Anthropologist Richard Price's book of anthro-history from
the Caribbean, is an engaging read for scholars and
anyone
interested in both history and the present day
activities
in the West Indies. It seemed both a memoir of the
author's own personal relationship/love affair with
Martinique as well as a
discovery of the Island's own "cultural memory," its
relationship to its
present as well as its colonial past. The structure of
the
book was incredibly
effective. Price went back and forth between personal
reminisces, testimony,
interviews, and original documents. The reader
discovers
who Medard was, the
story of his life, and the "facts" surrounding the
events
of Coppens' murder
and La guerre du Diamont, before she learns of
Martinique's
own (self-willed
and state-willed) amnesia over such characters and
events.
In this way, we find
the answers before we know the questions. We are
enveloped
in the harsh world
of La Bagne and life under the Vichy-run colonial
caribbean
before we discover
the importance of "collective memory" over "fact."
Richard
Price illustrates,
with sensitivity and understanding, the difficulty of
writing a "history,"
while making me aware of the presence of "the cross-
fertilization of
histories."
Price gives many examples showing diverging opinions
of
the truth in
relationship to Martinique's past and present.
During
his
split testimony of
the events surrounding The War of Diamont, we see both
the
left and the right's
opinions of the event. This display of the dichotomy
over
truth versus
falsehood reappears throughout the book. The most
ironic
display of this occurs
during the modern government's use of "commercialized
folklore" (pg. 180). The
modern regime's refusal to acknowledge the existance of
traditional working
tools illustrates their view of the past in relation to
their modern cultural
identity. This discomfort over identity brings into
question the ruling body's
(the mayor, etc...) classification of Martinique and
the
common citizen's view
of its culture. How we view our country may not be the
same
as how the people
in the public eye view it. Moreover, how we wish to
consider ourselves may be
different from how we are. All of these alternative
view
points of cultural
identity also make up the common histories of our
society:
of our past and our
present.