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In the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, the father is stigmatized because he is often absent from the family structure. The possible reasons for his absence can be found in the Code Noir [Black Code] promulgated in 1685 in the French Caribbean colonies and in 1724 in Mauritius and Reunion. The Black Code is intended to regulate the lives of slaves in the colonies by monitoring their lifestyles, their religion (imposed Catholicism) and their status as commodities. More important, the legal document positions women at the head of the household by defining the legal status of children according to that of their mother, and subsequently denying the black man a role in the family except as procreator. Article XII of the Code stipulates that [c]hildren born in marriages between slaves will belong to the masters of the female slaves and not to those of the husband". As for article XIII, it claims that "[i]f the husband married a free woman, their children, boys and girls, will be free like her no matter the status of their father but if the father is free and the mother is a slave, the children will be slaves like their mother". Thus, it is because she is deprived of a spouse who is her equal that the black woman must occupy the two functions of both mother and father in the family. After the abolition of slavery, French colonial authorities called for cheap and abundant labor, coming mainly from India, to replace the former slave population on the plantations. The arrival of Indian indentured servants (called Coolies), initially hired for five years, transformed the existing social, cultural and economic structure of the islands because Indians replaced the former African slaves at the bottom of the social ladder. Consequently, like the former slaves of African descent, Indian laborers experienced a new language, a new land, new standards and more importantly, they were subjected to the laws of the Black Code that were not originally applicable to them, but still prevailed even after the abolition. Therefore, what I call a Black Code mentality, articulated in the passage from African slavery to Indian indentureship, is what determines the relationships between men and women, of both African and Indian origins. The mentality extends to the post-slavery, colonial and postcolonial situations of these societies of the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean, until today. The purpose of my dissertation is to examine the persistence of a widespread monoparental pattern in these regions as a logical consequence of the application of the 1685/1724 Code Noir. My thesis underscores the rearticulation and renegotiation of the role of the father, of African and Indian descent, in both his family structure and his community of origin, as a function that was codified, legitimized and predetermined by the Black Code. Besides, I contend that the ethnic, social and cultural components of these societies are, in many respects, relayed by social laws and decrees that have had a significant impact on family structures in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. Through the critical analysis of contemporary literatures and films from Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion and Mauritius, my thesis compares two different geographical areas that are legally connected by the Black Code during slavery and evolve, after the abolition, towards a different political status: Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion became French Overseas Departments in 1946 whereas Mauritius became independent in 1968. This comparison allows me to question four major critical concepts pertaining to postcolonial theory: Creolization, Creoleness, Indianness and Coolitude, as they relate to the identity politics of two populations present in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean: the African diaspora and the Indian diaspora.

Blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are among the most dominant and conspicuous insects in the decomposition process. They are important in forensic entomology to determine time of death and, in certain situations, cause of death or relocation of a body. Insects are now included as standard operating procedures in crime scene investigations in many countries, however, this is not standard procedure in the Caribbean area due to lack of knowledge of insects involved in cadaveric decomposition. Successful application of forensic entomology depends on solid underlying data. Our main goal is to advance the knowledge of Calliphoridae in the Caribbean to enable forensic entomology studies. We performed a mega-transect across the Caribbean and extensively collected flies attracted to rotten meat baits during five years from 2011 to 2015. Overall we collected 61,332 flies of which 34,650 were Calliphoridae. We sampled 16 of the 18 species of forensically important Caribbean Calliphoridae and three continental species. We determine the diversity and distribution of Calliphoridae in the Caribbean. We also present a thorough DNA barcode dataset, covering the geographic range of most species in the region. Finally we established phylogenetic relationships among Calliphoridae species and test biogeographical hypotheses, and patterns of diversification and endemism in the Caribbean. In sum, this is the most comprehensive study of the family Calliphoridae from the Caribbean that will open the door for future research on forensic entomology in the region.

A compendium of horizontality through the means of theory, facts, fictions, questions and other ruminations on the Caribbean and the diasporic experience.

This dissertation analyzes the Cuban intellectual discourse by way of the cultural policies (and politics) of the Revolution. It outlines its development not only through its historical dimension but also through the different stages towards the creation of the poetic canon during the 20th century and its subsequent interpretations in the light of the historical events after 1959. Above all, it addresses how the debate over the function of art and the political engagement of intellectuals has been paramount to the definition of an ethics and, even of a style. We have chosen for our study Cintio Vitier (1921) and Reina Maria Rodriguez (1952), two renowned poets who also represent two poetic groups in conflict at the very beginnings of the Cuban Revolution: Origenistas and Coloquialistas respectively. Their poetry and public lives show divergent personal trajectories that go from an immersion in the public sphere to a retreat into private space / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation is a comparative literary and cultural study that frames expressions of Cuban nationalism during the twentieth-century. The thesis analyzes representations pertaining to textual aesthetics that feature Havana as a centerpiece of Cuban-oriented cultural production. It juxtaposes the social-political interpretations found in a grouping of texts by relating the city capital to revolutionary ideology. By first focusing on the Republican era and later on the Revolution era, the thesis offers to examine how the urban realm of Havana is utilized as a mode that expresses the cultural evolution of Cuba during the last century. With the use of multinational texts within the print, film, and popular cultural genres, the dissertation argues for an evaluation of the ideological implications that arise within these cultural productions, while correlating them to an emerging global interest pertaining to things Cuban / acase@tulane.edu

