Anthropology Caribbean cultures

Geographically and culturally, the Caribbean region only consists of the group of islands called the Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles.

false, It goes beyond the islands to include North/nirtheast SOuth america and Coastal Central America/Mexico

Mintz also argues that Jamaica,Haiti,and PuertoRico shared the exact same experience of plantation slavery.

false, Mintz argues that while sharing some similarities, plantation slavery was different enough from each other to let us see their distinctive characteristics contrastively

Ocean currents and surface winds in the North Atlantic were a cosntraint and made it difficult for Columbus and later voyages to sail to the Caribbean.

false, They were important and facilitated navegation between Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean

what kind of traditions were the Ganga of Cuba celebrating?

for decades they have been singing the same chants, a tradition passed down the generations, But until recently this Afro-Cuban community knew little of the origin of the songs, or of their own ancestors

-What role did the play in shaping the cultures of their respective societies?

have shown more interest in a popular, contemporary version of punta known as punta rock, a mix of traditional drumming, heavy bass, electric guitar, and enthusiastic lyrics.

Why was Toussaint Louverture a significant figure in the 1790s?

he was a murderer and a fraud, and some of his enemies faults him for being too close to white planters

What was his (Louverture) importance during and after the Haitian Revolution?

he was the leader of the Haitian Revolution, he freed the slaves and gained effective independence for Haiti

what is anthropological perspectives?

holistic perspective, comparative perspective, cultural relativism, and ethnocentrism

Enthocentrism

is the belief that your own group or culture is superior to all other groups or cultures.

how did colonialism, slavery, and revolution shape Haiti?

it shaped Haiti because after the revolution Haiti was no longer a plantation colony making sugar, rum, etc. it became poor but peaceful farming economy

does the Taino/Carib distinction still hold today?

no, they are all genetically the same people separated by close islands

cultural relativism

one should not judge the behavior of beliefs of other people using the standards of one's own culture

Who was Toussaint L'Ouverture?

a military leader and former slave that gained control of several areas and earned the initial support of the French agents, he was a Haitian general/leader

-Who are the Ganga of Cuba and what kind of traditions were they celebrating?

a small ethnic group of Afro-Cubans who primarily reside in Perico, Matanzas Province

De Las Casas

advocated for indigenous rights, Historia General de las India's, one of most valuable sources of colonization of the New World.

holistic perspective

assumption that any aspect of a culture is integrated with other aspects, so that every aspect of culture must be understood in its total context

polytheism

belief in more than one god

forced migration

commenced soon after emancipation in British West Indies

Who are the Black Caribs?

comprise more or less fifty thousand individuals, of mixed African and American Indian descent, living on the Caribbean Coast of the republics of Honduras and Guatemala

what are the main features of Caribbean geography and ecology?

coral reefs, white beaches, forests, volcanos

-What are the main problems of perspective and translation of Pane's accounts?

corruptions, myths, inaccurate knowledge, not complete accounts

Religion

the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.

how the Caribbean's geography affected colonization but also the Tainos

the colonization became a system of agriculture to the Taino people, constraints-pace of conservation to plantations opportunities- for refuge and resistance

Garifuna

the descendants of an Afro-indigenous population from the Caribbean island of St Vincent

Explain the Black Caribs Caribbean Journey to Belize

the first boats carrying the first, The people were escaping slavery plantations from Caribbean islands

What is anthropology?

the study of humankind from a broad perspective, both on the past and the present

what are the main differences between the accounts of Columbus and Las Casas on the Taino's?

they each held different beliefs on the treatment of natives as slaves, and different views on the Spanish and their relationship with the natives

According to anthropologist Sidney Mintz, the Caribbean region represented a distinct chapter in New World and colonial history based on the unique dynamic of the plantation.

true

Mountain environments in the Caribbean islands offered opportunities for resistance and refuge to oppresed peoples.

