Caribbean place identity: From family land to region and beyond

This paper argues that a useful point of departure for ethnographic researc h on the Caribbean can be found in the study of constructions of place and the wider patterns of rooted mobility at various regional scales, which the y implicate. This argument is developed through an examination of the emerg ence of family land on St. John, USVI, as an anchoring point for African-Ca ribbean people engaged in acts of moving to explore social and economic opp ortunities outside the confines of local contexts of life. Family land ther eby accommodated the seemingly contradictory acts of rooting and moving whi ch have constituted mutually constitutive aspects of African-Caribbean life . By examining the changing construction of family land as a locus of place identity it is possible to elucidate the establishment of significant fram eworks of life among the people we study that are vital to the construction of place attachments ranging from the locus of family land and home island , to regional spheres which encompass not only the Caribbean basin, but glo bal networks of relations.