NÅR KULTUR SKAL „BEVARES" - perspektiver fra et vestindisk projekt

Resumé

Karen Fog Olwig: When culture is to be

„preserved“: perspectives from a West Indian

research project

At the same time as anthropology has begun

to apply a more processual perspective to the

study of culture as fluid and changing, many

of the „fourth world“ peoples studied by

anthropologists have become preoccupied

with codifying their culture in the form of

aboriginal, authentic traditions which can be

preserved from change. This concem with

cultural traditions is tied to the struggle for

human rights by indigenous people. The

concept of culture as unchanged traditions is

not only in conflict with current anthropological

thinking, it is also ill suited to the

struggles of peoples who cannot claim this

form of ancient indigenous status, but who

nevertheless share with „fourth world“

peoples the same need to defend their cultural

autonomy. Among this latter group is the

people of the Caribbean, who are indigenous

to Africa, but came to the islands as part of a

process of colonization. This article is based

upon a study of the difficulties faced by such

a non-indigenous, but nevertheless „native“

community of several centuries standing, in

their efforts to defend their cultural and economic

autonomy. In the West Indian case

modem anthropological theory and the population

studied by anthropologists need not

be in conflict.