Joanna Bullivant
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265390
- eISBN:
- 9780191760440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265390.003.0014
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The opera The Sugar Reapers (1962–5), by Alan Bush (1900–95), is doubly outside the communist bloc: the work of an English communist, set in the remote South American colony of British Guiana. Yet ...
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The opera The Sugar Reapers (1962–5), by Alan Bush (1900–95), is doubly outside the communist bloc: the work of an English communist, set in the remote South American colony of British Guiana. Yet far from being an isolated curiosity, it addresses crucial aesthetic issues in post-war communism. As an enthusiast for the call for nationalist socialist realism that emanated from the Soviet Union in 1948, Bush faced particular difficulties in composing a work for British Guiana. What did national music mean in the context of an ethnically and culturally diverse population? And how was the danger of exoticism to be avoided? Tracing Bush's use of Guianese music, this chapter reveals a work indicative of the paradoxes of socialist realism, and creative in navigating these paradoxes. The work's political context and performance history are addressed as starting points for further investigation of communist cultural engagement with the Third World.Less
The opera The Sugar Reapers (1962–5), by Alan Bush (1900–95), is doubly outside the communist bloc: the work of an English communist, set in the remote South American colony of British Guiana. Yet far from being an isolated curiosity, it addresses crucial aesthetic issues in post-war communism. As an enthusiast for the call for nationalist socialist realism that emanated from the Soviet Union in 1948, Bush faced particular difficulties in composing a work for British Guiana. What did national music mean in the context of an ethnically and culturally diverse population? And how was the danger of exoticism to be avoided? Tracing Bush's use of Guianese music, this chapter reveals a work indicative of the paradoxes of socialist realism, and creative in navigating these paradoxes. The work's political context and performance history are addressed as starting points for further investigation of communist cultural engagement with the Third World.
Paul Younger
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195391640
- eISBN:
- 9780199866649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195391640.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
In Guyana, the plantation owners were largely absentee capitalists, and the former slaves, who had no other livelihood available, simply moved into settlements beside the plantations and continued to ...
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In Guyana, the plantation owners were largely absentee capitalists, and the former slaves, who had no other livelihood available, simply moved into settlements beside the plantations and continued to work on the plantations with the newly arrived Indians. When the Indians later also moved into the settlements, their small mandir temples were close copies of the nearby Afro‐Guyanese churches. Because some Brāhmans among the North Indian workers could recite the Rāmcharitmānas, they became the pandits or preachers of the North Indian tradition, while pūjaris who could go into trance became the leaders of a South Indian tradition centered on the goddess Māriyamman. In the confined social atmosphere, these two invented traditions became the exclusive forms of Hindu worship. Political independence saw the development of some rivalry between the previously well‐integrated Afro‐Guyanese and Indo‐Guyanese communities.Less
In Guyana, the plantation owners were largely absentee capitalists, and the former slaves, who had no other livelihood available, simply moved into settlements beside the plantations and continued to work on the plantations with the newly arrived Indians. When the Indians later also moved into the settlements, their small mandir temples were close copies of the nearby Afro‐Guyanese churches. Because some Brāhmans among the North Indian workers could recite the Rāmcharitmānas, they became the pandits or preachers of the North Indian tradition, while pūjaris who could go into trance became the leaders of a South Indian tradition centered on the goddess Māriyamman. In the confined social atmosphere, these two invented traditions became the exclusive forms of Hindu worship. Political independence saw the development of some rivalry between the previously well‐integrated Afro‐Guyanese and Indo‐Guyanese communities.
Sarah A. Curtis
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394184
- eISBN:
- 9780199866595
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394184.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Religion
This chapter examines the formation of a mission in Mana, French Guiana, run by the SSJC under Javouhey's direction. First intended as a settlement for French immigrants, this colony was transformed ...
