Product Description
Is a family system that permits freedom to enter, dissolve, and re-enter sexual unions, that tolerates high illegitimacy rates, and allows a large proportion of households to be headed by women, viable, natural and healthy? This is an appropriate question to ask of many modern industrial societies in the 1980s. Yet a system with just those factors has been in place in the West Indies for 150 years. In this book, Raymond T. Smith explores the extensive family and kinship ties of West Indians in Jamaica and Guyana, and in so doing dispels many of the myths that exist about West Indian family life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Read it, if you can find it
Smith defines three types of family structure in the West Indies (adapted from Elizabeth Bott, *Family and Social Network*): 1) joint conjugal role pattern, 2) segregated conjugal role pattern, and 3) disassociated conjugal role pattern (pgs. 141-148). The meaning of these terms is not immediately discernable, so I will explain them a little. The first one, "joint conjugal role pattern" is basically the "nuclear family": husband, wife and child(ren). The "joint" part of the term denotes that the duties of both husband and wife (child rearing, cooking, cleaning) are shared. This family structure is most common in the modern world, especially in the United States. Simple enough. The second type of family form, "segregated conjugal role pattern", is what many would consider the traditional roles of husband and wife, where "men should provide support and general protection while women engage in child rearing and domestic work" (146). That is also simple enough. The third pattern, "disassociated conjugal role pattern", is the key to understanding West Indian family structure, according to Smith. This type of family is most fully embodied in what is frequently called a "visiting union" - where the father lives in a different household than his children and their mother. He provides financial support to them and visits every once in a while. In American culture, such a father might be thought of as "not there", i.e. not providing for the emotional, moral and spiritual guidance of his children, even if he does provide for them financially. But to apply this set of standards to the West Indian situation, per Smith, is essentially ethnocentric. The premise of his book (from what I can understand) is to show that "visiting unions", which may appear to give rise to matrifocal and female-headed households, are in fact not so. Looking at the family in terms of household gives us this skewed perception of West Indian family structure, wherein a family does have to live in the same house, or even the same town. Family members can live in different households, and emotional attachments and beliefs about what is right and wrong are different than in the U.S. or elsewhere. Illegitimacy becomes a relative term, lacking much of the moral stigma associated with it in the U.S. As the title of his book suggests, Smith sees the historic relationship between the elite, slave-owning planter class and their lower-class slaves and free people of colour (particularly the phenomenon of a 'kep' miss' ['kept mistress', meaning a slave women kept as the mistress of a slave owner]) as the key to understanding modern Jamaican and Guyanese kinship patterns. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

book
my book was old but it was for school, it lasted enough for me to do my paper ... Read more

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Focusing on the critical years after the abolition of slavery (1838-1900), Brian Moore examines the interplay between diverse cultures and the impact of these complex relationships on the development and structure of a colonial multiracial society. ... Read more

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Describes the geography, history, culture, religion, and people of Guyana. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Crawling With Life
Rockman's art of the natural world (and of the natural world interacting with humankind's presence) is astounding -- loaded with information, carefully textured, sort of slick upon first glance...glossy and full of surfaces. However, these aren't fantasy creatures off some 1970's album cover, they're birds and bugs and leaves doing what they do, eating and flying and propagating, dripping with color, full of pollen, fecund and rich and disturbing.

His work messes with my head. In a good way.

Anyway.

This book was spun off a 6 week trip the artist made to Guyana in 1994, following in the steps of Darwin and Beebe and other naturalists who, apparently, did important field work in Guyana.

Contents

- Introduction
- Excerpt of William Beebe prose
- about 65 paintings, watercolors, and drawings including some large fold-out pages; drawings executed using "mud, raw sewage, and river water" (!)
- Essay by Katherine Dunn

What Do You Want From This Book?
A note to the buyer:This is not a novella or a novel by Katherine Dunn, author of "Geek Love."It is a collection of photographs by another artist with text written by Dunn.I have not read the book personally, but I have looked at her online bio and confirmed this.I give it five stars by default, as I have no real idea of its contents, only that a man took pictures of Guyana and Dunn commented on them.

