Caribbean Societies Research Articles

Community-Led Action Research in Oncology: Pandemic-Appropriate Radiotherapy Innovations Evaluated (CLARO PARTE) for Latin America and the Caribbean Countries.

This study aimed to identify, evaluate, and rank suitable safety innovations developed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) radiation oncology centers. We conducted a multimodal participatory engagement collaboration with the Latin-American and Caribbean Society of Medical Oncology. The study consisted of four phases. Innovations were collected from a panel of radiotherapy experts representing a diverse group of 11 countries from LAC (Phase I). Next, a medical scientific team compared the innovations against international standards regarding their potential impact on risk of infection, clinical operation, and continuity of quality cancer care (Phase II). Their findings were supplied to the country representatives who rated the innovations for acceptability in their cancer centers (Phase III), resulting in a final report of the panel's recommendations (Phase IV). A total of 81 innovations were reported by the country representatives and merged by the medical scientific team into 24 innovations that combined similar innovations. The 24 innovations were grouped into six categories including practices aimed at (1) reducing clinic crowding (n = 3), (2) increasing screening and vaccinations for COVID-19 disease (n = 5), (3) implementing social distancing (n = 6), (4) strengthening personal infection equipment and disinfection (n = 6), (5) avoiding delaying or shortening treatment protocols (n = 2), and (6) mixed procedures (n = 2). The medical scientific team found nearly all innovations were supported by international recommendations and rated as safe, efficient, and acceptable. By using the lessons learned from the Community-Led Action Research in Oncology: Pandemic-Appropriate Radiotherapy Innovations Evaluated study, a manual of scalable practices in radiation oncology clinics may be developed to guide actions during future large-scale public health crises in low- and middle-income countries of LAC.

Ethnobotany and animals in Girmitiya diaspora: explorations from the Caribbean

ABSTRACT Diasporas presuppose that emigrants establish an ethnic group in their newly adopted homelands while realigning with their motherland. The glue of this bonding is presumed to be language, religion, nationalism, and lived culture. However, this paper argues that ethnic communities are enabled by Indian ethnobotany and animals (IEA). The paper argues, first, that IEA served as a resource to preserve ethnic foods, rituals, and identities; second, that IEA were crucial ingredients in the emergence of the Girmitiya community as they served as inputs to several domains of communal life; and third, that the IEA represented a highly specific diaspora link between the Girmitiya communities with India. Using the case of Caribbean societies, the paper focuses on the relationship between Indian nature and culture and, by so doing, addresses a void in the study of the Girmitiya ethnogenesis, the constitution of the Girmitiya diaspora, and the globalisation of Indian nature.

Cultural globalization at sea: the rise of the modern Caribbean cruise industry

ABSTRACT Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian—the largest cruise lines today—emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s, advertising their packaged vacations to a growing audience of middle-class Americans interested in encountering cultural difference. This article argues that, beginning in the late 1970s and continuing into the following decade, the cultural representations that these mass-market companies leveraged drew on Eurocentric understandings of Caribbean societies, homogenizing those countries despite attempts to showcase difference. These companies also reimagined global cultures Eurocentrically in onboard themed experiences. As both a product and agent of globalization, the mass-market cruise industry selectively deployed referents in ways that increased the appeal of cruising as escapism while reducing the likelihood of cultural confusion and reassuring passengers of their comfort. Through these processes, companies produced cruise ships as metaspaces while simultaneously expanding the construction of metaspaces to ports as they gained economic and political power in the Caribbean. This process resulted in the erasure of cultural difference.

Choosing Wisely in oncology in Latin America: what SLACOM does not recommend in the care of cancer patients in Latin America: Ten essential recommendations to avoid harmful onclogy procedures in Latin America.

Choosing Wisely is an initiative by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and ABIM Foundation to deter unnecessary medical treatments and procedures. Faced with the burden of modern technologies and treatments, it is crucial to identify practices lacking value in daily care. The Latin American and Caribbean Society (SLACOM), comprising cancer control experts, deems it vital to tailor this initiative for enhancing cancer care in the region. Through a modified DELPHI methodology involving two rounds of electronic questionnaires and a hybrid meeting to discuss key points of contention, ten essential recommendations were identified and prioritised to avoid harmful oncology procedures in our region. These consensus-based recommendations, contextualised for Latin America, have been compiled and shared to benefit patients. The Scientific Committee, consisting of prominent oncologists and health experts, collaborates remotely to drive this project forward.

Central American and Caribbean Consensus Document for the Optimal Management of Oral Anticoagulation in Patients with Non-Valvular Atrial Fibrillation Endorsed by the Central American and Caribbean Society of Arterial Hypertension and Cardiovascular Prevention.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in adults. Prevention of the ischaemic risk with oral anticoagulants (OACs) is widely recommended, and current clinical guidelines recommend direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) as preference therapy for stroke prevention. However, there are currently no clinical practice guidelines or recommendation documents on the optimal management of OACs in patients with AF that specifically address and adapt to the Central American and Caribbean context. The aim of this Delphi-like study is to respond to doubts that may arise in the management of OACs in patients with non-valvular AF in this geographical area. A consensus project was performed on the basis of a systematic review of the literature, a recommended ADOLOPMENT-like approach, and the application of a two-round Delphi survey. In the first round, 31 recommendations were evaluated and 30 reached consensus, of which, 10 unanimously agreed. The study assessed expert opinions in a wide variety of contextualized recommendations for the optimal management of DOACs in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). There is a broad consensus on the clinical practice guideline (CPG) statements used related to anticoagulation indication, patient follow-up, anticoagulation therapy complications, COVID-19 management and prevention, and cardiac interventions.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF HBCUS TO THE GERONTOLOGY FIELD: DISCUSSIONS OF RELIGION, HEALTH DETERMINANTS, AND BLACK AGING

Abstract Health advancements have allowed older adults to a better quality of life. This however, is not equitably translated to the well-being of older Black adults. To bypass this narrative, actions are need to focus on restructuring fragmented systems that perpetuate health inequities and social injustices. This however cannot be the responsibility of one person, community, or institution, but rather a collective obligation of those willing to service the needs of all older adults. This allows us to not only acknowledge the scholarly work aimed at bettering the lives of our aging communities, but also recognizes the contributions of scholars affiliated with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), through research, policy, community interventions, and scholarly practices. To address this progressive movement, this collection of papers not only acknowledges the contributions of HBCUs to the gerontology discipline, but also to the scientific advancement focusing on the health and well-being of older Black adults. Speaker one will discuss the biopsychosocial determinants of cognitive function of older Black adults. Our second speaker will focus on religious coping and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among older Black individuals. Speaker three will highlight SDoH among older adults within Caribbean societies. The final speaker will discuss the impact and contributions of HBCU’s on an ’aging’ society through data analysis of demographic patterns and historical factors from an Afrocentric and Black perspectives. The discussant will tie together these themes and provide recommendations related to education, scholarly research ventures, particularly as it relates to health outcomes, equity, and collaborating with HBCUs. This is a HBCU Collaborative Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

AGING AND HEALTH IN THE CARIBBEAN REGION: AN OVERVIEW OF THE STATE OF RESEARCH

Abstract The Caribbean region is undergoing rapid population aging. While there is diversity in the pace of population aging among countries within the region, there are some shared population health challenges including the increasing prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases and the inequalities therein. Relatedly, many Caribbean countries do not have well-established long-term care systems. Therefore, older adults primarily rely on informal care and support mainly from family members, which has implications for the health of older adults and their caregivers. Although Caribbean populations are understudied within gerontology, there is a growing body of research. This presentation provides an overview of the existing state of research on the social determinants of health among older adults within Caribbean societies and discusses directions for future research.

Examining Student Gendered Experiences with Parent Involvement in The Bahamas

Within English-speaking Caribbean K-12 schooling systems, there has been a consistent trend of boys performing at a lower academic standard than girls. Caribbean scholars suggest approaching gendered achievement patterns from multiple perspectives, dimensions, and methodologies to help clarify the inequities that are prevalent in Caribbean schooling. To address this call, I narrow attention onto the Bahamian family context and raise the question as to whether parent involvement with schooling in The Bahamas differs for boys versus girls. Survey data (parents, n = 377) came from a comprehensive study on parent involvement with schooling that took place in Grand Bahama during summer of 2018. Multivariate analysis of factor scores using two scales, Basic Needs Involvement (11-item scale) and Academic Involvement (3-item scale), showed that parental involvement was similar for boys and girls. Like previous findings in The Bahamas, there were more girls enrolled in private schools than boys. Findings are discussed in terms of societal perceptions about whose education is valued, mandates for gender parity, the impact global trends have on local trends, and moving towards empirical-based theories for gendered achievement patterns within Caribbean societies.