The Rastafari have long transcended the place specificity that exclusively associated their movement with Jamaica following the earlier days of its inception in the 1930's and have envisioned themselves as a nation beyond national, linguistic, and cultural boundaries. They have crossed and challenged these boundaries by establishing extensive networks that form the essence of an ever-growing diaspora. This dissertation examines how, in recent years, the Rastafari have sought to organize, centralize, and formalize their movement by engaging in nation-building processes at both local and transnational levels. To analyze the dynamics at work, I look at the vision, practices, and endeavors put forth by the Solidarity Churchical Organization of St. Martin and argue that the congregation members' commitment to nation building and the ways in which they realize it are unique and pioneering amongst the Rastafari Using the performance of the Seven Sacraments and---most recently---a large-scale farming project as their vehicle to consolidate the Rastafari Nation and guarantee its perpetuation in future generations, Solidarity members' relentless engagement in nation building relies on the cohesive structure of their foundation and the services they provide at the local level. Outside of St. Martin, Solidarity's transnational involvement is facilitated by frequent travels and participation in international Rastafari organizations. Opportunities to encounter bredrins and sistrens from different countries and continents function to crystallize a sense of collective memory, communal values, and shared identity amongst the Rastafari. Yet they also embody many of the tensions that ensue from dissent regarding what defines Rastafari in terms of spiritual orientations, practices, as well as gender roles and race A crucial premise of this work is that, when applied to the Rastafari, notions of nation building and transnationalism do not contradict each other but rather coexist in new spaces of identity defined by changing human landscapes in which people seek to maintain connections and claims to identities beyond localized geographies / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

This thesis explores how the works of three contemporary women writers “write back” to the silences in the dominant historical narratives--made at various stages of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s notion of the production of history and in varying ways--surrounding the sexual lives of women of color in the Caribbean and how, in turn, each offers an alternative narrative of women’s history. Chapter 1 focuses on Edwidge Danticat’s novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994), a realist antiromance set in Haiti and the United States during the final years of the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc) in the 1980s. Chapter 2 examines Rosario Ferré’s novel, The House on the Lagoon (1995), an example of the genre of Latin American feminist historical fiction that follows the history of a Puerto Rican family on the island beginning with the transition from Spanish to U.S. occupation to the textual present (1898-1980s). Chapter 3 situates Andrea Levy’s novel, The Long Song (2010), a neo-slave narrative set in Jamaica in the years leading up to and following emancipation (1807-1898), alongside an original slave narrative, The History of Mary Prince (1831), that recounts Prince’s experiences as an enslaved woman in Bermuda and Antigua in the same era. Enlisting different literary genres, representing regions that are culturally and linguistically distinct, and narrating histories that are centuries apart, these novels certainly share as many differences as commonalities. Yet these differences, when read next to each other, further reveal a transnational interest among contemporary women writers, in the Caribbean and its diasporas, to contest dominant representations and silences of women’s sexuality in Caribbean history and to use fiction to offer an alternative version that spotlights the sexual lives of women. ​ / acase@tulane.edu

This study examines the works of contemporary writers (such as Pedro Verges, Junot Diaz, Maria Olinda Beja, Luis Rafael Sanchez and Manuel Ferreira) whose works intersect on the levels of ideology, narrative, and construction within the insular imagination. Encompassing the Atlantic island nations of Cape Verde, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Sao Tome e Principe, it argues that the insular subject, a victim and agent of our modern world contemporary Diaspora, is in a perpetual voyage toward a shifting identity. The project maintains that transit and migrancy, in our (Post)-Modern/(Post)-Colonial moment, erase and eradicate the subject's original identity, and impose a new 'indefinable' identity that is shadowed by loss, in a betweenness of place and being. The conceptual voyage of the subject's identity in modern migrancy maps out the migrant cycle that the subject undergoes: the relationship the subject develops with the insular space, the dislocation from place, the relocation of culture and place, and the attempt of a homecoming Based on the ideas that Benitez Rojo proposes in La isla que se repite, the existence of a shared experience among the many island nations of the Caribbean, particularly the colonial legacy, aids in effectively legitimizing the Atlantic cultural bridge. The repeated experience of colonialism that Benitez Rojo proposes as a link among Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico, allows the comparison with Portugal's colonial project while it ruled in Africa, and specifically in Cape Verde and Sao Tome e Principe. Thus, legitimizing the common experience of their transatlantic colonial past. Indeed, the Atlantic insular experience is based on repetition, and this project links the diasporic migration, represented in insular literature, to the present day status of these nations The conclusion argues in favor of a relationship among migrancy, (Post)Coloniality/(Post)Modernity and insular identity and creates a link between the repeating Atlantic colonial past and the current labor diasporas. It reiterates the creation of new hybrid identities, and the cultural role as a 'dangerous supplement' that migrancy plays in the modern proliferation of shifting identities / acase@tulane.edu