Nick Spitzer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617031069
- eISBN:
- 9781617031076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617031069.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter explains that “Monde Créole” is a concept intended to summarize a range of interests from the “small world” of Creole culture in rural French Louisiana to the idea of global society made ...
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This chapter explains that “Monde Créole” is a concept intended to summarize a range of interests from the “small world” of Creole culture in rural French Louisiana to the idea of global society made up of several smaller worlds. It adds that these smaller worlds are in a constant state of creolizing from within and in relation to one another in local, regional, national, and global, degrees of proximity. In the context of French Louisiana, “MCréole” is used by community members in French and French Creole language to define the Creole people, Black Creoles, African French Creoles, and their social and cultural aesthetic values. Additionally, the Creole culture of the Louisiana landscape is a world that affected the global society and culture out of proportion to other social orders of a similar scale.Less
This chapter explains that “Monde Créole” is a concept intended to summarize a range of interests from the “small world” of Creole culture in rural French Louisiana to the idea of global society made up of several smaller worlds. It adds that these smaller worlds are in a constant state of creolizing from within and in relation to one another in local, regional, national, and global, degrees of proximity. In the context of French Louisiana, “MCréole” is used by community members in French and French Creole language to define the Creole people, Black Creoles, African French Creoles, and their social and cultural aesthetic values. Additionally, the Creole culture of the Louisiana landscape is a world that affected the global society and culture out of proportion to other social orders of a similar scale.
Robert Baron and Ana C. Cara
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617031069
- eISBN:
- 9781617031076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617031069.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter argues that creolization was a cultural phenomenon borne out of the need to settle cultural differences while at the same time resisting dominance by assuming a new local voice. It ...
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This chapter argues that creolization was a cultural phenomenon borne out of the need to settle cultural differences while at the same time resisting dominance by assuming a new local voice. It explains that the term “creole” has been understood in a post-colonial context as a strong defining factor of identity in Latin America, Louisiana, Cape Verde, and the islands of the southwest Indian Ocean. It adds that creole culture and its alternative forms such as “creoleness,” “créolite,” and “criollisimo,” are uniquely manifested through local as well as national expressions.Less
This chapter argues that creolization was a cultural phenomenon borne out of the need to settle cultural differences while at the same time resisting dominance by assuming a new local voice. It explains that the term “creole” has been understood in a post-colonial context as a strong defining factor of identity in Latin America, Louisiana, Cape Verde, and the islands of the southwest Indian Ocean. It adds that creole culture and its alternative forms such as “creoleness,” “créolite,” and “criollisimo,” are uniquely manifested through local as well as national expressions.
Myriam Arcangeli
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780813060422
- eISBN:
- 9780813050652
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060422.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
In historical archaeology, the concept of “ceramic culture” is a new approach to the analysis of material culture and the exploration of the past. By focusing on the users that handled archaeological ...
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In historical archaeology, the concept of “ceramic culture” is a new approach to the analysis of material culture and the exploration of the past. By focusing on the users that handled archaeological objects, this concept yields original insights into the functions of ceramics, in particular, but not exclusively, during the early modern period. In the case of Guadeloupe, it helps us to characterize domestic life in this part of the French colonial world as well as to trace important facets of the local Creole culture. In doing so, it brings to light topics that had not been explored previously in the traditional historiography of the French West Indies. This book demonstrates how easily this concept can be applied to an array of archaeological collections and provides, through its results, striking and original examples of what ceramics can reveal about the past.Less
In historical archaeology, the concept of “ceramic culture” is a new approach to the analysis of material culture and the exploration of the past. By focusing on the users that handled archaeological objects, this concept yields original insights into the functions of ceramics, in particular, but not exclusively, during the early modern period. In the case of Guadeloupe, it helps us to characterize domestic life in this part of the French colonial world as well as to trace important facets of the local Creole culture. In doing so, it brings to light topics that had not been explored previously in the traditional historiography of the French West Indies. This book demonstrates how easily this concept can be applied to an array of archaeological collections and provides, through its results, striking and original examples of what ceramics can reveal about the past.
Kenneth Bilby
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617031069
- eISBN:
- 9781617031076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617031069.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter explores the history of African creolization. Contrary to popular belief, the African creoles did not originate from Africa, but from Jamaican Maroons who were exiled in Sierra Leone in ...
