A General History of the Caribbean :: Caribbean History Culture Cultural Essays

A General History of the CaribbeanWhen one undertakes an historical study, any supremacy in the undertaking is arguably predicated on an understanding of the subject to be studied. Knowing the culture of a given people or region, the geographics and climate of its habitation, the attitudes of the people and their current political comportment all of these roost life into the subject. It is this deepening familiarization that gives life to the historical figures and events of that subject.Perhaps nowhere is this forward requirement more necessary than when undertaking an historical study of the Caribbean islands. This archipelago of l small to moderate sized inhabited units that span a mutual 2,500 mile arc above the north side of Central and southward America represent a actually similar and merely very diverse group of people and cultures. Sharing a commonplace climate, they halt a variety of terrain. Subjected to European invasion and conquest, then populated involuntaril y by black African slaves under an oppressively dominating orchard system, the dissimilar timing of these very common circumstances lead to a curious variety of cultures. Conversely, the many languages spoken and the several cultural manifestations that atomic number 18 apparent in this region do not obliterate an essentially consistent ambience, a common rhythm that is unmistakably Caribbean. It is this contradiction, this sameness and yet difference, that makes a vigorous introductory approach such a compel and, in itself, such a diversified component of this historical study. plane more important than the natural lure of anthropological or sociological considerations in their own right is the insufficiency of chronological political events just to frame a general history of the Caribbean. Unlike many regions that put through clear, defining events and forces in a more or less adhesive fashion, periodization is difficult to construct for Caribbean history. Some pivotal events were confined to the particular island on which they occurred, while others had a regional impact. Furthermore, these latter sometimes did so with the tetchy yet certain rhythm of the waves that come across the sea to swoosh the shores of the receptive neighboring island. This tendency yields a certain proclivity towards discriminating explanatory approaches. Three different yet mutually supportive approaches dilate the utility of this eclecticism. The Caribbeanist Sidney Mintz employs the analytical approach of a social scientist to identify conditions of common description in his article the Caribbean as a Socio-Cultural Area. Antonio Benitez-Rojo injects a decidedly cultural emphasis to his historical narrative of the region in his chapter From the plantation to the Plantation, taken from his book The Repeating Island.