Dissertation Research: Analysis of Afro-Trinidadians and Indo-Trinidadians, Ethnic Relations through Study of Performances

这篇论文的研究项目进行了人类学的学生在密歇根大学调查如何在特立尼达和托巴哥的民族国家的两个占主导地位的民族群体（非洲和南亚印度血统的人）相互作用，并塑造这个双岛加勒比共和国。这项研究对比了多元文化国家的两种愿景：多元社会，具有不同和独立的族裔社区，表现出高度的隔离和极性，以及多元文化社会，其中各族裔群体自由融合，形成克里奥尔化的文化形式和传统。在特立尼达和托巴哥，表演是一种代表身份和参与社会评论的既定手段，在本项目中，表演是理解种族间社会关系的重要背景。该项目将分析个人行动主义和社区参与的表现，并将分析表演实践，传统和象征意义。智力优势：通过重新分析克里奥尔语概念及其目前对印度-特立尼达文化的排斥，专注于特立尼达和托巴哥的非洲-特立尼达和印度-特立尼达社区的交叉点，将有助于散居研究，将重点从欧洲和非欧洲社区之间的关系转向非欧洲散居者之间的关系。更广泛的影响：这项研究的更广泛影响包括创建关于狂欢节化装舞会乐队种族构成的新调查数据，这些数据将提供给西印度群岛大学的学者，用于进一步研究种族和节日。 此外，研究人员是一名非洲裔美国妇女，是一个历史上在科学领域代表性不足的群体的成员，她将接受培训和援助，以完成她的人类学博士学位。

This dissertation research project conducted by an anthropology student at the University of Michigan investigates how the two dominant ethnic groups (peoples of African and of South Asian Indian ancestry) in the nation-state of Trinidad and Tobago interact with one another and shape this twin-island Caribbean republic. The research contrasts two visions of a multicultural state: plural society, with distinct and separate ethnic communities that exhibit a high degree of segregation and polarity, and multicultural society in which the various ethnic groups integrate freely, shaping creolized cultural forms and traditions. In Trinidad and Tobago performance is a well-established means of representing identities and engaging in social commentary, and serves in this project as a significant context in which to understand interethnic social relations. The project will analyze performance as individual activism and as community engagement, and will also analyze performance practices, traditions and symbolism. Intellectual Merit: Focusing on the intersection of the Afro-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian communities in Trinidad and Tobago through reanalyzing the creole concept and its present exclusion of Indo-Trinidadian culture, will contribute to Diaspora Studies, redirecting the focus from relationships between European and non-European communities to relationships between non-European diasporas. Broader Impacts: The broader impacts of this research include creating new survey data on the ethnic composition of Carnival masquerade bands, which will be made available to scholars at the University of the West Indies to be used in further studies on ethnicity and festivals. In addition the researcher is an African-American woman, a member of a group historically underrepresented in the sciences, who will receive training and assistance toward the completion of her doctoral degree in anthropology.