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This chapter explores the history of African creolization. Contrary to popular belief, the African creoles did not originate from Africa, but from Jamaican Maroons who were exiled in Sierra Leone in the 1800s. These Jamaicans, however, were actually descendants of the African slaves who were forced to live in the Caribbean in the 1600s. In their return to their ancestral land, they have managed to bring their creole culture with them, in particular, bringing a strange percussion instrument called the gumbe. With the introduction of the instrument into Africa, its use began to spread, giving birth to distinctive musical styles and practices across the continent.Less
This chapter explores the history of African creolization. Contrary to popular belief, the African creoles did not originate from Africa, but from Jamaican Maroons who were exiled in Sierra Leone in the 1800s. These Jamaicans, however, were actually descendants of the African slaves who were forced to live in the Caribbean in the 1600s. In their return to their ancestral land, they have managed to bring their creole culture with them, in particular, bringing a strange percussion instrument called the gumbe. With the introduction of the instrument into Africa, its use began to spread, giving birth to distinctive musical styles and practices across the continent.
Michelle R. Warren
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816665259
- eISBN:
- 9781452946498
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665259.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter discusses some of the particularities of Joseph Bédier’s own formation as a “creole”. It examines his personal history—political affiliations, inherited creole culture, and explicit ...
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This chapter discusses some of the particularities of Joseph Bédier’s own formation as a “creole”. It examines his personal history—political affiliations, inherited creole culture, and explicit statements of creole identification. Politically, Bédier maintained seemingly incongruous affinities, from the socialist to the reactionary. Bédier’s contradictory political engagements derive from the fissures of creole subjectivity, themselves shaped by the contradictions of medievalism. On the one hand, Réunionnais elites embraced an idealized notion of chivalry that they translated into a mythology of racial purity. On the other, they resisted metropolitan efforts to compare the colony to “primitive” French provinces. The same duality characterizes Bédier’s personal relationship to creole identity. As he engages colonial memory in letters, speeches, and other autobiographical statements, he portrays the island as a source of loss and fulfillment, exile and belonging. Together, these biographical details establish Bédier as a representative “creole” as well as a unique “medievalist”Less
This chapter discusses some of the particularities of Joseph Bédier’s own formation as a “creole”. It examines his personal history—political affiliations, inherited creole culture, and explicit statements of creole identification. Politically, Bédier maintained seemingly incongruous affinities, from the socialist to the reactionary. Bédier’s contradictory political engagements derive from the fissures of creole subjectivity, themselves shaped by the contradictions of medievalism. On the one hand, Réunionnais elites embraced an idealized notion of chivalry that they translated into a mythology of racial purity. On the other, they resisted metropolitan efforts to compare the colony to “primitive” French provinces. The same duality characterizes Bédier’s personal relationship to creole identity. As he engages colonial memory in letters, speeches, and other autobiographical statements, he portrays the island as a source of loss and fulfillment, exile and belonging. Together, these biographical details establish Bédier as a representative “creole” as well as a unique “medievalist”
Mary Gallagher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846317538
- eISBN:
- 9781846317200
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846317200.002
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter analyses Lafcadio Hearn's writings on nineteenth-century Louisiana and Martinique. It introduces the idea of a Creole continuum and the ways in which it disregards boundaries between ...
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This chapter analyses Lafcadio Hearn's writings on nineteenth-century Louisiana and Martinique. It introduces the idea of a Creole continuum and the ways in which it disregards boundaries between geographical spaces, states, nations, cultures, genres and languages. First, the chapter discusses Hearn's fascination with the Creole culture. It then describes the ethnographic continuum of Hearn's American writing, which is rooted on his interest on America's colonial past and the aesthetics of the folk culture that emerged in the world of plantation slavery.Less
This chapter analyses Lafcadio Hearn's writings on nineteenth-century Louisiana and Martinique. It introduces the idea of a Creole continuum and the ways in which it disregards boundaries between geographical spaces, states, nations, cultures, genres and languages. First, the chapter discusses Hearn's fascination with the Creole culture. It then describes the ethnographic continuum of Hearn's American writing, which is rooted on his interest on America's colonial past and the aesthetics of the folk culture that emerged in the world of plantation slavery.
Dave Ramsaran and Linden F. Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496818041
- eISBN:
- 9781496818089
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496818041.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter presents theoretical and historical sketches of Guyana and Trinidad. Both countries share a similar colonial history and ethnic makeup, with people of Indian descent representing 39.3 ...
