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Photographs included in the original manuscript have t)een reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI’ DECIPHERING THE ETHNICITY SYSTEM OF CAYO, BELIZE: AN EXPLORATION OF COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL DISCOURSE DATA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Lisa Suzanne Chiteji, B.A., M.A. The Ohio State University 2000 Dissertation Committee : Approved by Professor Emeritus, Erika Bourguignon, Adviser Professor Amy Shuman Adviser Anthropology Depart ent Professor Amy Zaharlick UMI Number. 9971529 UMI UMI Microform9971529 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT This document reports on a 1992-3 investigation of ethnicity in the multi-ethnic community (eleven ethnic groups) of San Ignacio, Belize (Central America). It focuses on three of the ethnic populations of that community: the Creole, Mestizo and white populations. Its research questions probe the definitional content and classification criteria of the ethnicity categories for these populations, as well as their structural characteristics. Two types of data are reported on - community and school data. Observation, participant-observâtion, and naturalistic audio and video recordings were used for both. For the former, interviews were also used. The findings of the investigation reveal the existence, in San Ignacio, Belize, of conflicting claims as to ethnic categories, definitions and classification criteria. The major conclusion of the research is that multiple systems of ethnicity - similar to Foucauldian discourses - exist in the San Ignacio Community. The structure and content of two of these ethnicity systems are reported and discussed within the dissertation document: a system promulgated by the central government of Belize, and one manifested within the ii nongovernmental, lay arenas of the society - itself consisting of an ethnic-group-centered subsystem (the composite of each ethnic group's self-definition, and definition of other ethnic groups) and a meta-ethnic-group (nongovernment) subsystem operating in such public realms as the economic sphere of societal life. The tentative, preliminary nature of both the findings and conclusions of the research are discussed and stressed within the document. Indeed, the entire investigation is defined as preliminary due to its status as a substitution project, resulting from a dissertation topic change. The origins of the topic change, occurring as a result of an unforeseen need to address a theoretically-prior research question (the current topic) prior to undertaking the original dissertation topic, are also discussed. I l l Dedicated to My Mother and to Ngina, Jotno and Yekuno-Aitilak Chiteji In Memory of Robert Paul Olda Johnson Georgia Ann Pobi Mwalimu Julius Nyerere IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Most of all, I acknowledge and thank my adviser. Dr. Erika Bourguignon, for intellectual guidance, patience and faith in me. I also wish to acknowledge the help of the other members of my dissertation committee: current members, Dr. Amy Zaharlick and Dr. Amy Shuman ; and past members, Ojo Arewa, John Messenger, John Stewart and Birch Moonwomon-Baird. I wish to explicitly mention one additional faculty member and one Ohio State University administrator who went out of their way to be helpful in the financial realm - Professor Chung-Min Chen and Dr. Sandra Stewart. My adviser also deserves recognition in this domain. I also acknowledge and thank all other Ohio State personnel who had a part in helping me complete my program. This includes the technical staff of the Center for Teaching Excellence who gave advice regarding audio and video equipment, and other technical aspects of my data collection pl a n . I acknowledge and express gratitude for the cooperation of governmental officials in Belize. At the Belizean Ministry of Education, I thank Educational Minister, Honorable Said Musa and members of his staff - at both the national and district levels. In Sêui Ignacio-Santa Elena, I thank Mayor Cano. I am also indebted to the officials at the school in which I collected data, and its affiliated church: Father Thomas, Father Ryan, and Mr. Parades. I cannot fail to mention the co-principals, teachers and students at Sacred Heart Primary School - especially those of the classes in which I carried out my observations. All the other people of Belize who contributed to my research, I also thank. This includes some who, sadly, have passed away (e.g., the first Belizean to befriend me, Ms. Agnes Lopez; and Ms. Bernice York) . It also includes, in Belize City, Dr. Joseph Palacio at the University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies, Belize Campus; Dr. Colvin Young, then head of the University College of Belize ; and individuals at Belize's Society for the Promotion of Education and Research (SPEAR). It also includes, in Belize City, Ms. Shelly Brown and family, and others from whom I obtained data. I thank, in Cayo, the Pastors (especially Carla, Georgia and Gregory) , eind the Augustines, among others. I also thank and never will forget all the children on my block : Lini and Mai ini who helped me lug my video equipment all over town, Natalie, Gene emd the others. I also acknowledge and thank the officials at Wichita State University who generously extended resources and services to me while I was a resident in Wichita, Kansas, during the post-fieldwork stage of my program. Those in the vi anthropology department, library, and Jabara Hall Computer Laboratory deserve special mention. Going beyond the call of duty were computer consultants, Mr. Thomas O. Page and Ms. Brenda F. Johnson of Wichita State’s University Computing Office. I also thank the English Department for its role in identifying transcribers for me, and thank those identified - Mrs. G. Gunlack and her daughter, Melissa. I would be negligent if I did not acknowledge the fellowship and grant programs which assisted me at different points along the way. A Committee for Institutional Cooperation (CIC), (Bloomington, Indiana) Fellowship funded the first four years of my graduate school program. A pre­ dissertation grant from CIC’s International Studies Fellows Program, together with a Tinker Foundation Travel Grant for Pre-Dissertation Research (granted me by The Ohio State University's Committee on Latin American Studies and its International Studies Program) funded a pre-dissertation research trip in 1990. An Ohio State University Alumni Research Grant and a Sigma Xi Research Grant partially funded the fieldwork. This included funding for the audio and video equipment used in the research. Grants from The Paul Bourguignon Fund of the anthropology department of The Ohio State University helped defray expenses connected with the periodic, post-fieldwork trips, from my residence in Kansas to the Columbus, Ohio campus, to confer VI1 with my committee. To the sponsors of these funds, the individuals leading me to them, and the individuals involved in disseminating them, I express gratitude. In closing, I wish to acknowledge the emotional and spiritual support given me by a close friend (now deceased), Mrs. Virgina Burmam. Last but not least, I acknowledge the never ceasing support of my immediate family, and express a special kind of gratitude to my late Great-Aunt Essie, mother, sister (Akilimali), daughter (Ngina) , and other members of my family who preceded me in obtaining graduate degrees. They served as special sources of inspiration and encouragement along the way. vxix VITA 1970 .......................... B.A. Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley 1985 ..........................M.A. Anthropology, The Ohio State University 1975-77 ...................... Lecturer, Institute for Development Management, Tanzania, Africa 1985-87 ...................... Graduate Teaching and Research Assistantships, The Ohio State University 1987-89 ...................... Graduate Teaching and Research Associateships, The Ohio State University 1988 ..........................Lecturer,