true

The research by David Reich and his team of geneticists and biological anthropologists on Taino DNA reveals that the number of inhabitants at the time of Columbus arrival was smaller than previously thought.

true

•Conuco- is a Taino horticultural biodiverse garden that centers on Manioc (Yuca) cultivation but also included arrowroot, sweet potatoes, pineapple, ají (pepper), avocado, maize, various fruit trees, root crops such as yautía and leren, calabashes or gourds, and cotton.

true

Mountain environments in the Caribbean islands offered opportunities for resistance and refuge to oppresed peoples.

true,

comparative perspective

valid hypotheses and theories about humanity be tested with information from a wide range of cultures

-How did it reshape the ethnic, political, cultural, and economic dimensions of the Caribbean?

waves of migration that have combined to form a unique blend of customs, cuisine, and traditions that have marked the socio-cultural development of the area.

How did the European colonizers adapt culturally and ecologically to island environments?

Ecologically --The Taíno had a developed system of agriculture which was environmentally friendly and almost maintenance free. They raised their crops in a conuco, a large mound which was devised especially for farming.Culturally --The Arawakan achievements included construction of ceremonial ball parks whose boundaries were marked by upright stone dolmens, development of a universal language, and creation of a complicated religious cosmology

who were the classic Taino's?

Arawak people who were the indigenous people of the Caribbean, they believed in the thought of several gods

What are the cultural practices that 'make them' Garifuna?

Caribbean fishing and farming traditions with a mixture of South American and African music, dance and spirituality.

How did they become Garifuna? Why do they consider themselves an indigenous group while being also of African descent?

-The Garifuna are descendants of a shipwrecked slave ship, who intermarried with the Arawak Indians of the island of St. Vincent, in the Caribbean. Escaping persecution, they fled to the island of Roatan, and then the rest of Central America. -The short answer to the question how did the Garifuna become indigenous is that they added the label "indigenous" onto themselves when they and other bio-cultural groups of Native American descent within the Circum-Caribbean acquired the generic term in the late 1980s

Who were the Caribs?

American Indian people who inhabited the Lesser Antilles and parts of the neighboring South American coast

After a series of amicable exchanges with the Taino, Columbus Diary shows that the first voyage ended peacefully

False, the final encounter between the Spanish and the Taíno ended in misunderstanding and violence. That violent incident, occurring just before Columbus began his return voyage to Spain, set the precedent for the bloody conquest of the island he initiated on his return

-What other Ethnic groups (beside Africans) were introduced in the Caribbean?

Groups of Indigenous peoples, Africans, Indians, Europeans, Chinese and Portuguese

Christopher Columbus

He mistakenly discovered the Americas, "new world", in 1492 while searching for a faster route to India.

-What are the different forms of Afro-religions of the Caribbean?

Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity... which are all addressed with specific reflections

How did the Taino adapt culturally and ecologically to island environments?

Taino were hunter and gatherers so it was easy to adapt to producing food for them. they made potatoes peanuts and beans... they developed a system of agriculture that was good for the environment.

Fray Ramon Pane

The only surviving direct source of information about the myths and ceremonies of the first inhabitants of the Antilles. it included - names of the Taino gods, Explained the meaning of several Taino words, and Beliefs about what became of their souls after death

Why the legacy/outcome of the revolution still has an effect on the politics of Haiti today?

The warfare of the Haitian Revolution destroyed the capital and infrastructure of the economy, Haiti was unable to recover the wealth they had before the revolution, so they are one of the poorest country's in the world today.

Why was the Haitian revolution a threat to the rest of the Western Hemisphere?

Thomas Jefferson recognized that the revolution had the potential to cause an upheaval against slavery in the US (and also white abolitionist).. it was feared that the revolt might spread from the island to their own plantations

-What role did Afro-religion of Vodou play in the revolution?

Voodoo became a force that gave strength to and sustained the slaves through suffering, it made it the only successful slave revolt in modern history