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This chapter presents theoretical and historical sketches of Guyana and Trinidad. Both countries share a similar colonial history and ethnic makeup, with people of Indian descent representing 39.3 percent of the total population in Guyana and 35 percent in Trinidad. The focus on Trinidad and Guyana, then, stems from the social and political significance of the Indian communities in these countries. The problematic coexistence of the dominant African creole culture and Indian culture in the Caribbean is central to explaining the location of Indo-Caribbean populations within their particular socioeconomic, political, and gendered spaces. In addressing the notion of “Indian identity,” both Indo-Trinidadians and Indo-Guyanese ask whether their respective identities reflect the “purity” of their Indian ancestry. In both spaces, the Indian community must determine the extent to which they want to associate their “Indianness” with India, or with the nation-state in which they were born.Less
This chapter presents theoretical and historical sketches of Guyana and Trinidad. Both countries share a similar colonial history and ethnic makeup, with people of Indian descent representing 39.3 percent of the total population in Guyana and 35 percent in Trinidad. The focus on Trinidad and Guyana, then, stems from the social and political significance of the Indian communities in these countries. The problematic coexistence of the dominant African creole culture and Indian culture in the Caribbean is central to explaining the location of Indo-Caribbean populations within their particular socioeconomic, political, and gendered spaces. In addressing the notion of “Indian identity,” both Indo-Trinidadians and Indo-Guyanese ask whether their respective identities reflect the “purity” of their Indian ancestry. In both spaces, the Indian community must determine the extent to which they want to associate their “Indianness” with India, or with the nation-state in which they were born.
Martin Munro and Celia Britton (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846317538
- eISBN:
- 9781846317200
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846317200
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
The Francophone Caribbean and the American South are sites born of the plantation, the common matrix for the diverse nations and territories of the circum-Caribbean. This book takes as its premise ...
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The Francophone Caribbean and the American South are sites born of the plantation, the common matrix for the diverse nations and territories of the circum-Caribbean. This book takes as its premise that the basic configuration of the plantation, in terms of its physical layout and the social relations it created, was largely the same in the Caribbean and the American South. Chapters written by leading authorities in the field examine the cultural, social, and historical affinities between the Francophone Caribbean and the American South, including Louisiana, which among the Southern states has had a quite particular attachment to France and the Francophone world. The chapters focus on issues of history, language, politics and culture in various forms, notably literature, music and theatre. The chapters explore in innovative ways the notions of creole culture and creolization, terms rooted in and indicative of contact between European and African people and cultures in the Americas, and which are promoted here as some of the most productive ways for conceiving of the circum-Caribbean as a cultural and historical entity.Less
The Francophone Caribbean and the American South are sites born of the plantation, the common matrix for the diverse nations and territories of the circum-Caribbean. This book takes as its premise that the basic configuration of the plantation, in terms of its physical layout and the social relations it created, was largely the same in the Caribbean and the American South. Chapters written by leading authorities in the field examine the cultural, social, and historical affinities between the Francophone Caribbean and the American South, including Louisiana, which among the Southern states has had a quite particular attachment to France and the Francophone world. The chapters focus on issues of history, language, politics and culture in various forms, notably literature, music and theatre. The chapters explore in innovative ways the notions of creole culture and creolization, terms rooted in and indicative of contact between European and African people and cultures in the Americas, and which are promoted here as some of the most productive ways for conceiving of the circum-Caribbean as a cultural and historical entity.
Christina Kullberg
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846317538
- eISBN:
- 9781846317200
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846317200.006
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter studies Richard Price's book, The Convict and the Colonel: A Story of Colonialism and Resistance in the Caribbean (1998). The book describes the life of Médard Aribot, a thief and an ...
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This chapter studies Richard Price's book, The Convict and the Colonel: A Story of Colonialism and Resistance in the Caribbean (1998). The book describes the life of Médard Aribot, a thief and an artist, who spent the final years of his life in Petite Anse and Le Diamant in Martinique. The last portion of the book presents Price's life in Martinique and his reflections on the modernization of the island. The chapter examines the style and form of Price's book and demonstrates how the poetic qualities of his anthropological narrative inhibit a fixed view of the other and relate this absence of fixity to the nature of the Creole culture. The chapter focuses on the modernization process of the Martinican society and examines the hybridity of the Creole culture and the ethnographic perspective.Less
This chapter studies Richard Price's book, The Convict and the Colonel: A Story of Colonialism and Resistance in the Caribbean (1998). The book describes the life of Médard Aribot, a thief and an artist, who spent the final years of his life in Petite Anse and Le Diamant in Martinique. The last portion of the book presents Price's life in Martinique and his reflections on the modernization of the island. The chapter examines the style and form of Price's book and demonstrates how the poetic qualities of his anthropological narrative inhibit a fixed view of the other and relate this absence of fixity to the nature of the Creole culture. The chapter focuses on the modernization process of the Martinican society and examines the hybridity of the Creole culture and the ethnographic perspective.
