Jamaican Culture and SocietyI. Introduction - Tracing the Vestiges of Colonialism: When discussing and analyzing contemporary Caribbean culture, one must not fail to recognize the terrible legacies of colonialism and imperialism. Contemporary Caribbean society, politics and economics barely veil the ramifications of a colonial and hegemonic past. Due to the vestiges of colonial institutions such as slavery and the plantation system, the Caribbean has experienced a range of negative societal effects, including the consolidation of a unifying cultural identity. The end of colonialism in the Caribbean did not mark the end of social stratification based on racial and ethnic divisions. The dominant racial distinctions and hierarchy that characterized colonialism through the institution of slavery have historically thwarted any systematic attempt to create a distinct national cultural identity. Thus, this study of Jamaican culture and society will intimately connect racial ideologies and social class structures in order to illustrate the dynamics of the Jamaican cultural identity crisis.II. The emergence and implications of a social caste system: The postcolonial period in the Caribbean posed the challenge of creating nation-states with prosperous societies that would respond to the desires and destinies of their inhabitants. Jamaica, which recently gained independence from Britain in 1962, was indeed no exception to this challenge. In fact, Jamaica, like many of its Caribbean counterparts, "has had inordinate difficulty in creating and maintaining a strong and coherent national sensibility" (Knight, 307). The difficulty of creating a coherent national identity initially emerged in the post-emancipation period in J...... middle of article ......liography-Excerpts taken from: Michelle Cliff's essay, " If I could write this with Fire."Henriques, Fernando. Jamaica: land of wood and water. Maggibbon & Kee: London. 1957 Knight, Franklin. The Caribbean: the genesis of a fragmented nationalism. Oxford University Press: New York, 1990. Lawson, Winston Arthur. Religion and Race: African and European Roots in Conflict - A Jamaican Testament. Peter Lang Publishing: New York, 1996. Morris, Mervyn. “Making West Indian Literature” University of the West Indies 2013. Web May 9, 2015. http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1280&context=anthuriumNettleford, Rex. Caribbean cultural identity: the case of Jamaica - An essay on cultural dynamics. UCLA Publications: Los Angeles. Nettleford, Rex. Identity, race and protest in Jamaica. William Morrow & Company: New York, 1972.