Afro-Caribbean Culture

DESCRIPTION

This course will examine the roots that define culturally what it is to be Afro-Caribbean in its diversity, specificity, and unity. It will analyze the principal political-ideological, religious, and artistic manifestations in the regions of the Caribbean.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of the course, the students will be able to:

1. Locate the Caribbean geographically and become familiar with the roots of its unity and diversity.
2. Gain a general vision of the culture of the Caribbean peoples.
3. Analyze the dominant racist practices and ideas in the Caribbean and its historical roots.
4. Analyze the phenomenon of anti-Haitianism in the Dominican Republic.
5. Become familiar with the principal religious manifestations in the Caribbean and their link to the daily life of the Dominican people.

CONTENTS

Unit 1: Starting points: The shaping of the Caribbean from the time of the European Conquest.

1.1. Principal currents in Caribbean thought.
1.2. Cultural identity in the island Caribbean

Unit 2: Slavery, exploitation, and resistance.

2.1. The slave trade, plantations in the Caribbean, and slave-holding ideology.
2.1.1. Female slavery: African women and their descendants in Brazil.
2.1.2. Social organization in the Antilles.
2.1.3. Cultural contributions of de-culturation.
2.1.4. The conquest of women: captives, symbol of femininity in Latin
America.
2.1.5. Capitalism and slavery.
2.2. Resistance, anti-slavery ideology, and the emergence of Afro-Caribbean
cultures.
2.2.1. Escape and confrontation.

Unit 3: Abolition, independence, and nationality.

3.1. Response to the problems of slavery and colonization in Haiti.
3.2. The problem of liberty: race, work, and politics in Jamaica and Great
Britain.
3.3. Caribbean transformation.

Unit 4: Nationalism, race, gender, and class.

4.1. The paths of negritude.
4.2. Greeting and farewell to negritude.
4.3. Pluralism, race, and class in Caribbean society.
4.4. The new nations and ethnic minorities.
4.5. Anti-Haitian prejudice in the city of Santiago.

Unit 5: Afro-Caribbean cultures: Folklore and popular religiosity.

5.1. Cultural identity and popular religiosity.
5.2. The black world and Bible reading.
5.3. The other science: Dominican voodoo as a religion and popular medicines.
5.4. Religion and black culture.

EVALUATION:

1st Partial Exam: 25%
2nd Partial Exam: 25%
Final essay: 25%
Participation, attendance, punctuality: 10%
Assignments, reports from reading: 15%
Total: 100%

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Andújar, C. (1999) Identidad cultural y religiosidad popular. Santo Domingo: Editora Cole.

Benoist, J. (1977) África en América Latina. México: UNESCO y Siglo XXI Editores.

Barros Mott, M. L. (1993) 500 años de patriarcado en el Nuevo Mundo. Santo Domingo: CIPAF, Edición Internacional.

Bastide, R. (1967) Las Américas Negras. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.

Cela, J. (1994) Cuerpo y solidaridad. Mundo Negro y lectura bíblica. Revista de interpretación bíblica latinoamericana. No. 19.

Davies, M. E. (1987) La otra ciencia: el vodú dominicano como religión y medicinas populares. Santo Domingo: Editora Universitaria UASD.

Gordon, L. (1983) Main Current in Caribbean Thought. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Hall, S. (1978) Raza y clase en la sociedad postcolonial. Madrid: UNESCO.

Holt, T. (1992) The problem of freedom: race, labor and politics in Jamaica and Britain. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.

Mintz, S. (1974) Caribbean transformation. Chicago: Aldine Publishing
Company.

Moreno Fraginals, M. (1983) La historia como arma y otros estudios sobre esclavos, ingenios y plantaciones. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica.

ONE RESPE. (1995) El otro del nosotros. Santo Domingo: Editora Búho.