Ce travail analyse le dancehall, dernière forme en date de la musique jamaïcaine, à travers les questions de violence et de sexualité. Cette musique rencontre des difficultés sur le plan local et international non seulement à cause des thématiques abordées mais aussi par la manière dont elles sont traitées. Ainsi, le traitement de la violence à travers le gun talk, ces textes faisant l’apologie des armes à feu, entraîne des critiques, on leur reproche d’être des incitations à la violence physique, psychologique, au désordre social et on juge leur influence négative. Par ailleurs, l’approche très explicite et très crue de la sexualité entraîne également des critiques du fait de la teneur misogyne et homophobe de certaines chansons.Par conséquent, cette étude du dancehall explique les raisons pour lesquelles le contexte particulier de la Jamaïque a conduit à ce genre de propos. Puis, elle démontre que les textes incriminés pour homophobie ou misogynie renferment une codification de la sexualité qui va au-delà de l’orientation sexuelle et de l’opposition hétérosexualité/homosexualité, pour ériger un modèle valorisant et valorisé en termes de pratiques sexuelles (le coït pénis/vagin). Pour répondre à ces questions, cette analyse s’appuie sur une série d’outils offrant une vision cohérente de cette musique : les travaux précédents sur le dancehall, les traductions d’un large éventail de chansons, l’utilisation de l’Internet qui permet de suivre les derniers déroulements de ce phénomène culturel en constante évolution et enfin les entretiens et les enquêtes menés sur le terrain. / Completely different to play a part in the social unrest that this country is facing. The second part of the thesis focuses on the issues of violence and sexuality in dancehall music. It shows how politics and religion have a strong influence on the population and offer some legitimacy to the lyrics which lead to the controversies surrounding dancehall music. On the one hand, religion is the cornerstone of this society (although Jamaicans have integrated some principles and do not pay much attention to others) and determines what should be endorsed or rejected. On the other hand, the politicians apply some sort of physical and psychological violence to maintain their leading position. In addition, these politicians rely on the contempt for homosexuality to create cohesion within a society that is deeply characterized by divisions and tensions of all kinds. In the Jamaican context that is deeply influenced by patriarchal values, the individuals of the lower social strata (especially males) who experience difficulties to obtain a valorizing social status can turn to violence and criminal activities, and will hang to heterosexuality and “moral” sexual practices as vehicles to restored self-esteem (this vision of sexuality is one of the only valorizing aspects of masculinity that any individual can rely on regardless of their social status). Consequently, these sexual archetypes are expressed through the lyrics of dancehall music and are promoted by the artists of dancehall, self-proclaimed spokesperson for the Jamaican population. The third part addresses the issue of the perception of dancehall music on the international level through the issue of sexuality and homosexuality. This part shows that even though the language used by the artists can be hardly understood, some lyrics leave the listeners with different way of interpreting the message, especially when it comes to threatening some people physically or psychologically on the ground of sexual orientations and practices. These songs which express strong criticism towards some individuals have triggered vehement reactions from sexual minority groups. Different campaigns on the international level have forced the artists to tone down their lyrics. These campaigns show how the music is also utilized by these gay groups to fight against discrimination. Because of or thanks to the media attention that Jamaican music enjoys, the homosexuals are able to expose to the public opinion the physical and psychological violence they are experiencing in Jamaica. In addition, the close geographic, cultural and economic relationship between Jamaica and the USA shows, on the one hand, how homosexuality is perceived on the island as an imposed foreign value and on the other hand, how this Caribbean country is labeled as a homophobic nation. And finally, the influence of Jamaica on the international level allows us to analyze dancehall music in the French Caribbean islands. This chapter shows how these local artists can use the Jamaican codes and adapt them to their own reality when they correspond with the values of their own society.

Dancehall is an influential space of cultural creation and expression within Jamaican society. This study is about how Jamaican dancehall is being performed, and what this performance means to its participants. Dancehall is mainly practiced by lower-class Jamaicans. This thesis focuses on dancers as a specific group among these participants. During 15 weeks I lived in Kingston and participated in dancehall culture daily. The fieldwork was focused on one dance group called “The Black Eagles”. The dancehall is gender structured and most dancers are men who organize in male crews. Practicing dancehall can be seen as a cultural resistance to structural injustice, while it also works to enforce oppressive ideologies. Dancehall culture is criticized for being immoral, inappropriate and violent. Dancehall is a survival strategy for many lower-class Jamaicans and an alternative to a life in crime. The Black Eagles dance because they love it, but the main motivation for initiating a career as a dancehall dancer is the hope of getting a better life. Digital technology and social media have helped dancers to reach this goal. Through social media, the dancehall dance has gained international popularity. This thesis relates to broader themes such as development, poverty, globalization, gender and identity.

