NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm wondering if there is a website or something where one can find out where people of a certain Caribbean island come from exactly. Such as(although may not be true): Modern Jamaicans are descended from slaves take from Ghana, Togo, and Benin.

its an interesting question but it must be something for anthropologists to figure out.

slaves were bought at coastal cities but came from inland somewhere. i dont think any records were kept of where anyone really came from.

it would take a study of linguistics and religion to tell the roots of the ancestors of carribean peoples. im even thinking that its most likely a mix of all cultures that slaves were taken from. its not like there would have been an effort made to get "similar" people imported each time.

id try a google scholar search

I'm wondering if there is a website or something where one can find out where people of a certain Caribbean island come from exactly. Such as(although may not be true): Modern Jamaicans are descended from slaves take from Ghana, Togo, and Benin.

Just did about 10 different Google searches to no avail. *hmmm..*

I'm wondering if there is a website or something where one can find out where people of a certain Caribbean island come from exactly. Such as(although may not be true): Modern Jamaicans are descended from slaves take from Ghana, Togo, and Benin.

Of course, the ethnological situation of the West Indies is hardly this simple. In many cases, European (both colonial-era and contemporary), South & East Asian, modern Mesoamerican (highly variable in constitution), and Amerindian input - to name but a few - must see consideration. Furthermore, the complexity of both historical and ongoing trans-ethnic interactions (especially resultant ambiguities of identity) must be accounted for as well.

That being said, I'm certain the information you're seeking is readily available online (relevant links probably forthcoming). Do you have any particular islands in mind?

slaves were bought at coastal cities but came from inland somewhere. i dont think any records were kept of where anyone really came from.

though one could probably make fairly good estimations - trade follows established roads and rivers, and i believe different european powers were getting slaves from different regions at different times. i know i've seen overall estimates of how much various african cultures were represented in the total slave population.

Do you have any particular islands in mind?
Grenada.

I know Oprah got some test and found out she was part Zulu, but those cost $100+ and aren't always accurate.

I know Oprah got some test and found out she was part Zulu, but those cost $100+ and aren't always accurate.

yeah, the ones of those claiming very specific cultural groups are reaching just a bit too much for my tastes. firstly because we have a severe lack of the data that might allow that to be done with any accuracy. secondly, the fact that that lack doesn't stop them from claiming such things leads me to question whether they know what they are doing in the first place.

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43/index-a.html
http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/post/caribbean/history/historyov.html
http://www.unesco.org/culture/publications/caribbean/html_eng/index_en.shtml
These may help.

It will depend on which Caribbean island you are looking for. Your search seems to be focused on African heritages, yet that hardly is the only (or even main) ancestry in the Caribbean, unless you look specifically to Haiti and Jamaica, and some of the lesser Antilles. The greater Antilles like Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico have a deeper mixture between Taino indians, Europeans (mostly spaniards), Africans (and from many different tribes), and arabs (from their integartion with spaniards being over 800 years in Spain). Of course, there are others but those would be the main four groups, you might even take out the arabs and say the main three.

Grenadans (or however they are called) probably have some Taino ancestry as well.

but, say, people from island x are descended form people from islands a, b, and c, but the people from island a are descended from people from islands b, y and z, and the people from island b are descended from people from islands m, n, and o..........

Thanks Kat, I'll have a look at those. The first one seems the most possible.