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The Carib Community's effort in the way of "cultural retrieval", as President Bharath calls it, has been spearheaded by Cristo Adonis. Cristo represents and embodies an altogether new and internationalist thrust in the Carib Community, one that seems in tune with some contemporary developments in the global organization of aboriginal themes, issues and groups. Cristo represents the dimension that consists, as he described it to me, of an aboriginal spirituality, and an ecological and globalized sense of indigeneity. The tendency he represents does not concern itself with local preoccupations with "racial purity", nor is his tendency necessarily constrained to doing only what the ancestors were perceived as doing. While some aspects of Cristo's cultural practice focus on borrowing past practices, he is also aware of working within a framework that consists of the contemporary perceptions of those past practices. Cristo, while he cherishes the traditions that have survived, is also wont to learn new things, do new things, experiment, innovate and gain new knowledge, in his words--that is to say, to try to pick up where the ancestors left off, and thus move forward. His definition of "indigenous peoples" is not one based on classing people who are racially distinct, but rather those who are "Earth People": lovers of the earth, committed to maintaining nature's patrimony, feeling a close spiritual and emotional bond with the earth itself. Cristo has also been active in reinstituting what I call a "neo-Amerindian aesthetic": favouring designs of materials inspired by various Amerindian artistic styles and developing items of clothing more adapted to the environment that also celebrate an Amerindian vision. Some may wish to call this "invention"--in response to the idea that he has been inventing tradition, Cristo responded: "Well then you have to say that all culture, everywhere, is just as invented". The Smoke Ceremony, is just one example of an important ritual being developed by Trinidad's Caribs that plugs them into the world of internationalized indigeneity. The ceremony itself, held on whichever public occasion is deemed to be important, is not a private ritual. The President of the Carib Community points to the ritual as one that provides them with a religious space independent of the Catholic Church (especially important given the Church's increasing disinterest in facilitating a special and separate Carib ethnic presence in the Santa Rosa Festival). The Smoke Ceremony is designed as a series of offerings and invocations with the intent of praising the earth and protecting its spiritual and physical integrity, remembering the ancestors, blessing the families of the Caribs, and asking for the blessing and guidance of the "Great Spirit," who the specialists explain is merely what is otherwise called "God." Special prayers and offerings may even be made to St. Rose herself.
Incense is burned. Corn is offered to the fire. A feather is used to fan smoke to the male-only participants. Tobacco is burned and a cigar is smoked by the shaman who then puffs smoke toward the forwards of the participants. The shaman will also hold the heads of those he has participating and press his forehead into theirs and close his eyes. Cassava bread and water in a calabash are spatially and symbolically central features as well, in a ceremony that thus embraces the elements of earth, air, fire and water. The Carib participants carry special spears. Feather headpieces are worn, chests are bare, and loincloths are donned. Maracas are periodically shaken during the ceremony. Necklaces made of seashells and Job's Tears beads, made by Cristo and others, are also worn by the Carib participants. Lastly, four stones are placed around the fire, symbolizing the guardians of the Four Corners of the universe, usually seen as taking the form of different wild animals native to Trinidad. To the unknowing eye, all this may seem like a locally produced ritual. In actual fact, according to the relevant Carib specialists, some of the maracas are from Suriname; the feather headpieces were gifts of visiting delegations of Amerindians from Suriname and Taínos from New York City. The use of the cigar, and the subsequent development of a Cigar Ceremony, are acknowledged as adaptations of what they learned from a visiting delegation of Taínos. (Sometimes, Christian elements are present as in beginning and ending the ceremony by making the sign of the cross.) More importantly, however, is the source of the shaman's overall Amerindian knowledge and his larger repertoire of Amerindian and other Indigenous cultural items, which includes zemis from Puerto Rico, dream-catchers from North America, maracas from Mexico, a bull-roarer from Australia, and items of clothing from New York's resurgent Caribbean Amerindian groups. Cristo reads heavily, especially books by or about modern day American Indians of the U.S. provided by a close friend who lived in the U.S. for many years and spent much time on different reservations, as well as books on medicinal and shamanic traditions and rituals in South America. What Cristo and his associates involved in performing the Smoke Ceremony also mirror is a growing trend among people of mixed heritage who identify with an Amerindian ancestry to either alter their names or choose new ones (in the Carib Community there is thus already "Atékosang" and "Kapaupana") and a trend to develop traditional-looking wear, worn usually in special ceremonies, along with Amerindian-styled jewelry that is worn regularly. This reminds me of African American and Caribbean Muslim converts who will also adopt Arabic names, wear Middle Eastern-style clothing, or those involved in "Back to Africa" movements who adopt Yoruba and Ibo names and dress in West African traditional wear. This can, naturally, be viewed on different levels; my own tendency is to regard these manifestations