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This chapter examines the formation of a mission in Mana, French Guiana, run by the SSJC under Javouhey's direction. First intended as a settlement for French immigrants, this colony was transformed into one for Africans seized in the now illegal slave trade. Javouhey and about a dozen SSJC were tasked with educating and “civilizing” five hundred Africans in view of their eventual liberation. Mana was run as a cooperative agricultural settlement with parallels to the seventeenth‐century Jesuit reductions in Paraguay and also to contemporary utopian colonies. Although at first the French administration gave Javouhey complete control, French officials eventually took over the colony due to concerns that it was not economically profitable.Less
This chapter examines the formation of a mission in Mana, French Guiana, run by the SSJC under Javouhey's direction. First intended as a settlement for French immigrants, this colony was transformed into one for Africans seized in the now illegal slave trade. Javouhey and about a dozen SSJC were tasked with educating and “civilizing” five hundred Africans in view of their eventual liberation. Mana was run as a cooperative agricultural settlement with parallels to the seventeenth‐century Jesuit reductions in Paraguay and also to contemporary utopian colonies. Although at first the French administration gave Javouhey complete control, French officials eventually took over the colony due to concerns that it was not economically profitable.
Rebecca Moore
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195156829
- eISBN:
- 9780199784806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515682X.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This essay examines the conspiracy theories that have emerged to explain the mass murder-suicides of People’s Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana, in November 1978. These theories fall into three ...
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This essay examines the conspiracy theories that have emerged to explain the mass murder-suicides of People’s Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana, in November 1978. These theories fall into three main categories: those produced by professional conspiracists who tend to see conspiracies everywhere; a subgroup of the professionals, which comprises Internet conspiracy sites; and theories developed by nonprofessionals that concentrate primarily on Jonestown. These theories show that in the absence of a credible narrative, that is, a believable reconstruction of what happened in Jonestown and why, alternative explanations arise. The conspiracy theories attempt to make sense of what appears ultimately senseless: that parents willingly killed their children and their elders, and that they willingly chose a rather painful death. Instead of accepting this possibility, the conspiracy theories provide alternatives that blame conspirators for the deaths.Less
This essay examines the conspiracy theories that have emerged to explain the mass murder-suicides of People’s Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana, in November 1978. These theories fall into three main categories: those produced by professional conspiracists who tend to see conspiracies everywhere; a subgroup of the professionals, which comprises Internet conspiracy sites; and theories developed by nonprofessionals that concentrate primarily on Jonestown. These theories show that in the absence of a credible narrative, that is, a believable reconstruction of what happened in Jonestown and why, alternative explanations arise. The conspiracy theories attempt to make sense of what appears ultimately senseless: that parents willingly killed their children and their elders, and that they willingly chose a rather painful death. Instead of accepting this possibility, the conspiracy theories provide alternatives that blame conspirators for the deaths.
Frederick T. Graybeal
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195125788
- eISBN:
- 9780199832927
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195125789.003.0014
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter discusses the Camp Caiman gold project in French Guiana. Topics include the increased role of local communities and NGOs in bringing environmental problems to the attention of ...
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This chapter discusses the Camp Caiman gold project in French Guiana. Topics include the increased role of local communities and NGOs in bringing environmental problems to the attention of governments; the need of governments for clear and specific legislative commitments to environmental protection in mining and petroleum legislation and a clear legislative and administrative mandate that will lead to the selection mining an petroleum companies that have well‐established environmental protection track records and the capability to finance environmental protection. In addition, this section discusses the need for legislation and contracts to establish fiscal regimes that encourage environmentally sound mining and drilling practices as well as the need for NGOs and international organizations to play a stronger role in facilitating the sharing of experience among countries with regard to environmental and biodiversity protection.Less
This chapter discusses the Camp Caiman gold project in French Guiana. Topics include the increased role of local communities and NGOs in bringing environmental problems to the attention of governments; the need of governments for clear and specific legislative commitments to environmental protection in mining and petroleum legislation and a clear legislative and administrative mandate that will lead to the selection mining an petroleum companies that have well‐established environmental protection track records and the capability to finance environmental protection. In addition, this section discusses the need for legislation and contracts to establish fiscal regimes that encourage environmentally sound mining and drilling practices as well as the need for NGOs and international organizations to play a stronger role in facilitating the sharing of experience among countries with regard to environmental and biodiversity protection.
Vibert C. "Cambridge
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628460117
- eISBN:
- 9781626746480
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628460117.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This book is the first in-depth study of Guyanese musical life. It is also a detailed description of the social, economic, and political conditions that have encouraged and sometimes discouraged ...
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This book is the first in-depth study of Guyanese musical life. It is also a detailed description of the social, economic, and political conditions that have encouraged and sometimes discouraged musical and cultural creativity in Guyana. It explores these interactions in Guyana during the three political eras that the society experienced as it moved from being a British colony to an independent nation. The first era to be considered is the period of mature colonial governance, guided by the dictates of “new imperialism,” which extended from 1900 to 1953. The second era, the period of internal self-government and the preparation for independence, extends from 1953, the year of the first general elections under universal adult suffrage, to 1966, the year when the colony gained its political independence. The third phase, 1966 to 2000, describes the early postcolonial era. The book reveals how the issues of race, class, gender, and ideology deeply influenced who in Guyanese multicultural society obtained access to musical instruction and media outlets and thus who received recognition. It also describes the close connections between Guyanese musicians and Caribbean artists from throughout the region and traces the exodus of Guyanese musicians to the great cities of the world, a theme often neglected in Caribbean studies. The book concludes that the practices of governance across the twentieth century exerted disproportionate influence in the creation, production, distribution, and consumption of music.Less
This book is the first in-depth study of Guyanese musical life. It is also a detailed description of the social, economic, and political conditions that have encouraged and sometimes discouraged musical and cultural creativity in Guyana. It explores these interactions in Guyana during the three political eras that the society experienced as it moved from being a British colony to an independent nation. The first era to be considered is the period of mature colonial governance, guided by the dictates of “new imperialism,” which extended from 1900 to 1953. The second era, the period of internal self-government and the preparation for independence, extends from 1953, the year of the first general elections under universal adult suffrage, to 1966, the year when the colony gained its political independence. The third phase, 1966 to 2000, describes the early postcolonial era. The book reveals how the issues of race, class, gender, and ideology deeply influenced who in Guyanese multicultural society obtained access to musical instruction and media outlets and thus who received recognition. It also describes the close connections between Guyanese musicians and Caribbean artists from throughout the region and traces the exodus of Guyanese musicians to the great cities of the world, a theme often neglected in Caribbean studies. The book concludes that the practices of governance across the twentieth century exerted disproportionate influence in the creation, production, distribution, and consumption of music.
Gillian Richards-Greaves
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496831156
- eISBN:
- 9781496831200
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496831156.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This book examines how African-Guyanese in New York City participate in the Come to My Kwe-Kwe ritual to facilitate rediasporization, that is, the creation of a newer diaspora from an existing one. ...
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This book examines how African-Guyanese in New York City participate in the Come to My Kwe-Kwe ritual to facilitate rediasporization, that is, the creation of a newer diaspora from an existing one. Since the fall of 2005, African-Guyanese in New York City have celebrated Come to My Kwe-Kwe (more recently called Kwe-Kwe Night) on the Friday evening before Labor Day. Come to My Kwe-Kwe is a reenactment of a uniquely African-Guyanese pre-wedding ritual called kweh-kweh, and sometimes referred to as karkalay, mayan, kweh-keh, and pele. A typical traditional (wedding-based) kweh-kweh has approximately ten ritual segments, which include the pouring of libation to welcome or appease the ancestors; a procession from the groom’s residence to the bride’s residence or central kweh-kweh venue; the hiding of the bride; and the negotiation of bride price. Each ritual segment is executed with music and dance, which allow for commentary on conjugal matters, such as sex, domestication, submissiveness, and hard work. Come to My Kwe-Kwe replicates the overarching segments of the traditional kweh-kweh, but a couple (male and female) from the audience acts as the bride and groom, and props simulate the boundaries of the traditional performance space, such as the gate and the bride’s home. This book draws on more than a decade of ethnographic research data and demonstrates how Come to My Kwe-Kwe allows African-Guyanese-Americans to negotiate complex, overlapping identities in their new homeland, by combining elements from the past and present and reinterpreting them to facilitate rediasporization and ensure group survival.Less
This book examines how African-Guyanese in New York City participate in the Come to My Kwe-Kwe ritual to facilitate rediasporization, that is, the creation of a newer diaspora from an existing one. Since the fall of 2005, African-Guyanese in New York City have celebrated Come to My Kwe-Kwe (more recently called Kwe-Kwe Night) on the Friday evening before Labor Day. Come to My Kwe-Kwe is a reenactment of a uniquely African-Guyanese pre-wedding ritual called kweh-kweh, and sometimes referred to as karkalay, mayan, kweh-keh, and pele. A typical traditional (wedding-based) kweh-kweh has approximately ten ritual segments, which include the pouring of libation to welcome or appease the ancestors; a procession from the groom’s residence to the bride’s residence or central kweh-kweh venue; the hiding of the bride; and the negotiation of bride price. Each ritual segment is executed with music and dance, which allow for commentary on conjugal matters, such as sex, domestication, submissiveness, and hard work. Come to My Kwe-Kwe replicates the overarching segments of the traditional kweh-kweh, but a couple (male and female) from the audience acts as the bride and groom, and props simulate the boundaries of the traditional performance space, such as the gate and the bride’s home. This book draws on more than a decade of ethnographic research data and demonstrates how Come to My Kwe-Kwe allows African-Guyanese-Americans to negotiate complex, overlapping identities in their new homeland, by combining elements from the past and present and reinterpreting them to facilitate rediasporization and ensure group survival.
