Caribbean Cultural Heritage and the Nation

Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao in a Regional Context

9789087284251

344 pages

Amsterdam University Press

Hardback $138.00

Paperback / softback $58.00

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Overview

Centuries of intense and involuntary migrations deeply impacted the development of the creolised cultures on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. This volume describes various forms of cultural heritage produced on these islands over time and whether these heritages are part of their ‘national’ identifications. What forms of heritage express the idea of a shared “we” (nation-building), and what images are presented to the outside world (nation-branding)? What cultural heritage is shared between the islands, and what are some real or perceived differences?

In this book, examples of cultural heritage ranging from sports to questions of reparations, museums to digital humanities, archaeology to music, language and literature to tourism, and visual art to diaspora policies are compared to developments elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Author Bio

Alex van Stipriaan was, until his retirement in late 2020 professor of Caribbean History and Culture at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He published extensively on (slavery) history, cultural heritage, and artists of Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean. Luc Alofs (University of Aruba) studied cultural anthropology and obtained a PhD as historian. He is senior research lecturer at the Faculty of Arts & Science and a senior researcher at the Aruba Institute for Good Governance and Leadership. Francio Guadeloupe is an anthropologist and senior researcher at KITLV-KNAW and an associated Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.