Anthropology 203
100 Caribbean Facts
This place on the web page will be filled with ideas from the students. It is what I call the "Eureka Moment" when in our reading and web searching we find something that just blows us away. When that happens to a student in the class they can send me the fact and I will put on the class web page. The facts are divided into four sections (a) nature, (b) society, (c) culture, and (d) history.
When you are blown away with some fact send it to rstoffle@u.arizona.edu. Each submission should have the following: Description of the fact, where you learned about the fact, and your name or initials.
Since there are about 100 students in class we will initially ask for only one fact from each student. If demand exceed the title and if the class likes this approach then we will retitle this place "200 Important Facts About the Caribbean."
You can submit a fact at any time, including before the class begins.
1: Most of the dirt on some Bahamian islands has blown in from Africa over thousands of years. Source = NOAA "African Dust", Submitter = Stoffle
2: Coral is both an animal and a plant - it is an animal that has a plant living
in it creating a symbiotic relationship between the two. Submitted by Amanda. Source = National Museum of Natural History <http://www.mnh.si.edu/> Smithsonian Institution <http://www.si.edu/> , Submitter=Amanda
3: Kick'em Jenny is an underwater volcano located off the coast of Greneda
and it is the only active volcano in the Eastern Caribbean. And Jenny
has a brother located near by and his name is Kick'em Jack.
Source = http://www.uwiseismic.com/KeJ/kejhome.html Submitters = Grassy, Heather, and Amanda
1: West Indian society, especially Trinidad and Jamaica, was made much more complex after 1839 when hundred of thousands of East Indians were imported as indentured laborers from The Ganges Valley and Madras. Source = Watts (1987: 479) course readings, Submitter = Stoffle.
1: Charles Carnegie is an Albino African American
( termed in Jamaica a Dundus) who has sharpened our understanding of
race, color, and identity in the Caribbean by studying reactions to his
being a Dundus. Source = Carnegie (1996) The Dundus and the Nation.
Cultural Anthropology 11(4): 470-509, Submitter = Stoffle
1: Between 1784 and 1785 over 6,000 British Loyalists fled from former colonies that would become the United States to isolated portions of the Bahamas. Source = Paul Farnsworth (1999: 96) From Past to Present. In African Sites Archaeology in the Caribbean, J. Haviser editor, Submitter = Stoffle.
2: Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean did not likely smoke ganja. Cannabis Sativa is "native to Central Asia, and long cultivated in Europe, Asia and China"(Source: Purdue University Center for New Crops and Plants Products <http://www.hort.purdue.edu>. "the widespread use of the plant for its psychoactive effects most likely began only in the past century(1900s)." (Source: "The Review of Natural Products" 3rd Edition, Co-Editors: Ara Dermarderosian and John A. Beutler. Submitter = Zack Davis
3: Benet says that in the original Hebrew and Aramaic translations of the Old Testament, "there are references to hemp, both as an incense, which was an integral part of religious celebration, and as an intoxicant." Apparently, the word 'kaneh' linked with 'bosm' is the Hebrew term for cannabis, and has been erroneously translated (in the original Greek translation) as both 'calamus' and 'aromatic reed'. The root word 'kan' can mean either reed or hemp in Hebrew, but the word's meaning hemp is repeated in the requirement the Hebrews had to bury their dead in 'kaneh' shirts. The reason we couldn't find the reference in the English bible is that there was a mistranslation from the original text. It's actually pretty interesting that the connection can only be found in the most ancient Hebrew, since the Rastas were so connected with that time period. Source = from Cannabis and Culture in an chapter by Sula Benet called "Early Diffusions and Folk Uses of Hemp," Submitter = Allison O'Hargan.
4: The group that originally settled Spanish Wells shipwrecked off the coast of
Eleuthera. Unable to feed themselves directly after
the wreck, having lost their provisions and little available food on
the island, a small group set out from Eleuthera to bring food back;
they reached the Virgina colony in nine days, and being of similar
religious persuasion. the Virginians loaded their ship with
supplies. Two years later, however, the Eleutherian Adventurers
were still unable to support themselves; many had chosen to return to
Bermuda. Upon hearing of their plight, Puritans in Plymouth
raised a staggering £800 with which they purchased provisions for
the group. The Eleutherians were so grateful they cut ten tons of
hardwood and shipped it back to Massachusetts Colony, requesting that
the profits from the sale of the lumber be given to Harvard University.
Also, in 1936, an experimental scholarship fund was set up by Mrs. J.J.
Storrow of Bermuda and Boston for a Bermudian boy or girl to attend Harvard,
awarding $1200 per year. The award was suggested in honor of the original
contribution made by the Bermudians in Eleuthera.
Sources:
Albury, Paul. (1975) The Story of the Bahamas. London: Macmillan Education
Ltd: pp.43-45.
Miller, W. Hubert. (1945) ?The Colonization of the Bahamas, 1647-1670.?
The William and Mary Quarterly 2(1): 33-46.
Submitter= Heather Fauland