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St. Croix and Hurricane Hugo: A case study of tourism dependence, brute destruction, and civil unrest from a communication perspective
Abstract
This case study encompasses the issues of cultural difference, moral orders, and the public and private accounts of the conflicted patterns of interaction that occur when differing, often incommensurable, ways of being human and living a life of dignity and honor are not rendered comparable. Instead, these ways of being in the world promote and privilege a type of "us and them" $\...$ "we're right and you're wrong" diatribe that (re)creates and increases the socio-cultural tensions on the island of St. Croix. The focus of this research was on the narratives about the patterns of interactions between "Locals" (Black/Crucian men and women) and "Expatriates" (White men and women); "Relief workers" (White/"Off-Islander" men) and "Islanders" (both "Locals" and "Expatriates"); and, most importantly, between "Local" (Black/Crucian) men and women and how these practices are associated with tourism and the racial/social/political tensions on the island. Narrative data obtained through field interviews with people who live on or are presently working on St. Croix were analyzed by interpreting the data in light of Pearce and Cronen's (1980) CMM conversational model of analysis. CMM helped me to look at the narratives about communication practices in which people (re)create, manage, and transform social reality and to interpret how these discursive practices (re)create problematic ways of living. CMM also provided a way of describing how some people where "stuck" in their conflict or were able to reframe their situation to break free from the conflict. This way of interpreting narrative data illuminated the dual and sometimes triple cultural patterns and associated lifestyles, social class, and relationships that the Black Crucian men and women have to make sense of in the living of their lives. Without CMM analysis of the data, the distinctions between the "us and them" relationships would not have been identified nor would the gender related issues of black Crucian men and women have been associated with tourism practices. Key findings are categorized into the following topic areas: (1) use of physical space, (2) "us and them" situations and the acculturation process of Black Male and Female Crucians, (3) tourism as a catalyst for change, and (4) the changes brought about by the devastation of Hurricane Hugo.
Subject Area
Communication|Cultural anthropology|Social structure
Recommended Citation
Lowry, Linda L, "St. Croix and Hurricane Hugo: A case study of tourism dependence, brute destruction, and civil unrest from a communication perspective" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9207428.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9207428