And The Role inthe Daily Lives Of Caribbean People
Culture refers to the way of life of a people. It involves and includes how an ethnic group of people carry out their activities.The culture of a particular group of people can be categorized as having different aspects to it such as the material culture, the religious culture and even the linguistic culture. The cultural practices of a group of people serve as their identifying factor giving them a sense of belonging and self-worthiness. Such practices ensure the continuity of the people’s culture protecting it against extinction and degeneration from the face of the earth.
Practices which ensure the progression of a people’s culture from one generation to the other are usually flawless among dominant groups while they are in jeopardy in minority groups and are usually faced with the risk of extinction. This paper considers the processes among the Caribbean’s, a group of people oppressed and who lived under circumstances that threatened their culture. The paper considers the cultural retention among the people of the Caribbean and its effects on their present day lives.
Cultural retention is an intrinsic self-propagating process through which the culture and social ways of life of a group of people is passed on from one generation to the next, evolving over the years to suite the prevailing living conditions of the people and to unite them against any adversaries that may threaten its existence.
The process protects against the extinction or degeneration of a particular ethnic groups culture oppressed people face a high of losing their cultural and hence have a higher a higher need for cultural retention to ensure that their ways of life remain through generations. It is this necessity that has called for such minority groups to look for ways of retaining their culture. This paper explores the various cultural Retentions in existence today in the present-day Caribbean group of people. The paper elucidates the following retained aspects among the Caribbean’s
- Language
- Music
- Religion
- Traditions (Carnivals and masquerades)
- Cuisine
- Music
Since time immemorial, music has been the instrument through which messages have been communicated within the society. Among the Caribbean’s, it was no different. Music was used for several purposes, mainly in the preservation of the culture of the oppressed people. The Caribbean’s under the Europeans were not always allowed to involve themselves in many musical activities or festivities. As a matter of fact they were compelled to practice and dance to Christian forms of music and entertainment. These made the Europeans to construct such small houses for the slaves and plantation workers which were crowded hence limiting the activities carried out within the confines of the slave housesconsequently this minimized any musical activities that could be carried out by the Caribbean’s. Despite all this hostility and aggression towards the Caribbean’s, they were able to keep alive their music and also make it to grow form one level to another. The music provided an avenue for entertainment and also provided respite as they could mock their masters through the songs which the masters did not understand.
This type of music claims its origins from Africa, and the English folk song other genres were soon developed as time went by to replace instruments such includes, rock steady and reggae, meringue, calypso and salsa, compass, the Caribbean people used this music to protect against European hostility and oppression.The music is usually accompanied by various instruments, hysterical dances and charts. The Caribbean’s used the music to mark various important ceremonies in their culture such as the baby naming ceremonies and the graveside ceremonies which they utilized fully to ensure that the culture of the Caribbean was trickled down as was required without eroding its aspects, infect they were enhanced and made more Caribbean like. The songs were usually led by a song leader called a “griot”. Such singing united the Caribbean slaves. They are the predecessors of the present day carnivals having gone through various generations
This music was usually done in secret or in hiding as the Europeans forced the Caribbean’s to copy their ways of life which the Europeans considered as the only holy way of life unlike those of the slaves who were considered as. As such, the cultural music was secretly done to ensure the retention of the culture of the Caribbean people and to improve its erosion into oblivion.
Through the years Caribbean music has grown all over the world gaining ground and spreading the culture the world over.
Religion
This is the belief in a supernaturalbeing characterized by reverence and worship theCaribbean’s area deeply religious group with deep non-Christian standing .The Caribbean’s comprise differentcultures assembled together as a result of various factors the main one being slavery..
The Caribbean’s religionwas ideally shaped by the European dominance in the region during the slave era as different European groups settled, they each came along with their own religion as the Spaniards and the French were staunch Catholics while the the Brits were protestants. As different nations occupied the various Caribbean islands the Caribbean religion became more diverse. The slaves brought to work in the farms, the slaves each came with their own faith.
These religions combined and amalgamated to give rise to a new form of worship while some emerged from nowhere but due to the congregation of the masses of people.
Gradually they adopted religious aspects to their ways of life. Among the various religious beliefs of the Caribbean people believed new borns still belonged to the spirit world until after 9days.They also held to the belief that the dead lingered on earth for 40days and had to be appeased by pouring libations by the graveside they had specific darks accompanied by historical dances and vigorous drummers where are individuals would become possessed by spirits hence communicate with the deade.g. of such religious include kumara,myal and revival such ceremonies offered recreation and were also used to forms of worship such were practiced during work, children play and also during worship. This ensured they were retained from one generation to the next
The songs and dances used for religious were usually improvised and accompanied by variety of instruments such asdrums and beatings of pans such as actions usually brought conflict with their masters whocondemned such activities leading to further oppression of the Caribbean people.