Dave Ramsaran and Linden F. Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496818041
- eISBN:
- 9781496818089
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496818041.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
In 1833, the abolition of slavery in the British Empire led to the import of exploited South Asian indentured workers in the Caribbean under extreme oppression. This book concentrates on the Indian ...
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In 1833, the abolition of slavery in the British Empire led to the import of exploited South Asian indentured workers in the Caribbean under extreme oppression. This book concentrates on the Indian descendants' processes of mixing, assimilating, and adapting while trying desperately to hold on to that which marks a group of people as distinct. In some ways, the lived experience of the Indian community in Guyana and Trinidad represents a cultural contradiction of belonging and non-belonging. In other parts of the Caribbean, people of Indian descent seem so absorbed by the more dominant African culture and through intermarriage that Indo-Caribbean heritage seems less central. The book lays out a context within which to develop a broader view of Indians in Guyana and Trinidad, a numerical majority in both countries. They address issues of race and ethnicity but move beyond these familiar aspects to track such factors as ritual, gender, family, and daily life. The book gauges not only an unrelenting process of assimilative creolization on these descendants of India, but also the resilience of this culture in the face of modernization and globalization.Less
In 1833, the abolition of slavery in the British Empire led to the import of exploited South Asian indentured workers in the Caribbean under extreme oppression. This book concentrates on the Indian descendants' processes of mixing, assimilating, and adapting while trying desperately to hold on to that which marks a group of people as distinct. In some ways, the lived experience of the Indian community in Guyana and Trinidad represents a cultural contradiction of belonging and non-belonging. In other parts of the Caribbean, people of Indian descent seem so absorbed by the more dominant African culture and through intermarriage that Indo-Caribbean heritage seems less central. The book lays out a context within which to develop a broader view of Indians in Guyana and Trinidad, a numerical majority in both countries. They address issues of race and ethnicity but move beyond these familiar aspects to track such factors as ritual, gender, family, and daily life. The book gauges not only an unrelenting process of assimilative creolization on these descendants of India, but also the resilience of this culture in the face of modernization and globalization.
Charles O.H. Parkinson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199231935
- eISBN:
- 9780191716157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231935.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Legal History
During independence negotiations in British Guiana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, the debate about bills of rights did not focus on the merits of bills of rights in protecting the rights of ...
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During independence negotiations in British Guiana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, the debate about bills of rights did not focus on the merits of bills of rights in protecting the rights of individuals but on their capacity to entrench in the constitution the basic democratic features of the Westminster system of government. There was great apprehension about independence from groups that had different views from the party likely to be in government during the transfer of power. One approach taken by such groups was to try to lock in the constitutional status quo and therefore minimize the political uncertainty after independence. The bill of rights was an important component of this entrenchment package. This reflected a major shift in thinking about the use of a bill of rights that did not occur to the same extent in either Asia or Africa.Less
During independence negotiations in British Guiana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, the debate about bills of rights did not focus on the merits of bills of rights in protecting the rights of individuals but on their capacity to entrench in the constitution the basic democratic features of the Westminster system of government. There was great apprehension about independence from groups that had different views from the party likely to be in government during the transfer of power. One approach taken by such groups was to try to lock in the constitutional status quo and therefore minimize the political uncertainty after independence. The bill of rights was an important component of this entrenchment package. This reflected a major shift in thinking about the use of a bill of rights that did not occur to the same extent in either Asia or Africa.
