Cultural Power, Resistance, and Pluralism : Colonial Guyana, 1838-1900

Focusing on the critical years after the abolition of slavery in Guyana (1838-1900), Brian Moore examines the dynamic interplay between diverse cultures and the impact of these complex relationships on the development and structure of a colonial multiracial society.

Drawing on a wide range of historical, sociological, and anthropological theory and data, Moore describes and analyses the institutions, customs, and beliefs of Afro-Creole, Indian Bhojpuri, Portuguese Latin, Chinese Hua-Qiao, and Victorian élite subcultures that make up Guyanese society. He looks at the way British colonizers used their power to transform and submerge the cultures of other ethnic groups and establish their own cultural model as dominant, and he examines the efforts of the diverse subordinate groups to resist such cultural imperialism and retain aspects of their own traditional cultures. Moore argues that it is the intricate interplay of these conflicting and competing forces that determined the extent of sociocultural integration or pluralism that the society as a whole achieved. Cultural Power, Resistance, and Pluralism makes a significant contribution to Caribbean historiography and the study of multiracial societies.