DoingEthnography@sta

For my last assignment for Anthropology class, I interviewed an external source, who I will call Kora. My interview was based on our class discussions of family and kin to “make the familiar strange and the strange familiar.” Kora comes from a family of four, which includes her mother, father, and older brother, with whom she lived in Massachusetts, USA for most of her life. Like Kora, I am the youngest in my family. Kora now has a family of her own which also resembles this nuclear family structure. We shared similar ideas of family. For Kora, family is more of a feeling than a physical place—she had moved to many places before, but these were short-lived because they not make her feel happy or ‘homey.’ I can relate to this perspective as it was a major determinant in deciding where I wanted to pursue tertiary education. I opted to stay in Trinidad because I feared being too homesick. Outside of her immediate family, Kora expressed that she considers her fiancé’s parents and childhoo...

I have lived in Canada for 8 years. I have a citizenship. I prefer to speak and read in  English. I go to “Tim-Hor-Tnz” every morning. I say sorry for literally everything-there is  nothing more Canadian than that. But if you were to ask me where I am from, I would look you  in the eye and proudly tell you that I am Brazilian. That home is, and will always be there. I  cannot deny that Canada is a part of who I am. I made a life here. I have built routines and  relationships. I have learned its social and cultural norms. But I still feel that I don't belong.  People are cold and distant. They keep to themselves. They do everything in their power to avoid  eye contact with you on the subway. They nod or simply ignore you when you say “good  morning” or ask them how they are doing. Relationships feel shallow, superficial, transactional.  Friendships are built slowly, if not at all. I will never get used to that. Brazil was always a  commun...

Many people might experience the feeling of being trapped in the limited space where they were born and may desire to break out of it, to escape to the wider world and see what is out there. While talking to my peer, Paul, at another university we discussed what home and community mean to us. Despite living in different parts of the world, our experiences are similar because, we both grew up in close-knit communities where encountering someone new was rare. This is bitter-sweet because on one hand, Paul and I have both found amazing communities where trust, safety and dependability are core values. However, this can reinforce feelings of being stifled, a lack of new cultural experiences and perspectives which has led other members to leave in pursuit of the mystery of the unknown. These persons who dare to leave may look down on those who choose to stay in their original neighborhoods and may judge them for being stuck in old ways. Paul and I differ in how we have responded to this sha...

 As a study abroad student in Trinidad and Tobago, I wanted to understand the connection between livelihoods and sustainability among small farmers. One of the few things I knew about the country was that chocolate was made from a cacao plant called Trinitario. One of the things I knew less about was colonial plantation agriculture and its influences on present-day life. Historically, mass production on the West Indian sugar plantation altered the trajectory of modern capitalism, the food industry, and tastes on both sides of the Atlantic, as I read in Sidney Mintz’s Sweetness and Power . But there was also cocoa production that had taken place in Trinidad, which continues centuries later through the concerted efforts of local farmers. One of these local cocoa farms, Tamana Mountain Chocolate, is run by the Matthew family.  To better understand sustainable agriculture and explore the interrelationship between cocoa farmers and their local environment today, especially given th...

What are the linkages between human behaviors, transportation infrastructure, and climate change? What is black carbon? These are some of the questions that guided my mini-ethnographic project in Caribbean Anthropology. “Black carbon is formed by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood, and other fuels” (Climate & Clean Air Coalition 2020). Also known as soot, emissions of black carbon can contribute to climate warming, decrease of crop yields, and death of living organisms. Because I’m constantly on the road in Trinidad, driving my own vehicle, I had casually observed lots of exhaust from vehicles. I learned this exhaust can contain carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, among other greenhouse gases that can be damaging to the environment. I decided to do participant-observation with fellow drivers in Trinidad and Tobago (in person) as well as (virtually) in the neighboring island of Saint Lucia to consider how peak hour traffic contributed to emissions. Although thes...

When I was ten years old, I visited Matura Beach in northeast Trinidad with my family for turtle watching. While seeing the turtles up close was surreal, the experience stands out for another, more devastating reason. Our tour guide shared a story I remembered for years to come. She had rescued a turtle that had a plastic straw stuck inside its nose. The idea that one tiny plastic straw could cause so much harm to an animal gutted me. At the time, I found it disturbing, but I didn’t fully understand the severity of the situation. So, I continued using plastic straws, unaware of the larger impact. Now, at twenty, I understand the complex and troubling interconnections between plastic straws, human health, and marine ecosystems. This realisation motivated me to focus my anthropology project on the use of plastic straws, and their environmental and health impacts. My goal was to explore why, despite widespread awareness of their harmful effects, people still choose to use them. In my mini...