A Contested Caribbean Indigeneity: Language, Social Practice, and Identity within Puerto Rican Taíno Activism

Sherina Feliciano-Santos

Published by Rutgers University Press 2021

A Contested Caribbean Indigeneity

Language, Social Practice, and Identity within Puerto Rican Taíno Activism

Sherina Feliciano-Santos

In the series Critical Caribbean Studies

https://doi.org/10.36019/9781978808218

Overview
Contents

About this book

A Contested Caribbean Indigeneity is an in-depth analysis of the debates surrounding Taíno/Boricua activism in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean diaspora in New York City. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic research, media analysis, and historical documents, the book explores the varied experiences and motivations of Taíno/Boricua activists as well as the alternative fonts of authority they draw on to claim what is commonly thought to be an extinct ethnic category. It explores the historical and interactional challenges involved in claiming membership in, what for many Puerto Ricans, is an impossible affiliation. In focusing on Taíno/Boricua activism, the books aims to identify a critical space from which to analyze and decolonize ethnoracial ideologies of Puerto Ricanness, issues of class and education, Puerto Rican nationalisms and colonialisms, as well as important questions regarding narrative, historical memory, and belonging.

Author / Editor information

SHERINA FELICIANO-SANTOS is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

Reviews

"Sherina Feliciano-Santos’ ethnography offers us a beautifully written account that models rigorous scholarly analysis and ethical ethnographic practice as she examines controversial and critically important questions of Taino activism and identity claims within broader negotiations of Puerto Rican racial, ethnic and national identity. She reminds us of the generative value of embracing ambiguity, and incongruity and of listening carefully to what people have to say about their lives and their worlds."

— Gina Pérez, author of Citizen, Student, Soldier: Latina/o Youth, JROTC, and the American Dream

"Sherina Feliciano-Santos has written a compelling and vital book on the multiplicity of ways of being Puerto Rican Taino—at once rigorous and theoretically sophisticated, highlighting again the value of language-centered work to the concerns of anthropology more broadly, it is also deeply personal, highlighting again the value of doing anthropology that matters."

— Anthony K. Webster, author of Intimate Grammars: An Ethnography of Navajo Poetry

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Prologue Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Abbreviations and Acronyms Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
Note on Transcription Conventions Publicly Available Download PDF	xxiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1 Competing Historical Narratives regarding Taíno Extinction
1 The Stakes of Being Taíno Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2 Historical Discourses and Debates about Puerto Rico’s Indigenous Trajectory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Part 2 The Puerto Rican Nation and Ethnoracial Regimes in Puerto Rico
3 Jíbaros and Jibaridades, Ambiguities and Possibilities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
4 Impossible Identities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Part 3 Taíno Heritage and Political Mobilization
5 (Re)Constructing Heritage: Narratives of Linguistic Belonging among Taíno Activists Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
6 How Do You See the World as a Taíno? Conceptualizing the Taíno Gaze Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
7 Protest, Surveillance, and Ceremony Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221