Caribbean Creole culture diverges by island despite shared plantation history

Evidence

There is no uniformity and universality in Creole representation and practice in the region. Both are enframed by the centrality of notions of “territory” in West Indian selfconceptualizations. This makes sense for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the region’s geomorphology and the almost unique history of each of the islands and the few mainland “territories” that together comprise Caribbean political geography. Despite Caribbean “universals” forged out of the plantation, a history of slavery and indentureship, and European colonialism, there are territorial divergences in the specifics of culture and society. In some cases, the universal European-African hybrid is modified by the incorporation of groups whose diasporic origins are located neither in Europe or Africa. There are, also, territorial differences shaped by the distinctive influences of different European colonizing powers upon the sociocultural framework. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3209

Categorization

• DEFINE: Qualifies the common assumption of a single homogeneous Caribbean creole culture, grounding it in geomorphology and distinct colonial legacies.