John Thieme
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199595006
- eISBN:
- 9780191731464
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199595006.003.0019
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, African History: BCE to 500CE
Post‐Bernal debates about the extent to which classical Greek culture was informed by Afroasiatic elements are interestingly mirrored in revisionist accounts of the genealogies of Caribbean cultures. ...
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Post‐Bernal debates about the extent to which classical Greek culture was informed by Afroasiatic elements are interestingly mirrored in revisionist accounts of the genealogies of Caribbean cultures. While Derek Walcott and Wilson Harris are the best‐known Anglophone Caribbean writers to have engaged with Homer and classical civilization, Denis Williams’ Other Leopards (1963), the finest novel about the Caribbean encounter with Africa to have appeared to date, is arguably the text that most fully excavates the intersection of African and European elements in the Caribbean psyche. Set in a “Sudanic” country, the novel suggests an alternative provenance for the North African strands in the “roots of classical civilization”. It problematizes originary conceptions of cultures, moving towards a view of Caribbean and North African identity that has much in common with Black Athena, through its unearthing of submerged sub‐Saharan African cultural traces in both the landscape and its ambivalent Guyanese protagonist's psyche.Less
Post‐Bernal debates about the extent to which classical Greek culture was informed by Afroasiatic elements are interestingly mirrored in revisionist accounts of the genealogies of Caribbean cultures. While Derek Walcott and Wilson Harris are the best‐known Anglophone Caribbean writers to have engaged with Homer and classical civilization, Denis Williams’ Other Leopards (1963), the finest novel about the Caribbean encounter with Africa to have appeared to date, is arguably the text that most fully excavates the intersection of African and European elements in the Caribbean psyche. Set in a “Sudanic” country, the novel suggests an alternative provenance for the North African strands in the “roots of classical civilization”. It problematizes originary conceptions of cultures, moving towards a view of Caribbean and North African identity that has much in common with Black Athena, through its unearthing of submerged sub‐Saharan African cultural traces in both the landscape and its ambivalent Guyanese protagonist's psyche.
Vijay Prashad
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199259885
- eISBN:
- 9780191744587
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259885.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Asian History
Over the course of the past two centuries, millions of people from the South Asian subcontinent moved to the continents of the world. Unlike earlier migrants, Indians who formed part of this more ...
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Over the course of the past two centuries, millions of people from the South Asian subcontinent moved to the continents of the world. Unlike earlier migrants, Indians who formed part of this more recent diaspora tended to retain links with their homeland, making their diaspora one which was more inflected by colonialism and nationalism. Consequently, the diaspora that has emerged in Britain and North America cannot be easily disentangled from the anti-colonial struggles of the last century and a half and as a result the emergence and manifestation of nationalism in modern South Asia has played an integral part in defining and structuring the desi diaspora.Less
Over the course of the past two centuries, millions of people from the South Asian subcontinent moved to the continents of the world. Unlike earlier migrants, Indians who formed part of this more recent diaspora tended to retain links with their homeland, making their diaspora one which was more inflected by colonialism and nationalism. Consequently, the diaspora that has emerged in Britain and North America cannot be easily disentangled from the anti-colonial struggles of the last century and a half and as a result the emergence and manifestation of nationalism in modern South Asia has played an integral part in defining and structuring the desi diaspora.
Colin A. Palmer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807834169
- eISBN:
- 9781469603919
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807899618_palmer.14
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This book concludes with George Chapman's celebration of Sir Walter Raleigh's encounter with Guiana in his quest for the fabled El Dorado. This ode to the new promised land reflected the optic of the ...
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This book concludes with George Chapman's celebration of Sir Walter Raleigh's encounter with Guiana in his quest for the fabled El Dorado. This ode to the new promised land reflected the optic of the colonizer and his bizarre fantasies about the colonized peoples' submission and acquiescence to the domination of outsiders. There is no record that the indigenous peoples sanctioned their colonization, nor had the African peoples agreed to cross the Atlantic in order to join the colony as enslaved persons. The Indians had come voluntarily as indentured workers, but their treatment was hardly better than what slaves received. The peoples of Guiana's raison d'être was to serve the colonial masters and to do so with pride and gratitude.Less
This book concludes with George Chapman's celebration of Sir Walter Raleigh's encounter with Guiana in his quest for the fabled El Dorado. This ode to the new promised land reflected the optic of the colonizer and his bizarre fantasies about the colonized peoples' submission and acquiescence to the domination of outsiders. There is no record that the indigenous peoples sanctioned their colonization, nor had the African peoples agreed to cross the Atlantic in order to join the colony as enslaved persons. The Indians had come voluntarily as indentured workers, but their treatment was hardly better than what slaves received. The peoples of Guiana's raison d'être was to serve the colonial masters and to do so with pride and gratitude.
