The Creolization Reader: Studies in Mixed Identities and Cultures

Increasingly, ‘creolization’ is used to analyse ‘cultural complexity’, 'cosmopolitanism’,‘hybridity’, ‘syncretism’ and ‘mixture’, prominent and growing characteristics of the global age. The Creolization Reader captures all these meanings. Attention to the ‘creolizing world’ has enormous potential as a suggestive way of describing our complex world and the diverse societies in which we all now live. The Creolization Reader illuminates old creole societies and emerging cultures and identities in many parts of the world. Areas covered include Latin America, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, West, South and East Africa, the Pacific and the USA. Our authors provide an authoritative review, conspectus and critique of many aspects of creolization. This book is divided into five main sections covering the following key topics:

• concepts and Theories

• the Creolized World

• popular Culture

• kindred Concepts

• the Creolizing World

Each section begins with a brief introduction summarizing the key arguments of the contributors, while the editors provide a provocative and comprehensive introduction to the debates provoked by creolization theory. The Creolization Reader is multi-disciplinary and includes 28 readings and original contributions drawn mainly from history, sociology, development studies, anthropology and cultural studies.

Robin Cohen is Professor of Development Studies and Director of the International Migration Institute, University of Oxford. He has held teaching positions in six countries and published extensively on migration, diasporas and social identities. His work on creolization was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council Professorial Fellowship.

Paola Toninato is Research Fellow in Sociology and Italian Studies at the University of Warwick. She has a background in cultural anthropology and comparative literature, and is author of a number of relevant publications in the field of comparative cultural studies, migration and minority writing.