Identity, ethnicity, and the Caribbean homeland in an era of globalization

The paper looks at Caribbean territorial identity at the crossroads of the new forces of globalization. It offers a topology of Caribbean identities along an ethno-cultural axis. It looks at identity as an area of change and contestation. In developing the ideas of Caribbean identity the paper looks at the concept of the Caribbean homeland as a constituent element in defining regional and territorial arena of identity formation. It attempts to show in looking at the ethno-Caribbean homeland the contestations over self-definition that are being engaged and how multiple identities emerge. It argues that it was a fiction that Caribbean peoples were always living in uncontested territory of land and of the mind. The paper points to contestations over residence as the defining denominator of identity both at home and overseas.