Dutch colleague Gert Oostindie speaks to the Prices’ enduring reputation in both the Netherlands and in the Dutch (and formerly Dutch) Caribbean. Stuart Schwartz speaks of shared work on the writings of John Gabriel Stedman and of parallel, almost mirror-image lives and careers. Chris Steiner reflects on what he learned from both Sally and Rich on anthropology and so-called primitive art. Peter Redfield highlights generational shifts in the field of anthropology as brought out by Richard Price’s memoir Inside/Outside.
John Collins raises methodological questions about ethnographic fieldwork that cut close to the bone. Kenneth Bilby revisits shared experiences in French Guiane and another kind of parallelism: studying and bickering about the differences between Maroon cultures as only anthropologists might do. Olivia da Cunha explores the many meanings of textiles and other made objects as they relate to narratives of self and group – that is, as conversation pieces invested with sacred power.
Kevin Yelvington brings the Prices’ work into conversation with his own studies of women’s labor in the recent and contemporary Caribbean. Peter Hulme unearths another “root beneath the roots” linking Melville and Frances (Shapiro) Herskovits to the writer Peter Vandercook and artist Margaret Metzger. Virginia Domínguez finds her longstanding work on Israel and Palestine informed by the Prices’ own blend of scholarship and activism, including the pitfalls this entails to say nothing of the heartbreak.
Landon Yarrington brings Richard Price’s reflections on Caribbean ruins or the alleged lack of same into conversation with his own fieldwork in Haiti, where “a little bit of ruins” may or may not go a long way. Jonna Yarrington returns to generational shifts, overlaps, and parallels in reflecting on how deeply her own career was influenced by that of SallyPrice. Sam Martínezreturns to some of the questions raised by John Collins regarding ethnographic method and its challenges amid competing truth claims.
Val Carnegie hails Rich and Sally for their longstanding dedication to the journal New West Indian Guide, making its book reviews section the model for the field and a model more broadly. Carnegie reminds us how essential book reviewing is to the health and advancement of the field of Caribbean Studies. So send in those late reviews, folks! Now!
Phil Morgan offers a brief reflection on the longstanding debate over creolization and how Rich and Sally have stressed creativity and regeneration without embracing a false binary. Nancy Morejón fondly recalls meeting the Prices in the context of Rich receiving the Fernando Ortiz Award in Cuba. Finally, the Prices’ old friend from earliest days in Saamaka territory, Adiante Frantzsoon, shares a communal tribute to this remarkable couple’s lifelong commitment to what some have called cultural survival.
As a historian of the Americas in good times and bad, I (Kris Lane) can only add my profound admiration of Rich and Sally’s lives and works, seconded by my spouse, Pamela Johnson-Lane, and ‘thirded’ by our daughter Ximena Lane (who designed this website and also the PriceFest program).
Tributes
1. “The Dutch Caribbean Connection.”
Gert Oostindie, Professor emeritus Colonial and Postcolonial History, University of Leiden, and former Director of the KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies.
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2. “Parallel lives, Mirror Images?” Transcript of video message sent from Puerto Rico.
Stuart Schwartz, George Burton Adams Professor of History, Yale University.
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3. “When Worlds Collide.” Transcript of video message.
Chris Steiner, Lucy C. McDannel ’22 Professor of Art History and Anthropology.
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4. “Generational Time.”
Peter Redfield, Robert F. Erburu Chair in Ethics, Globalization and Development, and Professor of Anthropology and History, University of Southern California.
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5. “An Anthropology of Experience, Now.”
John Collins, Professor of Anthropology, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
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6. “Ethnographic Devotion and the Long View.”
Kenneth Bilby, Research Associate, The Smithsonian Institution.
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7. “Unpacking Compositions.”
Olívia Maria Gomes da Cunha, Professor of Anthropology, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro..
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8. “Living History; Or, The Prices Turned to History before the Historical Turn was Cool.”
Kevin A. Yelvington, Professor of Anthropology, University of South Florida.
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9. “Drums Over Harlem: The Vandercooks and the Herskovitses.”
Peter Hulme, Professor Emeritus, Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, University of Essex.
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10. “Engaging with Rich and Sally Price.”
Virginia Dominguez, Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor of Anthropology, and Professor in the Program in Jewish Culture and Society, University of Illinois.
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11. “Yon Ti Bout Mazi (A little bit of ruins).”
Landon Yarrington, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Colorado State University.
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12. “There’s a First-Time for Everything.”
Jonna Yarrington, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Colorado State University.
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13. “A Truer Story”
Samuel Martinez, Professor of Anthropology and Director, Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut.
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14. “Addressing the Project (One Review at a Time)”
Charles “Val” Carnegie, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Bates College.
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15. (Paper on the Way)
Dominique Taffin
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16. “Eschewing Binaries”, Message sent to Pricefest.
Philip D. Morgan, Harry C. Black Professor Emeritus of History, Johns Hopkins University.
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17. “Tribute to Sally and Richard Price”, Transcript of video message sent from Marseille.
Catherine Benoît, Professor of Anthropology, Connecticut College.
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18. “Richard y Sally Price”, Text sent by email.
Nancy Morejón, the best-known and most widely translated woman poet of post-revolutionary Cuba.
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19. “Lisati & Sally!”
Adiante Franszoon.
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