Copper pot- used for boiling of cane juice for sugar extraction.

   Water pump- used for fetching water from wells.      

   Jeweller wheel- used for bracelet making.

 

    Chulha- for cooking                  

Pictures of these artefacts were taken from “The Indian Caribbean Museum” located in Waterloo Trinidad. I believe that the collection shows the hard ships in which the Indian indentured labourers faced when they came into the Caribbean to work. For example the chulha was used by the Indians for cooking even though there were stoves which were present during this time. The chulha shows ethnocentrism as the Europeans saw themselves as being superior in race than the Indians which lead to the Indians having to use crude forms to cook food.

Both the jeweller’s wheel and the water pump shows revisionism as it was taught that the Indian indentured labourers only worked in the fields. However, the jeweller’s wheel lets us see that the Indians also worked as jewellers. The water pump lets us see that some Indians also worked as domestic servants where they would pump water from underground wells.

This collection of artefacts also helped in defining the Caribbean as the grinding wheel and the copper pot were vital in the sugar industry in the Caribbean as the Caribbean especially Jamaica, Barbados and etc. were known as the sugar producing kings. These artefacts also support the historical definition of the Caribbean as it describes the area that experienced European colonization, slavery, indentureship and the plantation system. 

With these definitions, we can discuss why Puerto Rico, Guyana, Belize, Suriname may or may not be considered part of the Caribbean.

 | Country | Geographical definition | Historical definition | Geological definition | Political definition | Sense of wanting
 | Puerto Rico

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| Guyana

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| Belize

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| Suriname

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From the table above, we can see that all four countries fulfil the requirements for the historical and political definitions of the Caribbean as all were colonised by a European power and they all show a sense of wanting to be classified as Caribbean country as Guyana, Belize and Suriname are members of CARICOM (a Caribbean community) and Puerto Rico markets themself as the Caribbean destination of the USA. However, only Puerto Rico fulfilled the requirement for the geological definition of the Caribbean as it is the only country out of the four to be situated on the Caribbean plate and only Puerto Rico and Belize fulfill the requirements for the geological definitions shores are washed by the Caribbean Sea.

Pictures of Guyana, Belize and Suriname flags were taken from https://www.caricom.org/

Picture of Puerto Rico flag was taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico