The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing of Rural Barbados

by George Gmelch, Sharon Bohm Gmelch, Sharon Bohn Gmelch

Book Overview

One of the first things any visitor to Barbados notices is Barbadian youths wearing baseball caps and T-shirts sporting the logos of North American teams; and these days, one is more likely to find an American sitcom on television than a Caribbean program. The Parish behind God's Back describes the social fabric and everyday life of one rural parish on the island, St. Lucy, including its many links to the outside world. It is a contemporary ethnography...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1577662091
• ISBN13: 9781577662099
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Waveland Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Well written, readable ethnographic account of Barbados

Excellent ethnography of the the changes that have been occurring in Barbados since the arrival of Europeans and Africans. The Gmelches take students to the island for a semester every other year so they can learn how to do ethnographic research in cultural anthropology. They are placed in Bajian homes and live there for ten weeks. The book is well informed by the students' perspectives. They help us all see what this island is like and what the life of the islanders has become in the light of tourism development on the island. The Gmelches write well and the book is easy to read and very informative. I have made the book a required text in one of my university, introductory anthropology courses.

An excellent depiction of life in rural Barbados.

The Gmelch's have, for many years, taken mostly white, middle-class, students from the USA to spend a college term living in rural St. Lucy Parish, Barbados. "The Parish Behind God's Back" presents a highly readable, appreciative, ethnographic account of contemporary village life gleaned from the Gmelch's own field work and that of their students. This book makes a very strong case for the value of study abroad schemes as it lets readers understand much about the process by which students gain insights into themselves and their own cultures while learning to live among strangers. This book is an enjoyable read and highly informative. I have adopted it as a mandatory reading for my university course "Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean."