Tangible and Intangible aspects

of

Jamaican culture

Group Member’s:
Samuel Graham
Amelia Mcknight
Elesia Watts
Micheallea Graham
Tia Wade
Derricka Grey
 Table of content:

Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Section 2 :Part1 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4-5
Section 2: Part 2 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6
Section 3 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8-9
Section 4 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10
Section 5 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11
Reference …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 12

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 Acknowledgements

We want to begin by giving praise to the All-Mighty God for providing us

with the stamina and health needed to complete this task. Second, the
attitude of cooperation that enables us to work together without contention.
Thirdly, I want to thank our group members for their honesty, compassion,
ingenuity, and sharp minds.

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 Section 2: Part 1
(Definition of Key Concepts & Terms)

What is Culture?

● A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values,

and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and
that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation
to the next.

What is Caribbean culture?

● The term Caribbean culture summarizes the artistic, musical, literary,

culinary, political and social elements that are representative of Caribbean
people all over the world.

What is Heritage?

● Our heritage is what we have inherited from the past, to value and
enjoy in the present, and to preserve and pass on to future generations.

What is Tradition?

● A way of thinking, behaving, or doing something that has been used by the
people in a particular group, family, society, etc., for a long time.

Tangible Culture

● Tangible Cultural Heritage’ refers to physical artifacts produced, maintained

and transmitted intergenerationally in a society. It includes artistic creations,
built heritage such as buildings and monuments, and other physical or
tangible products of human creativity that are invested with cultural
significance in a society.

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 Intangible Culture

● The oral traditions of Jamaica, its rituals, its language and music, and the
store of knowledge embodied in these practices comprise our intangible
heritage.

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 Section 2: Part 2

COORDINATES/DIRECTIONS FOR WHERE THE 5 ETHNIC

GROUPS ORIGINATED:

Britain;55.3781°NORTH,3.4360°WEST
SPAIN;40.4637°NORTH,3.7492°WEST
INDIA;20.5937°NORTH,78.9629°EAST
CHINA;35.8617°NORTH,104.1954°EAST
WEST AFRICA;13.5317°NORTH,2.4604°WEST

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 Section 3

Why did ese E nic groups come to e Caribbean and how?

Jamaica, as we all know, has people of different cultural backgrounds living here, but how
did it come to that? Well, this first started when the 5 main ethnic groups arrived in Jamaica.
These include the Spaniards, the British, Africans, Indians, and the Chinese.

The first Europeans who came to Jamaica were the Spaniards from Spain. They started to
arrive about 500 years ago when they saw the first inhabitants of Jamaica, the Tainos. The
Spaniards reached Jamaica by accident. They were looking for countries in Asia that they called
the Indies. They thought that if they sailed west from Spain, they would reach the Indies.
Actually, they reached a Caribbean island, but they did not know that. They thought that they had
got to the Indies, and thought that the Tainos were Indians. In time, they called the Caribbean the
West Indies, and we still have that name today. The Spaniards came and enslaved the Tainos and
went on to claim Jamaica as their own, but then the British came.

The British captured Jamaica from the Spaniards in 1655. Spain and Britain were enemies,
so the British were glad to take the island. The Spaniards had found treasure in Central and South
America, and the British wanted it. The British were great sailors, with strong fighting ships.
They used Jamaica as a base to fight the Spaniards at sea. They took gold, silver, precious stones,
and spices from them as they sailed back to Spain.

The first Africans arrived in Jamaica in 1513 as servants to the Spanish settlers. They
were personal slaves to the Spanish colonists. But most of the Africans who came here were
brought here as slaves by the British. The British had found out that they could make a lot of
money from sugar cane, which grows very well in Jamaica. But there were not enough British
colonists to do all the work with the cane, and that is why they brought Africans here to work as
slaves.
The Africans were kidnapped by European traders or captured from their villages by
other Africans. No one was spared. Boys, girls, men, and women were taken by force, put in
chains, and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean on a route that is known as the Middle Passage.

When slavery ended in 1834, most of the ex slaves left the sugar plantations where they
had been providing free labor. The owners of the plantations needed additional labor to keep the

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estates in business. Between 1834 and 1838, white laborers from England, Scotland, Ireland, and
Germany came to work in Jamaica. However, many of these labourers left the estates to do other
jobs or return home. As a result, the Indians came to solve the labour problem. The Indians
accepted the job as indentured labourers/ servants. Many people in India were poor. They were
told that life would be better in Jamaica than it had been in India. Indian men married African -
Jamaican women. The Indians first came on a contract to work on the sugar estate for three to
five years. They were not free to move about as they liked, and many were harshly treated. At
the end of the contract period, they could either return to India or accept a gift of land and money
and remain in Jamaica. Many remained in Jamaica.

