Greene - Ethnicity, Modernity, and Retention in the Garifuna Punta

"In the Lesser Antilles, geographic boundaries and the use of a common music, langugage, and cultural practices defined
the Garifuna Nation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. However, the Garifuna Nation of the postmodern world is
primarily defined by ancestral lineage, history, and the retention of shared practices and beliefs, although this rentention may
vary greatly from one geographic area to the next"(192)
The author argues that, in this diasporic context, punta and punta rock still act as media of ethnic identity despite the
changes in social context and environment.
- in this article, Garifuna ethnicity is read through punta and punta rock

Garinagus (garifunas) have realized that "culture sells". This has been important not only as a market that sells nationally
and internationally, but also as an element of cultural retrieval and survival, since garifuna communities in the USA are part
of their main public.

From its inception, punta rock was created to be a genre more amenable to the youth, and that was thus more effective for
cultural transmission and preservation of garifuna language and culture. This in a context in which migration to the us would
regularly trump generational cultural transmission

ETHNICITY AND GARIFUNA IDENTITY

Ethnicity
- quality of being or state of consciousness of a group of people who share a common way of life
- internally and externally adscribed (behague) [In this case, the author is interested in internal adscription]
- cultural identity is revealed when individual experiences, unique of a particular way of life, are shared with a group of
people. Ethnicity, then, is rooted in experience.
- ethnicity can also be identified in the recognition of idiosyncrasies collectively adscribed to a group of people. Certain
behaviors, such as "garifuna duo" (behaving like a garifuna), constitute idyosincratic ethnic markers.
- garifuna identity implies the collective expressions of African and Amerindian thoughts and structures. Here, African
American and Afro Caribbean expressions are felt by garifunas as related to their identity, in virtue of their African
descentness.
- punta and punta rock pro de a platform for the memory and expression of garifuna identity.

MODERNITY

Modernity
- changes in technology
- it's intellectual roots relate it to the shedding of tradition
For the garifuna
- continuum for social, economic and cultural change
- "As a metaphor for change, modernity functions as the catalyst and technolog- ical context in which cultural expression
through the medium of music is retooled and transformed, in short, "metamorphosized""(204)

"In short, modernity and punta exists simultane- ously as interrelated and interdependent continuums of technological and
musical transformation, with modernity serving as the catalyst for the transformation of punta, and punta serving as the
artistic medium through which the effects of modernity are evident"(205-206)

Punta and punta rock coexist because they appeal to different age groups and take place in different contexts. The
emergence of punta rock does not imply a replacement for punta. In this case, tradition is not shed, but instead transformed,
so its ideals can reach younger generations influenced by western culture.
Transformation of tradition is an important outcome of modernity in garifuna music, and probably one of the most important
processes of enculturation and preservation of this tradition.

The meanings about preservation, modernity and history are also emically define by communities. Modernization does not
have to always mean erasure of traditions.

Modernity has:
- allowed to use electric instruments in garifuna music
- increased the dissemination of garifuna music

Conclusion:
- punta, parranda and punta rock are linguistic and musical media of cultural identity among garifuna communites in Central
America and the USA.
- the use of language in this music has proved central to cultural preservation
- punta rock, as revitalization of garifuna traditional music, also represents the manteinance of garifuna music, even if this is
achieved in a "modern" way, contributing to connect the garifuna language and traditions with younger generations.