From: "lisette boily" <boilyl-AT-shaw.wave.ca>
Subject: Naipaul, Trinidad and "extinction"
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 11:32:04 -0400


Re:  the comment by Fragano Ledgister about Indigenous Trinidadians being
extinct:

Are you sure about this?  It's sometimes too easy to assume.  Then of course
there are Indigenous cultural systems that prevail, and "blood," even where
the concrete culture may not.  So our definition of "extinction" might have
to be modified.

There are some wonderful web sites run by various indigenous groups
throughout the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora (The Taino Arawak one is
the biggest I think, but there are a few, diverse Carib ones as well, not to
mention the very large Garifuna web presence out of Belize and New York
City).

But I am aware that it is common for even non-Indigenous people from
particular nations to not know of their own country's indigenous populations
(I have run into a few non-Indigenous Dominican students, for example, who
claimed Dominican Caribs are extinct, which is, of course, not true, are
shocked to discover otherwise--that they have a sustained physical and
cultural presence in Dominica, if a small one).  The biggest example is
probably the Taino Arawak one:  the Taino are constantly being presented as
extinct in 'scholarly' texts, and they have made a concerted effort to
rectify this untruth.

>> >"Fragano S.J. Ledgister" <f.ledgis-AT-morehead-st.edu> wrote:

>>
>> >Are you sure this is what he said?  The indigenous people of Trinidad
>> >have been
>> >extinct for centuries, and were long extinct when Naipaul's ancestors
>> >were taken to the island. Thus the disappearance of sacred places could
>> >not be in his experience.  On t'other hand there are lots of sacred
>> >places in Trinidad: churches, temples, mosques &c.
>> ============================================
Lisette Boily
York University, Toronto, Canada






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