Most of Us are Family Some of the Time: Interracial Unions and Transracial Kinship in Eastern Trinidad

Abstract

In this article I explore naturalizing ideologies tied to Trinidadian conceptions of race by examining interracial unions and transracial kinship between Indians and Creoles in a community in eastern Trinidad. Such unions and kin ties are cultural resources used to make claims of similarity or difference. Ideas of race and kinship are based on cultural assumptions about biology; such claims are linked to these biological assumptions. As a result, Trinidadians are able to naturalize these claims strategically, although the interaction of cultural ideas of kinship and race impose a distinctive pattern on claims of similarity and difference. The differing affiliation patterns of Creoles and Indians play a role in determining the relative strength transracial kinship ties and consequent claims of similarity and difference. These patterns suggest that unions consisting of Creole women and Indian men provide the strongest foundation for the assertion of transracial similarities, [race relations, transracial kinship, interracial conjugal unions, Indians, Creoles, Trinidad)