The Folk Roots of Jamaican Cultural Identity

Abstract

Nothing, save the omnipresence of Jehovah, is more all embracing than the definition of “culture”: the totality of beliefs, behaviour and values which shapes and is shaped by humanity. Based on this all-encompassing perspective, we should expect the influence of culture to be dominant. But so taken are we by the forces which impact on our economic lives, affect our social order and determine the cultural psyche, that we have mostly failed to recognise the powerful underlying dynamics of culture.

An appropriate starting point in the recognition of cultural identity is to trace the traits that have emerged or survived over generations which actually recommend themselves by their dominant cultural presence in traditional society.