Reconstructing Racial Identity and the African Past in the Dominican Republic

by Kimberly Eison Simmons

• ISBN13: 9780813036755
• ISBN10: 0813036755
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-17
• Publisher: University of Florida Press

Summary

In Latin America and the Caribbean, racial issues are extremely complex and fluid, particularly the nature of "blackness." What it means to be called "black" is still very different for an African American living in the United States than it is for an individual in the Dominican Republic with an African ancestry. Racial categories were far from concrete as the Dominican populace grew, altered, and solidified around the present notions of identity. Kimberly Simmons explores the fascinating socio-cultural shifts in Dominicans' racial categories, concluding that Dominicans are slowly embracing blackness and ideas of African ancestry. Simmons also examines the movement of individuals between the Dominican Republic and the United States, where traditional notions ofindioare challenged, debated, and called into question. How and why Dominicans define their racial identities reveal shifting coalitions between Caribbean peoples and African Americans, and proves intrinsic to understanding identities in the African diaspora.

Author Biography

Kimberly Eison Simmons, president of the Association of Black Anthropologists, is assistant professor of anthropology and African American studies at the University of South Carolina.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
List of Appendixes	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction: Burying the African Past	p. 1
Stirring the Sancocho: Dominicanness, Race, and Mixture in Historical Context	p. 14
Indio: A Question of Color	p. 34
The Dominican Diaspora: Blackening and Whitening and Mixture across Borders	p. 61
Africanidad and Afro-Dominican: Alliances, Organizations, and Networks in the African Diaspora	p. 90
Conclusion: Unburying the African Past	p. 115
Appendixes	p. 121
Notes	p. 131
References	p. 137
Index	p. 145
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