The Struggle to Define Afro-Jamaican Womanhood, 1865-1938

定义非裔牙买加女性身份的斗争，1865 年至 1938 年

• 批准号: AH/F002165/1
• 负责人: Henrice Altink
• 金额: $ 2.13万
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FF002165%2F1
• 关键词: Struggle; Define; Afro; Jamaican; Womanhood

This study examines ideas about women as sexual partners, wives, mothers, workers and citizens within the Afro-Jamaican community between the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion and the labour riots of 1938 that put Jamaica on the road to independence, a period which has thus far received scant scholarly attention. It first of all tries to assess the extent to which these ideas engaged with the metropolitan ideal of womanhood that defined women as dependent wives and caring mothers and was held up by the government, churches and chapels, schools and media. It is furthermore concerned to unravel the impact of racial and class ideologies on the construction of womanhood ideals in the Afro-Jamaican community and the responses of Afro-Jamaican women to the pressures put upon them to conform to these ideals. By examining Afro-Jamaican ideas of womanhood within their socio-economic, political and cultural context and alongside Afro-Jamaican women's lived experiences, the study will be able to shed light on important developments that took place in Jamaica between 1865 and 1938, such as the decline of the sugar industry, migration, and revivalism. In particular, it will enhance our understanding of the quest of the second generation of freedmen for full citizenship. It will not only show that women played an active part in the struggle to undo the class and colour discrimination which was a legacy from slavery and prevented full equality but also that ideas about citizenship in this struggle were articulated through remarks about appropriate female behaviour.The study provides a more comprehensive account of the role played by gender in the second generation of freedmen's struggle for full citizenship than the few existing works on gender in post-1865 Jamaica because it is based on a wider range of sources and pays attention to the diversity of Afro-Jamaican women. It uses not only official sources and materials written by white islanders and visitors but also sources produced by Afro-Jamaicans, including materials that convey the gender ideals of lower-class, illiterate Afro-Jamaicans, such as published folktales, court testimonies and transcripts of interviews with second-generation freedmen, and it will demonstrate that not just class and colour but also age and locality mediated Afro-Jamaican women's ideas of womanhood and their responses to attempts to change their behaviour.

本研究报告探讨了从1865年莫兰特湾叛乱到1938年劳工骚乱之间的非裔牙买加社区内关于妇女作为性伙伴、妻子、母亲、工人和公民的观念，这场骚乱使牙买加走上了独立之路，而这一时期迄今为止很少受到学术界的关注。它首先试图评估这些观念在多大程度上与大都市的女性理想相结合，这种理想将妇女定义为依赖妻子和照顾母亲，并受到政府、教堂和教堂、学校和媒体的支持。委员会还关切地注意到，种族和阶级意识形态对非裔牙买加人社区妇女理想的形成产生了影响，非裔牙买加妇女对要求她们实现这些理想的压力作出了何种反应。通过在社会经济、政治和文化背景下审视非裔牙买加妇女的思想，并结合非裔牙买加妇女的生活经历，这项研究将能够阐明1865年至1938年期间牙买加发生的重要发展，如制糖业的衰落、移民和复兴运动。特别是，它将加强我们对第二代自由人寻求完全公民身份的理解。它不仅表明妇女在消除奴隶制遗留下来的、阻碍完全平等的阶级和肤色歧视的斗争中发挥了积极作用，而且还表明在这场斗争中，通过对适当的女性行为的评论，阐述了关于公民身份的思想。关于1865年后牙买加性别问题的现有著作很少，因为它基于更广泛的资料来源，并关注非裔牙买加妇女的多样性。它不仅使用官方来源和白色岛民和游客撰写的材料，而且使用非洲裔牙买加人制作的来源，包括传达下层、文盲非洲裔牙买加人性别观念的材料，如出版的民间故事、法庭证词和对第二代自由人的访谈记录，它将表明，不仅阶级和肤色，而且年龄和地点介导的非裔牙买加妇女的妇女思想和他们的反应，试图改变他们的行为。