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Global Incorporation and Cultural Survival: The Surinamese Maroons at the Margins of the World-System

Journal of World-Systems Research

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Title Global Incorporation and Cultural Survival: The Surinamese Maroons at the Margins of the World-System
 
Creator St.-Hilaire, Aonghas
 
Description The Maroons of Suriname enter the twenty-? rst century as the only surviving, culturally and politically autonomous Maroon communities in the Americas. The paper adopts a world-systems approach to explain the evolution of the Surinamese Maroon nations vis-à-vis the ever expanding Surinamese state and global political economy, with particular attention paid to the cultural survival of the Maroon nations. Prior to emancipation, limited colonial integration and mutual fear between the Maroons and Surinamese coastal society facilitated the development of the Maroon communities as relatively independent nations. Despite the best efforts of colonial authorities after emancipation, the weak economy and infrastructure of the Surinamese colony as well as continued mutual fear and distrust enabled the Maroons to guard their autonomy. However, after the Second World War, a period of global economic expansion, the rapid development of the Suriname as an integrated political, economic and cultural unit, and the depletion of and strain on natural resources in traditional Maroon territory dealt serious blows to Maroon autonomy. Maroon cultural survival depends on the ability of the Maroon nations to navigate the rapid changes currently affecting Maroon society, guarding political autonomy and cultivating the most treasured aspects of their cultural heritage, while participating, albeit peripherally, in modern global capitalism.
 
Publisher University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
 
Date 2000-02-26
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/232
10.5195/jwsr.2000.232
 
Source Journal of World-Systems Research; Volume 6, Issue 1, 2000; 101-131
1076-156X
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/232/244
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2015 Aonghas St.-Hilaire
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0