Can't Beat Me Own Drum in Me Own Native Land: Calypso Music and Tourism in the Panamanian Atlantic Coast

• Published in: Anthropological quarterly Vol. 79; no. 4; pp. 633 - 665
• Main Author: Carla Guerrón-Montero
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research 01.10.2006; Catholic University of America
• Subjects: 1970; African Cultural Groups; Anthropological research; Antilleans; Blacks; Calypso music; Cognitive problems, arts and sciences, folk traditions, folklore; Creativity; Cultural Identity; Culture and tourism; Diaspora; Disc jockeying; Drums; Ethnic Identity; Ethnology; Ethnomusicology; Guerrón-Montero, Carla María; Latin American culture; Music; Music genres; Musical performance; Musical rhythm; National identity; Panama; Popular music; Race identity; Reggae; Social anthropology; Social aspects; Social environment; Tourism; Traditional music; Panama; Tourism; Seacoast; Musical style; West Indians; Music; Diaspora; Identity; African
• ISSN: 0003-5491; 1534-1518; 1534-1518
• DOI: 10.1353/anq.2006.0050

The connection between music and identity is especially evident in the African diaspora. In the Caribbean, music is particularly important to the cultural and ethnic identities of black populations. This article discusses the multiple meanings of music for Panamanian Afro-Antillean identity in the Caribbean, by placing musical genres such as calypso, soka, and reggae, in the context of tourism development I argue that Afro-Antillean musical genres as well as appropriations of "national" musical genres have provided black populations in the Panamanian Caribbean with ways to assert distinctive identities in the Panamanian cultural mosaic. Afro-Antilleans are experiencing a cultural revival of their Antillean identities, through the process of tourism consumption. They are also asserting their identities as a cosmopolitan group, with enough transnational connections to access musical worlds that are not the domain of other ethnic groups in the country. Consequently, Afro-Antilleans are using music to reposition themselves nationally through participation in transnational circuits.