Richard Price
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226680583
- eISBN:
- 9780226680576
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226680576.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
Thirty-five years into his research among the descendants of rebel slaves living in the South American rain forest, the author of this book encountered Tooy, a priest, philosopher, and healer living ...
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Thirty-five years into his research among the descendants of rebel slaves living in the South American rain forest, the author of this book encountered Tooy, a priest, philosopher, and healer living in a rough shantytown on the outskirts of Cayenne, French Guiana. Tooy is a time traveler who crosses boundaries between centuries, continents, the worlds of the living and the dead, and the visible and invisible. With a blend of storytelling and scholarship, the book recounts the mutually enlightening and mind-expanding journeys of these two intellectuals. Included on the itinerary for this hallucinatory expedition: forays into the eighteenth century to talk with slaves newly arrived from Africa; leaps into the midst of battles against colonial armies; close encounters with double agents and femme fatale forest spirits; and trips underwater to speak to the comely sea gods who control the world's money supply. The book draws on the author's long-term ethnographic and archival research, but above all on Tooy's teachings, songs, stories, and secret languages to explore how Africans in the Americas have created marvelous new worlds of the imagination.Less
Thirty-five years into his research among the descendants of rebel slaves living in the South American rain forest, the author of this book encountered Tooy, a priest, philosopher, and healer living in a rough shantytown on the outskirts of Cayenne, French Guiana. Tooy is a time traveler who crosses boundaries between centuries, continents, the worlds of the living and the dead, and the visible and invisible. With a blend of storytelling and scholarship, the book recounts the mutually enlightening and mind-expanding journeys of these two intellectuals. Included on the itinerary for this hallucinatory expedition: forays into the eighteenth century to talk with slaves newly arrived from Africa; leaps into the midst of battles against colonial armies; close encounters with double agents and femme fatale forest spirits; and trips underwater to speak to the comely sea gods who control the world's money supply. The book draws on the author's long-term ethnographic and archival research, but above all on Tooy's teachings, songs, stories, and secret languages to explore how Africans in the Americas have created marvelous new worlds of the imagination.
Peter Redfield
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520219847
- eISBN:
- 9780520923423
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520219847.003.0006
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
This chapter gives a striking account of an affable French businessman, Georges, who, because of family connections, had been invited to indulge in his passion for space at the center of French ...
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This chapter gives a striking account of an affable French businessman, Georges, who, because of family connections, had been invited to indulge in his passion for space at the center of French technological pride, touring the site and watching a rocket rise. Georges was convinced that international space ventures offered the best possibilities for a peaceful future. Unlike many products of high technology, launch rockets are not items of mass production, but very singular objects. Each represents a substantial investment of materials and hours upon hours of labor, unified and dramatically tested. Even as rockets and satellites represent clear and limited objects, the vast alignments of technologies behind them are nominally acknowledged but effectively hidden. Within the representational field of space, Ariane oscillated between overlapping demands of European cooperation and French national interest. For the most part, French and European interests aligned, in keeping with strong French commitment to a united Europe. However, at points, the interests of Europe and France diverged, and one of the places they did so most concretely was with regard to the Guiana Space Center.Less
This chapter gives a striking account of an affable French businessman, Georges, who, because of family connections, had been invited to indulge in his passion for space at the center of French technological pride, touring the site and watching a rocket rise. Georges was convinced that international space ventures offered the best possibilities for a peaceful future. Unlike many products of high technology, launch rockets are not items of mass production, but very singular objects. Each represents a substantial investment of materials and hours upon hours of labor, unified and dramatically tested. Even as rockets and satellites represent clear and limited objects, the vast alignments of technologies behind them are nominally acknowledged but effectively hidden. Within the representational field of space, Ariane oscillated between overlapping demands of European cooperation and French national interest. For the most part, French and European interests aligned, in keeping with strong French commitment to a united Europe. However, at points, the interests of Europe and France diverged, and one of the places they did so most concretely was with regard to the Guiana Space Center.
