Identity, Cultural Transnationalism and Second Generation Jamaicans in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

This study researches the impact that cultural transnationalism has on the identity of second generation Jamaicans in the Greater Toronto Area. Through a focus group interview, five participants provided responses to questions which identified (i) the components of cultural transnationalism in the Jamaican community, and (ii) how second generation Jamaicans create their identity between their Jamaican ancestry and Canadian nationality. The participants were asked about their relationship to Jamaican culture, Canadian identity, and their sense of belonging to both societies. Other themes which emerged from the data such as cultural values, exclusion and survival in Canadian society were also discussed. The results showed that the second generation is prone to developing a hybrid identity which includes aspects of their national and cultural identity. To explain this phenomenon, I applied the research of Tajfel (1974) and Stryker (1980) which discuss the identity theory and social identity theory, respectively.

Identity, Cultural Transnationalism and Second Generation Jamaicans in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

This study researches the impact that cultural transnationalism has on the identity of second generation Jamaicans in the Greater Toronto Area. Through a focus group interview, five participants provided responses to questions which identified (i) the components of cultural transnationalism in the Jamaican community, and (ii) how second generation Jamaicans create their identity between their Jamaican ancestry and Canadian nationality. The participants were asked about their relationship to Jamaican culture, Canadian identity, and their sense of belonging to both societies. Other themes which emerged from the data such as cultural values, exclusion and survival in Canadian society were also discussed. The results showed that the second generation is prone to developing a hybrid identity which includes aspects of their national and cultural identity. To explain this phenomenon, I applied the research of Tajfel (1974) and Stryker (1980) which discuss the identity theory and social identity theory, respectively.

"She Opened Windows": Edna Manley and Jamaican Literature

Edna Manley has been acclaimed for her contribution to Jamaican culture and social consciousness by way of her work as an artist, mainly in sculpture, and her influence, by example and by guidance, on emerging artists in her time. However, that contribution to the emergence of the “new,” pre-Independence Jamaica, must also include what she did for the development of Jamaican literature, although she was not herself a creative writer. In this regard, she made her contribution by way of her influence on, encouragement of, and practical assistance to emerging writers, such as poets H. D. Carberry, A. L. Hendriks, Kenneth Ingram and M. G. Smith, and novelists Roger Mais and Vic Reid. This essay recognizes the roles of her informal soirées at her home. Those writers who did not attend the soirées, would nonetheless seek her comments on their manuscripts. Then there was her founding and editing of the history-making literary journal-anthology Focus. In addition, a few poems by some of the poets were inspired by particular sculptures of hers.

JAMAICAN TAÍNO SETTLEMENT CONFIGURATION AT THE TIME OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Stranded in Jamaica for a year in AD 1503, Christopher Columbus and crew became reliant on the Taíno village of Maima for provisions. Recent archaeological survey and excavations at this site document a sizeable hillside settlement established early in the White Marl period of Jamaican culture history with continued occupation up to Spanish contact. Beginning by 13th to 14th century AD, the people at Maima expanded their settlement capacity across the hillslope through construction of house terraces and platforms employing large volumes of limestone rock and gravel fill. Archaeological excavation on these features has exposed at least one circular, center-pole Taíno house with a surprisingly limited floor space. A review of Jamaican archaeology suggests both hillside terracing and small house form is characteristic of Jamaican Taíno village configuration more broadly. This pattern stands in contrast to other areas of Taíno settlement in the Caribbean, and to the small number of Spanish chronicles in which Taíno villages and houses are described.

“C’mon, Get Happy”: The Commodification of Linguistic Stereotypes in a Volkswagen Super Bowl Commercial

This article examines a national Volkswagen commercial, broadcast on American television during the 2013 Super Bowl, and the intense public debate that met it. It shows a cheerful European American owner of a 2013 Volkswagen Beetle, who despite being from Minnesota speaks in a Jamaican Creole (JC) accent with features of Rastafarian speech. The focus of analysis is the linguistic performance of the JC as well as the linguistic reception by American and Jamaican audience members. The linguistic analysis reveals that the primary objective in how the character uses forms of JC is not linguistic authenticity, but simply to index Jamaican culture and identity through selective feature use. Our discourse analysis of the ad’s reception shows that linguistic ideologies, including ideas about what constitutes linguistic racism, vary widely among American viewers and are generally divided along racial lines. On the other hand, Jamaican viewers were found to have a more homogenous perspective. We conclude that the selection of non-local racialized stereotypes as the target of cross-racial stylization practices complicate, but do not eliminate, modern types of linguistic minstrelsy.

Value Orientation Of Jamaicans Compared To Students In The United States Of America

This study investigates differences in the value orientation of Jamaican students who live and study in the US for an extended period compared to Jamaican students in Jamaica and US students to see if there is support for the theories of convergence, divergence and crossvergence given the effects of globalization on different countries. Dorfman and Howels (1988) scale, which measures Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Collectivism, Masculinity and Paternalism, assessed value orientation in this study. The results reveal that there are no differences between Jamaican students in Jamaica and those in the US that suggests strength in the Jamaican culture as Jamaicans live in the US. However, there was only one significant difference between Jamaican students in the US and the US students; uncertainty avoidance was significantly higher for the former. This supports divergend or retaining ones distinctive cultural orientation despite ongoing interaction over time. There was no difference between US students, Jamaicans in US and Jamaican universities on all other dimensions. This lends support to convergence or merging of cultures.