Perspectives on the Caribbean: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation boasts a somewhat wide-reaching and impressive endeavor in its title, but actually manages to live up to its name. The text, edited and introduced by Philip Scher, is composed of a collection of scholarly articles by various authors covering topics concerning the contemporary Caribbean, all of which merit serious attention, particularly by anyone pursuing an academic interest in the region. The Caribbean itself is a somewhat complicated area to encapsulate, as Scher notes in his introduction to the text. He writes that “there can be no complete understanding of a region as vast, complex and vibrant as the Caribbean,” but goes on to assert that “any perspective on the contemporary Caribbean is improved by illuminating connections between cultural forms, political economy and history” (1). This is precisely what this book attempts to do.
Scher divides the book into five parts, each part consisting of three or four essays surrounding a specific theme relating to life in the Caribbean. Part One is titled Living and Livelihood, followed by Questions of Identity: “Race,” Ethnicity, Class, and Gender; Culture and Performance; Caribbean Cosmologies; and finally Part Five, Globalization, Migration and Diaspora in the Caribbean. Scher introduces each of these five parts with a short summary of some of the issues pertaining to the specific topic. In these smaller introductions, Scher briefly establishes various historical points, posits questions, and in lieu of more in-depth theorization of his own, provides a list of references for further reading and research. Each of the articles in each section is loosely related to the others, in that it represents one aspect or another of the overarching theme of the section, but the articles themselves are wide-reaching, spanning a variety of topics. Part Three, for instance, titled Culture and Performance, contains one article about joking practices, another about cricket and its relationship to politics in the Caribbean, and yet another about the annual carnival festivities in Trinidad and the practice of copyright heritage (and, incidentally, how this process marginalizes middle-class Trinidadian women). Ordinarily these essays would not, perhaps, be categorized together, but the arrangement makes sense in this particular context.
As the editor, Scher makes his purpose for this book very clear from the beginning. In his initial introduction, he writes: “The essays in this volume are culled from an enormous body of literature. The aim is to give a broad sense, in a small space, of the diversity of approaches, voices and subject matter that come from the region” (3). As mentioned earlier, contemporary life in the Caribbean (as elsewhere) is determined by any number of factors, not the least of which are historical and anthropological in nature. But history itself is multifaceted, and to understand a place in any fashion one must understand those facets individually, as well as how they uniquely come together. The essay titled, “Houses and Yards among Caribbean Peasantries,” by Sidney Mintz in Part One, Living and Livelihood, for instance, describes the significance of the yard (outdoor space on which one’s house is built, or a plot of land which may be located some distance from the residence of its owner, and which may be shared for agricultural purposes) and its relationship to people that Mintz refers to as rural proletarians. The essay references a number of historical aspects, including the practices of plantation owners and slaves in places like Jamaica and Haiti. It also briefly discusses architectural history, as well as the historical uses of the house and yard in various places within the Caribbean and how all these contribute significantly to the ways in which the yard is conceived in various places throughout the contemporary Caribbean.
“What is ‘a Spanish’? Ambiguity and ‘Mixed’ Ethnicity in Trinidad” by Aisha Khan addresses the issue of racial ambiguity in Trinidad and Tobago with a combination of historical and ethnographic data. The essay highlights the very specific ways in which race and ethnicity are conceived of by Trinidadians, and sheds light on how these conceptions have influenced important areas such as politics, societal stratification, and, even briefly, creative arenas such as literature. Unsurprisingly, race and ethnicity also filter into the folklore of Trinidad and Tobago as well. These perceptions obviously still play a large role in contemporary Trinidad and Tobago. As these two articles demonstrate, a diversity of approaches can be useful in developing a sense of or a better understanding of a particular place.
Scher mentions in his initial introduction that he “shied away, somewhat, from including works that seemed purely rooted in a particular academic discipline. That is, I have tried to find articles that are interdisciplinary and combine history and sociology, or anthropology and political economy, etc.” (3). This is certainly true of Perspectives on the Caribbean. Its broad aim may appear to be a weakness, as no one topic is covered in great depth, but this book is a more-than-adequate collection of essays that serve to represent a number of the issues critical to a better understanding of the contemporary Caribbean. Although folklore isn’t exclusively the focus of this text, it becomes an indelible part of the book because of its clearly interdisciplinary nature. The book lacks any in-depth treatment of other expressions of creativity (outside of more obvious performance-related expressions such as carnival and theater), and as such may not be directly useful to literary folklorists or those interested in seeing these issues play out in Caribbean literature or poetry. Nonetheless, this book serves as a useful key to unraveling and appreciating the folklore and literature of the Caribbean.
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[Review length: 932 words • Review posted on June 9, 2011]