What Defines the Caribbean Identity?

In the introduction of The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Language, Race and Ecology, Peter Roberts he exposes some concepts that form part of the major concept of identity. He gives the attributes of nationality, language, gender, age and religion as attributes that help establish ones identity. "The notion of identity is based on the perception of sameness, consequently of difference."   To accomplish a sense of sameness, an individual will judge by the looks, sound, where was born and how it behaves. Therefore, the identity will be recognized and acknowledge through two important senses, sight and sound.  Components such as language, country, regions and culture affect the behavior of a person. With this we can conclude that the different variations and combinations of these components would create a series of different identities from which a person can identify with.

Some of the langurages around the world.

The most utilized component for dividing into identities would be language. After that, the country where a person is born together with nationality is probably the component that thrills a person the most. And with country follows culture and regions. Imagine living abroad, doing your habitual grocery shopping, when out of a sudden you hear from the cash register beside someone speaking your native language. You get very excited and go over and start talking. As the conversation develops you start asking questions in regard of their nationality, why they are living there, hell maybe you plan on meeting again. This is a perfect example of how language hoards a big part of the concept of identity. Depending on the situation, the restrictions a person put on language vary. For the example previously stated, the main character doing the grocery shopping was intrigued simply for the fact that his native language was been spoken. On the other hand if they were both locals the intrigue would come from the accents on the spoken language. Therefore, language can be subdivided into the speech, the word, the accent and the idiom structure. “Language establishes bonds and at the same time set them apart creating barriers. Yet the human being is not restricted to the use of one single language. So it’s an individual decision on creating bridges in communications.”

Applying these notions to understand the Caribbean identity

There are different theories of which countries pertain to the Caribbean. Taking as reference what the Caribbean site says about the countries that are considered as part of the Caribbean, we could not apply in a wholesome matter the language theory.  Many countries that are part of the Caribbean do not speak the same language, even dialects. The Caribbean identity would be more directed towards the spirit of the people, there climate, geographical, and demographic similarities rather than on language. Maybe because of the climate, but the Caribbean people tend to have an optimistic and happy spirit mix with hospitality. Another factor that may be affected by climate would be the type of cloth worn. 

 

Therefore we can conclude that Caribbean Identity does not have to do with the language spoken, but more with the similarities between them that include climate, geography, and especially the spirit of the people. Where you feel more at home and relax, that there is your identity.