Some of the offspring of those who went to Panama migrated to Jamaica in the 1850s.
Like the Indians, the Chinese had a contract to work on the sugar estate for three to five years.
After the contract ended, the Chinese were free to stay here or go back to China. Many Chinese
left the plantations and set up small grocery shops and restaurants throughout the island. Some
started growing rice and went into market gardening, selling what produce they could cultivate.
Our first supermarket, at Half Way Tree, was of Chinese origin.

Ethnic group Origin Location

Africans West Africa: Ghana, Ghana: 8,300 kilometers or

Nigeria,Sierra Leone, and 5,157 miles.
Congo. Nigeria: 9064 KM
Sierra Leone: 7,146
kilometers or 4,440 miles.
Congo: 11,113 kilometers, or
6,905 miles.

Spaniards Spain 7312 KM (kilometers) and

68.16 meters, or 4543.5
miles.

British The United Kingdom (UK) 11882 KM (kilometers) and

982.09 meters or 7383.7
miles.

Indians India 14134 KM (kilometers) and

395.24 meters, or 8.782.7
miles.

Chinese China 14,029 kilometers, or 8,717

miles.

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Ethnic group Items

Africans Yams, Herb

Spaniards Limes, Plantain

British Breadfruit, Ackees

Indians Rice, Curry goat

Chinese Sweet and Sour pork, Chop Suey

Syrians Stuffed grape leaves, Hummus

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 Section 4

Jamaica’s culture is dying and can not be revived. Do you agree or disagree with this
statement? Give reasons for your answer.

In agreement with this statement, Jamaica’s culture is fading and can not be revived. To put it
simply, there is too big of a generational gap.Our positive daily life and customs, our arts and
cultural institutions, all seem to be grasping for life.The reason for this is that society’s standards
have changed. Small factors that make up a big part of our culture are losing popularity by the
day. Traditional foods like Ackee and Saltfish, Curry goat, Callaloo, Jerk chicken, fried
dumplings and boiled bananas, or even just a simple dish of rice and peas with chicken on a
Sunday evening, are slowly being traded in for a quick trip to kfc.

Our music and dances have been heavily influenced by our Historical bachan reads. Genres like
Reggae, dancehall, and Mento. Dances such as the Jonkunno, tambu, Maypole and many more.
All of these that are an essential part of our culture, are becoming unpopular. As a consequence
of globalization, Jamaicans are beginning to gravitate towards foreign styles and genres

Let’s mention the Jamaican patois, a language that is indegenous to Jamaica. In the 60s and 70s,
Jamaica’s patois faced strong disapproval. It was suppressed in schools,churches, and all public
platforms. Children were not allowed to use it, it was considered inappropriate and even
disrespectful to speak this way to a person in authority. This was detested by the upper and
middle classes of Jamaica. Today, as another result of globalization, Standard English is being
spoken more regularly.

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 Section 5
(Conclusion)

Our Jamaican culture is very diverse. This is also stated in our motto
"for the many", paying homage to our multiracial roots. Those
multiracial origins of ours were the result of aspects of Indian,
Chinese, British, Taino, and Spanish cultures that have been
incorporated into our island heritage. The incorporation is evident in
many of our practices today, such as our music, dance, food, and even
the names of places.

Through this project, we had the chance to learn more about our
motto, "Out of many, one people," as well as how the cultures of our
ethnic groups are represented in today's society. For instance, most of
our music, including reggae, ska, and mento, has roots in traditional
music from Europe and Africa. Out of those Reggae made Jamaica
gain worldwide recognition and it also produced another genre
‘dancehall’. Dancehall began in the 1950s and has been popular ever
since. But as of now “dancehall is dying out”, We came about this fact
while doing section 4 of the project, and we learned that the dancehall
that is being produced by artists now is not dancehall at all but trap
music is basically dancehall music fused with pop, rap, r&b etc.
How we got here? , We got here due to colonization and slavery. That
is a very well-known fact, but through the project, we were able to
grasp a better understanding of it. For instance the Indians, Chinese,
Lebanese, Syrians, etc all came here as indentured labours, the
indentured labour system came bout because slavery was abolished,
and slavery came about because of colonization and colonization
came about because of Europeans who wanted to expand their wealth
and territories.

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 Reference

DistanceFromTo

DistanceBetween2.Com

Class Notes from Mrs Samuels Redwood from May 9 - 28, 2021

https://people.tamu.edu/~i-choudhury/culture.html

https://www.heritagecouncil.ie/what-is-heritage

https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/tradition

https://resources.riches-project.eu/glossary/tangible-and-intangible-cultural-he
ritage/#:~:text='Tangible%20Cultural%20Heritage'%20refers%20to,transmitte
d%20intergenerationally%20in%20a%20society

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