Some anthropological musings on Creolization

This paper traces the move of the concept of “creolization” from thediscipline of linguistics to those of anthropology and history during thesecond half of the twentieth century, focusing on its uses in New Worldslavery studies. Two positions are contrasted in recent studies of NorthAmerican slavery, those of African-Centrists and those of creolists, withthe first stressing the continued importance of African heritage andidentities in the New World and the second emphasizing the newness of theinstitutions that enslaved Africans and their descendants created in theAmericas. Several exemplary studies of creolization in different parts ofthe Americas are reviewed. The paper suggests that ideology and subjectposition often drive historical analyses and that only stricthistoricization will permit further advances in understanding the complexprocesses that we call “creolization.”