Peter Earle
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381731
- eISBN:
- 9781781382301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381731.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter and the next describe the partnership of Thomas and William, the sons of William Earle senior, who inherited both the slave-trading business of their father and the Italian business of ...
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This chapter and the next describe the partnership of Thomas and William, the sons of William Earle senior, who inherited both the slave-trading business of their father and the Italian business of their uncle. Chapter 10 uses the same sources as Chapter 4 to quantify the slave trading of the brothers which was on a larger scale than that of their father. Two descriptive sources provide more depth, the autobiography of William Butterworth, a boy who worked on a Earle ship in the 1780s, and the diary written in Pidgin-English by one of the local slave traders which shows the point of view of an African as well as giving a terrifying insight into African society. The chapter ends with a discussion of the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and speculates on why the Earles should have given up this trade some time before it became illegal.Less
This chapter and the next describe the partnership of Thomas and William, the sons of William Earle senior, who inherited both the slave-trading business of their father and the Italian business of their uncle. Chapter 10 uses the same sources as Chapter 4 to quantify the slave trading of the brothers which was on a larger scale than that of their father. Two descriptive sources provide more depth, the autobiography of William Butterworth, a boy who worked on a Earle ship in the 1780s, and the diary written in Pidgin-English by one of the local slave traders which shows the point of view of an African as well as giving a terrifying insight into African society. The chapter ends with a discussion of the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and speculates on why the Earles should have given up this trade some time before it became illegal.
Peter Earle
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381731
- eISBN:
- 9781781382301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381731.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The end of trade with Livorno and the slave trade forced the Earle brothers to reduce their involvement in trade overall while seeking new specializations, such as the import of cotton from Guiana ...
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The end of trade with Livorno and the slave trade forced the Earle brothers to reduce their involvement in trade overall while seeking new specializations, such as the import of cotton from Guiana and Brazil and agricultural products, especially oilseeds, from Canada and the Baltic. Meanwhile, they lived as gentlemen, both brothers building large country houses, while William became a major collector of paintings. Thomas died in 1822 and was praised for his contributions to public service and his sociability as well as his success as a merchant. William survived a further 17 years, much of it in Rome. The book ends with an attempt to explain the success of the Earles which rested on striking a profitable balance between innovation and caution and an awareness of the ever-present possibility of disaster and bankruptcy.Less
The end of trade with Livorno and the slave trade forced the Earle brothers to reduce their involvement in trade overall while seeking new specializations, such as the import of cotton from Guiana and Brazil and agricultural products, especially oilseeds, from Canada and the Baltic. Meanwhile, they lived as gentlemen, both brothers building large country houses, while William became a major collector of paintings. Thomas died in 1822 and was praised for his contributions to public service and his sociability as well as his success as a merchant. William survived a further 17 years, much of it in Rome. The book ends with an attempt to explain the success of the Earles which rested on striking a profitable balance between innovation and caution and an awareness of the ever-present possibility of disaster and bankruptcy.
James S. Albert, Paulo Petry, and Roberto E. Reis
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268685
- eISBN:
- 9780520948501
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268685.003.0002
- Subject:
- Biology, Aquatic Biology
This chapter summarizes the major patterns of biodiversity and biogeography in Neotropical freshwaters. It describes latitudinal and altitudinal gradients in species richness and species-area ...
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This chapter summarizes the major patterns of biodiversity and biogeography in Neotropical freshwaters. It describes latitudinal and altitudinal gradients in species richness and species-area relationships and evaluates the role of barriers and corridors to the formation of the species-rich Amazon-Orinoco-Guiana Core and the highly endemic Continental Periphery. It proposes testable macroevolutionary hypotheses for the elevated species richness of the Neotropical ichthyofauna based on rates of speciation, extinction, and dispersal of taxa on the Brazilian and Guiana shields and in the Amazonian lowlands.Less
This chapter summarizes the major patterns of biodiversity and biogeography in Neotropical freshwaters. It describes latitudinal and altitudinal gradients in species richness and species-area relationships and evaluates the role of barriers and corridors to the formation of the species-rich Amazon-Orinoco-Guiana Core and the highly endemic Continental Periphery. It proposes testable macroevolutionary hypotheses for the elevated species richness of the Neotropical ichthyofauna based on rates of speciation, extinction, and dispersal of taxa on the Brazilian and Guiana shields and in the Amazonian lowlands.
