The Culture of Montserrat
Culture on the island of Montserrat can be most easily characterized through the examination of the many natural forces influencing the lifestyles and customs of its people. Montserrat’s physical features have played a crucial role in shaping the attire, diet, shelter, and crops of the island’s inhabitants. Volcanic rocks and native plants scattered throughout the island were the source of a number of customs that remain prevalent in contemporary Montserratian culture.
Prior to colonization by the British, the island of Montserrat was occupied by a number of Amerindian groups from Venezuela who made their living through fishing and cultivation. There is evidence from a small artifact found in the soil from roughly 500 B.C.E. that the first inhabitants of Montserrat were the Ciboney, known as the ‘stone people.’ The Arawaks arrived on the island around 400 C.E. and built their villages near the coastline. These were a peaceful people who made their living fishing and gardening, and made ceramic vessels, stone tools, and conch shell adzes.
While the Arawaks had a few centuries on the island, at the time of European contact the Caribs had gained dominance by driving them to the north. By 1500 the cannibalistic Caribs practiced both permanent and shifting cultivation and built their villages and gardens near the coast with a pole framework and leaf thatch. Caribs grew a mix of economic plants for cultivation, including many from South America and some from the Old World, which modified Montserrat’s vegetative cover in addition to some structures, composed of saplings, reeds, and foliage. The Carib name for Montserrat was Alliouagana, meaning “island of the prickly bush,” which most likely referred to the native species of Acacia.
When Montserrat was first settled in 1632, British colonial officials believed the land and people of their island colonies to be profitable machines and this view greatly determined the way in which a culture based on agricultural production and slave labor emerged. The British had sent Irish Catholics from St. Kitts to colonize Montserrat and these people were growing tobacco and sugar by 1654. By the 1650s, English and Anglo-Irish landowners formed the wealthy ruling class, and Irish indentured servants formed the bulk of the population.
The settlements in the complex show a multimodal distribution which means that there is an extensive use of shaped and faced stone walling. Out of the three sites there are, only one has produced stone walling and that is Lago de Handel. Obsidian flows were identified in the Amontillado region and their products ca...
"Creole Materialities: Archaeological Explorations Of Hybridized Realities On A North American Plantation. " Journal of Historical Sociology 23.1 (2010): 16-39. Academic Search Complete. 27 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Web.
in the region began to develop prior to and upon the arrival of the “Paleo-Indian tribe, circa 7000 B.C. to 4500 B.C.”
In the study involving 2,143 married couples living together completed in 1975 and the study involving 6,002 couples completed in 1985 these studies showed that females had a slightly higher rate of assaulting their spouse than men did (Straus & Gelles, 1986, 1990). The overall rates in the 1985 National Family Violence Survey was 124 per 1,000 women assaulted their male partners compared to 122 per 1000 men who assaulted their female partners (Dutton, 1988; Stets & Straus, 1990). These studies show that women have the same if not hig...
Drawing on their foundation in feminist theory, Duluth Model programs propose that cultural and social values that promote men’s dominance and control over women are the root cause of intimate partner violence. This philosophical orientation dictates treatment strategies which focus on tension reduction, communication and...
Panama is the southernmost country of Central America. It sits on the isthmus connecting north and South America. Panama remains bordered by Costa Rica to the west. Colombia is to the southeast. The Caribbean is to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. Panama City is the capital of Panama. Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in 1821.Panama has the third largest economy in Central America and it is the fastest growing economy and the largest per capita consumer in Central America. In 2013, Panama ranked fourth in Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index, and is ranked 59th in the world. Studies in 2010 show that Panama remains as the second most competitive economy in Latin America. Panama’s jungle is home to an abundance of tropical plants, animals, and birds and some of them found nowhere else in the world.
The Beothuk people of Newfoundland were not the very first inhabitants of the island. Thousands of years before their arrival there existed an ancient race, named the Maritime Archaic Indians who lived on the shores of Newfoundland. (Red Ochre Indians, Marshall, 4.) Burial plots and polished stone tools are occasionally discovered near Beothuk remains. Some people speculate that, because of the proximity of the artifacts to the former lands of the Beothuk, the Maritime Archaic Indians and the Beothuk may have been related. It is not certain when the Beothuk arrived on the island. In fact little is actually known about the people, compared to what is known about other amerindian civilisations, only artifacts and stories told by elders tell the historians who these people really were. Some speculate that they travelled from "Labrador to Newfoundland across the strait of Belle Isle, which at one time was only 12 miles wide. By about 200 AD the Beothuk Indians were probably well settled into Newfoundland."(Red Ochre, 8)
Before European contact with Turtle Island, the Native Peoples fully occupied the lands, maintaining extensive trade networks, roads that tied different nations together and successfully adapted to the particular natural environments across the continent.15 In her book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes of the Natives also adapting the environment to their
The Power and Control Wheel is a significant part of the Duluth Model; it features eight sections: using children, male privilege, economic abuse, coercion and threats, intimidation, emotional abuse, isolation, and minimizing, denying, and blaming. Using children is specified as the batterer using the children to relay certain messages, using visitation to harass the battered woman, or threatening to take the children away. Using male privilege is specified as being the one to define the roles of men and women, making all the important decisions for the family, or treating the woman like a servant. Some examples of economic abuse is when the batterer will only give the woman an allowance, taking her money away, or keeping her from getting or maintaining a job. Examples of using coercion and threats include the batterer threatening to leave the woman or threatening to commit suicide or hurt her or her family. Using intimidation is specified as using gestures, looks, or actions to make the woman afraid or evening hurting pets and destroying property. Emotional abuse can include calling the woman na...
