8.4 Culture, Heritage & Living in a Multi-Ethnic Society
Key Takeaways
- Culture is BEST defined as the way of life of a people, not merely their dances, food or dress.
- Cultural heritage includes festivals, music, food, language, religion, craft, dress and historic sites passed down through generations.
- Wakes and christenings are cultural celebrations connected with religious and life-cycle events in Caribbean communities.
- In a multiracial society, citizens are most likely to respect and tolerate one another's differences of opinion, lifestyle and cultural practice.
- Caribbean culture is described as a callaloo or a melting pot because African, Indian, European, Chinese and indigenous elements have blended.
8.4 Culture, Heritage & Living in a Multi-Ethnic Society
Quick Summary: Culture is the way of life of a people. That definition is worth memorising word for word, because the CXC specimen paper asks it directly and the wrong options are all things that are part of culture rather than definitions of it.
Defining Culture
The specimen item reads: "Culture may BEST be defined as (A) the way of life of a people (B) respect shown by people (C) dances performed by people." The answer is (A) the way of life of a people.
This is a textbook BEST item. Dances are part of culture, and respect is shown within a culture - but neither is a definition. Culture is the whole package:
| Element of Culture | Caribbean Examples |
|---|---|
| Language and dialect | Standard English, Creole/Patois, Bhojpuri words, French Creole (Kwéyòl) |
| Religion | Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Rastafari, Orisha, Spiritual Baptist |
| Food | Callaloo, roti, pepperpot, oil down, cook-up rice, souse, doubles |
| Music and dance | Calypso, soca, reggae, steelpan, chutney, tassa, quadrille, bele |
| Festivals | Carnival, Crop Over, Divali, Eid, Emancipation Day, Junkanoo |
| Dress | Madras, jab jab and mas costumes, sari, head-tie |
| Craft and art | Basketry, pottery, wood carving, straw work |
| Beliefs and customs | Wakes, christenings, weddings, folk stories, proverbs, remedies |
Material culture is the things you can touch - food, tools, clothing, buildings. Non-material culture is what you cannot touch - beliefs, values, language, customs. Examiners sometimes test that split.
Tracing Practices to Ancestral Groups
The specimen paper asks which activity is MOSTLY associated with African ancestors. Being able to trace practices to their roots is worth several marks.
| Ancestral Group | Contributions to Caribbean Culture |
|---|---|
| Indigenous (Taino, Kalinago) | Cassava and cassava bread, barbecue, hammock, canoe, place names, basketry |
| African | Drumming and drum-making, call-and-response singing, folk tales (Anansi), Junkanoo and masquerade, wakes and nine-nights, callaloo, oral storytelling |
| Indian | Roti and curry, Divali and Phagwah/Holi, tassa drumming, chutney music, sari and orhni |
| European | Christianity, the English language, quadrille and maypole dancing, cricket, parliamentary institutions |
| Chinese | Chinese New Year observances, cooking styles, retail trade traditions |
Wakes and Christenings
A specimen item states that wakes and christenings are cultural celebrations associated with religious and life-cycle observance. A wake is a gathering held after a death, where family, neighbours and friends keep company, sing, tell stories and share food - a practice with strong African roots blended with Christian observance. A christening is the ceremony marking the naming and baptism of a child.
These are rites of passage - ceremonies marking a change in a person's status: birth, naming, coming of age, marriage, death.
Cultural Heritage
Cultural heritage is what one generation inherits from those before it and passes on to those after. It comes in two kinds:
- Tangible heritage - things you can see and touch: historic forts, great houses, sugar mills, churches, petroglyphs, museums, national dress, craft.
- Intangible heritage - practices and knowledge: festivals, folk songs, proverbs, storytelling, dialect, traditional medicine, dance, cooking methods.
A specimen item asks which of several options is an example of the cultural heritage of the Caribbean. The answer will be something handed down through generations - a festival, a folk practice, a historic site - rather than something recently imported.
Why Heritage Must Be Protected
- It carries identity - it tells Caribbean people who they are and where they came from.
- It supports the economy, particularly heritage tourism.
- It is irreplaceable - once a fort collapses or a language dies, no one can rebuild it.
- It provides education for future generations.
Ways to preserve it: museums and archives, national trusts, protected historic sites, teaching folk arts in schools, recording elders' knowledge, and staging festivals.
Living in a Multiracial, Multi-Ethnic Society
The Caribbean is often described as a callaloo, a melting pot or a cultural mosaic because so many peoples have blended here. Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana have large populations of both African and Indian descent; Belize adds Maya, Garifuna and Mestizo communities; Dominica and St Vincent retain Kalinago and Garifuna populations.
The specimen paper asks what citizens in a multiracial society are MOST likely to do. The expected answer is that they respect and tolerate each other's differences and live and work together co-operatively.
The official standard behind this is precise. Target 2 requires pupils to:
- Encourage respect for differences of opinion, lifestyle and cultural practices.
- Develop an appreciation for one's own cultural heritage and cultivate tolerance for the cultural heritage of others.
- Accept responsibility and be accountable for the effects of personal decisions and actions on self, others and the environment.
Read item 2 carefully: it asks for both - pride in your own heritage and tolerance of everyone else's. An answer that celebrates one group while dismissing another fails the standard.
Terms Worth Distinguishing
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Tolerance | Accepting practices and beliefs different from your own |
| Prejudice | Judging a person before you know them, usually unfairly |
| Discrimination | Treating someone worse because of who they are |
| Stereotype | A fixed, oversimplified idea about a whole group |
| Cultural diversity | The variety of cultures existing within one society |
| Cultural retention | Practices kept from ancestral cultures over generations |
Note the difference between prejudice (an attitude in the mind) and discrimination (an action taken against someone). Examiners test that pair.
Culture may BEST be defined as
Which pair of practices is MOSTLY associated with the African ancestors of Caribbean people?
In a multiracial society, citizens are MOST likely to
What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?