Jamaica

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Behind Jamaica

__Introduction__
Known as a tropical paradise Jamaica has exotic wildlife, beautiful waters and its clear blue skies for most of the year. Even after that being said Jamaica has suffered with its past. Slaves bought to the island by the Spanish and the English between 1513 and 1834 to work for sugar plantation. Though finally slavery was abolished in 1838.People from Asian, Europe, came to the island to work. This describes how a nation of different people, created a rich cultural heritage.

Style Of Jamaica

__Dress__
Most Jamaicans dress conservative, but often brightly colored. The hats are very popular with the men and women, women can be seen wearing broad, white floppy hats on sunday. The crocheted cotton hat or tam is worn by many men in particular, Rastafarians, the male style for these mean are their hair, which are called deadlocks. This hairstyle is washed regularly but never cut or styled. Dreadlocks originated among the Masai Warriors of eastern Africa. These men the Rastafarians give a religous reason for why the allow their to grow. They quote "A person who has made a speical vow, must let the hair of his head grow long." (Number 6:5), this is a phrase from the bible. This way of the style is also followed by women of Jamaica.

Beats Of Jamaica =__Music__ = Jamaican dances, and music are mostly behind folktales and tradition. One these dances are called Mento.[|Folktale] To create the sound, Jamaicans beat out the tune on bongo drums and the rhumba box and instrument adapted from African thumb piano. [|Mento]Jamaicans also have other type of dancing and song that today Americans are very familiar to, like the artist Sean Paul he was born in Kingston, Jamaica born January 9, 1973 he is a very popular singing for the modern days, his genre of music is is dancehall and reggae[|Sean Paul Dancehall][|Sean Paul Reggae] Dancehall is another popular genre in Jamaica known to be more free and less political when it comes to the lyrics and beats. Reggae is the next popular genre in Jamaica, which rose to the surface in the 1970's. The meaning behind the word reggae is not very clear, some say it comes from the word streggae meaning rudeness or rude boy they even say it could also come from "reggae reggae" which meaning behind that is to quarrel (to argue). Other famous artist in Jamaica who they call a legend is Bob Marley. Bob Marley became reggae's superstar partly on his ethical stance toward political drama in Jamaica and also toward the Vietnam War. Song Buffalo Soldier explains this with the lyrics.[|Buffalo Soldier]

Another Famous artist is Desmond Deckker whose song Israelites became Jamaica's first international hit.[|Desmond Dekker]

Taste Of Jamaica __**Cuisine**__ The typical Jamaican diet is based on locally grown foods like. . . **Yams**

Bananas Breadfruit Sweet Potatoes Pineapple Coconut Jamaican food has envolved a mixture of of African, European, Chinese and Indian cuisines. This is because back in the day the slaves from China, Europe and India brought with them their cooking styles. Sunday lunch is a special family event. The main meal most of the time is roast beef or Chicken, though roast beef is an English influence on Jamaicans. it is served rice and hot potatoes. Rice is also a very important party of Jamaicans diet. The nation dish of Jamaica is __**Ackee and Saltfish**__ has been eaten by jamaicans forever.

Another popular meal is **Jerked Pork** A popular roadside dish. Pork that is spiced and and cooked over an open fire of a __**Green Pimento Wood**__



Words Of Jamaicans =__Language__= People always wonder what in the world are Jamaicans saying. Jamaicans main language happens to be English. In the earlier years when Jamaicans were brought from Africa they were forced to learn English, which gave a nice blend called Jamaican Creole. Jamaicans found it difficult to pronounce certain words like when trying to say "th" it became "de" or "then" becoming "den" and "that" turned into "dat".

Examples:
JAMAICAN. ENGLISH. JAMAICAN. ENGLISH JAMAICAN 1. "Everyt'ubf kool, mon? Everyt'ing irie?" 2. "Cuss-cuss never bore hole in skin." ENGLISH 1. "Are you feeling good? Is everything alright?" 2. "Words will never hurt me."
 * 1) bredda - brother. 1. Merica - America
 * 2) brekfus - breakfast. 2. mistress - married woman
 * 3) dawta - daughter. 3. nyam - eat, food
 * 4) mash - destroy. 4. teef - steal
 * 5) maskita - mosquito. 5. wakgud - goodbye

Jamaican Religion

__**Belief**__
Over more than 60% of Jamaicans practice Christianity. The Africans slaves years back were not allowed to practice their own religion. But now Christianity floods Jamaica in all different ways. Jamaicas also have another religions Rastafarianism, and there are even small groups of Jews, Hindus, and Muslims.

__**Education**__
For years only rich white children that lived in Jamaica were able to attend schools. But since Jamaicas independence, the government has tried to make sure that all kids are able to attend school. Now today education is free to all children ages 6 to 15. Jamaica gets financial aid from both U.S and Canada for these children. In Jamaica kindergarten gets kids ready for a more formal way of learning. About 90% of Jamaican children that go to elementary school, more than half go to high school. Though the dropout rates rise after the ages 12 and 13.

Affects on Jamaica

__Cultural Diffusion__
All kinds of different countries have affected Jamaica in different ways. Europe with the language, Asia with some of its meals. Even slavery, though we know slavery was bad and harmful to others in the past it also made and affect on Jamaica by bring in these different cultures, helping enhance Jamaica to what it no a beautiful land we all know of.

Weather Affects Jamaica
We know Jamaica is in the Caribbean, leaving Jamaica with warm sunny days. This weather leaves Jamaican men wearing shorts, t-shirts showing as much skin to keep cool. For the women they stick to shorts, short, skirts, and even dresses to keep cool just like the men same to the boys and girls of Jamaica.

<span style="background-color: #41ff00; color: #ffff00; display: block; font-family: 'arial black',gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Bibliography - Sheeman, Sean, and Angela Black. //Cultures Of The World: Jamaica//. N.p.: n.p., 2004. Print. - //Youtube// N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2010. <www.youtube.com>. - //All Sean Paul// N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2010. <www.allseanpaul.com>. - //Wikipedia// N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/>. - //Jamaicans// N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2010. <www,jamaicans.com>.

[|Bible Answers]