Recitation #1: - Why Anthro. Why the Caribbean Recitation #1: - Why Anthro? Why the Caribbean? - Populating the Caribbean - Sugar, Surplus, Capitalism TextS: Trouillot’s “The Caribbean Region” Cromwell’s “More than slaves” Hauser’s “Land, Labor, and Things” Prof. L. Kaifa Roland The Caribbean in Post-Colonial Perspective Anth 1115
(Trouillot; Day 2 Notes) Why Anthropology? (Trouillot; Day 2 Notes) Objective Understanding & Explaining Humankind Describe, Analyze & Explain different cultures (past, present, geographically dispersed) Kinds of anthro - Physical/Biological - Archaeological - Linguistic - Socio-cultural Concerned with (sub/conscious) behaviors & actions Interested in the question: How have groups adapted and given meaning to their lives?
What is Culture? Shared beliefs/understandings/practices that are learned
Background to the Discipline Origins in European discovery Anthro and colonial legacy Obsessed with being a Natural science?
Why post-colonial approach? Considers legacy of colonial rule Role in national/cultural identity
Why the Caribbean? Problematic for essentialist & essentializing anthropology Exemplifies globalization historically and today Colonial histories Creolization and local issues Continuing issues of meanings of mobility
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/DISCUSSION
What did Columbus “Discover”? (Cromwell; Day 3 Notes) “Indians” Ciboney oldest Taino-Arawak most numerous Carib (aka Kalinago) most recent arrival military threat Path to Spn Domination Acculturation/ Assimilation Military technology Disease
Gold on the Mainlands Spanish attention to North and South America Period of creole identity formation in Caribbean Enter Holland, England, and France
Pirates and other Caribbean “Others” Soldiers Smugglers/Pirates Europe’s ethnic minorities Jews Irish Scots Free(d) people of color Native Americans Maroons (runaways)
Dutch West India Company Mass importation of enslaved Africans Shift to plantation slavery Shift to chattel slavery Underwater monument to lives lost to slavery off coast Grenada
Race under construction Meanings assigned to skin color Whites Browns/Coloreds/Mulatos Blacks/Slaves
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/DISCUSSION
Gimme some Sugar!(Hauser; Day 4 Notes) Natural/Biological affinity for sweetness Sweetness in nature From Flavor to “Taste”
Sugar requires Labor
Supply and Demand (supply driven) Pre-1650s low global supply Dutch technology and growing slave labor Small-scale spread to working class by mid-1700s
Shift to High Supply Europe and global colonization Domestic market + colonial market
Surplus and the seeds of market capitalism Chancellor Eric Williams Surplus in global sugar provided Europe capital for industrialization Anthropologist Sydney Mintz surplus in domestic provisions demonstrated people will work harder for pay Hauser’s article Strength of domestic surplus and global surplus depends on scale Both/neither Williams/Mintz could be correct in why slavery ended and free market capitalism arose
Surplus under Analysis Land Surplus: Dominica Located btwn Martinique and Guadeloupe Erased natives and “unused surplus” French squatters surplus provisions for Mart & Guad British take Dominica and surplus for UK Labor Surplus Slaves provisioning in “free time” Feed household Sell surplus at market SL large regimented plantation =greater global surplus; Less provisioning=Less household surplus BC smaller/newer plantation =weaker global sugar surplus; greater domestic provisioning =greater household surplus Material Surplus Utilitarian/Standard housewares in SL More differentiated housewares in BC
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/DISCUSSION