Examines three ‘cosmopolitan’ traditions in the Caribbean. While the first tradition derives from the universalist intellectual tradition of the European Enlightenment, the other two are linked to vernacular, local Caribbean traditions.
Argues that for a truly cosmopolitan anthropology to come about, we need to reflect critically on the conditions of our knowledge production. Using the example of women’s under-representation within anthropology, and the marginalization of the Caribbean, it is argued that we need to think more about the social ground beneath our feet and recognize the differential access that anthropologists across the globe and at home have to the ongoing larger conversation that constitutes the discipline.
