Ernest Taylor, 3rd year PhD student at Coventry University, discusses his research and findings so far regarding community culture and tourism development in Jamaica, including the use of Ethnographic research methods.

2. CCRI Winter School 2012
EXAMINING THE
ROLE OF CULTURE
IN THE
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT OF
RURAL COMMUNITY
TOURISM IN
JAMAICA
Ernest Taylor 3rd Year PhD

3. DISCUSSION: CONNECTEDNESS – LOCATING
VERTICAL/HORIZONTAL LINKAGES IN RURAL
JAMAICAN CULTURE
Team: Dr Marcella Daye, Dr Moya Kneafsey,
Professor Hazel Barrett

4. BACKGROUND
Research
Question: What is
the role of culture
in the sustainable
development of
rural community
tourism in
Jamaica?

5. Aim: Overall aim of this study is to examine the role of culture
in galvanising the sustainable development of rural community
tourism in Jamaica.

6. O
B
J
E
C
T
I
V
E
S
Assess to what extent local people
Examine the meanings are galvanised to capitalise on their
culture holds for rural tangible and intangible cultural
inhabitants and how they act heritage in pursuit of sustainable
towards these rural community tourism.
interpretations.

7. METHODOLOGY
Ethnographic
fieldwork
employing
participant
observation, semi-
structured and
focus group
interviews and
photographs.

8. DEFINING CULTURE
In this study culture is
taken to be ‘a product of
human interaction that can
galvanise social action by
drawing on intangible and
tangible cultural heritage,
present and past
experiences and
knowledge to sustain
human development and
existence’

9. Initial study focused on
four rural sites:
Beeston Spring –
situated close to major
resort; Seaford Town –
German heritage;
Charles Town -
indigenous Maroons
and Ambassabeth
Cabins – eco tourism.

10. THE MAROONS
• Maroons draw on their
African roots to make
sense of their realities,
sustain their existence
and as a source of pride
and empowerment.
• Accounts of Maroon
resistance against British
slavery and colonialism
is a key factor in their
story.

11. THE GERMANS
The Germans, who
arrived in 1835, are keen
to eschew allegiances to
Germany.
Instead, they assert their
‘Germaicaness’ as a mark
of solidarity with those of
African descent with who
they say their future lie.

12. DISCUSSION
Both Charles Town and Seaford Town suffer chronic social and
economic problems in terms of lack of education and poverty.
With unemployment above 50 per cent, particularly among
males, there is urgency for new income streams.

13. DISCUSSION
Both communities were deemed appropriate to answer the
research question, because the human element, tangible and
intangible, is the primary focus in their efforts to develop
sustainable rural community tourism initiatives

14. PRELIMINARY
FINDINGS
This focussed
attention on local
people’s way of life
– their culture: how
they make sense of
their existence and
the meanings these
interpretations hold
for them

15. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
• Dichotomy in how each
community approach the
commoditisation of their
culture in pursuit of
sustainable livelihoods.
• Maroons – exude great
pride in articulating their
culture and place great
significance on links with
their ancestors

16. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
‘We cannot separate
ourselves from our ancestors.
Cultural identity is who we
are. Cultural identity provides
you with an anchor of who
you are, and what then
should be guiding you in your
decisions,’ Frank Lumsden,
Colonel of the Charles Town
Maroons.

17. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
• The Germans on the other hand,
appear subdued, somewhat shy. They
maintain no links with their ancestors
nor express any real desire to do so.
• ‘It’s like the Germans were living in a remote, very remote place
like on top of a hill totally cut off … but you can’t live in
isolation, you must be part of a global network. They were a
little bit lost, they lost that richness of their culture,’ Rita, Non-
German member Seaford Town NGO.

18. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
‘Jamaican life is the only life I know. I noticed that the African
(descendants) always want to go back to Africa, but I don’t know
anything about Germany. It is my Motherland, but I don’t know
anything about it, and I have the sixth sense to tell me that if I stay
in Jamaica I will survive better,’ Delroy, age 70, 3rd generation
German descendant.

19. THEORETICAL UNDERPININGS
The symbiotic relationship between tourism and culture is well
documented. However, the contested and diverse nature of
culture, makes
understanding its role
in the sustainable
development of
rural community
tourism in Jamaica
complex.

20. THEORETICAL UNDERPININGS
Pinderhughes (1989: 6), a clinical
psychologist, suggests the ‘perspectives of
open systems’ as a way of understanding
culture. This approach takes account of
emotion and wellbeing, the individual, family,
subgroup, social system and geographical
setting. Ethnicity denotes ‘connectedness
based on commonalities’ (Pinderhughes 1989:
6)

21. CULTURAL LINKAGES
These notions of emotional
wellbeing and cultural
connectedness appear to resonate
in both Charles Town and Seaford
Town. In Charles Town they seem
to be represented vertically and
horizontally, external and internal
in that the Maroons maintain links
with their African ancestors
(vertical/internal) and

22. CULTURAL LINKAGES
with fellow Jamaicans both
nationally and locally
(horizontal/external). The
German descendants who
appear to have abandon all links
with the Motherland in embrace
of their ‘Germaicaness’, seem to
maintain only horizontal/external
linkages – national and local

23. CULTURAL LINKAGES
• Vertical connectedness refers to time, history, one’s continuity
and pre-conscious cultural patterns of emotion and behaviour
and horizontal is association with others who share similar
outlook and behaviour, a ‘bridge to all that is external’
(Pinderhughes 1989: 10).
• Maintaining ‘these vertical and horizontal linkages, cultural
identity guards against emotional cutoff from the past and
psychological abandonment in the present’ (Pinderhughes
1989: 10).

24. CULTURAL LINKAGES
• The Maroons appear to exhibit a ‘cultural sense of self’
and a ‘healthy self-esteem’, while the Germaicans seem
to be afflicted by emotional disconnect imbued with
impetuosity (Pinderhughes 1989: 10).
• The following comments give an example of this
disconnect and connectedness that is emerging from the
data:

25. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
‘Growing up I don’t hear much things about Germans. My father
did not mention much about Germans, even though he is of
German ancestor. I don’t, I don’t hear much, you understand
me? So, we don’t’ know what to, what to develop on or what to
pass on to my children, or my niece and nephew…I just a
Jamaican, basically. To me, it’s like it’s dying now, I don’t know
what to pass on. It’s not that I got it and then I didn’t pass it on.
The only culture I got is the normal ‘duppy’ story and slavery…,’
Marian, daughter of 3rd generation German descendant,
Seaford Town.

26. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
‘It is a great place just to come and free your mind and
dance out your life,’ Female Maroon dancer, commenting
on the Maroon’s Safu Yard.
‘If you are not clear about your own culture you will be affected
by foolishness,’ Col Lumsden, Charles Town.
‘There was a concern about the Maroon culture being lost
and we wanted something to pass on to our children and
grandchildren – that was one of our main objectives,’
Sharon, a Maroon Elder on establishing the Charles Town
Maroon Council.

27. PRELIMINARY CONCLUSION
•The vertical/horizontal framework in some way helps to explain
the relationship between cultural identity/connectedness and
situatedness.
•The significance of this on establishing the role of culture in the
sustainable development of rural community tourism in Jamaica
is that culture is a potent resource for tourism development and
understanding how these processes interact may help shed light
on why some communities are more galvanised in utilising their
cultural heritage than others.