Architecture

It is my belief that analogies between Creole linguistic patterns and West Indian vernacular architecture are valid and important. When well constructed, they should open up many important avenues for further research in Caribbean architectural ethnography. They must not be drawn too specifically, however, or they will remain unproductive. Similarities between these two institutions of West Indian culture relate more directly to sociocultural processes than to specific forms. One should begin not only with the forms of the Creole language, but with the dynamic interrelationships between all levels of the post-creole speech continuum. Both architecture and language are forms of social symbolic communication. In both, the adoption of specific forms from a scale of possible alternatives symbolizes one’s identity, values