Creolization and the Quest for Recognition

Used as a metaphor for many forms of racial and cultural mixing, creolization risks losing its value as a tool for analyzing the original forms of cultural hybridization typical of creole societies. The proposal is made to restrict this concept to the initial forms of cultural contact between European powers and enslaved Africans in « plantation societies ». Rehabilitating this concept calls for research in two seldom or poorly explored areas. The first is the political anthropology of creolization, which might provide answers to several (im)pertinent questions about the nature of this phenomenon, its varieties over time and in various spheres of everyday life. The second line of research should seek to identify the driving force in this process. The suggestion is made, in line with Axel Honneth’s critical theory, that this driving force is, in Martinique, a quest for the recognition of an identity : this is what generates its creative vitality.