Myriam Arcangeli
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780813060422
- eISBN:
- 9780813050652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060422.003.0007
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
The conclusion revisits the main findings of each chapter and each of the themes explored during the analysis of Guadeloupe's ceramic culture. This approach underlines the importance of domestic ...
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The conclusion revisits the main findings of each chapter and each of the themes explored during the analysis of Guadeloupe's ceramic culture. This approach underlines the importance of domestic water management in the past and helps us understand the feasting practices of Guadeloupeans. It also highlights the roles of domestic slaves, in particular of enslaved women, in the creation of the local Creole culture. These women were so much involved and so essential in the daily lives of their masters that they might have derived from their work a form of unacknowledged, but nonetheless real, social power.Less
The conclusion revisits the main findings of each chapter and each of the themes explored during the analysis of Guadeloupe's ceramic culture. This approach underlines the importance of domestic water management in the past and helps us understand the feasting practices of Guadeloupeans. It also highlights the roles of domestic slaves, in particular of enslaved women, in the creation of the local Creole culture. These women were so much involved and so essential in the daily lives of their masters that they might have derived from their work a form of unacknowledged, but nonetheless real, social power.
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807829738
- eISBN:
- 9781469605180
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807876862_hall
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Enslaved peoples were brought to the Americas from many places in Africa, but a large majority came from relatively few ethnic groups. Drawing on a wide range of materials in four languages as well ...
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Enslaved peoples were brought to the Americas from many places in Africa, but a large majority came from relatively few ethnic groups. Drawing on a wide range of materials in four languages as well as on her lifetime study of slave groups in the New World, the author of this book explores the persistence of African ethnic identities among the enslaved over four hundred years of the Atlantic slave trade. She traces the linguistic, economic, and cultural ties shared by large numbers of enslaved Africans, showing that despite the fragmentation of the diaspora, many ethnic groups retained enough cohesion to communicate and to transmit elements of their shared culture. The author concludes that recognition of the survival and persistence of African ethnic identities can fundamentally reshape how people think about the emergence of identities among enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Americas, about the ways shared identity gave rise to resistance movements, and about the elements of common African ethnic traditions that influenced regional creole cultures throughout the Americas.Less
Enslaved peoples were brought to the Americas from many places in Africa, but a large majority came from relatively few ethnic groups. Drawing on a wide range of materials in four languages as well as on her lifetime study of slave groups in the New World, the author of this book explores the persistence of African ethnic identities among the enslaved over four hundred years of the Atlantic slave trade. She traces the linguistic, economic, and cultural ties shared by large numbers of enslaved Africans, showing that despite the fragmentation of the diaspora, many ethnic groups retained enough cohesion to communicate and to transmit elements of their shared culture. The author concludes that recognition of the survival and persistence of African ethnic identities can fundamentally reshape how people think about the emergence of identities among enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Americas, about the ways shared identity gave rise to resistance movements, and about the elements of common African ethnic traditions that influenced regional creole cultures throughout the Americas.
Jason Berry
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469647142
- eISBN:
- 9781469647166
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469647142.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
In this prologue, Berry describes how the jazz funeral of black musician and composer Allen Toussaint coincided with a debate over removing four Confederate monuments. Through this lens, Berry ...
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In this prologue, Berry describes how the jazz funeral of black musician and composer Allen Toussaint coincided with a debate over removing four Confederate monuments. Through this lens, Berry examines how the events surrounding the Toussaint burial pageant magnified the roiling debate over myth, memory, and politics, as well as how the beguiling image of New Orleans grew from a culture of spectacle in tension with a city of laws, an official city the popular culture challenged. Through his descriptions of the Toussaint funeral, his own conversations with Toussaint prior to his death, and an examination of race, history, Mardi Gras, and identity in New Orleans, Berry examines how the city opened into a series of adventures in which its identity kept shifting, becoming a crossroads of humanity that forged a Creole culture rich in foodways, music, tradition, and more.Less
In this prologue, Berry describes how the jazz funeral of black musician and composer Allen Toussaint coincided with a debate over removing four Confederate monuments. Through this lens, Berry examines how the events surrounding the Toussaint burial pageant magnified the roiling debate over myth, memory, and politics, as well as how the beguiling image of New Orleans grew from a culture of spectacle in tension with a city of laws, an official city the popular culture challenged. Through his descriptions of the Toussaint funeral, his own conversations with Toussaint prior to his death, and an examination of race, history, Mardi Gras, and identity in New Orleans, Berry examines how the city opened into a series of adventures in which its identity kept shifting, becoming a crossroads of humanity that forged a Creole culture rich in foodways, music, tradition, and more.