Caribbean Civilisation Portfolio by Dillon VP

24/01/2017

dillonramadin — 2017-04-11 02:21:38 UTC

Objective 1: Critical thinking on an issue of importance to Caribbean Civilisation.

Image 1: Suriname Amerindians

Image 2: Jamaican Carnival Costumes

The article “Demographic Patterns” by Karl Watson gives an account of the first documented people to discover the Caribbean region. This revisionist account of the history of the pre-Columbian people allowed for a step away from the ethnocentric views of the classic historians. The old writings attempted to paint the neo-Indians in a negative light e.g. claiming that they were cannibals. This was all in an attempt to showcase these societies as “uncivilised” and deserving of their genocide. But what really substantiates whether a culture is civilised or not? This was one of the first thought-provoking issues of importance in Caribbean Civilisation. According to Cambridge Dictionary, a civilised society is one that “has a well-developed system of government, culture, and way of life and that treats the people who live there fairly.” Using this example, it is fair to say that the neo-Indian colonies were civilised but the common usage of the term civilised is not like this. The term civilised is used subjectively to compare civilisations which is quite wrong. Some may judge the partially dressed Indians in image 1 but what makes that different from the costumes that are flaunted around across the Caribbean in festivals like Carnival (image 2) and Cropover? The terms developing society and advanced society are also quite biased. After researching definitions of these terms, it was clear that the distinguishing factor was economics i.e. societies of high economic productivity and high industrialization would be considered advanced and developing societies are striving for that. Just as before, these definitions are not suitable to describe the Amerindian colonies because of its economic standpoint – money was not as important to them as it is in current day. However, based on the advancements that Watson noted from the Meso to Neo Indians, it leaves one to wonder what their accomplishments would have been like if Columbus had not intervened.
"Civilized Meaning." Cambridge Dictionary. Cambridge University Press, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. .
Suriname Amerindians. Digital image. Caribbean Atlas. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. .
C, Jase. An example of current costumes worn at carnival. Digital image. Trinidad Carnival Diary. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017.

30/03/2017

dillonramadin — 2017-04-11 13:54:17 UTC

Objective 2: Application of learning in Caribbean Civilisation, to students’ understanding of their social or geographical environment.

Image 3: Members of a Shouter Baptist church in Trinidad during one of their celebrations

In the year 1995, one of my favourite movies, Pocahontas was released. The movie begins with a song called “The Virginia Company” (image 4) which was sung by the English seamen headed to the New World. I always sang along to the song but it wasn’t until I was exposed to this course that I really grasped the message, especially the line “For glory, God and gold and the Virginia Company.” Glory, God and gold are synonymous with the terms mercantilism, religion and colonialism which were the three primary ideologies that the European powers used as reason to their maritime exploration. Mercantilism was the economic system that dominated European markets. These nations were concerned with high exports and obtaining precious metals to boost their economic status (Britannica Encyclopaedia). This relates directly to a line in the song: “For the New World is like heaven and we’ll all be rich and free.” Religion, in addition to being one of the ideologies for exploration was specifically used in colonisation to convert the indigenous people to Christianity. According to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, colonialism was the practice of conquering a group of people in territories of which the conquerors did not own. The spread of Christianity by the Europeans explains why the faith is quite popular among the Caribbean nations while also explaining the diversification of religion. There are several different types of Christian faiths due to the mixing of people that came and saw the creation of new religions, for example, Rastafarianism, Spiritual Baptists (image 3) and the Trinidad Orisha. Colonialism resulted in the wiping out of the Amerindian populations which then resulted in the importation of White, African, Indian, Chinese and other races to work for the European powers. These various races accounted for the population diversity in the Caribbean as we know it today.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne2tzfxQ6T4
Image 4: A screen capture from the video of "The Virginia Company"
Boodan, Shastri. Members of a Shouter Baptist Church Celebrating. Digital image.Guardian. Guardian, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.
Kohn, Margaret. "Colonialism." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 09 May 2006. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. .

Objective 3

dillonramadin — 2017-04-12 01:24:23 UTC

Image 5: A rush of people seen at the first Starbucks store opening in Trinidad.

A major issue in the Caribbean today is concerned with the loss of our own culture. Not only do we import food and other basic necessities from the larger nations (specifically the US), we also import their culture. This cultural imperialism is mediated by globalisation and mass media. With the increase of smartphones and the availability of the internet, Caribbean people are feeding themselves with things that are not theirs yet ted to question why we are losing our identity. This is evident in many areas but music, festivals and food were of particular interest to me. American music is hard to get away from. Turning on the radio most times leads to a song from the US but other than this showing that we prefer American music to our own, the messages of these songs can affect how we see ourselves and the language we use.

Another way in which we are are losing our culture is with the recent adoption of Halloween which can be seen in the forms of fetes (image 6). Lastly, and of most interest to myself was the preference for American foods (usually fast food chains). These businesses are becoming more common as we shift away from local foods because we may see the foreign food as “exotic". Image 5 shows the first Starbucks opening in Trinidad and the lines that went out of the shop due to the mad rush for this “fancy” coffee.

Multitudes of people at Starbucks opening. Digital image. Facebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017. .

Image 6 (Below): A screen capture 2016 Halloween themed fete in a popular nightclub in Trinidad.

Reflection

dillonramadin — 2017-04-12 04:30:00 UTC

Objective 4: Self-evaluation of learning for the semester.