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

George Gmelch (Author), Sharon Bohn Gmelch (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1577662091 | ISBN-13: 978-1577662099 | Publication Date: September 2001

In the eastern Caribbean the expression "behind God's back" refers to a place that is remote or far away. In this book, the authors look at the changing face of village life in St. Lucy, Barbados' northern and most rural parish. What they find are people whose lives are fully connected to the outside world. One of the first things any visitor to the island notices are youths in baseball caps and T-shirts sporting the names and logos of American teams. Switching on the television, it is easier to find an American sitcom than a Caribbean program. In conversation, it soon becomes apparent that nearly every villager has a relative living overseas and that many have themselves traveled to New York, Toronto, and London. And all Barbadians are aware that the health of their economy depends on decisions made beyond their shores. The Parish Behind God's Back is informed by the authors' research and experiences directing an anthropology field school in Barbados since 1983. The book begins with an introduction to the island and parish, followed by history and macrolevel description of the island economy, before turning to the local scene--patterns of work, gender relations, lifecycle, community, and religion. The perspective then widens to look at the global forces that most directly affect local people's lives--television, tourism, and travel. An appendix describes how North American college students were changed by living in St. Lucy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Parish behind God's Back is a live tableau of a complete island society, throbbing often with its frustrated hopes and always with a total awareness of its position in time and space. -- John Wickham, former Barbadian senator and columnist for The Nation --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

"Beautifully written, this book deals with all the big issues of our time--slavery, colonialism, migration, tourism, and globalization." -- Robin Isserles (City University of New York)

"A sensitively written account of modern rural Barbados . . . that places the local community within historical as well as national and international contexts." -- Jerome S. Handler (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities)

"Besides being lively and well-rounded, The Parish makes strategic use of comparisons to U.S. culture so that students are also learning about themselves. . . . It presents an excellent frame of reference for considering the costs as well as the benefits of modernization, U.S. style." -- Katherine Browne (Colorado State University)

"Provocative. A path-breaking study of a rural parish in which the authors have expertly distilled the essence of Barbadian life." -- Trevor Marshall (University of the West Indies)

" . . . a live tableau of a complete island society, throbbing often with its frustrated hopes and always with a total awareness of its position in time and space." -- John Wickham, former Barbadian senator and columnist for The Nation

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Waveland Press Inc. (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1577662091
• ISBN-13: 978-1577662099
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #594,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Travel > Caribbean > Barbados & Trinidad and Tobago

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written, readable ethnographic account of Barbados, August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Parish behind God's Back: The Changing Culture of Rural Barbados (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent depiction of life in rural Barbados., May 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Parish behind God's Back: The Changing Culture of Rural Barbados (Paperback)

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."

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding portrait of a rural community, July 30, 2010

By 

W. Wedenoja (Springfield, MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing of Rural Barbados (Paperback)

The purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive ethnographic account of one rural community in the small island nation of Barbados. The intended audience is undergraduate students studying anthropology, therefore it is primarily descriptive, atheoretical, and written in a simple, straight-forward manner. The author begins with a historical overview, one theme being change over time. The second chapter, for example, discusses the demise of the sugar industry, the raison d'etre of the colony, and its recent replacement by tourism. The book very effectively personalizes life in the community by including portraits of individuals, particularly in chapter four. The next chapter is quite appropriately devoted to gender and the life cycle, the relationship between men and women being a key interest of scholars in the Caribbean in recent years. The remainder of the book (almost half) is devoted to a discussion of changes in the community, including the introduction of piped water and its effects, indoor plumbing, kerosene and later propane stoves, ovens, electricity, television, telephones,tourism, and emigration. The book is also effective in placing Barbados within the content of 'the world system'. I found it to be a very easy, pleasant and informative read, suitable for most any reader with an interest in anthropology, social change, globalization, ethnography, or, of course, Barbados and the English-speaking Caribbean. I assigned it for a class on the Caribbean and would use it again, although some students found it dull.