Consuming the Caribbean: From Arawaks to Zombies (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780415257602)

From sugar to indentured labourers, tobacco to reggae music, Europe and North America have been relentlessly consuming the Caribbean and its assets for the past five hundred years. In this fascinating book, Mimi Sheller explores this troublesome history, investigating the complex mobilities of producers and consumers, of material and cultural commodities, including:

• foodstuffs and stimulants - sugar, fruit, coffee and rum
• human bodies - slaves, indentured labourers and service workers
• cultural and knowledge products - texts, music, scientific collections and ethnology
• entire 'natures' and landscapes consumed by tourists as tropical paradise.

Consuming the Caribbean demonstrates how colonial exploitation of the Caribbean led directly to contemporary forms of consumption of the region and its products. It calls into question innocent indulgence in the pleasures of thoughtless consumption and calls for a global ethics of consumer responsibility.

Author: Mimi Sheller
ISBN-10: 0415257603
ISBN-13: 9780415257602
Publisher: Routledge
Language: English
Published: 02/27/2003
Pages: 264
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 9.06h x 6.40w x 0.49d

Review Citation(s):
Multicultural Review 12/01/2003 pg. 82
Choice 01/01/2004 pg. 953