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Suriname has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

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This Book Is In Dutch. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1249 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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This Book Is In Dutch. ... Read more

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This Book Is In Dutch. ... Read more

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People from the Bhojpur region (Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) in India were recruited around 1900 to work on overseas plantation colonies. This fascinating study shows why they left and how they kept certain aspects of their culture alive for generations. So deeply rooted was this culture, that even today it is extant among Hindustani in Suriname and The Netherlands.

This book is the result of the Bidesia Project, a joint project from the GB Pant Social Science Institute (GBPSSI) in Allahabad, India; the IMWO, Anton de Kom Universiteit, Suriname; and Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam.

Contributors: Badri Narayan Tiwari and Nivedita Singh (India), Narinder Mohkamsing, Elizabeth Mohkamsing-den Boer, Sahiensha Ramdas and Maurits Hassankhan (Suriname), and Chitra Gajadin (the Netherlands). ... Read more

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In the early 18th century, the Dutch colony of Suriname was the envy of all others in the Americas. There, seven hundred Europeans lived off the labor of over four thousand enslaved Africans. Owned by men hell-bent for quick prosperity, the rich plantations on the Suriname river became known for their heights of planter comfort and opulence -- and for their depths of slave misery. Slaves who tried to escape were hunted by the planter militia. If found they were publicly tortured. (A common punishment was for the Achilles tendon to be removed for a first offense, the right leg amputated for a second.) Resisting this cruelty first in small numbers, then in an ever increasing torrent, slaves began to form outlaw communities until nearly one out of every ten Africans in Suriname was helping to build rebel villages in the jungle.

Alabi's World relates the history of a nation founded by escaped slaves deep in the Latin American rain forest. It tells of the black men and women's bloody battles for independence, their uneasy truce with the colonial government, and the attempt of their great leader, Alabi, to reconcile his people with white law and a white God. In a unique historical experiment, Richard Price presents this history by weaving together four voices: the vivid historical accounts related by the slaves' descendants, largely those of Alabi's own villagers, the Saramaka; the reports of the often exasperated colonial officials sent to control the slave communities; the otherworldly diaries of the German Moravian missionaries determined to convert the heathen masses; and the historian's own, mediating voice.

The Saramaka voices in these pages recall a world of powerful spirits -- called obia's -- and renowned heroes, great celebrations and fierce blood-feuds. They also recall, with unconcealed relish, successes in confounding the colonial officials and in bending the treaty to the benefit of their own people. From the opposite side of the negotiations, the colonial Postholders speak of the futility of trying to hold the village leaders to their vow to return any further runaway slaves. Equally frustrated, the Moravian missionaries describe the rigors of their proselytising efforts in the black villages -- places of licentiousness and idol-worship that seemed to be "a foretaste of what hell must be like." Among their only zealous converts was Alabi, who stood nearly alone in his attempts to bridge the cultural gap between black and white -- defiantly working to lead his people on the path toward harmony with their former enemies.

From the confluence of these voices -- set throughout the book in four different typefaces -- Price creates a fully nuanced portrait of the collision of cultures. It is a confrontation, he suggests, that was enacted thousands of times across the slaveholding Americas as white men strained to suppress black culture and blacks resisted -- determined to preserve their heritage and beliefs.

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A thorough account of the events surrounding Saramaka life
"Alabi's World" is thorough (some note about that, later), captivating, and educational.To go to the cliche': "I have not been able to put the book down."I must qualify this by saying that my roots are from Suriname and therefore I have much interest in the material because of my familiarity with the settings.However, anyone interested in colonial history, African history as it pertains to the Western Hemisphere (slavery, slave rebellion, African customs of Maroons), will be thoroughly enlightened by the accounts charted in this book from the 4 perspectives listed above.

Richard Price has painstakingly arranged his research in such a matter that you get 4 different perspectives of life in Saramaka (Maroon colony located in the interior of Suriname): German Moravian (religious sect), Dutch Colonist, Saramaka, and his own.It is neatly arranged so that the information flows like a captivating story in which you follow these historical characters and get caught up in their lives, motivations, changes...

Because he has made one character the focal point, you get a more centralized view of what it was like in 18th century colonial Suriname and you can take away more detail from these individualized accounts.

I have discovered a great source for Maroon history in Suriname and will be seeking out all of Richard Price's titles to get the complete story about the Maroons. ... Read more

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Explores the world of the Saramaka Maroons of Suriname and the status of women as reflected in social structure and art
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Art and anthropology
This book is an anthropological investigation of art forms of the Saramakas of Suriname.The Saramakas are a particularly interesting group to study.They are a tribal people living in the Suriname rainforest with relatively few trappings of modern global culture. Yet, their culture, like that of the United States, Israel, or New Zealand, is a recent creation of immigrants from heterogeneous sources brought together in a new land.The Saramakas call themselves "Bush Negroes" and are descendants of slaves who mutinied and led an independent existence in the mountain region of Suriname for centuries.The original Saramakans came from many tribes across several regions of Africa.As described here, they have developed a culture (and language) that displays strong connections to African traditions, but also includes significant Portuguese, Native American, and Dutch elements.

