Essay on The Caribbean Islands - 1222 Words

The Caribbean The Caribbean, a region usually exoticized and depicted as tropical and similar in its environmental ways, cannot be characterized as homogenous. Each individual island has their own diverse historical background when it comes to how and when they became colonized, which European country had the strongest influence on them, and the unique individual cultures that were integrated into one. The three authors Sidney W. Mintz, Antonio Benitez-Rojo, and Michelle Cliff, all and address the problem of the Caribbean’s identity. They each discuss how the Caribbean’s diverse culture was created and molded by each individual island’s history, how its society was molded by the development of plantations, how the Caribbean dealt with†¦show more content†¦make it very difficult to characterize the Caribbean as a cultural area. Benitez-Rojo agrees with this idea, also rejecting the idea that the Caribbean is a cultural area. According to Mintz, the Caribbean is similar in social-structural features rather than cultural ones. In his analysis of the Caribbean, he organizes the commonalties of the region using nine distinct features, which bind the islands of the Caribbean into a major societal area, regardless of their differences. Mintz also emphasizes how the Caribbean should be viewed in terms of a multidimensional continuum, rather than in terms of some single abstract model(Mintz 21). Mintz also expresses how the islands of the Caribbean lack unity and a sense of national pride. He suggests in his article, The Caribbean as a Socio-Cultural Area, that a social hierarchy does not exist in the Caribbean. Mintz states that the concomitant development of insular social structures in which internally differentiated local community organization was slight, and national class groupings usually took on a bipolar form, sustainedShow MoreRelatedSlavery On The Islands Of The Caribbean890 Words   |  4 Pagesnothing new in Africa. For many centuries Africans had sold numerous Africans to Arabs as slaves. Nevertheless, the trans-Atlantic salve trade grew until it was huge. Philip Freneau’s â€Å"To Sir Toby† is a poem that is based on slavery on the islands of the Caribbean. This poem was inspired by the treatment of the slaves in Hanson’s plantation in Jamaica. Freneau had a strong opposition to slavery on every level, from purchasing humans as property, to treating them like animals, to branding them. TheRead MoreThe Caribbean Island Of Trinidad1921 Words   |  8 PagesThe Caribbean island of Trinidad contained a high concentration of Plasmodium vivax well into the 20th century. The malaria caused by the Plasmodium parasite greatly hindered the sugarcane and cacao farming on which Trinidad’s economy depended. The poor East Indian farmers and plantation workers were especially hard hit, as they were located in the areas where the disease was most common (Fonaroff 543). The capital, Port-of-Spain, was also continually threatened by malaria outbreaks originating inRead MoreJamaica Is An Island Of The Caribbean1352 Words   |  6 PagesJamaica is an island located in the Caribbean, it is west of Haiti and south of Cuba. It makes its money from; Industry - textiles, tourism, food processing. Agriculture - bananas, coffee, sugarcane, and citrus. Exports - alumina, bauxite, sugar, bananas, and rum (National Geographic, 2015). Jamaica has a strong population of nearly 3 million people – which is a lot considering it is smaller than Connecticut. The people have a life expectancy of 75 years old and a literacy rate of 88 percent (NationalRead MoreThe And The Caribbean Islands : A Shared History Essay1623 Words   |  7 PagesHawai`i and the Caribbean Islands: A Shared History Jane Desmond’s â€Å"Let’s LÃ… «`au,† a chapter in her book Staging Tourism: Bodies on Display from Waikiki to Sea World, discusses the development of the â€Å"destination image,† the staged attempts to give visitors a sense of Hawaiian culture, as well as contrasts between dancing hula for a performance and as a lifestyle. She claims that visual preconceptions of Hawai`i, along with the environment that is staged for the tourist, has created and perpetuatedRead MoreImpact Of Tourism On The Caribbean Islands1657 Words   |  7 Pages Impacts of Tourism in the Caribbean Islands Christopher Tillman University of South Carolina Tourism has its sociological impacts, environmental impacts, and economic impacts. When visitors come spend money in any place they travel to it creates jobs for locals and often times reduce the poverty rate. Tourism can help a community identify just who they are and why tourist like to travel to this area. They do this by showing distinct rare cultures that you can’t find anywhere elseRead MoreThe Pioneering Exploration Of The Caribbean Islands By Christopher Columbus1027 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction The pioneering exploration of the Caribbean Islands by Christopher Columbus led to the first European contact of Taino Indians in that region. This encounter resulted in the Taino Indians being traded, yet opened the South Atlantic and Caribbean for future exploration and eventual colonization. The First Voyage of Christopher Columbus’ kicked off his legacy. Find the Funds Columbus had a different idea: Why not sail west across the Atlantic instead of around the massive African continentRead MoreThe Discovery And Conquest Of Latin America And The Caribbean Islands1235 Words   |  5 PagesConquering the Americas The discovery and eventually conquest of Latin America and the Caribbean Islands is perhaps one of the single most important encounter of two cultures. In 1492, when the conquistadores first set foot on the New World, not only did they discovered territories previously unknown to them; but also great civilizations who inhabited the lands. As Marshall Eakin describes in his book The History of Latin America, the civilizations of the Americas were â€Å"monarchies led by powerfulRead MoreEssay on One of the Largest Islands in the Caribbean: Jamaica1929 Words   |  8 Pagesthe largest Islands in the Caribbean. In this essay I found some pretty interesting things I didn’t know about Jamaica. I hope you read and enjoy it as much as I did researching and writing about one of the most visited countries. It originally home was the home of the Arawak and Taino Indians. They were mostly an agriculturally based society that grew corn, sweet potatoes, cotton, and tobacco. However, their lives were forever altered after Christopher Columbus discovered the island in 1494 duringRead MoreGlobalisation and the Economic Impact on Small Island States: Caribbean2195 Words   |  9 PagesEconomic Impact on Small Island States: Caribbean January 6th 2011 Kole’ Mascoll Student ID: COPY [1] Globalisation and the Economic impact on small island states: Caribbean This paper conducts an analysis of Small Island States of the Caribbean, the Economic effects of Globalisation and addresses both the macroeconomic and microeconomic issues. The paper will begin by defining globalization from a generic perspective and then focus more specifically on Caribbean. In addition, the paperRead More The Caribbean Essay1123 Words   |  5 PagesThe Caribbean The inhabited islands clustered in the Caribbean Sea are an interesting study in cultural and social identity. Colonized by european powers from the Fifteenth Century, the Caribbean islands have become mixtures of cultures from Europe, Africa, and India, as well as from the original inhabitants of the islands. As a result, describing and defining the Caribbean is a much more difficult task than it appears on the surface. The norms and ideas of identity and history that exist on one