The Polynesian peoples have a lifestyle quite different than that of any other culture, as living on an island requires a level of flexible adaptability in order to cope with such a different, sometimes difficult environment. We see the way diverse cultures build their lives around their circumstances and how they respect them in their cultural myths and stories. The Polynesian legends emphasize the physical environment that they live in. They are quite different than any other region in the world, but the beauty and individuality of the Polynesian culture is prominent as seen in their mythology.
During the 1980s and 1900s, domestic violence was one of the most unreported crimes that involve females and males getting hurt and dying. Kicking, choking, killing, and saying brutal or despise words that could hurt the victims physically or emotionally are considered domestic violence. In fact, many victims are afraid to seek for help. According to “The Domestic Violence Resource Center (DVRC), women account for approximately 85 percent of all intimate partner violence, with women aged 20-24 at greater risk” (Batten, par.16). Most pregnant women are at risk as well. “But underlying approach is still one that assumes the perpetrators are men and the victims are woman” (Haugen, par. 1). Moreover, both males and females believe that domestic violence is a solution to their issues.
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is historically referred to as domestic violence. It describes a pattern of coercive and assaultive behavior that may include psychological abuse, progressive isolation, sexual assault, physical injury, stalking, intimidation, deprivation, and reproductive coercion among partners (The Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF), 1999). IPV leads to lifelong consequences such as lasting physical impairment, emotional trauma, chronic health problems, and even death. It is an issue effecting individuals in every community, regardless of age, economic status, race, religion, nationality or educational background. Eighty-five percent of domestic violence victims are women (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2003). More than one in three women in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime (The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2012). Thirty to sixty percent of perpetrators tend to also abuse children in the household (Edelson, 1999). Witnessing violence between parents or caretakers is considered the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next (Break the Cycle, 2006).
Pattullo report gives a first-hand account as to who controls each segment of the tourism industry; the tour operations, the large hotel chains, and the airline companies. The Caribbean’s economy depends on an industry that is mostly foreign-owned and controlled and the people who live there do not have an opportunity of owning or investing in it. In Pattullo’s report, it reveals that the large travel industry corporations are the ones who have most of the control. But those corporations are not located there. Her report exposes that the true benefiters of tourism in the Caribbean are foreign-owned investors and corporations.
A nature megalithic structure near Lake Titicaca is Aramu Muru. Legends say that Viracocha first created life on Earth at Lake Titicaca, on the borders of Peru and Bolivia. In the center of the lake, the Island of Sun stands; in the island, there’s a sacred temple and unknown burial towers called chulpas in Sillustani; these towers were plated with gold and holds the remains of the Inca royalty.
This desert is in an arid area between the Andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean. This desert also lives on an alluvial plain. Furthermore, since its distance stretches four hundred kilometers South of Lima, the Pampas of Jumana covers about four hundred fifty square feet kilometers. Throughout all this land, one theory is believed to be that extraterrestrials left confused people when they came to visit earth and that is the myth on why the Nazca lines were created. Another theory is, believed that Nazca Indians and Lines appeared only after the visitors from other stars naturally visited on earth. The reason why this land is so fascinating is because no one really knows how the Nazca Indians appeared on the Peru desert, and why these Nazca Lines were created on this land. While living in the Peru desert the Nazca Indian grew crops from underground water sources traced on the land. Another way the crops received waters was when the Pacific Ocean’s morning mist wafted to the land, and the trees would trap the water mist in their leaves, so when there was no rain to fully water the lands, the trapped water mist in the trees leaves would water the crops. The Nazca Indians grew crops that highly dependent on water and many of these crops planted back then people eat still to this day. Based on iconography, excavated remains indicate that the Nazca people had a varied diet, composed of corn, squash, sweet, potato, yucca, ginger, banana, and even small traces of various fish. In addition, Na...