The modern world-system
emerged with the expansion of Europe into the Caribbean. Similarly, Europe,
as an idea and as a project, was constructed and reworked in light of the
momentous encounters and relationships that occurred between European metropoles
and their social institutions, economies, and agents and their counterparts
among Caribbean Amerindian societies. It can be argued that Caribbean Amerindians
also played central roles in either making or breaking European efforts
at colonization in the Caribbean territories, especially those deemed to
be of commercial value for their fertile soils and/or strategically placed
in the quest for "El Dorado." Caribbean Amerindians, and especially the
Caribs, whose name was once interchangeable with Cannibal and synonymous
with anthropophagy, occupied the centre of European imaginations of the
radically different Other.
Caribbean Amerindians
were present in the range of European attempts at grappling with or constructing
difference, whether the conceptions were of irreducible and cruel savages,
or heroic warriors and noble inheritors of the soil. Europeans conquered
Amerindian societies, worked with Amerindian polities, adopted Amerindian
practices, commoditized and globalized the trade in Amerindian products
such as cocoa and tobacco, forged new cultural formations with Caribbean
Amerindians, married Caribbean Amerindians, settled in their villages,
brought them back to Europe, painted Caribbean Amerindians, idealized them,
wrote stories about them, and eventually even established institutions
and territories designed to protect and preserve the last remaining "pure"
Amerindians at the turn of the twentieth century.
Since the end of the
1980s, and especially throughout the 1990s, the public has witnessed a
prominent rebirth and revitalization of both Caribbean Amerindian communities
located on reservations in Guyana and Dominica, settlements in Belize and
St. Vincent, rural communities in Cuba, or the founding of new cultural
organizations identifying with a Caribbean Amerindian heritage such as
the Caribs of Trinidad and the various Taïno organizations of Puerto
Rico, the Dominican Republic and the United States of America. In some
cases, new groups have emerged that explore the Amerindian input and contribution
in the makeup of rural communities such as the Guajiros of eastern
Cuba or the Cocoa Panyols of northeastern Trinidad. As a result
of these revivals, the last decade, since the late 1980s, has witnessed
three large regional gatherings of Indigenous groups in Arima, Trinidad,
the formation of the Caribbean Organization of Indigenous People, the attraction
of serious attention from historians and anthropologists, and even the
proud promotional efforts of states in the region where in many cases Amerindians
had been conceived by influential nationalist intellectuals as the forebears
of the modern nations of the region.
All of these developments
have called forth a new and special resource dedicated to the understanding,
presentation and explanation of these issues and subjects, that being KACIKE:
Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology.
The publication of
KACIKE:
Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology, is motivated
by a desire to correct the long standing impression that Caribbean Amerindians
were either irrelevant to the making of the modern societies and cultural
formations found in the Caribbean basin, merely mute witnesses to history,
or that they have been altogether absent in post-colonial Caribbean history.
In addition, KACIKE endeavours to counter the impression that there
were few or no historical documents that inform us of Caribbean Amerindian
societies, groups, individuals, or lifeways, or that they were produced
entirely by naive individuals guided solely by superficial and predetermined
impressions or by agendas so sinister that absolutely nothing of importance
is to be learned. Hence this journal features a historical dimension to
the study of Caribbean Amerindian society and culture, extending before
1492 and after.
The publication of
KACIKE:
Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology, was also
motivated by the perceived need to gather ongoing research and writing
on Caribbean Amerindians, in one primary forum. Over the centuries, and
with especial intensity in the last decades, volumes of work have appeared
on various aspects of Caribbean Amerindian societies and cultures. The
large number of researchers dedicated to this field -- anthropologists,
archaeologists and historians -- seems to mandate the creation of a journal
such as this one, specializing in bringing forth such research. In the
meantime, many older and sometimes obscure sources are often poorly distributed
and thus not available for use by researchers without some difficulty.
It is the intent of this journal to also seek permission to publish reprints
of important historical accounts or contemporary ethnographic work that
has hitherto been inadequately disseminated. In addition, this journal
will also endeavour to present invaluable research resources to current
researchers, in the form of research bibliographies and other data collections.
With time, as the Internet continues to grow in size and sophistication
(from the academic standpoint), many of our publications will be able to
utilize hypertext links to connect readers with other important sources
that either are or will be available on the Internet, somewhat facilitating
the research review process.
In addition,
KACIKE's
publication was motivated by a reaction against the prejudice that
sees contemporary organizations and communities identifying with a Caribbean
Amerindian heritage as either insignificant, not "authentic," or not worthy
of study. Indeed, it is the aim of this journal to show that much can be
learned about colonial and modern Caribbean society, the construction of
indigeneity, the concept of tradition, political economy, globalization
and the production of locality, and the transnational rearticulation of
identities through the very challenging and complex lens of the Caribbean
Amerindian presence, regardless of what one may think of such communities
and groups. It is also true that to a large extent Caribbean Amerindian
groups and communities have been part of the creolization process, hence
the Editors also feature articles that discuss particular creole cultural
formations or processes that involve and incorporate Amerindian peoples
and practices to some extent, whether these be foods, linguistic variants,
local architecture, music, medicine, myths and legends, agricultural practices,
and so forth. The Editors of KACIKE believe that until thorough,
comprehensive and probing studies of this realm of Caribbean society are
well advanced, we cannot truly understand nor grasp the actual depth and
complexity of Caribbean society, nor can we appreciate the range of expressions
of indigeneity in the contemporary world.
The Editors of KACIKE
welcome
any contributions from authors that either add to, extend, modify or even
reject the perspective and the arguments contained in this statement, and
those that simply endeavour to present new information.
Maximilian C. Forte
Founding Editor
Arima,
Trinidad,
09-09-1999.
|
|
. |