Consuming the Caribbean

Download or read book Consuming the Caribbean written by Mimi Sheller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-12-08 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From sugar to indentured labourers, tobacco to reggae music, Europe and North America have been relentlessly consuming the Caribbean and its assets for the past five hundred years. In this fascinating book, Mimi Sheller explores this troublesome history, investigating the complex mobilities of producers and consumers, of material and cultural commodities, including: foodstuffs and stimulants - sugar, fruit, coffee and rum human bodies - slaves, indentured labourers and service workers cultural and knowledge products - texts, music, scientific collections and ethnology entire 'natures' and landscapes consumed by tourists as tropical paradise. Consuming the Caribbean demonstrates how colonial exploitation of the Caribbean led directly to contemporary forms of consumption of the region and its products. It calls into question innocent indulgence in the pleasures of thoughtless consumption and calls for a global ethics of consumer responsibility.