the parish behind god's back

I just finished reading The Parish Behind God's Back : The Changing Culture of Rural Barbados, a book about life in (as you can guess from the title) rural Barbados, specifically life in St. Lucy, Barbados' northernmost parish.  Written by American anthropologists George Gmelch and Sharon Bonn Gmelch from Union College, the book was written partly to fill the need for "an up-to-date ethnography of an eastern Caribbean culture" for students in the authors' anthropology courses.  The Gmelches have brought students to Barbados since 1983 (I'm not sure if the trips continue today), they've stayed with host families in St. Lucy and other northern parishes, and the book draws extensively on their experiences and research during these field trips.

The book has been praised as "sensitive", "appreciative", "lively" and "well-written"; and in my view, these accolades are well-deserved.  What I liked the most about the book is that it portrayed a Barbados I could recognise as the island I live on, not a Barbados as perceived by a couple of foreigners from a university in the States. It doesn't portray Barbados, or Barbadians, as exotic or backward or foreign.  The Gmelches take the country and the people on their own terms and write about them with respect, with affection, with honesty.  And the book they've produced is a good one, very accessible and highly readable.  Even the appendix and the annotations at the end are interesting.

The Gmelches, George in particular, have written several other articles and books about Barbados and Barbadians, among them Double Passage : The Lives of Caribbean Migrants Abroad and Back Home and, more recently, Behind the Smile : The Working Lives of Caribbean Tourism, both of which have already been added to my (ever-expanding!) Amazon wishlist.

(Cross-posted at gallimaufry.)

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