Noticias y eventos • News and Events • Nouvelles et événements

Valuable collection of Caribbean maps available in York Library

Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) Fellow and FES/Geography Professor Emeritus William C. Found donated in 2011 a valuable collection of 141 historical maps and prints to the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections of York University. The collection includes facsimiles, photographic copies and photocopies of original maps and prints. Accompanying the collection are detailed descriptions of each map or print, a thumbnail image, and sources where researchers can obtain their own personal copies. The original maps and prints date as far back as the sixteenth-century. Collecting the maps has taken Prof. Found to dozen of libraries and research centres all over the world, some in different Caribbean islands, and many in Europe and North America. The geographical and linguistic coverage of the collection is remarkable; it contains information on the British, Danish, Dutch, French, Spanish and Swedish Caribbean colonies. The collection largely comprises single maps and charts of one island—for example, Antigua, Cuba, or Martinique—but also includes several surveys undertaken in the slavery period such as “A Plan of Redberry Plantation” (1803) located in the parish of Clarendon in the island of Jamaica. Several maps and prints depict more than one island. For example, “Hispaniolae, Cubae, Aliarumque Insularum Circumiacientum, Delineatio” (1588) is considered to be one of the earliest maps depicting the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico). The collection also boasts excellent engravings that capture marine life, port towns, and the unique topography of the Caribbean world. This historical collection is an invaluable resource for the York University community and visiting researchers. The Clara Thomas Archives is located in room 305 of Scott Library on York University Keele Company. Telephone (416) 736-5442, <archives@yorku.edu>. (Information courtesy of York University’s CERLAC News & Events)

New book explores what is to be gay or queen in Barbados

In his new book, David A.B. Murray (CERLAC Fellow, associate professor of Anthropology, and member of the Sexuality Studies Program at York University) explores public discourses focusing on homosexuality and the everyday lives of gay men and ‘queens’ in contemporary Barbados. His study unravels the complex historical, social, political, and economic forces through which same-sex desire, identity, and prejudice are produced and valued in this Caribbean nation-state. Illustrating the influence of both Euro-American and regional gender and sexual politics on sexual diversity in Barbados, Flaming Souls: Homosexuality, Homophobia, and Social Change in Barbados (University of Toronto Press, 2012) makes an important contribution to queer studies and the anthropology of sexualities. (Information courtesy of York University’s CERLAC News & Events)

Exhibition: “Guaca: A Visit to Puerto Rico’s Indigenous Past” Museum of History, Anthropology and Art University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras July 18-December 15, 2013

The Guaca exhibition presents Puerto Rico’s archaic culture through its technology, which is discernible through tools carved from stone and shell, which were used for survival—utilized as crushers, choppers, and hammers—as well as for ceremonial purposes. Guaca explores the many types of Native American cultures found in Puerto Rico, some of which were present on other islands of the Caribbean: the Huecoid culture, the Saladoid culture, the local Ostiones, and the Taíno culture. Among the most impressive pieces of the exhibition are the “lithic rings,” which are one of the most representative examples of indigenous polished stone technology in Puerto Rico. Visitors can see the famous cemíes, considered possesions denoting privilege and high social status in the hierarchy of Taíno culture, and the dujos, small seats or benches that were reserved for prominent people such as chiefs and shamans. (Information courtesy of Repeating Islands blog)

Art Exhibition: “Introspectiva simbólica” Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR) From August 23

Puerto Rican artist, writer, art theorist, and former political prisoner Elizam Escobar (1948) is presenting 35 years of creative work in his retrospective exhibition, “Introspectiva simbólica.” The exhibition consists of 81 paintings, mostly large format, and other pieces in mixed media. (Information courtesy of Repeating Islands blog)

Institute of Caribbean Studies...