Native Cultures And Cultures Of The Caribbean - 2212 Words

Anthropology Department/ UMass-Boston ANTH 274-Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean Research Paper Due Date: December 14, 2014 Jean L. Rene [email:jean.rene@umb.edu and jrelem1@gmail.com] Write an essay to discuss particular processes of class and racial stratifications in one former Caribbean colony and ways in which its corresponding colonial past still informs its evolution. Race and class stratification exist in the Caribbean from the colonial era. Historically, its influence the formulation of the identity of an entire nation, The Caribbean. Race in the Caribbean is a social assembly, where ones color is its most visible manifestation. The European invasion have shape the creation of the Caribbean and its people. Francisco Lopez de†¦show more content†¦Jamaica exhibits all of the features and challenges that are present in multiethnic society. Lowenthal (1972) illustrate several angles of the type of multiethnic segment that the Caribbean faced. In Jamaica, he highlighted societies stratified by color, race and lacking white Creole ethics. The examination the historical structure is the best way to understand the origin of race and class stratification in Jamaica. Jamaica is consider to be the one of the largest islands of the Caribbean, found 90 miles to the south of the eastern end of Cuba. The current population size is 2.715 million (2013 Census). Jamaica is consider a melt pot of culture and race. The historical development have a lot to do the current ethnic blend. The importation of African for slaves in seventeenth century was because of the rise plantation economy. They are consider the largest segment of the population and collectively with the whites are refer to as the ‘charter group’. The Jewish inhabitant derived from the religious persecution that occur in Europe. Syrians, Lebanese, and Germans later follow them. Emancipation gave rise to another larger scale population shift, with the Chinese and Indians indentured laborers arriving in large numbers. Because of various inter-racial unions, there developed a new indigenous social category- the ‘colored creoles’. Their