Trevor Burnard
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226286105
- eISBN:
- 9780226286242
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226286242.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
The plantation system was at its height after the first quarter of the eighteenth century. It made British America wealthy and valuable within the British Empire. Slavery and colonization were ...
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The plantation system was at its height after the first quarter of the eighteenth century. It made British America wealthy and valuable within the British Empire. Slavery and colonization were closely related but were problematic to imperial theorists like Benjamin Franklin and Adam Smith. A detailed examination of the wealth of the plantations, however, shows that the plantation system was expansive, modern, and innovative. Contrary to earlier historiography, British American plantations did not decline over time but flourished in places like the American South and British Guiana into the nineteenth century. What needs to be explained is why a system that promoted social and economic inequality was supported by ordinary white men. The reason was that while rich men benefited most from living in slave societies, ordinary white men also received economic benefits, especially if they themselves became slave owners. The wealth of the plantations made imperial officials want to foster this type of colonization even if white population levels remained low. It encouraged, however, a short term attitude among planters and merchants to gaining money and increased tendencies to work slaves excessively hard. Slaves became disposable people as long as the slave trade allowed for fresh inputs of labor.Less
The plantation system was at its height after the first quarter of the eighteenth century. It made British America wealthy and valuable within the British Empire. Slavery and colonization were closely related but were problematic to imperial theorists like Benjamin Franklin and Adam Smith. A detailed examination of the wealth of the plantations, however, shows that the plantation system was expansive, modern, and innovative. Contrary to earlier historiography, British American plantations did not decline over time but flourished in places like the American South and British Guiana into the nineteenth century. What needs to be explained is why a system that promoted social and economic inequality was supported by ordinary white men. The reason was that while rich men benefited most from living in slave societies, ordinary white men also received economic benefits, especially if they themselves became slave owners. The wealth of the plantations made imperial officials want to foster this type of colonization even if white population levels remained low. It encouraged, however, a short term attitude among planters and merchants to gaining money and increased tendencies to work slaves excessively hard. Slaves became disposable people as long as the slave trade allowed for fresh inputs of labor.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226680583
- eISBN:
- 9780226680576
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226680576.003.0006
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
This chapter focuses on the presence of the many cats in the house of Tooy in Cayenne, French Guiana. Tooy and his assistants are always driving the cats away but they keep coming back. They do not ...
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This chapter focuses on the presence of the many cats in the house of Tooy in Cayenne, French Guiana. Tooy and his assistants are always driving the cats away but they keep coming back. They do not like to have cats in the house because the Komanti spirits that Tooy deals with cannot tolerate these miniature versions of their tiger-selves, nor can he hear their true name. This chapter also discusses Tooy's story telling of his personal encounter with a tiger and his father who had powerful Komanti spirit.Less
This chapter focuses on the presence of the many cats in the house of Tooy in Cayenne, French Guiana. Tooy and his assistants are always driving the cats away but they keep coming back. They do not like to have cats in the house because the Komanti spirits that Tooy deals with cannot tolerate these miniature versions of their tiger-selves, nor can he hear their true name. This chapter also discusses Tooy's story telling of his personal encounter with a tiger and his father who had powerful Komanti spirit.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226680583
- eISBN:
- 9780226680576
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226680576.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
This chapter discusses Tooy's enstoolment as the first Saramaka captain of Cayenne, French Guiana on June 30, 2001. It describes the enstoolment celebration and Tooy's admission that he was worried ...
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This chapter discusses Tooy's enstoolment as the first Saramaka captain of Cayenne, French Guiana on June 30, 2001. It describes the enstoolment celebration and Tooy's admission that he was worried about the envy and the sorcery his new position will inevitably bring. He also admitted that he was not at all sure about being a captain.Less
This chapter discusses Tooy's enstoolment as the first Saramaka captain of Cayenne, French Guiana on June 30, 2001. It describes the enstoolment celebration and Tooy's admission that he was worried about the envy and the sorcery his new position will inevitably bring. He also admitted that he was not at all sure about being a captain.
