There is no single Caribbean culture. Do you agree?

Provide arguments and

examples to support your answer.

The term culture can be defined as the full range of learned human behaviour
patterns. It includes beliefs, values, behaviours and physical objects that create
peoples way of life. In a sense people create their culture and this culture in turn
shapes their behaviour. Linton (1945) also defines culture as the way of societys
members; the collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share and transmit
from generation to generation.
The Caribbean to use a clich is a cultural melting pot that has inputs from
nearly every continent. The diasporic spectrum ranges from India, Africa, Europe
and China to name the major ones. Therefore the Caribbean presents a wide range
of cultural forms within a small geographic space. The statement, there is no single
Caribbean culture is at once true and incorrect at the same time. It is immediately
obvious that no two Caribbean islands bear the same value systems, norms etc
according to the particular historical context. However it is also incorrect because all
value systems were informed by the same original historical models and inputs that
are the legacies of colonialism and the plantation. It may be more accurate to say
that the Caribbean illustrates many different hybrids of the original model or models
and in this lies the difference as well as the challenges
Therefore the Caribbean has one culture to the extent that the core cultural
determinants of each Caribbean island remain the same; discovery, colonization,
the plantation, slavery/indentureship, emancipation, independence and
globalization. Thus from a historical perspective the shared history is the
indisputable commonality that unifies the Caribbean cultural landscape.
The mere fact that the Caribbean was populated with indigenous people from
the same tribe in the first instance then the same of Africa and to a lesser extent
India shows latent retention and hybridization commonalities rather than
differences. The beating of African drums, the music and songs of resistance, the
poetry of reparation all serve as examples of a cultural commonality that
transcends the vacuum of geo-political insularity. Up to this day, the African drum
remains a symbol of struggle and celebration in all Caribbean islands. The country
of origin does not matter, the message to the metropole does and it is a shared
iconic intellectual revolt that is based upon a burgeoning sense of cultural identity.
The peasantry group also attests to the same development paradigm working in
each Caribbean territory. Self-reliance, but also social cooperation was the lesson
taught by this group. Today, the same economic struggle echo across the
Caribbean. Clearly from the angle of historical and future development iniatives
such as CARICOM, the CSME and CCJ, reflect regionalism and proves that the
Caribbean shares the same values thus cultural identity.

However on the other hand the statement, there is no single Caribbean culture
can be true to the extent that although all Caribbean islands experienced discovery,
colonization, the plantation, slavery/indentureship, emancipation, independence
and globalization they all developed differently in terms of customs, norms and
values. This is because the Caribbean is a plural society. M.G Smith the founder of
this thesis explains that a common system of basic institutions is shared in
homogeneous societies. However in plural societies, there are alternative and
exclusive institutions that exist and, as a result, the basic institutions are not
shared. In Caribbean societies, he sees the major cultural elements, the Whites,
Africans, East Indians, and Chinese, each practicing different forms of the common
institutions such as marriage, family and religion,
Thus the proportion of a certain cultural element determines the culture and
each Caribbean territory do not have the same mixture of races so the cultures
differ. For example if the culture of Trinidad is compared to that of Jamaica there will
be major differences in the cultures. For example in Trinidad we have a food called
doubles which comes from the Indians, unlike Jamaica. Also the main musical art
form in Trinidad is Soca and Calypso whereas Reggae is the music Jamaica is famous
for. Similarly Rastafarianism is the main religion in Jamaica however the same
cannot be said for the other islands of the Caribbean.
Thus it is true that the statement, there is no single Caribbean culture is both
true and incorrect at the same time.