Post-Disaster Reconstruction of Residential Buildings: Evolution of Structural Vulnerability on Caribbean Island of Saint Martin after Hurricane Irma

This article presents a summary of the results obtained as part of the ANR (French National Research Agency)-RELEV project, which focuses on the long-term recovery and reconstruction of the island of Saint Martin following the passage of Hurricane Irma in 2017. This hurricane was classified as category five on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with an average wind speed of 287 km/h. It caused catastrophic damage along its path and highlighted the significant vulnerability of Caribbean societies to this type of phenomenon. This article focuses on the reconstruction of residential buildings on the French part of the island of Saint Martin. It aims to identify and analyze the factors that have favorably or unfavorably influenced their reconstruction and their structural vulnerability reduction. The research is based mainly on a series of interviews with local actors (construction and insurance companies, architects, territorial services, etc.), an online survey of residents (180 responses), and a field survey involving visits to 104 buildings with interviews of the occupants. The results obtained show that having access to financial resources for the reconstruction of buildings is central. However, different parameters must be considered to understand the disparity of situations and identify the factors that have most favorably contributed to the speed and quality of reconstruction and reduction of vulnerability. Even five years after Irma, a significant number of buildings on the island remain either unrepaired or abandoned. These buildings nevertheless constitute a danger in the case of strong winds (becoming a source of projectiles) and have a negative impact on the reputation and attractiveness of the island. The results reveal that in general, buildings in Saint Martin are slightly more resilient than they were prior to Irma, while presenting a great heterogeneity of situations.

O poder da comparação no Caribe: crioulização e transculturação em perspectiva

ABSTRACT The Antilles have been described as a bridge between the Global North and South. However, the global study of the Caribbean societies has often been hindered by the very elements used to describe them. Thus, in response, several concepts have been proposed from anthropology, linguistics, and literature to make sense of Caribbean societies’ experiences as a result of the colonial encounter. This study compares two “bridge-concepts,” creolization and transculturation, based on the works of Fernando Ortiz, Édouard Glissant, Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Raphael Confiant. Consequently, it sheds light on the concepts’ definitions, and how they address the aspects of temporality, cultural interactions, particularization versus generalization, and the violence of the colonial encounter. By clarifying these concepts and terms like acculturation, Americanization, and Antillanité, the article makes a significant contribution to literary studies as it contextualizes the explanatory potential and limitations of these critical terms for understanding complex phenomena that unfolded in the Caribbean.

(Re)thinking material and epistemic futures: Caribbean reparations, development, and education

ABSTRACT In this conceptual paper, we envision new development possibilities for the Anglophone Caribbean through reparations for the legacies of chattel slavery, indigenous dispossession, extractive capitalism, and their significance to the making of capitalist modernity. We lay out the development paradigm’s historical geometries, including the violence of colonialism, extractive and racial capitalism, and the resultant material and epistemic effects. Using reparation as our core conceptual frame, we suggest how reforming the aid system and asserting the right to epistemic autonomy serve as two pathways to changing the contemporary development trajectories of Caribbean societies.

Facts, faith and Facebook: science communication during the 2020–21 La Soufrière, St Vincent volcanic eruption

Abstract Social media has become an effective bidirectional communication tool used by risk management agencies during crises. Its interactive format can provide near real-time insight into public attitudes toward hazard and risk. While there is a growing body of research on risk communication and risk perception in developing countries, there is limited understanding of real-time public response to low-frequency, high-impact phenomenon like volcanic eruptions. Facebook, the social media platform, was one of the primary mass communication tools used by The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre during the 2020–21 eruption of La Soufrière volcano in St Vincent. This study analyses public response to hazard and risk information shared via Facebook. A thematic analysis of user comments and iconographic reactions during the eruption revealed a complex social response to the event and information on the event shared by scientists. Direct access to scientific information was widely appreciated, as was the scientific team, with whom the public developed a familiar relationship. The interplay of faith and science remains a key feature of risk perception in Caribbean society. Findings also highlight the utility of combining old and new broadcast technologies to engage diverse audiences.

C.L.R. James’ Beyond A Boundary

C.L.R. James’ <i>Beyond A Boundary</i>

Redemption Song: A Commentary on Caribbean Society

This essay unpacked and analyzed the seven-part documentary series, Redemption Song, narrated by Stuart Hall about the Caribbean in early 1990s. Given the diversity of the Caribbean, Redemption Song unified the Caribbean through its framing of how the Caribbean’s past of foreign influence has shaped its present. Thus, this essay linked historical causality and the Caribbean’s present as a cultural mosaic to argue that Redemption Song demonstrates how contemporary Caribbean society is a product of its history of foreign influence and colonialism. This was accomplished by discussing a scene from each episode of Redemption Song and connecting it with secondary literature on Caribbean society to touch upon how the series represents, and comments on, contemporary Caribbean society. Namely, this essay discussed issues concerning economy, identity, citizenship, race, class, sovereignty, borders, and tourism and how it has related British, African, Indian, French, Spanish, and American influences in the Caribbean.

