Book
The remaking of the Aluku: culture, politics, and Maroon ethnicity in French South America
University Microfilms International • Ann Arbor, Mich. • Published In 1997 • Pages:
By: Bilby, Kenneth M..
Abstract
Bilby has written a rich ethnographic account of cultural change and identity among the Aluku. The first three chapters lay out the theoretical perspective, ethnic landscape and history of French Guiana. The following chapters focus on five different communities, including two interior, predominantly Aluku communities, and three ethnically-mixed coastal towns: St. Laurent-du-Maroni, the French space center of Kourou, and the capital of French Guiana, Cayenne. Bibly shows how the Aluku maintain a distinct identity in each community in relation to other ethnic groups, primarily other maroons and Creoles. Settlement patterns, demographics, Aluku cultural history, and the ideology and bureaucracy of a modern nation state have all influenced the way the Aluku construct their identity and maintain their uniqueness. Bilby provides a good account of traditional Aluku social organization and religion, as well as, the settlement patterns of coastal shantytowns.
- HRAF PubDate
- 1999
- Region
- South America
- Sub Region
- Amazon and Orinoco
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard ; 1997
- Field Date
- 1983-1987
- Coverage Date
- 1500-1989
- Coverage Place
- Aluku tribe, French Guiana
- Notes
- Kenneth M. Bilby
- UM 9030171
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 682-717)
- Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Johns Hopkins University, 1990
- LCSH
- Djuka people