Chanting Down the New Jerusalem: Calypso, Christianity, and Capitalism in the Caribbean

Abstract

This book centers attention on the construction of identity and the use of Christianity as an all-embracing, difference-neutralizing form of identity in a Caribbean island. The differences to be neutralized are those of ethnicity, place of origin, and wealth. Mass media, in this case a group of popular disc jockeys, are central to the propagation of this identity. These broad themes are situated within debates about identity and identity politics in the contemporary world, and especially in the Caribbean, where numerous island states and semi-states experience a continual flow of people, ideas, and frames for identity across porous borders. A final general theme is the impact of tourism and money as well as the way people are related to the getting of money. This is the “money tie system,” the notion that “all relationships are somewhere along the line based on a quest for more money and power” (39). Data are drawn from ethnographic observation and interviews in St. Martin and Sint Marteen (SMX after its international airline code), divided between French and Dutch affiliations but united in their dependence on the money tie system and their predilection for an all-embracing identity politics expressed in a generic Christianity. Christianity gives SMXers a “meta language of inclusiveness” (34) according to which all are brothers and sisters regardless of church, practices, or particular beliefs.