Barbadian Creole society persisted unchanged because no indentured labor was imported

Evidence

In Barbados, Creole society has deviated little from its original colonial construction. It retains much of the European-African roots in its color-class hierarchical social formation. This persistence can be explained by the territorial history of uninterrupted British colonial rule. There was no importation of labor for postslavery indentureship that laid the groundwork for challenges to Creole formulations in countries like Guyana and Trinidad. A certain idiosyncrasy has emerged in the historical reproduction of Creole society in the country. Creolization was fashioned much more from cultural syncretization. Practices of cohabitation between Europeans and Africans have been significantly less than in the other territories. This is reflected in the relatively small number of persons classified as mixed. At 2.6 percent, these “coloreds” constitute an even smaller proportion of the population than Creole whites. The latter stands at around 3.3 percent. Thus, the color-class continuum is much less smooth and much more abrupt in Barbados. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3271 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Nonetheless, the boundaries separating the Creole and non-Creole are highly permeable. It is this permeability that has given Caribbean society its impermanence and temporality. It allows for changing notions of “West Indian” or “Caribbean” identity in response to the changing influences and the changing demands of the global environment. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3202 (#complicates, via linked claim)

What I call “watermarks in colonial history” are indelibly inscribed in past and present. The visibility of watermarks depends on angle and light. Watermarks are embossed on the surface and in the grain. As I use the term here, they denote signatures of a history that neither can be scraped off nor removed without destroying the paper. Watermarks cannot be erased. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 70 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Barbados’s unbroken colonial rule and lack of indentured labor preserved a rigid color hierarchy — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3271; Colonial histories remain indelibly legible in present institutions rather than erasable — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 70; Permeable Creole boundaries make Caribbean identity fluid and unstable — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3202 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Barbados’s unbroken colonial rule and lack of indentured labor preserved a rigid color hierarchy #corroborates (0.92) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3271
• Permeable Creole boundaries make Caribbean identity fluid and unstable #complicates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3202
• Colonial histories remain indelibly legible in present institutions rather than erasable #complicates (0.72) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 70