The editors argue that if we are to understand the meanings of blackness in the African diaspora, and elsewhere, we must critically examine paradigms that have emerged over the past five centuries out of Euroamerican racism and black liberation. In their introduction to this volume the editors present two challenges. The first is to understand the range and varieties of black communal experiences across vast distances, and to incorporate historical information on blackness. The second challenge is to provide a prolegomena to a theory capable of including the diversity of subjects pertinent to African diaspora research. The general introduction to this volume and the volume on Eastern South America and the Caribbean discusses historical forces, and provides a critical, interpretive theory of structures of domination and processes of liberation in the Black Americas. By dealing with racialist concepts from the dual standpoints of nation-state and ethnic-bloc, the introduction clarifies many issues of cultural representation and social identity in Latin America and the Caribbean. These works take a major step toward understanding the complexity of black experiences in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean and establishes new research directions for the late twentieth century, and beyond. In addition to drawing on their own insights based on years of field research, the editors summarize the contribution of each chapter and provide working bibliography of more than 200 entries drawn from well-known and obscure sources that range through anthropology, history, art history, geography, literature, lore, religion and music.
Preface and Acknowledgments Part I: The Black Americas and the African Diaspora in the Late Twentieth Century Norman E. Whitten, Jr and Arlene Torres, General Introduction To Forge the Future in the Fires of the Past: An Interpretive Essay on Racism, Domination, Resistance and Liberation Part II: Eastern South America Chapter 1: Arlene Torres and Norman E. Whitten, Jr. Introduction to Volume II: Eastern South America and the Caribbean Chapter 2: Michael Mitchell Blacks and the Abertura Democr tica [Brazil] Chapter 3: Florestan Fernandez The Negro Problem in a Class Society, 1951-1960 [Brazil] Chapter 4: Ralph C. Gomes Race, Class, and Politics in Guyana: The Role of the Power Elites [Guyana] Chapter 5: Leo A. Despres Ethnicity and Resource Competition in Guyanese Society [Guyana] Chapter 6: Lee Drummond The Cultural Continuum: A Theory of Intersystems [Guyana] Chapter 7: B. Edward Pierce The Historical Context of Nengre Kinship and Residence: Ethnohistory of the Family Organization of Lower Status Creoles in Paramaribo [Suriname] Chapter 8: Sally Price Sexism and the Construction of Reality: An Afro-American Example [Suriname] Chapter 9: Margaret Thompson Drewal Dancing for ngun in Yorubaland and in Brazil Part III: The Caribbean Chapter 10: Arlene Torres La gran familia puertorrique-a Oej prieta de beld O The Great Puerto Rican Family is Really Really Black Chapter 11: M. G. Smith Stratification in Grenada Chapter 12: Douglas Midgett West Indian Version: Literature, History, and Identity [Grenada] Chapter 13: John Stewart Stick Song [Trinidad] Chapter 14: Bonham C. Richardson The Contemporary Migration Cultures at St. Kitts and Nevis Chapter 15: Kevin A. Yelvington Gender and Ethnicity at Work in a Trinidadian Factory Chapter 16: Faye V. Harrison Women in JamaicaOs Urban Informal Economy: Insights from a Kingston Slum Chapter 17: Diane J. Austin Culture and Ideology in the English-Speaking Caribbean: A View from Jamaica Chapter 18: Frank E. Manning Celebrating Cricket: The Symbolic Construction of Caribbean Politics [Bermuda] Chapter 19: Yv--nne Daniel Rumba: Social and Aesthetic Change in Cuba Chapter 20: Michel S. Laguerre The Voodooization of Politics in Haiti
An examination of the meaning of 'blackness' in the African diaspora.
