The first thing I thought about when the author mentions the extremely high rates of violence and poor economy of the Caribbean region is how that region was the first to be colonized by Columbus. When the author then established the book’s focus on looking at the region with regards to New World colonization, I felt really smart that I made that connection. I like the way that Thomas is working to reframe how culture is discussed within the anthropological community, as I feel it does so in a way that is better to solve problems among people in that culture. Another thing I found interesting was Thomas’s incorporation of genealogy and possible use of a kinship chart. Especially because she brought up biological ties between people in a way that was still conscious of the unique social structure among people in Jacks Hill.
One part of the chapter that left me with questions was Thomas’s mentioning of “modern blackness”, I don’t really know besides the context within Jacks Hill what she meant by this. Mainly, is this concept of modern blackness also transnational, especially in areas with considerable parts of the population having ties to the transatlantic slave trade?
I feel Thomas does a good job in pointing out the non-obvious by connecting the social structure of Jacks Hill, a town that’s social structure is unique to many parts of Jamaica. Jacks Hill itself is non-obvious, a hidden, small rural town, but through her study of the town and its sociocultural structure Thomas reveals how it applies to the anthropological idea of frontiers, but also how deeply engrained the consequences of settler colonialism are. It seemed that the deep importance of loyalty and fragmentation among the community was occurring in patterns that have been repeated since black Jamaicans were enslaved on plantations. When this information is acknowledged under the reparations framework Thomas establishes in the introduction, it is obvious that the people who’s communities are still greatly damaged by colonization are in need of retribution.