n this article, the author gives an overview of the central paradigms which organise the studies of black cultures in the New World, particularly from the Caribbean perspective. The field of anthropological and sociological research is described as structured by three dominant interpretations : continuity, creolization and alienation. Though this text is a description of afield of research, it purports to go further and analyze the way in which the traditionnal debate on black American cultures has recently been updated through the notion of "diaspora". Uses of the notion of diaspora, whether classical or postmodern, merely reformulate an established debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR];
