Caribbean Journeys: An Ethnography of Migration and Home in Three Family Network

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An ethnographic analysis of the cultural meanings of migration and home in three families of West Indian origin whose members are dispersed throughout the Caribbean, North America and Great Britain.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

Caribbean Journeys is an ethnographic analysis of the cultural meaning of migration and home in three families of West Indian background that are now dispersed throughout the Caribbean, North America, and Great Britain. Moving migration studies beyond its current focus on sending and receiving societies, Karen Fog Olwig makes migratory family networks the locus of her analysis. For the people whose lives she traces, being "Caribbean" is not necessarily rooted in ongoing visits to their countries of origin, or in ethnic communities in the receiving countries, but rather in family narratives and the maintenance of family networks across vast geographical expanses.The migratory journeys of the families in this study began more than sixty years ago, when individuals in the three families left home in a British colonial town in Jamaica, a French Creole rural community in Dominica, and an African-Caribbean village of small farmers on Nevis. Olwig follows the three family networks forward in time, interviewing family members living under highly varied social and economic circumstances in locations ranging from California to Barbados, Nova Scotia to Florida, and New Jersey to England. Through her conversations with several generations of these far-flung families, she gives insight into each family's educational, occupational, and socioeconomic trajectories. Olwig contends that terms such as "Caribbean diaspora" wrongly assume a culturally homogeneous homeland. As she demonstrates in Caribbean Journeys, anthropologists who want a nuanced understanding of how migrants and their descendants perceive their origins and identities must focus on interpersonal relations and intimate spheres as well as on collectivities and public expressions of belonging.

Notes

An ethnographic study of migration based on the experiences of three dispersed Caribbean families as they maintain networks across their diverse locations

Back Cover

"Building on her previous work on historical consciousness, nationalism, and transnationalism, Karen Fog Olwig outlines a new direction for migration studies. By highlighting the ways that individualsrs" personal understandings of their migratory experiences are connected to foundational family narratives, Olwig broadens understanding of belonging and diaspora."-Deborah A. Thomas, author ofModern Blackness: Nationalism, Globalization, and the Politics of Culture in Jamaica

Author Biography

Karen Fog Olwig is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. She is the author of Global Culture, Island Identity: Continuity and Change in the Afro-Caribbean Community of Nevis and Cultural Adaptation and Resistance on St. John: Three Centuries of Afro-Caribbean Life and a coeditor of Caribbean Narratives of Belonging: Fields of Relations, Sites of Identity.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments viiIntroduction 1Part One: A Jamaican Family 1. Learning to Mix in Society 392. Seeking Improvement beyond Jamaica 62Part Two:A Dominican Family 3. The Village Origins 974. In Pursuit of a Proper Livelihood 118Part Three: A Nevisian Family 5. A Family Home 1556. To Better Our Condition 176Part Four: The Family Legacies 7. The First Generation: Migrating for Improvement of Self and the Family 2158. Generational Perspectives: Negotiating Identities and Origins 2449. Relating Regional, Family, and Individual Histories of Migration 270Notes 287References 297Index 311

Review

"Building on her previous work on historical consciousness, nationalism, and transnationalism, Karen Fog Olwig outlines a new direction for migration studies. By highlighting the ways that individuals' personal understandings of their migratory experiences are connected to foundational family narratives, Olwig broadens understanding of belonging and diaspora."-- Deborah A. Thomas, author of Modern Blackness: Nationalism, Globalization, and the Politics of Culture in Jamaica "In this nuanced, sensitive tracing of kinship across borders, Karen Fog Olwig reminds us that most often family ties are at the heart of why migration processes are transnational. An outstanding contribution to kinship, migration, and transnational studies, Caribbean Journeys is an excellent counterpoint to glib references to transnational or diasporic communities."--Nina Glick Schiller, co-author of Georges Woke Up Laughing: Long-Distance Nationalism and the Search for Home

Promotional

An ethnographic study of migration based on the experiences of three dispersed Caribbean families as they maintain networks across their diverse locations

Long Description

"Caribbean Journeys" is an ethnographic analysis of the cultural meaning of migration and home in three families of West Indian background that are now dispersed throughout the Caribbean, North America, and Great Britain. Moving migration studies beyond its current focus on sending and receiving societies, Karen Fog Olwig makes migratory family networks the locus of her analysis. For the people whose lives she traces, being "Caribbean" is not necessarily rooted in ongoing visits to their countries of origin, or in ethnic communities in the receiving countries, but rather in family narratives and the maintenance of family networks across vast geographical expanses. The migratory journeys of the families in this study began more than sixty years ago, when individuals in the three families left home in a British colonial town in Jamaica, a French Creole rural community in Dominica, and an African-Caribbean village of small farmers on Nevis. Olwig follows the three family networks forward in time, interviewing family members living under highly varied social and economic circumstances in locations ranging from California to Barbados, Nova Scotia to Florida, and New Jersey to England. Through her conversations with several generations of these far-flung families, she gives insight into each family's educational, occupational, and socioeconomic trajectories. Olwig contends that terms such as "Caribbean diaspora" wrongly assume a culturally homogeneous homeland. As she demonstrates in "Caribbean Journeys," anthropologists who want a nuanced understanding of how migrants and their descendants perceive their origins and identities must focus on interpersonal relations and intimate spheres aswell as on collectivities and public expressions of belonging.

Review Quote

"In this nuanced, sensitive tracing of kinship across borders, Karen Fog Olwig reminds us that most often family ties are at the heart of why migration processes are transnational. An outstanding contribution to kinship, migration, and transnational studies, Caribbean Journeys is an excellent counterpoint to glib references to transnational or diasporic communities."-Nina Glick Schiller, coauthor of Georges Woke Up Laughing: Long-Distance Nationalism and the Search for Home

Promotional "Headline"

An ethnographic study of migration based on the experiences of three dispersed Caribbean families as they maintain networks across their diverse locations

Details ISBN0822339943 Author Karen Fog Olwig Short Title CARIBBEAN JOURNEYS Publisher Duke University Press Language English ISBN-10 0822339943 ISBN-13 9780822339946 Media Book Format Paperback Year 2007 Imprint Duke University Press Subtitle An Ethnography of Migration and Home in Three Family Networks Place of Publication North Carolina Country of Publication United States Birth 1948 Affiliation University of Copenhagen, Denmark Edition annotated edition DOI 10.1604/9780822339946 UK Release Date 2007-06-12 AU Release Date 2007-06-12 NZ Release Date 2007-06-12 US Release Date 2007-06-12 Pages 336 Publication Date 2007-06-12 DEWEY 306.09729 Illustrations 3 tables Audience Professional & Vocational We've got this

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