It was awesome! I loved it!
It was awesome! I loved it! These funny illistrations were classic ... Read more

Product Description
The Elusive El Dorado is a thoroughly researched collection of essays on the Indian Diaspora in the Caribbean. This fascinating book focuses mainly on the indenture and post-indenture historical periods. It includes a list of emigrant ships, with dates of arrival that landed in Guyana from Calcutta and Madras. Indians interested in researching their roots will find this information invaluable. ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Guyana," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Guyana in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Guyana when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Guyana, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Product Description
Guyana, the only English speaking country in South America, is bordered by Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname. Over seven hundred species of some of the world's most exotic birds have been recorded in this country's varied tropical habitats. This new guide has divided the birds into five categories - Birds of Prey, Waders, Insect-eaters, Grain and Seed-eaters, and Fruit-eaters. Detailed information on each species is accompanied by a distribution map, which will assist both the expert and the enthusiastic amateur to achieve the best results in bird-watching. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Basic photo intro of 80 species
Basics: 2004, softcover, 90 pages, color photos of 80 species, range maps

This small guide offers a small tantalizing sample of the 780+ birds found in Guyana.The book features 80 of what the author considers to be the more interesting birds found in the country.

The selection of photos is average in quality, similar to what someone might take himself during a week's trip in Guyana.Many of the photos show the bird at a distance and, consequently, they are a bit small.

The birds are grouped into the following six categories:Hoatzin, birds of prey, waders and waterbirds, insect eaters, grain and seed eaters, and fruit eaters.The placement of certain species into the categories is not always intuitive.Within the chapter for insect eaters, the author chose two hummingbirds and a trumpeter while placing a blackbird and cowbird in the seed eating category.

The paragraphs of text for each bird generally discuss its habits and behaviors along with the bird's habitat and feeding styles.The range maps illustrate the basic range of each bird in the country.These ranges either encompass the entire country or are bound by a coastal and a savannah habitat.

This basic, introductory book is geared towards the curious or novice birder; or, to someone with a general interest in knowing something about Guyana's rich bird life.

I've listed several related books below...
1) The Birds of Guyana by Snyder
2) Kustvogels van Suriname by Spaans
3) Birds of Suriname by Haverschmidt
4) Birds of Venezuela (2nd edition) by Hilty
5) Birds of Northern South America by Restall et al.
6) All the Birds of Brazil by Souza
7) Aves Do Brasil: Birds of Brazil by Sigrist ... Read more

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Guyana in Pictures explores the history and government, economy, people, geography, and cultural life of Guyana. This edition includes comprehensive text with strong curriculum ties, beautiful full-color photography throughout, and interesting, detailed sidebars. ... Read more

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These selected documents reveal the reaction and responses of the Amerindians to European values. ... Read more

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This volume seeks to assuage the notion of East Indian docility and passivity in the Caribbean by demonstrating that they responded resolutely to pressures. Based primarily on documentary evidence at the Public Records Office and the India Office Library and Records in England, the book argues that it was resistance, both overt and covert, rather than accommodation which asserted itself on the plantations in the indenture and post-indenture periods. Stymied by a lack of indigenous leadership and organization, and confronted by a powerful, influential plantocracy and repressive state apparatus, Indian workers had demonstrated consistently that they were not afraid to protest when aggrieved. The nearly 1000 strikes and 54 deaths attested to the militancy. By its concentration on relatively unexplored topics, this study seeks to make a contribution to Guyanese, Caribbean, and imperial history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Misses The Mark
The book serves as a good reference to the general reader as is intended. However, I found it very confusing to read at times, and its purpose does not preclude it from this. 1) It is not chronological- jumps around/back/forth. 2)Use of misnomer is irritating- eg. And so on May, 1838 the Whitby and Hesperus landed in Guyana with a cargo of 396 Indians...(pg.22) Guyana in 1838? One does not have to be "academic" to find this jolting. 3) It completely omitts discussion of the contribution of Indians to sports although they attained international renown, figures such as Kanhi & Kalicharran, for example. say, what gives?
Nevertheless, very informative and worth the price.

Informative, to say the least
Dr. Mangru has prepared a most interesting and concise document explaining how and why the Indians arrived in Guyana and the many roles they played in the development of the country. This book, presumably written to supplementthe multicultural studies classes in the New York City metropolitan areasecondary schools, it is one that should be read by all.

Dr. Mangrufurther explains the whys and hows of the Indian-Guyanese migration to NewYork City.He honestly discusses inter as well as intra segregation amongall Guyanese.

This book is concise and worthy of inclusion in the bookcollection of anyone who is interested in learning more about this rapidlygrowing group of people. ... Read more

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Product Description
Guyana Diaries narrates the life histories of members of the Red Thread Development Corporation, a group of women activists in the Caribbean. Kimberly Nettles, an African American researcher, explores the impact of their work on these women’s lives and, in the process, discovers differences of class and nation that overshadow the gender and race she shares with her subjects.Blending feminist ethnography, critical autobiography, and literary narratives, Nettles examines both the collective and her own experiences in studying its members, producing an illuminating, evocative work of self and other. It should be of interest to those in race and ethnic studies, gender studies, Caribbean studies, development studies, and qualitative research. ... Read more