Perspectives on the Caribbean: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation

Presenting a broad understanding of the complex region of the Caribbean, Perspectives on the Caribbean: A Reader in Culture, History, a [HG1]   nd Representation provides a variety of viewpoints on the rich spectrum of Caribbean culture. Essays, carefully chosen from a vast body of existing literature, expose readers to a variety of approaches, voices and topics that have emerged in Caribbean studies. Readings are interdisciplinary in nature and integrate themes from history, folklore, sociology, anthropology and political economy. Both contemporary viewpoints and classic readings reveal how the Caribbean has led scholars to new ways of exploring cultural hybridity in contemporary society. Each section includes brief introductions to put the readings in context with the connections between modern Caribbean culture and its historical roots, and also includes suggested readings for more in–depth study. Perspectives on the Caribbean offers revealing insights into one of the most diverse and complex regions in the Americas.  

Acknowledgments. Acknowledgments of Sources. Introduction: The Caribbean in Perspective (Philip W. Scher). Part I: Living and Livelihood. Introduction. 1. Houses and Yards among Caribbean Peasantries (Sidney W. Mintz). 2. Women in Jamaica’s Urban Informal Economy: Insights from a Kingston Slum (Faye V. Harrison). 3. To Give and Take: Redistribution and Reciprocity in the Household Economy (Mona Rosendahl). Part II: Questions of Identity: "Race," Ethnicity, Class, and Gender. Introduction. 4. What is "a Spanish"? Ambiguity and "Mixed" Ethnicity in Trinidad (Aisha Khan). 5. Homosexuality, Society, and the State: An Ethnography of Sublime Resistance in Martinique (David A. B. Murray). 6. Reconstructing Racial Identity: Ethnicity, Color, and Class among Dominicans in the United States and Puerto Rico (Jorge Duany). Part III: Culture and Performance. Introduction. 7: Joking: The Training of the Man–of–Words in Talking Broad (Roger D. Abrahams). 8: Rara as Popular Army: Hierarchy, Militarism, and Warfare(Elizabeth McAlister). 9: Celebrating Cricket: The Symbolic Construction of Caribbean Politics(Frank E. Manning). 10: Copyright Heritage: Preservation, Carnival and the State in Trinidad (Philip W. Scher). Part IV: Caribbean Cosmologies. Introduction. 11: The Faces of the Cosmic Gods (Leslie G. Desmangles). 12: Selection from Rastafari and Other African–Caribbean Worldviews (Barry Chevannes). 13: "Official" and "Popular" Hinduism in the Caribbean: Historical and Contemporary Trends in Surinam, Trinidad and Guyana (Steven Vertovec). Part V: Globalization, Migration, and Diaspora in the Caribbean. Introduction. 14: Globalization and the Development of a Caribbean Migration Culture (Elizabeth Thomas–Hope). 15: "The Blood Remains Haitian": Race, Nation, and Belonging in the Transmigrant Experience (Nina Glick Schiller and Georges Eugene Fouron). 16: Designing Women: Corporate Discipline and Barbados’s Off–shore Pink–Collar Sector (Carla Freeman). Index.

Philip W. Scher is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oregon. He has worked in the Caribbean since 1993 and his recent publications include Trinidad Carnival: The Cultural Politics of a Transnational Festival (with Garth Green, 2007) and Carnival and the Formation of a Caribbean Transnation (2003), as well as a number of articles on Caribbean heritage, folklore, religion, art and politics.

"Perspectives on the Caribbean: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation boasts a somewhat wide–reaching and impressive endeavor in its title, but actually manages to live up to its name. The text, edited and introduced by Philip Scher, is composed of a collection of scholarly articles by various authors covering topics concerning the contemporary Caribbean, all of which merit serious attention, particularly by anyone pursuing an academic interest in the region. . . Nonetheless, this book serves as a useful key to unraveling and appreciating the folklore and literature of the Caribbean." (Journal of Folklore Research, 9 June 2011) "Authors from different disciplines present their own view of the Caribbean without implementing a stringent frame offers a wide range of insights into the hybridity of Caribbean ideas and topics." ( Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute , 2010)