Life and Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean: The Greater Antilles, 1493–1550

The sixteenth-century Caribbean is often overshadowed in histories of colonial Spanish America. After Christopher Columbus, Spaniards spilled from the Caribbean into Mexico and Peru. They left behind empty islands that would patiently await plantation slavery, imperial competition, and belated significance a century later. Or so the history of the Caribbean has sometimes been told. In contrast, Life and Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean: The Greater Antilles, 1493–1550 by Ida Altman argues that the region had enduring transatlantic importance as successive generations of European, Black, and Indigenous inhabitants created a distinctively Caribbean society. While threatened by disease and violence, the Spanish cities on the islands were sustained in the first half of the sixteenth century by a diversifying economy, multiethnic households, and the labor of enslaved or coerced men and women.Joining a recent burst of scholarship on the early Spanish Caribbean by Molly A. Warsh, David Wheat, Erin Woodruff Stone, and Gabriel de Avilez Rocha, Life and Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean stands apart for its focus on the Spanish settlers on the islands. Based on extensive archival research in administrative reports, ecclesiastical investigations, and personal correspondence, the book creates a rich mosaic of fragmentary lives and glimpsed relationships. The book devotes chapters to the initial European invasion of the islands, the destabilizing presence of death and disease, the political and legal administration of the islands, the arrival of the Catholic Church, and the transitional changes that Caribbean society underwent in the middle of the sixteenth century.The final chapter, concerning the role of women in Caribbean society, is particularly compelling as it traces the varied biographies of Spanish women on the islands alongside the faintly documented Indigenous and Black women who often lived in the same households. Altman analyzes the myriad roles played by the region's women, ranging from the powerful to the powerless. Some Spanish women exercised great political and social influence on the islands. Yet the lives of other women offer a counterpoint of difficulty, suffering, and oppression. This attention to the experiences of Caribbean women is not limited to the final chapter and appears throughout the book. For example, the lists of laborers for one estate on Puerto Rico reveal a growing proportion of elderly Indigenous women as other laborers apparently either died or fled the estate.The book simultaneously interweaves historical details from the four main islands of the Greater Antilles (Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica) while nodding to their local distinctions. As a work of social history, the book excavates a profusion of named individuals, and a few emerge as vivid characters in their own right. One such figure is the priest Álvaro de Castro, who appears in nearly every chapter and who stands out for his ceaseless energy, commercial entanglements, untrammeled sexual relations, and wild eruptions of violence. He enjoyed a long and successful career in the Caribbean church. Altman describes Castro as emblematic of his society's “distinctive juncture of law, the church, criminality, and economic opportunism” (p. 206).Life and Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean makes a pointed case for the complexity of the region's social relations. However, as Altman notes repeatedly, the documentary sources focus on Spanish experiences, and it is undeniably difficult to locate Black and Indigenous people within this lopsided archive. A reader skimming the book might miss the many places in which Black and Indigenous people do appear in the narrative. The book is laudably rigorous in avoiding speculation or overinterpretation in its use of archival evidence, and it describes regular contact between different segments of society without embellishment. In many ways, this approach captures the mundane and quotidian nature of cross-cultural relations for the period. Yet this approach may limit the book's utility to readers looking specifically for Black and Indigenous histories of the Caribbean. A careful reader will find many elements of those histories in this book, but they are subordinate to the histories of people who directly produced, signed, or testified within the sources: Spanish property owners, government officials, and church leaders. Whether the reader finds this narrow methodological approach to be a feature or a bug may depend on what they are hoping to find in a history of the Caribbean.Life and Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean is an impressive achievement in meticulous archival research that will bring the complexity of early Spanish society in the Americas to the attention of a wider audience. Historians of gender will value Altman's attention to the lives of Caribbean women, while historians of Spanish colonialism will appreciate the book's precise study of political and urban development in the Greater Antilles. Finally, the book will be an invaluable resource to Caribbean scholars looking to understand the history of the region in the early sixteenth century on a deeply human scale.

