue of
negritude in that country (item #bi2004001790#).
Women and gender studies. On women, see Berkeley-Caines on health and race in urban
Guyana (item #bi2005000307#), Clarke on domestic workers in Jamaica (item
#bi2005000322#) and Trotz on the roles of Guyanese women (item #bi2005000363#).
Gender studies are dealt by Kempadoo on theory and research on Caribbean sexuality
(item #bi2005000335#), Barnes on the psychosocial effects of the Montserrat volcanic
disaster (item #bi2005000308#), Bolles on Michael Manley and gender equality in the
Commonwealth Caribbean (item #bi2005000313#), Browne on female entrepreneurship
(item #bi2005000316#), Chevannes on gender and adult sexuality (item
#bi2005000320#), Henry-Lee and LeFrank on private property and gender in Guyana and
Barbados (item #bi2003001523#), Leo-Rhynie on gender and education (item
#bi2005000341#), Matthews and Murray on predictors of marital satisfaction in urban
Guyana (item #bi2005000342#), Mohammed on gender negotiations among Trinidadian
Indians (item #bi2005000348#).
Ethnicity, creolization and identity. For works related to ethnicity, see Kassim on
education and socialization of Trinidadian Indo-Muslims (item #bi2005000334#),
Rooopnarine on Indo-Caribbean migration (item #bi2005000353#), and Alleyne on the
construction and representation of race and ethnicity (item #bi2004001803#). Interest in
creolization issues appears to be on the increase. See Apter (cited in religion above) as
well as Bolland on creolization and creole societies (item #bi2005000312#), Browne on
creole economics in Martinique (item #bi2005000316#), Maurer on Herskovits and
creolization studies (item #bi2005000343#), Puri's critique of Caribbean cultural studies
(item #bi2005000356#), and Besson's excellent book on the evolution of a Jamaican town
into a peasant village (item #bi2003001426#). Identity remains a major research topic
well represented in the publications of this section. For example, see Dawdy (item
#bi2005000325#) and Paponnet-Cantat (item #bi2005000349#) on food and Cuban
identity, Scher on Carnival and the formation of a Caribbean transnation (item
#bi2003001744#), Duany on Puerto Rican identity at home and in the US (item
#bi2004001786#), Kerkhof on circular migration and language struggle in Puerto Rico
(item #bi2005000336#), Reddock on contestations over culture, class, gender, and
identity in Trinidad (item #bi2005000353#), Deen on genealogical approaches to locating
Trinidad roots in India (item #bi2004001791#), and Fox, Smith, and Wilson on
adolescent self-image in Trinidad and Tobago (item #bi2005000327#).
Popular culture. This is a comparatively new but fast-growing research focus for
anthropologists and allied disciplinarians. Curwen Best has three publications of this
kind: a survey of Barbadian folklore and popular culture (item #bi2005000309#);
tracking ringbang, the first post-soca dancehall music (item #bi2005000366#); and early
post-soca tendencies in Caribbean music (item #bi2005000310#). Others include
Edmondson on Caribbean women and the politics of public performance (item
#bi2005000368#), Ramnarine on the development of an Indian-Caribbean musical
tradition (item #bi2005000352#), and Saunders on sexual economy and dancehall music
in the global marketplace (item #bi2005000355#).
Diachronic and Historical Studies
The use made of archeological, ethnohistorical or historical publications by researchers
studying the present continues to grow. Publications of this kind cited below are listed in
three broad chronological categories: pre-European contact, slavery, and post-slavery.
Pre-contact. See Curet on descent and succession in protohistoric chiefdoms in the
Greater Antilles (item #bi2005000324#), LeCount on feasting and political ritual among
the late classic Maya (item #bi2005000340#), Bos on reliability of early Amerindian
information about the Guianas and its inhabitants (item #bi2004001785#), Burnett on
19th-century geographical exploration and Amerindians of British Guiana (item
#bi2005000318#), and Collazo on contemporary images of the Puerto Rican indigenous
world (item #bi2004001793#).
Slavery. Publications on this topic cover a wide range. For example, Bolland describes
the development of the unique Belizean slave system (item #bi2005000312#), Brown
deals with spiritual terror and sacred authority in Jamaican slave society (item
#bi2005000314#), Buckridge studies plant substances in Jamaican slave dress (item
#bi2005000317#), Smith and Maxwell detail a Bermuda slave smuggling trade (item
#bi2005000359#), Thompson's collection of essays deals broadly with Caribbean slave
experience (item #bi2005000361#), and Handler describes and analyzes all known
autobiographical slave accounts from British America (item #bi2005000329#).
Post-slavery. Mohamed studies the history and role of the Guyanese print media with
particular reference to politics and race (item #bi2005000347#), Mohammed examines
the ways in which Caribbean societies use symbolic references to empire and
colonization (item #bi2005000348#), Bellegarde-Smith explores African-Caribbean links
(item #bi2005000306#), Howard describes Black Seminoles from their ethnogenesis in
Florida to their retreat to the Bahamas (item #bi2004001796#), and Deagan and Cruxent
deal with the historical archeology of Columbus' first community in the New World (item
#bi2004001787#).
***
I close on a personal note. Since 1967, when first I started compiling this section
for HLAS, I relied very heavily for this task on the Caribbean Library of the Research
Institute for the Study of Man. This library, which I helped nurture, had a splendid
collection of Caribbeana, most notably of non-Hispanic Caribbean materials. Under new
leadership in recent years, RISM, long a bulwark of Caribbean research, appears to have
shifted its academic and topographical foci. Most lamentably, this shift is exemplified by
the dissolution of its library, a collection utilized by thousands of graduate students and
professional Caribbeanists over the years. The loss of the library and the apparent change
of interest on the part of RISM is a serious blow to Caribbean scholarship.