"The Caribbean as a Socio-Cultural Area": to think our Caribbean

Abstract

This preliminary essay introduces the Spanish translation of "The Caribbean as a Socio-cultural Area", a major article by Sidney W. Mintz published a half-century ago. In "The Caribbean…", Mintz questions the usual emphasis on the cultural (linguistic, political, racial and religious) diversity of the Caribbean. He conceptualizes culture itself as a historical process and the Caribbean as a distinct societal or sociocultural area with a history of its own vis a vis the continental Americas. An important dimension of the Caribbean is its trajectory as an old colonial region that is also an integral part of the history of the West, and which underwent an early modernity that resulted in historic backwardness. Mintz concludes that the Caribbean has been a cornerstone of the very configuration of the West, a key to the rise of global capitalism, and a hothouse of modernity. "The Caribbean ..." is not as well-known as it should be, in contrast with the importance that many scholars attach to the article.