Cultural Displacement in V.S. Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas

This paper examines the literary text A House for Mr. Biswas in order to explore psychological, geographical, cultural and social alienation and displacement of the migrant people. It makes exploration of how the central character, Mohan Biswas makes the search for identity based on cultural root. Displacement gives birth to the feeling of rootness. Biswas is displaced again and again exclusively as well as inclusively. The people who migrate to other countries for any reason feel the nostalgia for their homeland left behind and a feeling of fear on the strange land that gives birth to the feeling of homelessness. The text explains the difficulties and psychological anguish which create the feeling of alienation and fragmentation within a person in the colonial world. The novel attempts to reveal the hardships of the postcolonial people, endure in their search for self- identity and self-esteem in Caribbean society. V.S. Naipaul presents his experience of dislocation through the central character, who struggles for survival and feels alienated, fragmented, dislocated, and rootless. So, this research paper explores Naipaul's experience of displacement and the struggle of the protagonist in the postcolonial milieu.

“Out of Cuba” – The Additional Botanical Expeditions of Brother Marie-Victorin Across the Caribbean (1940–1942)

Brother Marie-Victorin was the founder of the Montreal Botanical Garden, and one of the most important figures in the botanical history of Canada. Between 1938 and 1944, he undertook seven major plant exploration expeditions to Cuba that resulted in the discovery of several new Cuban endemics. Archival research carried out in the Division de la Gestion de Documents et des Archives (University of Montreal) revealed that during his voyages to Cuba, he made three major side-trips in 1940, 1941, and 1942 to other regions of the Caribbean. Specifically to Barranquilla (Colombia), Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Yucatan (Mexico). We could not find any of his written accounts of his 1940 voyage to the Yucatan; however, we were able to find a collection of photographic slides. An unpublished 33-page travelogue of his 1941 trip to Colombia, Jamaica, and Trinidad was discovered, studied, and translated into English, with annotations. Furthermore, we examined and interpreted two of his published papers that described the 1942 visits to Haiti and Puerto Rico. During these three “out-of-Cuba” voyages, no plant material was collected; however, Brother Marie-Victorin's written accounts and the 502 photos that he took provide unique insights into Caribbean society of the 1940s, as well as on the naturalists and botanists working in the region, and the plants and habitats they encountered. Brother Marie-Victorin's records highlight racial discrimination against those of African descent in Jamaica and Trinidad. It appears that these trips did not lead to major botanical research initiatives. Furthermore, the few collections that he made for potential propagation in botanic gardens or botanical institutes are not currently being grown any longer. The trips had clear leisure aims and they were centered on learning about the society, the flora, and plant science research activities of the visited areas.

Rogue Revolutionaries: The Fight for Legitimacy in the Greater Caribbean

Rogue Revolutionaries: The Fight for Legitimacy in the Greater Caribbean

Archives numériques et mémoire culturelle aux Caraïbes

Abstract The question of cultural memory is particularly complex in the case of the Caribbean due to its fragmented history, which has led to great cultural diversity. Created within and outside the Caribbean during the last twenty years, structured online archives have taken up the issue of dispersed memories by taking an inventory of a multiplicity of objects which testify to the diverse past of Caribbean societies. Taking Glissant’s concept of Relation as a starting point, I analyze in this article to what extent these archives contribute to the constitution of a cultural memory in terms of contents, structure as well as possibilities of participation, considering the complexity of historical and social threads woven together within and between the Caribbean territories. To address this question, I will draw on two online archives specializing in the Caribbean: The Caribbean Memory Project and the digital library MANIOC.

Abordaje terapéutico integral de la hipertensión arterial. Recomendaciones para Centroamérica y el Caribe

Latin American hypertension guidelines, tailored to the needs of countries of Central and South America, should be applied and known by most Latin American physicians. The knowledge and implementation of the Guidelines is one of the greatest challenges of hypertension societies in Latin America such as the Central American and Caribbean Society of Arterial Hypertension (SCCH), the Latin American Society of Hypertension (LASH) and the Inter-American Society of Cardiology (SIAC).In 2020, the Inter-American Society of Cardiology (SIAC) published its position on the current Guidelines for Arterial Hypertension due to the need to standardize the evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and control of hypertension, establishing recommendations that should be adopted in all Latin American countries, aimed at optimizing the management of cardiovascular risk and achieving a substantial improvement in the reduction of cardiovascular events and mortality.This document intends to reinforce all proposals by the LASH guidelines and the position of the SIAC in relation to the therapeutic approach and pharmacological recommendations for patients with hypertension (HT), in order to achieve better HT control in the Central American and Caribbean area, and the consequently prognosis improvement of cardiovascular disease in the area.