This study investigates colonial, independence, and postcolonial moments to identify different modes of self-fashioning in the Jamaican landscape. It also explores the ways collective and individual senses of self, identity and sovereignty are perceived between the late nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. I assert that political processes involved in consolidating official national identities problematically reproduced hierarchies and exclusions reminiscent of the colonial period in politically independent contexts. In this regard, the cultural landscape serves multivalent purposes of proving grounds for visions of Jamaican national identity, counter-hegemonic articulations of those excluded from or marginalized by official notions of Jamaican national identity, and spaces for the invention of non-traditional modes of self-representation. I critique early nationalist projects through an examination of Sylvia Wynter's The Hills of Hebron and discuss the ways unacknowledged or unconsciously retained European cosmological elements undermine the sovereign identity they sought to construct. I also examine Michael Thelwell's The Harder they Come, Sistren's Lionheart Gal and Don Lett's film Dancehall Queen to discuss the marginalization of the working poor that persists within the newly independent relations of political power, and illustrate the ways modes of cultural self-fashioning like the ruud bwoy, or community theater emerge as spaces for negotiating self, identity, survival, and self-determination among the working class. I argue that the independence context is marked by exclusionary politics that provoke the development of more individual modes of self-fashioning, that vary between men and women, and also provide sites for counter-hegemonic discourses in opposition to nationalized discourses. Moving beyond the traditional framework of community based on heteronormative models, I examine Patricia Powell's A Small Gathering of Bones and The Pagoda to consider how queer communities are marginalized in nationalized discourses. I critique self-identity and self-fashioning within non-normative sexual communities in an analysis that traces gender and sexuality as indices of exclusionary patterns that are reproduced within nationalized identities throughout the country's history. This discussion argues that there is an institutionalized complicity between politics, culture, and religion in sustaining colonial power relations far beyond the colonial context.

Youth is a contested term which has been described as difficult to define and ‘pin down analytically’ (De Boek and Honwana 2005:3). In much youth development related issues, youth is categorised as a person between the ages of 15-24, which is defining a person only in terms of one’s chronological age. Age is a good indicator of where in life a person is, I used thus a wider range to include also older youth. Youth are often viewed in relation to other social categories as adults or children, and notions of youth are often as becomings, dependent, powerless, rebellious, risky (behaviour) and irresponsible, a focus merely on ‘negative’ aspects of youthhood, are these notions really describing the general youth? This study explores given youth identities in terms of behavioural patterns of being ‘in place’ and/or ‘out of place’. Identities are in this thesis approached as socially constructed, and people can hold multiple identities. This thesis therefore presents different identity narratives of Jamaican Youth ‘faces’. I used qualitative research methodology to collect and analyse the empirical data generated during fieldwork in Jamaica, Port Antonio in the period of February to beginning of May 2009. Methods such as informal conversations, observations, key informant interviews and photography is the main sources of the collected data, but also secondary data has been used in the analysis to grasp the surrounding realities. The youth participants of this study, 37, are persons who define themselves as youth and are viewed as youth by the Jamaica society based on their activities and behaviour, and are not dependent of their age, gender, class or occupation. In addition twelve (12) adults have contributed to the outsider’s views. The analytical concept of place is used to examine youth’s different behavioural patterns, based on socially accepted activities which are preformed in socially constructed youth places. The social meanings that identity performance have for the sense of being ‘in place’ and belonging to a place are explored to examine how this affects their identity building processes within a specific place. Also outside processes as national youth policy making, media representations and statements from ‘locals’, are evaluated as contributing to the present perceived Jamaican youth identities. I found multiple constructed ‘faces’of Jamaican youth; ‘the naughty’, ‘the nice’, the sexy’, ‘the wise’ and ‘the runner’ , are presented. These identities are fluid and transferable between different places in society and in time. The participants in this study each hold several of these ‘faces’, but often one which are more prominent in relation to the place one uses at that time. The located youth places; the youth centre place, the marina place and the dancehall place, are sites where the identity building processes takes form and social identities are constructed in relations to the socially acceptable conventions in the places in which youth occupy. These social conventions and identities may be negotiated, modified, reconstructed, challenged, contested or resisted in the ‘never-ending’ identity and place production processes. Identity, which is a complex term, holds several of attributes within categories as gender, race, age ect., but none of these attributes exist alone, and place as a contributor to the identity building processes is in this thesis seen as significant in the dynamic relation to all the attributes a person holds, which are preformed at different scales in society, both to be ‘in place’ and/or ‘out of place’. The youth ‘faces’ in Jamaica are also related and part of the national identity, they should therefore be accepted rather than rejected as ‘unwanted behaviour’, since a person rarely just hold one identity.

Through interviews with three individuals involved in the dancehallculture, this thesis explores attitudes in professionalizing dancehall dancing. Professionalization, authenticity and cultural appropriation are key theoretical perspectives. Professionalization is profitable for Jamaican dancers and a way to make a living, however, having economic motives as the creative source when producing new steps may in the long run be harmful to the nature of the dance. Globalization tend to fragment and kill diversity within the cultural expression and commercial interests might result in a change within the structure of the dance, to make it look better on camera and easier for the outsider to appreciate. The dance is a product of it’s cultural backround and more than just steps. The importance of the cultural context is crucial for practitioners outside of Jamaica to understand, to give a fair image of the dance and showing respect back to the origins. Having knowledge and giving credit back to Jamaica and to the dancehallculture is a way to avoid appropriation.

