Caribbean Cultural Expressions

302 Words2 Pages
Thesis: Caribbean cultural expressions have been creolized to a great extent as a result of interculturation during the 19th century. European and African influences merging with the indigenous Caribbean societies resulted in formation of syncretic religions, new racial groups and the establishment of new economic and social systems. Introduction: The endemic nature of Caribbean culture results directly from the historical explorations through which many different facets of our culture were formulated. Caribbean cultural expressions conceptualize the different agents such as language, ethnicity, race and religion and how they function in the construction and organization of Caribbean societies. An examination of Caribbean cultural expressions would require a flashback into the historic processes that created such a term. Processes such as colonisation/colonialism which introduced indentureship and then creation of the plantation society which accounted for the creolization of Caribbean cultural expressions during this period. Brathwaite (1974) defined creolization as , “ the process through which the various groups in Caribbean society absorb each other’s cultural products” Therefore the institutionalization of Caribbean societies through the plantation system ultimately allowed for the creolization of Caribbean cultural expressions. The cultural expressions gradually became intertwined, retained, altered and subversed resulting in the plural diversity of Caribbean societies and its cultural expressions. In an effort to critically examine the notion of creolization as it relates to Caribbean cultural expressions an approach will be taken to identify that Caribbean cultural expressions have been creolized to a great extent as a result of interculturation during the 19th century as European and African influences merging with the indigenous Caribbean society
Open Document