Hosay Trinidad Muarram Performances In An Indocaribbean Diaspora Frank J Korom by Frank J. Korom 9780812236835, 0812236831 instant download after payment.

The multivocalic rite known as Hosay in the Caribbean developed out of
earlier practices originating in Iraq and Iran which diffused to
Trinidad by way of South Asian indentured laborers brought to the
Caribbean by the British from the mid-1800s to the early decades of the
twentieth century. The rituals are important as a Shi'i religious
observance, but they also are emblems of ethnic and national identity
for Indo-Trinidadians. Frank Korom investigates the essential role of
Hosay in the performance of multiple identities by historically and
ethnographically situating the event in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and
Caribbean contexts. Hosay Trinidad: Muharram Performances in an Indo-Caribbean Diaspora is the first detailed historical and ethnographic study of Islamic muharram rituals performed on the island of Trinidad.
Korom's
central argument is that the annual rite is a polyphonic discourse that
is best understood by employing multiple levels of interpretation. On
the symbolic level the observance provides esoteric meaning to a small
community of Indo-Trinidadian Muslims. On another level, it is perceived
to be representative of "transplanted" Indian culture as a whole.
Finally, the rituals are becoming emblematic of Trinidad's polyethnic
population. Addressing strategies used to resist integration and
assimilation, Hosay Trinidad is engaged with theories concerning
the notion of cultural creolization in the Caribbean as well as in the
general study of global diasporas.