FD11A Caribbean Civilisation

Telling the Caribbean Story

Objectives
By the end of this session students will realise
that :
History is perspective driven and subject to
change based on the available evidence.
History today is becoming more accurate as
the tools of academia allow us to overcome
many of the initial biases of the early
historians.
The story of the Caribbean, like any
other storyis intended to convey a
series of ideas.
Historians give us ideas about the history of
Caribbean civilisation and culture.
To tell the story the historian collects facts about the
region.
The facts are made into a story (narrative) that all
can understand.
The meaning of the story is put together by the
people telling the story.
As a result the stories may have different meanings.
This is called the bias of the historical story.
Caribbean historians may tell a
different story to non-Caribbean
historians
The bias of the historical story is as a result of
human factors:
Gender
Sex
Age
Nationality
Class
Religion
Education
Economics
So the story of Caribbean civilisation has been told in
different ways.
The Europeans for example,
arriving in the region in 1492, saw
the area as an uncivilised one with
no culture
This idea was wrong ( i.e. a
Eurocentric perspective)
It was also wrong as it was written only from a male
perspective ( i.e.. Androcentric).
The first Caribbean story was therefore written by non
Caribbean people.
As a result, present day historians are actively engaged in
overcoming much of the biases of the earliest recorded
histories of the Caribbean
To re-write the Caribbean story historians use the Critical
Method" which tests the information.
By testing the stories the early androcentric and
Eurocentric focus of the Caribbean is being changed.
Today for example we know now that Carib Cannibalism
was a myth .
This myth was put forward by the Europeans to justify their
destruction of the native people who resisted them .
Today Caribbean historians no longer see the term Carib
as a valid one..
This clearer picture is aided by the historians use of the tools
of other sciences and disciplines
Anthropology
Archaeology
Forensic Sciences
Natural Sciences
Social Sciences
Linguistics
And many others.
Today new terms such as Tainos,
Lucayan and Kalainago now
replace the former Carib and
Arawak.
The process by which historians give new versions of the
regions history based on more detailed insights and evidence
is called
Through Revisionism a clearer (better) story of the
Caribbean is obtained.
The course FD11A Caribbean Civilisation is thus a
Revisionist Course which provides an updated Caribbean
perspective of the Regions culture and society
To achieve this we will carefully test all the evidence given to
us.
We will be alert to the particular perspective of the storyteller
and test the results using the Critical Method.
Recorded history is perspective driven
Therefore Historical stories/accounts can be changed
The history we traditionally know about the
Caribbean has, largely, been given to us by others
When perspectives change (through Revisionism) the
story/interpretation may change.