Cultural Influence on the Caribbean

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Cultural Influence on the Caribbean
American Cuba, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands
British Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts-Nevis, St. Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago, Virgin Islands
Dutch Netherlands Antilles, Aruba
French Grenada, Guadaloupe, Haiti, Martinique, St. Lucia
Spanish Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico
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Hispaniola An Island culturally divided
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• Haiti
• Haiti is a Creole - and French -speaking
  Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican
  Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola,
  in the Greater Antilles

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Blending of Culture

• Mulatto Mixed African and European descent
• Creole Spoken in Haiti - Blend of European,
  African and Caribbean Indian Language
• Papiamento Creole language that combines
  elements of Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese
• Voodoo Mix of African religious beliefs and
  Christianity Good spirits, and bad spirits
  found in Haiti
• Santeria Blends African and Christian beliefs
  in Cuba

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Haitis History

• Haiti's regional and historical position is
  unique for several reasons. It was the first
  independent nation in Latin America, the first
  post-colonial independent black-led nation in the
  world, and the only nation whose independence was
  gained as part of a successful slave rebellion.
• However, Haiti has remained the least-developed
  country in the Americas. Haiti now ranks 146th of
  177 countries in the United Nations Human
  Development Index. About 80 of the population
  were estimated to be living in poverty in 2003.
  Haiti is the only country in the Americas on the
  United Nations list of Least Developed Countries.
• Haiti has few natural resources and about 66 of
  all Haitians work in the agricultural sector,
  which consists mainly of small-scale subsistence
  farming. The country has experienced little
  formal job creation over the past decade. Mangoes
  and coffee are two of Haiti's most important
  exports. With its political chaos, It has
  consistently ranked among the most corrupt
  countries.
• Why has Haiti had such a hard time becoming a
  good country?

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Haiti - Poorest Country in the Western Hemisphere
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Haiti Earthquake 2010
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Rescue Efforts
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Relief Efforts
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Clean-Up
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Haitian Immigration to the U.S.
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Voodoo Dolls

• There is a practice in Haiti of nailing crude
  puppets with a discarded shoe on trees near the
  cemetery to act as messengers to the otherworld,
  which is very different in function from how
  puppets are portrayed as being used by voodoo
  worshippers in popular media and imagination,
  i.e. for purposes of sympathetic magic towards
  another person.
• Another use of dolls in authentic Voodoo practice
  is the incorporation of plastic doll babies in
  altars and objects used to represent or honor the
  spirits.

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Santería

• A system of beliefs that merge religions
  of slaves imported to the Caribbean to work the
  sugar plantations with Roman Catholic and Native
  American traditions.
• These slaves carried with them various
  religious traditions, including a trance for
  communicating with their ancestors and deities,
  animal sacrifice and sacred drumming.

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Caribbean Culture

• http//web.bobmarley.com/index.jsp

Reggae is a music genre first developed in
Jamaica in the late 1960s. Reggae is based on a
rhythmic style characterized by accents on the
off-beat. Reggae usually accents the second and
fourth beat in each bar
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Merengue

• Merengue is a fast, two-step dance from the
  Dominican Republic that emerged around the early
  20th century and has European, African,
  indigenous and Creole roots. Through the decades
  to come, merengue evolved from its folkloric,
  rural origins to more modernized forms, and
  became the national symbol by the late 1930s, as
  well as one of the most popular Latin dance
  styles.
• http//www.dominican-republic-holiday.com/merengue
  -music.html

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Steel Drum Music

• Traditionally, steelpans have been built from
  used oil barrels. Nowadays, many instrument
  makers do not rely on used steel containers and
  get the resonance bodies manufactured according
  to their preferences and technical
  specifications.
• http//www.sweetsteel.com/sounds.htm