The Creolization Reader: Studies in Mixed Identities and Cultures

Increasingly, ‘creolization’ is used to analyse ‘cultural complexity’, 'cosmopolitanism’,‘hybridity’, ‘syncretism’ and ‘mixture’, prominent and growing characteristics of the global age. The Creolization Reader captures all these meanings. Attention to the ‘creolizing world’ has enormous potential as a suggestive way of describing our complex world and the diverse societies in which we all now live. The Creolization Reader illuminates old creole societies and emerging cultures and identities in many parts of the world. Areas covered include Latin America, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, West, South and East Africa, the Pacific and the USA. Our authors provide an authoritative review, conspectus and critique of many aspects of creolization. This book is divided into five main sections covering the following key topics:
• concepts and Theories
• the Creolized World
• popular Culture
• kindred Concepts
• the Creolizing World
Each section begins with a brief introduction summarizing the key arguments of the contributors, while the editors provide a provocative and comprehensive introduction to the debates provoked by creolization theory. The Creolization Reader is multi-disciplinary and includes 28 readings and original contributions drawn mainly from history, sociology, development studies, anthropology and cultural studies.

Robin Cohen is Professor of Development Studies and Director of the International Migration Institute, University of Oxford. He has held teaching positions in six countries and published extensively on migration, diasporas and social identities. His work on creolization was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council Professorial Fellowship.
Paola Toninato is Research Fellow in Sociology and Italian Studies at the University of Warwick. She has a background in cultural anthropology and comparative literature, and is author of a number of relevant publications in the field of comparative cultural studies, migration and minority writing.

PART 1: CONCEPTS AND THEORIES Introduction by the Editors 1. Creolité and the Process of Creolization, Stuart Hall 2. Creoles, Capitalism and Colonialism, Derek Bickerton 3. Creolization and its Discontents, Stephan Palmié 4. Creolization and Creativity, Thomas Hylland Eriksen 5. In Praise of Créolité, Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Raphaël Constant PART 2: THE CREOLIZED WORLD Introduction by the Editors 6. The Creolité Movement: Paradoxes of a French Caribbean Orthodoxy, Mary Gallagher 7. Creolization and Creole Societies, O' Nigel Bolland 8. Creolization and Globalization in Réunion, Laurent Médea 9. Ethnicity and Identity: Creoles of Colour in Louisiana, James H. Dormon 10. Creolization and Nation-Building in the Hispanic Caribbean, Antonio Benítez-Rojo 11. The Evolution of a Creole Identity in Cape Verde, Tobias Green PART 3: POPULAR CULTURE Introduction by the Editors 12. Calypso Reinvents Itself, Gordon Rohlehr 13. Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art, Matthias Röhrig 14. Louisiana Creole Food Culture, Sybil Kein 15. African Gods in Contemporary Brazil, Reginaldo Prandi 16. Architectural Creolization, Jay Edwards 17. Masquerade Politics, Abner Cohen PART 4: KINDRED CONCEPTS Introduction by the Editors 18. Hybridity in Cultural Theory: Encounters of a Heterogeneous Kind, Sabine Mabardi 19. Mestizaje in Latin America, Lourdes Martinez-Echazabal 20. Conceiving Transnationalism, Steven Vertovec 21. Conceiving Cosmopolitanism, Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen 22. Syncretism and its Synonyms: Reflections on Cultural Mixture, Charles Stewart PART 5: THE CREOLIZING WORLD Introduction by the Editors 23. Creolizing South Africa? Mixing, Hybridity and Creolization, Martin Denis-Constant 24. Sacred Subversions? Syncretic Creoles, the Indo-Caribbean, and ‘Cultures in-between’, Aisha Khan 25. Creolization in Transnational Japan-America, David B. Willis 26. Creolization and Nation-Building in Indonesia, Jacqueline Knörr 27. Swahili Creolization: The Case of Dar es Salaam, Deborah Fahy Bryceson 28. The World in Creolization, Ulf Hannerz