as attempts to make clear and to make public a strong and radical identification with a cultural tradition or perceived culture area, often justified by the participants as a means of regaining a heritage that was bypassed or negated by colonialism. What these various items represent, in actual practice, is what I term the local-global continuum of indigeneity. It is not merely a question of simple importation and copying. Rather, specialists come together and confer, discuss each other's rituals and openly say that they will adopt and adapt this or that element if "deep inside" they believe it to be valid. The main framework for this "cultural interchange," as my informants name it, consists of international, regional and local indigenous gatherings that members of the Carib Community have participated in. The sources of the development of this ritual are in fact manifold. Some version of what might be called a smoke ceremony was part of the domestic religious rituals of many of the elders' families in the past, i.e.: burning incense in the home to cleanse it or to accompany the saying of prayers. The Velorio de la Cruz, held in May or October, also involved a private, domestic gathering of people to say prayers and burn incense. Some go further and suspect that there is "more to the mortar than the pestle": many Trinidadian observers of the smoke ceremony are astounded by how similar it is in form to ceremonies of the Shango/Orisha faith in Trinidad, which is of Yoruba origin. Others note the presence of certain elements one would find in a Hindu puja, such as the incorporation of cloth into the makeshift altar, or the burning of food as an offering, and the participants waving of smoke onto their faces. Some of these similarities can be accidental and/or a borrowing of elements present in the wider society. In fact, over the decades and centuries, Trinidad has indeed experienced many flows between cultural practices and this is not as surprising as it may seem, to the extent that people's observations of these groups' ceremonies are believed to be accurate. Thirdly, some of the development of the Smoke ritual is owing to the shaman's own admitted attempts to fill in gaps and to coherently organize what knowledge he did receive via the memories of elders. Fourth, in an attempt to further fill in gaps, the shaman, like others in the Carib Community, adheres to the principle of "cultural interchange" between Amerindian groups. This means that all surviving Amerindian cultural traits and practices spread across the Caribbean Basin are potentially those that once pertained to the Arima Carib's ancestors, thus the recovery of indigenous practices can be achieved by assuming the interchangeability of the various groups and thus the validity of each other's traditions. The modern and growing inter-Amerindian network in the Caribbean helps to underscore the perceived authenticity and validity of these newly redeveloped traditions, especially insofar as they are embraced by other Amerindian participants attending from neighbouring territories. Indeed, with reference to the Smoke Ceremony in particular, I have already examined well over a dozen articles in Trinidad's major daily newspapers over the last three years where correspondents unanimously hail the Smoke Ceremony as "a surviving ancient ritual," in its entirety. What I am not prepared to say here is whether this alone was the major intention of the shaman or of the Carib Community as a whole. Certainly "recognition" is a major aim of the group. I also notice a correspondence between greater media attention to the shaman and to his Smoke Ceremony and the growing interest by political and corporate figures in the activities and the "future" of the Carib Community. Trying to interpret the meaning and purpose of such a ritual and its elements is a much harder task. My own preliminary conclusion was that it represented an attempt at various things: 1. To get into "the spirit" and to learn to literally love the land and one's roots. Participants attest to experiencing altered states of consciousness during the Smoke Ceremony (without the use of hallucinogenic substances as in Amerindian rituals in other countries) 2. To find an independent religious ritual, free from the constant bargaining and friction that marks every year's Carib preparations for the Santa Rosa Festival, in a parish consisting overwhelmingly of non-Caribs. Interestingly, the parish priest and the Carib shaman in particular have had a warm and friendly relationship: the priest was made into an Honorary Carib by the shaman and the priest has also supplied Indigenous items from other countries to the shaman. One possible explanation is that both the Catholic priest and the shaman share a disinterest in continuing the organized Carib participation in a Catholic feast such as the Santa Rosa Festival, one that is not actually syncretic but is contested between the Caribs and the Catholic Church as a piece of cultural property. 3. To develop, simply put, more Indigenous "cultural stuff" that helps to further mark the identity of the group as Carib. And, 4. To have an operational platform for further integrating and exchanging with other Amerindians from neighbouring countries and from more distant places. The Smoke Ceremony continues to evolve (for lack of a better term). It is performed in different ways, in different settings, and even the main specialists in charge of the ceremony can shift. The ritual itself is very flexible in terms of both form and content. In performing the ritual, the ultimate quest is not one of gaining "cultural purity," but of doing something with one's culture to help foster community, different perspectives on nature and the cosmos, and to establish some degree of autonomy from reigning religious institutions. Understanding the reasons why all of this is sought is, of course, a far broader question and ultimately the one we should be seeking to answer. |
