Jamaican cultural symbols as transethnic artifacts: How black immigrant vendors construct boundaries of racial consciousness at a Caribbean festival

Ethnicities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146879682199008
Author(s):  
Marcelle M Medford
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
Racial Consciousness ◽  
Black Immigrants ◽  
Economic Returns ◽  
Cultural Symbols ◽  
Black Immigrant ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Entrepreneurial Efforts ◽  
The Way

This study demonstrates how black immigrants strategically deploy symbols of nationality within the context of black spaces to construct a politics of solidarity, rather than ethnic distance, with African Americans and other blacks. It draws from the ethnographic data of black craft vendors at a Caribbean festival and shows the way Jamaican cultural symbols become transethnic artifacts – racialized objects that could be adopted by black people from a range of ethnicities to signal black diasporic consciousness. This study reveals that black immigrant vendors construct boundaries of racial consciousness through transethnic artifacts in three overlapping ways: (1) by explicitly connecting Jamaica to Africa instead of privileging the Caribbean; (2) creating boundaries based on black racial consciousness instead of shared ethnicity; and (3) by prioritizing psychic income, the non-economic returns on their entrepreneurial efforts. This article argues that, within the context of the festival, the symbols that black immigrants wield to signal nationality are neither inconsequential forms of symbolic ethnicity nor are they anti-African American distancing mechanisms, but are, instead, transethnic artifacts that facilitate black place-making. This process reveals the way black immigrant vendors forge diasporic meanings of blackness, rather than foster black ethnic exceptionalism.

Internal marketing of attitudes in Caribbean tourism

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne P. Crick
Keyword(s):  
Internal Marketing ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The People ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Caribbean Tourism ◽  
The Way

Tourism is the mainstay of the Caribbean and the attitude of the people in the region may have a significant impact on the success of the industry. This paper analyzes the way in which tourism authorities of three Caribbean destinations have internally marketed tourism to their host populations in order to encourage the desired attitudinal expressions. A matrix of five possible responses to tourism was developed and each of the three countries was found to occupy different positions in the matrix. An analysis of the internal marketing strategies determined that the countries adopted different approaches based on their particular challenges but none of the approaches had achieved lasting success. The study concludes with recommendations for future research.

The queer time of death: Temporality, geopolitics, and refugee rights

Sexualities ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 998-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sima Shakhsari
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Time Of Death ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
The Way

Using the ethnographic data from interviews with the Iranian queer and transgender refugee applicants in Turkey, the UNHCR, and NGOs in Istanbul, Ankara, Denizli, Kayseri, and Nevsehir, I explore the way that refugee rights as a temporally and spatially contingent concept normalizes queer and transgender refugee subjects, while managing the lives and deaths of different populations. Through examining the chronopolitics and geopolitics of rights within the refugee discourse, I point to inconsistencies in the universality of human rights and argue that while the designation of an act as “violation of human rights” committed by states or citizens, is arbitrary and contingent on the place and time of the act, the recognition of the refugee in the human rights regimes relies on essentialist and timeless notions of identity that travel in the teleological time of progress. The Iranian queer and trans refugees in Turkey are suspended in an in-between zone of recognition where rightfulness and rightlessness come together in a temporal standstill. The “protection” of trans and queer refugees under the rhetoric of rights in this in-between zone is tied to the management of life and death of populations through the politics of rightful killing.

Anthropology, Class and the ‘Big Heads’: An Ethnography of Distinctions between ‘Rough’ and ‘Posh’ amongst Women Workers in the UK Pottery Industry

2005 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Hart
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Pottery Industry ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Global Corporation ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Working Class Women ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
The Way

In the context of the take-over by a global corporation (Royal Doulton) of a family-owned and run pottery factory in Longton Stoke-on-Trent, known as ‘Beswick’, and the subsequent re-structuring of production, this paper explores the way in which women pottery workers make social distinctions between the ‘rough’ and ‘posh’, ‘proper paintresses’ and ‘big heads’ which cut into and across abstract sociological notions of class. Drawing on ethnographic data I show that for these working class women, class as lived is inherently ambiguous and contradictory and reveal the ways in which class is gendered. I build on historical and sociological studies of the pottery industry, and anthropological and related debates on class, as well as Frankenberg's study of a Welsh village, to develop my argument and draw analogies between factory and village at a number of levels. My findings support the view that class is best understood not as an abstract generalising category, but in the local and specific contexts of women's working lives. I was the first one in our family to go in decorating end and they thought I was a bit stuck-up. My sister was in clay end as a cup-handler and I had used to walk off factory without her, or wait for her to leave before I left, though she said, ‘If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have anything to paint!’ They were much freer in the clay end – had more to do with men – we thought we were one up. 1

The Archaeology of Ancestors: The Saxe/Goldstein Hypothesis Revisited

1991 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Morris
Keyword(s):  
Historical Comparison ◽  
Specific Instance ◽  
Archaeological Interpretation ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
The Dead ◽  
New Archaeology ◽  
The Way

Since the mid-1980s, debates between competing schools of archaeological interpretation have become more theoretical and abstruse, moving away from confrontations over specific methods of analyzing our data. This article reopens arguments over one of the more controversial propositions of the New Archaeology - Saxe's claim that the emergence of formal cemeteries corresponds to the appearance of agnatic lineages monopolizing vital resources through inheritance. The hypothesis is examined in three ways: through a generalized ethnological model; through specific ethnographic data from Taiwan and Kenya; and through a historical comparison of Athens from 500 to 100 BC and Rome from 200 BC to AD 200. It is argued that all three methods lead to a similar conclusion, that many societies do indeed talk about the dead in the way the Saxe/Goldstein hypothesis maintains, but that in any specific instance the cemetery/property message may well be subverted by other arguments which the buriers are making.

Does Racism Discriminate? Racial and Ethnic Discrimination Among Nigerians and Jamaicans in Houston Texas

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 884-911
Author(s):  
Caralee Jones-Obeng
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Black Immigrants ◽  
Racial Hierarchy ◽  
Black Immigrant ◽  
Caribbean Population ◽  
Racial And Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Scholarly Inquiry ◽  
The U.S

As a result of more racially inclusive immigration policies in the U.S., the African and Caribbean population has increased. Thus far, scholarly inquiry on Black immigrants have focused on their incorporation into the racial hierarchy, their experiences with racism, and their relationships with African Americans. While beneficial, these studies overlook the impact of ethnic discrimination for Black immigrants. Although all individuals of African descent share similar racialized experiences in the U.S., I hypothesize that diverse Black immigrant groups endure unique discriminatory experiences because of their ethnic identities. Thus, through in-depth interviews with 27 Nigerian and 20 Jamaican respondents, this paper explores Black immigrants’ experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination. I found that, regardless of ethnic background, 80% of my Nigerian and Jamaican respondents encountered racism. In contrast, ethnic discrimination varied between my Nigerian and Jamaican respondents. My Nigerian respondents were more likely to report their encounters with ethnic discrimination. These experiences ranged from being accused of internet scamming to being mocked for having an accent. On the other hand, not only were my Jamaican respondents less likely to report ethnic discrimination, but they were also more likely to see their ethnicity as an advantage.

Marriage and Lineal Authentication

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadav Samin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Values ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Marriage Patterns ◽  
External Threats ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines marriage patterns in Arabian history and how knowledge of these patterns became a key element of Saudi Arabia's modern genealogical culture. It begins with a review of new historical evidence from the central Arabian oasis town of al-Ghāt, which reveals the way marital patterns preserve knowledge about premodern status hierarchies. It then considers Hamad al-Jāsir's use of marital patterns as a tool of lineal authentication, a practice epitomized in his study of a historically maligned Arabian tribe, Bāhila. It also shows how al-Jāsir made use of Arabian marital patterns as a form of ethnographic data that could serve as a basis for rehabilitating the reputation of historically maligned Arabian tribes and advancing a nativist ethical blueprint for modern Saudi society in which tribal and religious values could cohere harmoniously against perceived external threats.

Black Names, Immigrant Names: Navigating Race and Ethnicity Through Personal Names

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hewan Girma
Keyword(s):  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigrant Parents ◽  
Immigrant Incorporation ◽  
Black Immigrants ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Black Immigrant ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Immigrant Identities

This article explores the naming patterns of a new African immigrant group in the United States to discuss the creative ways that Black immigrants navigate their racialized immigrant identities and their positioning vis-à-vis their ethnoracial compatriots, African Americans. I argue that the significant contention around Black names and immigrant names demonstrates that personal names are a subject worthy of in-depth investigation. Through the case study of the naming practices of first generations of Ethiopian-Americans, I examine the relevance Black immigrant parents attach to first names, their various connotations, and modes of immigrant incorporation into the dominant host society. I highlight the importance of race, ethnicity, and immigration status in naming.

The politics of representing the African diaspora in the Caribbean

1994 ◽  
Vol 68 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 301-308
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Yelvington
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
African Diaspora ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Recent Trend ◽  
Defining Moment ◽  
Caribbean Culture ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Jamaican Culture ◽  
The Way

[First paragraph]Roots of Jamaican Culture. MERVYN C. ALLEYNE. London: Pluto Press, 1988. xii + 186 pp. (Paper US$ 15.95)Guinea's Other Suns: The African Dynamic in Trinidad Culture. MAUREEN WARNER-LEWIS. Foreword by Rex Nettleford. Dover MA: The Majority Press, 1991. xxii + 207 pp. (Paper US$ 9.95)A recent trend in anthropology is defined by the interest in the role of historical and political configurations in the constitution of local cultural practices. Unfortunately, with some notable individual exceptions, this is the same anthropology which has largely ignored the Caribbean and its "Islands of History."1 Of course, this says much, much more about the way in which anthropology constructs its subject than it says about the merits of the Caribbean case and the fundamental essence of these societies, born as they were in the unforgiving and defining moment of pervasive, persuasive, and pernicious European construction of "Otherness." As Trouillot (1992:22) writes, "Whereas anthropology prefers 'pre-contact' situations - or creates 'no-contact' situations - the Caribbean is nothing but contact." If the anthropological fiction of pristine societies, uninfluenced and uncontaminated by "outside" and more powerful structures and cultures cannot be supported for the Caribbean, then many anthropologists do one or both of the two anthropologically next best things: they take us on a journey that finds us exploding the "no-contact" myth over and over (I think it is called "strawpersonism"), suddenly discovering political economy, history, and colonialism, and/or they end up constructing the "pristine" anyway by emphasizing those parts of a diaspora group's pre-Caribbean culture that are thought to remain as cultural "survivals."

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