Changing Symbols of Indo-Caribbean Femininity

Abstract

Cultural differences determine an ethnic group’s expectations regarding women’s roles, as well as how the group is perceived outside the community. Over time there have emerged archetypes of femininity but these archetypes also undergo modifications with changes in technologies of production and ideas about gender equality. This essay engages some of the seminal ideas and texts that have shaped the symbols of Indo-Caribbean femininity, with specific reference to Trinidad. It examines how, from the earliest concept of the jehagin or the sisterhood of the boat which surfaced during the nineteenth century, to the more submissive concept of the dulahin, or the caste-centred one of maharajin,there emerged a changing set of symbols and ideas such as matikor and bindi that have currency today and whose meanings have complicated the simple stereotypes and apolitical notions once attached to Indo-Caribbean femininity