As slavery came to an end in the Caribbean, some religions became more dominant than others. Such as Hinduism which became the dominant religion in some Caribbean islands. The Caribbean religion is a hybrid of many religion intermixed to come up with varieties such as the voodoo,Rastafari, and Santeria. The influence in the Caribbean religion is brought about by the various people assembled in the Caribbean peninsula., for instance the Africans, the Europeans and the Asians all congregated and influenced the Caribbean religion. The Rastafarian religion is the main form of religion in the Caribbean in fact it even outnumbers its original homeland in Jamaica. Rastafarianism was largely promoted as a way of worship among the Caribbean’s by popular Caribbean’s such as Marcus garvey who popularized the notion that Ethiopia’s emperor GabrielleHaileSelassie was the foretold messiah and hence the “lion of Judah”. The religion has tenets to which it subscribes that are attributed to its large followership. For instance, it stresses that the black man will one day rise against the white man in revenge foe enslaving him,. It also proposes that the emperor of Ethiopia will lead all slaves back to their original homelands, thereby playing the messianic role. Such schools of thought appealed to many slaves who felt that this was the only way of attaining redemption and emancipation. The religion in the Caribbean, though having undergone an evolution of some sorts has been retained through time being taught to the younger generations
Language
The Caribbean language is not distinctly defined due to the diversification of the different peoples gathered in the region. Fourmain languages exist among the Caribbean’s which are most understood by the Caribbean people. Two of them originate from the European influence which was mostly felt during the 1900’s, while the others are as a result of the marriage between the African, Caribbean and the British interaction. The four languages are Spanish, Dutch, English, French and creole.
The Caribbean people have the creole as their main language. The language has evolved over a long period of time transferring the people’s cultural background down through the generations. Due to the various influencing factors that brought the Caribbean people together such as slavery and working in plantations, it has not been possible to specifically associate the people with one particular language. The people of the Caribbean therefore have a variety of languages though which they communicate and transfer their cultures. The various languages are used in the different and variable cultural practices practiced by the Caribbean’s. It influences their music, dances and cultural ceremonies such as the death and the naming ceremonies. The language of the Caribbean is also influenced by remnants of African origin with some words having origins from Africa. They derive words from west, east and central Africa.The people of the Caribbean initiallyhad no common language with which to identify themselves with, they managed to form an intermediate form of language along which the culture could be passed on down the generations. This largely helped to facilitate the progression of the Caribbean people’s culture down the generations. Today the Caribbean people speak a mixture of languages that are localized depending on the area one is fond for instance in the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, the main language spoken is Hindu. In the present state, the Caribbean people are coming up with language policies so as to help harmonize the region.. Regardless of the variations, the Caribbean culture has survived through the ages via the different aspects and diversity of the languages.
Traditions
The Caribbean culture is complex and has been changing since time. The traditions of the Caribbean people were influenced by factors such as the fact that they are cultures from different parts of the world congregated at one point. This brings a hybrid of traditions as the different people try to synchronize with each other as well as adapt to their present life conditions. In addition the immigrants also came with their own traditions which despite the new environment, they tried to maintain.
The Caribbean traditions have grown and changed from simple to more complex acts of dances and rituals. The Caribbean people are usually involved in carnivals that are characterized by dances music and frenzied dance styles. The Caribbean carnivals aresequences ofevents that are usually conducted among the Caribbean people yearly top celebrate life. It involved moving around villages in circles. The participants were usually well donned for the occasion putting on masks and other arte facts such as beads and shells which usually represented a spiritual force or spirit. Such dressing had symbolic meanings symbolizing that though not free and under oppression, the people could rise above their problems and be free. The traditional life of the Caribbean people enhanced the unity and the bond among them thereby keeping alive the spirit of freedom that was hard to come by during the days of slavery. It was only through such traditions that the Caribbean’s could freely express them and brings out their deep feelings. It is in essence that these traditions have over the years helped to retain and maintain the culture of the Caribbean’s throughout to the present day generation. As the Caribbean people’s culture was threatened by the Europeans influence, such traditions as the carnivals provided the chance for the Caribbean people to showcase and protect their culture from erosion. These carnivals were used by the Caribbean’s to express their grievances to their masters.
The cuisine
The world over, each group of people has its own distinct types of cuisine with which it can be specifically identified with. The different method with which food is prepared bears the material culture of a group of people identifying their nature and means of survival. The Caribbean people have a cuisine which is special and that has been in existence for generations to the present day forms. The Caribbean cuisine has morphed with time to become exquisite as it is today.
References
Barret (1999), Access to bank finance for Afro- Caribbean. London UK: The Rosen Publishing Group