The first part of the book explains the structure of Saramakan society, the family structure, and the roles of women and men.Price turns her attention next to the patterns of exchange in the culture.She describes how the practices of giving and receiving between men and women, while reciprocal, are very unequal because of the structure of society and the unbalanced gender ratio in the Saramakan lands.Men are frequently absent for long periods of time while they work for cash on the coast.As a result, women greatly outnumber the men and as expected, polygamy is practiced.Because of their greater access to resources, men are able to give valuable gifts to their wives which are vital for the wives' sustenance.In contrast, the gifts that women give their husbands in return are appreciated but not at all necessary for the husbands' continued existence.Indeed, many of the gifts from the wives are immediately packed away in trunks and never even used by the men.

The last part of the book is a detailed examination of the arts, particularly those practiced by women, in Saramakan culture.The most well-known art of the Saramakans are wood carvings done by men.Here Price describes the art created by women, carved calabash bowls and clothing.She details the materials and patterns used, the methods and terminology, and how these have changed over generations.This section of the book is exceptionally well illustrated with black-and-white photographs and diagrams of examples of the art work.The book concludes with a chapter on songs as an expression of Saramakan culture, and a short exploration into the relationship between the structure of a society and how it is played out in the arts.It is this very last section that is truly the most interesting part of the book.I, myself, don't have an artistic bent, and much of the detailed description of Saramakan textile art went way over my head. But as Price drew the details from the two parts of the book together in her conclusion, I finally began to understand the scope of her work and its implications.It leads to some exciting possibilities for re-examining the art of many more cultures.
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Gloria Wekker analyzes the phenomenon ofmati work, an old practice among Afro-Surinamese working-class women in which marriage is rejected in favor of male and female sexual partners. Wekker vividly describes the lives of these women, who prefer to create alternative families of kin, lovers, and children, and gives a fascinating account of women's sexuality that is not limited to either heterosexuality or same-sex sexuality. She offers new perspectives on the lives of Caribbean women, transnational gay and lesbian movements, and an Afro-Surinamese tradition that challenges conventional Western notions of marriage, gender, identity, and desire. Bringing these women's voices to the forefront, she offers an extensive and groundbreaking analysis of the unique historical, religious, psychological, economic, linguistic, cultural, and political forces that have shaped their lives.

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Simply Excellent!
This book is an excellent blend of anthropology, ethnic studies, women's studies, gay studies, and postcolonial studies.Progressives bemoan studies that fail to consider race, class, gender, and sexuality together; well, this is an important intervention in that dearth of material.For those who do not understand the difference between essentialism and constructionism, this will make you understand.

Professor Griff, Winnie Mandela, Robert Mugabe and so many others make false claims that Africa had no homosexuality until Europeans intervened.Dr. Wekker disproves that by showing how Surinamese mati are influenced greatly by West African religion and principles.You could almost say this is an Afrocentric support of Blacks in same-sex romantic relationships.This is a book that Black gay male and lesbian activists all over the Diaspora need to own and read.Some may want to read this book along side "African Homosexualities."

When quoting informants, Dr. Wekker uses their actual Surinamese language and then translates it into English.For polyglots and those familiar with the Dutch-speaking world, this may be informative.However, there is a way that it just takes up space.This book would have been 50 pages shorter without it.Perhaps, Dr. Wekker wants readers to inhabit multilingual terrains, as Gloria Anzaldua did.Still, I think readers like me who don't understand any form or Dutch will skip through a lot.I did love some of the colorful idioms and phrases here.One Surinamese woman says, "Only god knows why he didn't give the horse horns."I'm still trying to find a way to use that phrase in 21st-century America!(By the way, the author writes in American English, rather than British English.)

Dr. Wekker tries to "keep it real."She stands against bourgeois posing intended to impress elite audiences.Still, there is a way that this book makes us Black people look bad.The book is filled with violence, sexual promiscuity, womanizing from either gender, disparagement of marriage, and other things that some may find objectionable.I do worry about what would happen if this book gets into the wrong people's hands.

You can see and hear the author in a documentary called "Middle Sexes" narrated by Gore Vidal.As women's studies departments become gender studies departments, readers may want to peruse this alongside Bana-Shute's book on Surinamese men. ... Read more

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The Javanese in Suriname is a study of ethnicityand culture among the Javanese of Suriname.Suriname, a former DutchColony in South America, is home to the largest overseas Javanesepopulation.Professor Suparlan describes the ways in which Javaneseculture has adapted in a complex multi-ethnic society which includesSouth Asians, Africans, Europeans, and Creoles as well as Javanese. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed., brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 964 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The Early Civilizations in the Americas Reference Library provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the regions of the American continents in which two of the world's first civilizations developed: Mesoamerica (the name for the lands in which ancient civilizations arose in Central America and Mexico) and the Andes Mountains region of South America (in present-day Peru and parts of Bolivia, northern Argentina, and Ecuador). In both regions, the history of civilization goes back thousands of years. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed., brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 506 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The Early Civilizations in the Americas Reference Library provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the regions of the American continents in which two of the world's first civilizations developed: Mesoamerica (the name for the lands in which ancient civilizations arose in Central America and Mexico) and the Andes Mountains region of South America (in present-day Peru and parts of Bolivia, northern Argentina, and Ecuador). In both regions, the history of civilization goes back thousands of years. ... Read more