RECITATION #5: FROM MYAL TO CARNIVAL: CREOLIZED CULTURAL PRACTICES IN THE BRITISH CARIBBEAN, PARTS 1 & 2 PROF. ROLAND THE CARIBBEAN IN POST-COLONIAL PERSPECTIVE ANTH 1115

JAMAICAN RELIGIOUS ROOTS (CHEVANNES) PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY Baptist (from US)  Native Baptist Movement  Incorporates Myal Great Revival (from Ireland via Britain and US)  Zion Revival (prophets/angels)  Pukumina (fallen angels/satanic spirits) BOTH INCORPORATE AFRICANISMS (convulsions/spirit possession) REVIVALISM Myal roots (African umbrella)  Distant God/Intermediaries  Healing  Multiple understandings of soul Obeah (not religion)  Sorcery

ROOTS OF RASTAFARIANISM -Marcus Garvey (UNIA) -Back to Africa Movement/Black pride -Prophecy of Black Messiah -“Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her arms unto God” (Psalm 68:31) Ras (Prince) Tafari Makonnen  Haile Selassie I -Free Ethiopia in colonized Africa -Davidic lineage via Solomon/Sheba

RISE OF RASTA 1930s-40s: Rasta Orthodoxy -Black God embodied by black people (esp. men) -Anti-establishment practices, i.e., facial hair -Urban embrace 1940s: Young converts increase anti-establishment practices -Dreadlocks -Ganja smoking -I-talk -Food practices -Reggae Music -Export to other islands 1980s to present: Globalization & waning orthodoxy -Rasta women speak out -Rasta symbolism (colors, dreads, marijuana) diffused/emptied

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POPULAR CULTURE AND THE (RE)GENTRIFICATION OF CARNIVAL (HO) HEGEMONY (Antonio Gramsci, Marxist Italian activist)  Domination of one group by another by means of consent rather than by force  Dominant group must concede to desires of subordinate group to obtain consent  Traditional intellectuals disseminate the interests of dominant ideology  Civil society: schools, church, home, government, mass media  Organic intellectuals represent the interests of subordinate groups  Leaders in resistance and counter-hegemony  POPULAR CULTURE

WHAT IS POPULAR CULTURE?  “Process of resistance where ordinary people creatively use cultural forms to contest dominant discourses” (Ho, p. 4) How everyday people use creativity to get their voices heard and interests represented *Some aspects of pop culture oppose domination, others reinforce it*

EVOLUTION OF TRINIDAD’S CARNIVAL MAS, PAN, CALYPSO, & (RE)GENTRIFICATION Mas (Masquerade & Dance) French elite’s Catholic Lenten practices & period social inversions Creole Canboulay “speaks back” to new British colonizers People’s carnival begins 1839 (post-emancipation) 1840s import of Asian indentured workers Trinidad & Guyana majority E. Indian New social organization challenges ruling class cultural supremacy

EVOLUTION OF TRINIDAD’S CARNIVAL (CONT’D) Pan (Steeldrum) Slavery era prohibitions against skin drumming  Bamboo drumming Slum youth play discarded oil drums after discovery of oil in Trinidad Carnival neighborhood competition (but not commoditizable) Gentrification when Chancellor Eric Williams promotes on political campaigns “College Boys” Sample:

EVOLUTION OF TRINIDAD’S CARNIVAL (CONT’D) Calypso Possibly evolved from African stick-fighting (Kalinda) Verbal sparring in patois British miss hidden critique Calypsonians as “organic intellectuals” “Bottom up” consciousness raising Largely male Commodification upon U.S. occupation Hybridization: Soca (Soul-Calypso), Chutney, Chutney Soca, Rapso Rapso heirs to organic intellectual tradition Samples: (Calypso: Banana boat song) (Soca: Follow the Leader) (Chutney/Drupatee) (Chutney Soca) (Rapso)

“PRETTYFICATION” OF CARNIVAL French, Creoles, Indians unite to support Carnival against British Skin drums replaced with European instruments Eroticism and violence exchanged for commercialism Commercial backing curbs calypso’s critique Rise of pageantry & prizes Internationally recognized Carnival

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