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

这篇论文是由密歇根大学人类学专业的一名学生进行的，研究了民族国家特立尼达和多巴哥的两个主要民族(非洲人和南亚印第安人后裔)如何相互作用，以及如何塑造这个由两个岛屿组成的加勒比海共和国。这项研究对比了多元文化国家的两种观点：多元社会和多元文化社会，多元社会和多元文化社会形成了克利奥化的文化形式和传统。在特立尼达和多巴哥，表演是一种公认的表达身份和进行社会评论的手段，并在这一项目中作为了解族裔间社会关系的重要背景。该项目将把表演分析为个人行动主义和社区参与，还将分析表演实践、传统和象征意义。知识价值：通过重新分析克里奥尔概念及其目前对印度-特里尼迪亚文化的排斥，侧重于特立尼达和多巴哥非洲-特里尼迪亚和印度-特里尼迪亚社区的交集，将有助于侨民研究，将重点从欧洲和非欧洲社区之间的关系转向非欧洲侨民之间的关系。更广泛的影响：这项研究的更广泛的影响包括创建关于狂欢节化妆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，这位研究人员是一名非裔美国女性，她是一个在科学界历来代表性不足的群体的成员，她将接受培训和帮助，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.