Blackness, ethnicity and cultural transformations in southern Puerto Rico
Torres, Arlene
This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/23570
Description
Title
Blackness, ethnicity and cultural transformations in southern Puerto Rico
Author(s)
Torres, Arlene
Issue Date
1995
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Whitten, Norman E., Jr.
Department of Study
Black Studies
Anthropology, Cultural
Discipline
Black Studies
Anthropology, Cultural
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Black Studies
Anthropology, Cultural
Language
eng
Abstract
"This dissertation presents a study of a set of communities of Afro-Antillean peoples of the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico. The term ""community"" is used in a dynamic sense to refer to aggregated people who share a cultural set of values and experiences. The people making up the community of the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico share a cultural set of values and experiences. However, the ways by which they interpret, experience and act differs among themselves because, as individuals, they draw upon a multivocal symbolic system that not only maintains the social order but can also transform it."
The purpose of this study is to understand how people who define themselves, and are defined by others, as black, construct their identity from a variety of historical and contemporary perspectives. To achieve this purpose I focus on Puerto Rican discourse at the national and local level. I discuss blackness as an ideology that not only categorizes people but informs social interaction as individuals draw upon contradictory ideologies of race. I examine how Puerto Ricans engage in racializing practices by coding their ideas about blackness in their day to day conversations about place, class and social status. I then focus on the local economy and the labor market to demonstrate how the infrastructure conditions the choices black people make as they locate themselves in the Puerto Rican cultural landscape.
The historical record is examined and interpreted in order to shed light upon the development of ideologies of race, blackness, and mestizaje and processes of blanqueamiento. By focusing on the ways by which the people of the southeastern coast construct their history and engage in ritual activities we come to understand the social and cultural contexts in which a black cultural identity is celebrated as it is reproduced and transformed in everyday life.
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
