Comparison and connection in the study of Afro-Latin America

Abstract

This essay examines the relationship between comparison – as a scholarly method and social practice – and the study of transnationalism and diaspora. Attention to transnational and diasporic processes forces us to critically reassess comparison as a scholarly method. However, rather than abandon comparison, scholars interested in transnationalism and diaspora need to recognize the centrality of comparison to transnational encounters and diasporic identity formations. Drawing on the case of the transnational world of the Garifuna between the United States and Honduras, the essay highlights the importance of comparing Garifuna identity formations in both locations in order to understand their multiple relationships to the African (or black) diaspora, and the importance of their own practices of comparison in helping to produce diasporic identities. Paying attention to how social agents make comparisons within specific contexts can provide a fruitful path of inquiry for studies of transnationalism and diaspora.

Keywords:

• African diaspora
• transnationalism
• Garifuna
• Honduras
• race

Notes

1. Examples of such approaches include: Brown (2005), Edwards (2003), Gordon and Anderson (1999), Matory (2005), Patterson and Kelly (2000), and Clarke and Thomas (2006). Although many of these authors critique Gilroy's work, they owe it a substantial debt.

2. For a recent overview, see Warren and Twine (2002).