This ethnographic study examines the relationships between cultural commodities and identity formation in a Jamaican rural locale. This study represents 24 months of participant observation, participant interviews and artifact analysis in St. Thomas, Jamaica. This study provides analytic descriptions of how identity development is experienced by youth in St. Thomas during the era of Gaza vs. Gully. Chapter one outlines the statement of the problem and the research questions. Chapter two frames the literature and theoretical frameworks utilized in the study. The methodology of the study and the case for the utilization of ethnography is explained in Chapter three. The social, cultural, and political context of St. Thomas as well as the Gaza vs. Gully era is discussed in Chapter four along with the introduction of the four main participants of the study. Chapter five utilizes examples and experiences from the lives of the four main participants to analyze the features of identity development in this specific “time and space”. Conclusions about and implications of the data from the participant observation presented will continue to be addressed in Chapter six. The study’s findings should interest anthropologists focused on popular culture, globalization, and development as well as educational researchers who seek to understand the role cultural commodities play in identity formation and the conceptualization of youth cultures. / Urban Education

Based on the author's Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references, discography, videography (p. 146-159) and index.

This thesis explores the interweaving of colonial and post-colonial British and Jamaican Laws and the interpretive legalities of sexuality, compulsory heterosexuality, and queerness. The research project begins by exploring the ways in which the gendered colonial law produces black sexualities as excessive and in need of discipline while also noticing how Caribbean peoples negotiate and subvert these legalities. The work then turns to dancehall and its enmeshment with landscape (which reflects theatre-in-the round and African spiritual ceremonies), psycho scape (which retains African uses of marronage and pageantry as personhood), and musicscape (which deploys homophobia to demand heterosexuality), in order to tease out the complexities of Caribbean sexualities and queer practices. I couple these legal narratives and geographies with interviews and ethnographic data and draw attention to the ways in which queer men inhabit the dancehall. I argue that queer men participate in a dancehall culture—one that is perceived as heterosexual and homophobic—undetected because of the over-arching (cultural and aesthetic) queerness of the space coupled with the de facto heterosexuality afforded all who ‘brave’ dancehall’s homophobia. Queer dancehall participants report that inhabiting this space involves the tactical deployment of (often non-sexual) heterosexual signifiers as well as queering the dancehall aesthetic by moving from margin to centre. In so doing, I argue, queer dancehall queers transition from unvisible (never seen but always invoked) to invisible (blending into the queered space) while also moving across and through, as well as calling into question, North American gay culture, queer liberalism, and identity politics. / Thesis (Master, Gender Studies) -- Queen's University, 2014-01-30 13:32:15.082

<p>Soundclash is a phenomenon where groups within the culture of reggae music “battle” against each other, through strategies including both music and rhetoric. The social interaction in the clash exemplifies the scene hierarchy, in which the participants aim to position themselves as number one. This study includes empirical material from a competition within the Swedish scene, also distributed digitally via Internet sites. The analysis is based on discursive psychology, focusing on rhetoric and the construction of meaning. The thesis emphasize how different truth claims are made, which relate to social positions as well as places within the international community.</p> / <p>Soundclash är ett fenomen där grupper inom reggaescenen tävlar mot varandra genom musik och retoriska strategier. I sina tal förs olika argument fram, vilka syftar att positionera grupper högst upp i scenens hierarki. Materialet utgörs av en svensk tävling inom detta fält, vilken även distribuerats i digital form genom Internet. Uppsatsen utgår från ett diskurspsykologiskt perspektiv, där språklig praktik och meningsskapande står i fokus. Uppsatsen visar hur olika anspråk görs, vilka relaterar till olika sociala positioneringar, likväl som till en plats inom en större internationell gemenskap.</p>

Soundclash is a phenomenon where groups within the culture of reggae music “battle” against each other, through strategies including both music and rhetoric. The social interaction in the clash exemplifies the scene hierarchy, in which the participants aim to position themselves as number one. This study includes empirical material from a competition within the Swedish scene, also distributed digitally via Internet sites. The analysis is based on discursive psychology, focusing on rhetoric and the construction of meaning. The thesis emphasize how different truth claims are made, which relate to social positions as well as places within the international community. / Soundclash är ett fenomen där grupper inom reggaescenen tävlar mot varandra genom musik och retoriska strategier. I sina tal förs olika argument fram, vilka syftar att positionera grupper högst upp i scenens hierarki. Materialet utgörs av en svensk tävling inom detta fält, vilken även distribuerats i digital form genom Internet. Uppsatsen utgår från ett diskurspsykologiskt perspektiv, där språklig praktik och meningsskapande står i fokus. Uppsatsen visar hur olika anspråk görs, vilka relaterar till olika sociala positioneringar, likväl som till en plats inom en större internationell gemenskap.