The shifting sources of racial definition in Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana: a research agenda

This comparison of ethnic relations in two countries, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana, supplements the research findings of synchronic studies of "the social construction of race" by offering a historically based framework to understand particular and local instances of ethnic relations. Drawing on a long historical study of Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana, I argue that th e institutional sources of definition of key "ethnicities" have shifted thr ough the centuries. "Ethnicities" have been successively defined by the ins titutions of capital, state and community. While these institutions have ov erlapped in time they are not equally important at a given moment in the ma tter of defining "ethnicity". The content of the definitions has also varie d significantly. At present political communities and the family are the ma jor social institutions that determine "ethnic" content.