Caribbean Studies Definitions

Caribbean Studies Definitions Term | Definition | Tectonic activity | Earth movements that impact and influence the surface of the earth resulting in earthquakes, volcanic activity and mountain building are when plate margins interact with each other. | ENSO | El Niño- Southern Oscillation. El nin͂o refers to the warming of the sea surface in the equatorial Pacific, which leads to the atmospheric changes known as the Southern Oscillation and rainfall and temperature variations globally. | Environmental Hazard | Natural events such as volcanoes and earthquakes that could become disasters if they adversely affect human life and property. | Soil erosion | The process whereby soil is removed by the forces of win, water and moving ice. This can happen naturally or by human activities. | Encomienda | Legal system whereby the Amerindian population were defined as subjects of the Spanish Crown and expected to pay tribute in taxes and labour. In return they were to be taught Christianity and protected. | Plantation Society | George Beckford: the rigidly stratified system of social and economic relations enforced on plantations in the ‘New World’ | Commonwealth | Independent and dependent states that were once colonies of the British. Countries gained through trade and other economic agreements. | Culture | The culture of a society is the way of life of its members, the collection of ideas and habits, norms and values which they learn, share and transmit from generation to generation. | Cultural Pluralism | Different cultural or racial groups in a society mixing only to a certain extent with limited social and cultural integration | Cultural Renewal | The revival of a cultural practice, possibly in relation to tourism- creating tourist packages or producing cultural artefacts | Cultural Imperialism/ Acculturation/Assimilation | The practices whereby a dominant culture attempts to promote their own culture and language over that of another. | Enculturation | Process of socialization whereby a person becomes part of another culture. | Hybridization/ Creolization | The fusion of two or more groups of people or cultural practices to produce a new entity with elements of each of the parent influences e.g. mixed ethnic groupings | Social structure | Organized patterns, arrangements and interactions between groups who compromise the various social institutions and social organizations | Ethnocentric | Ideas and policies derived from a ‘first world’ country and imposed on a ‘third world’ country. | Miscegenation | Sexual unions between persons of difference races, resulting in children of mixed race. | Pigmentocracy | Social stratification in the C’bean due to racial prejudice and discrimination based on skin colour. White and lighter skin colour is accorded more status. | Syncretism | Mixing of cultural practices from different ethnic groups to create a hybrid fusing aspects of the original practices e.g. religion, music | Economic enfranchisement | Condition whereby a country or nation achieves the right to determine how it will develop its system of production. | Human Development | Development which sees people as the means and ends of development and that they have to be provided with the opportunities to develop themselves. | Sustainable development | Theory of development that views a holistic light, encompassing social as well as economic development and emphasizing the importance of conserving the environment and natural resources for future generations. | Economic Development | Quantitative term used to describe the advancements in a country’s standard of living e.g. better health care, lower unemployment and inflation rates and fewer people living below the poverty line. | Human Development Paradigm (HDP) | Created by the UN which focuses on human development. Broadens people’s options by instituting policies to enhance equity, productivity, empowerment and sustainability. | Economic Growth | Increase in the value of goods and services produced by a country within a period of time. | Gross Domestic Product (GDP) | Total market value of the output of goods and services of a country in a given year. | Gross National Product (GNP) | Value of output (goods and services) produced by a country plus any income derived from abroad. | Globalisation | Increasing economic integration and interdependence of countries through expanded movement of goods and services, labour, technology and capital across international boundaries. | Digital Divide | Gap between those who have access to computers and other ICT’s and are computer literate and those who cannot use computers and o not have access to them. | Multinational Companies (MNC’s) | Firms with their headquarters in metropolitan countries which carry out their operations in different countries, usually developing countries. | Mass media | Forms of communication designed to reach a mass audience immediately or over a short period of time. It includes newspapers, television, radio and internet. | Ideology | Set of beliefs that include a programme for the liberation of some groups that feels oppressed and which is intolerant of other ideologies. | Pan-Africanism | An ideology promoting the brotherhood of all the African peoples the world over to interrogate their oppression, past and present by using their common culture and ancestry as a force to unite and seek ways of fostering the development of Africa and African people. | Négritude | The ideology largely developed by poets and writers in the French colonial countries of Africa and the Caribbean to protest against the racism directed at the people of African origin. They advocated a celebration and discussion of ‘blackness’ as a rival perspective to the dominant one of white western culture. | Universal Adult Suffrage | The right of all citizens in a country to vote in national elections once they gave attained the required age. | Gender | Cultural practice manifested between the relationship of a man and woman. | Prejudice | A positive or negative attitude towards particular persons or groups based on stereotypes rather than personal knowledge or experience of the persons or groups concerned. | Discrimination | Treating others unfairly on the basis of attitude and beliefs and often as a result of prejudice. | Ageism | An attitude towards mainly older people that treats them as objects of not much worth. | Sexism | Prejudices, stereotypes and acts of discrimination against people based on their sex and not on individual merits and failures. | Social Justice | Condition that most societies strive for where fair treatment is experiences by all groups and everyone shares equally in the benefits of the society. | Mutual Advantage | This is a social contract between the state and citizens where the state would provide welfare benefits once the citizen is willing to find some arrangement to benefit the state. |