12005 - Constructing ¿Race¿ in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago: Ethnic Categorisations , Colonial censuses and their post-colonial legacies.

This paper will trace historically the emergence of racialized ethnic categorizations in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago from the 19th Century. It does so first by examining census categories and the changes in classification systems over the decades reflecting the changing meanings of race, ethnicity and gender. These official categories will be contrasted with categorisations in everyday popular usage and the significance of shifting demographic realities in shaping groups’ perceptions of themselves and their others in contemporary contexts will be explored.

Palabras claves: ethnicity, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, census categories, race

Autores: Reddock, Rhoda (The University of the West Indies, Trinidad&To / Trinidad&To)