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Historical geography of the Bay Islands, Honduras: Anglo-Hispanic conflict in the western Caribbean
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density, form and social interaction. Olmsted, in the words of Mumford, attempted to naturalize the city. As the author rightly stresses, however far-sighted may have been the attempts of Brace and Olmsted to tame incipient American metropolis, they did not succeed. In part the pace of urban change overwhelmed their designs, but more important, perhaps, the late nineteenth century also saw the passing of the collective social ethic within which their designs had been forged. Urban America, as opposed to urbanizing America, posed new problems, to be met by new men with new visions. New literary symbols began to appear-bureaucratism, sophisticated managerial control, unionization, and soon the novelty of total mobility provided by the automobile. Professor Bender offers us a timely reminder that what happened in history depended as much upon men with visions as it did upon processes which often take on mythical inexorable qualities. That there could have been a different America is now clear; the search for “humane concern for nature within a fuller definition of democracy and culture” still continues. What is equally important is the fact that this urban vision was not unique to Anglo-America, but relates to a wider realm. It helps us understand the urban revolutionary movement of France in the 184Os, which led to the demise of Rousseavian dualism; it clarifies our viewof theintellectual tensions of urban nationalism in the Latin American republics and, most important, it permits us to reappraise the malaise of contemporary urbanization in the Third World. Though for most of us the formalism of the Gesellschaft of Tonnies and the “disembedding” of Polanyi may seem remote from day-to-day living, that fact is that we are what we have experienced in the widest cultural sense. For shedding light on that complex process with such a wealth of imagination Professor Bender deserves our thanks and congratulations. Syracuse University
DAVID J. ROBINSON
WILLIAM V. DAVIDSON,Historical Geography of the Bay Islands, Honduras: Anglo-Hispanic
Conflict in the Western Caribbean (Birmingham, Alabama:
Southern University Press, 1974. Pp. 199. $12.50) There is no doubt that William Davidson’s Historical Geography of the Bay Islands is clearly and competently written. It meets the standards of scholarship expected from dissertation work in geography. Yet, perhaps in the process of translation from a research study to a “popular” publication, it may have acquired some questionable qualities which deserve investigation. Davidson’s objective is straightforward enough: to describe and explain some aspects of the landscape history of the Bay Islands. These islands, just off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, have been objects of Anglo-Hispanic conflict for hundreds of years. Changes in their landscapes reflect a succession of cultures from the ancient Paya Indian to the contemporary Honduran. The scant evidence available suggests that the early Bay Island Indians did not live in isolation but rather participated in the cultural life of the adjacent mainland. When the Spaniards arrived in force, the Bay Islands fared as other accessible Caribbean places did, and were raided for slaves and then Christianized. Little can be inferred about landscape alterations brought about by the slave trade and the influence of the Church, but the encomienda changed the landscape from its semi-primeval state into a land geared to provisioning the Spanish fleet. As the conflict between England and Spain intensified in the western Caribbean, the Bay Islands changed hands a number of times, being occupied by the Spanish, the English, the buccaneers and the Black Caribs. Apparently there was little large-scale landscape disturbance during this period, but two landscapes did nevertheless develop: the concentrated settlements of former slaves and the scattered houses of the former owners. Davidson indicates that the modern cultural landscape has been shaped first by the early tropical crop enterprises, then by merchant sailing and boatbuilding and finally by tourism. Landscape changes due to Honduranization have
376
REVIEWS
been operating only in the past five years, and their impact has been slight. Although the principal cause of landscape change in the Bay Islands has apparently been the 400-yearold conflict between Spanish and English cultures in the western Caribbean, it can be argued that actual evidence of landscape change is minimal. Almost no trace survives of the Paya culture, there is very little indication of landscape change due to the slave trade or to the activities of the early Church, few accounts exist of the effects of early English colonization on the landscape, and there is little direct evidence even for analysis of recent landscape change. Has Davidson been forced by the fragmentary evidence to spin a web of supposition rather than substance around his thesis? This doubt colours even those details of landscape change which havebeen accumulated to form the basis of the Wisconsin geographer’s work. There are many unresolved questions. Did the Paya Indians use the Bay Islands as sites for religious shrines? Why did the Church pay so little attention to the islands during the Colonial period? Why did the English come and go from the islands so often, even when Spanish weakness and English self-interest dictated otherwise? Why did some Black Caribs remain on the islands after the majority moved to the Honduran mainland? Why did so many Cayman Islanders move to the Bay Islands even after Great Britain reaffirmed Honduran sovereignty there? Why did the islands’ plantation landscape disappear so quickly in the early 19OOs?Why is it that the interior villages on Roatan Island are now inhabited only by Ladinos from interior Honduras? Although landscape change is an interesting topic, each of the foregoing questions is equally as challenging. It also may be argued that landscape disturbance is too narrow a theme to pursue in any investigation of the complexities of the turbulent Caribbean. Missing from any account which concentrates upon this theme is the sense of drama so prevalent in the early history of this region. The Bay Islands may have been pawns in the interplay of empire without experiencing much change in their landscapes. Does this theme reflect accurately the nature of AngloHispanic conflict in the Caribbean or, indeed, the islands themselves? Although Davidson’s work is the only available historical geography on this region and although he has done an excellent job in investigating the geographical and historical record there, his sense of perspective is not as broad or as challenging as it might be. A book whose setting is in an era of conquest, genocide, buccaneering, war and revolution might be expected to be more interesting. Simply to attempt to describe the few landscape changes taking place on the Bay Islands is to view a tumultuous Caribbean history with tunnel vision. Almost any historical geography of the Caribbean must suffer by comparison with actual events there, and only such scholars as Carl Sauer and David Lowenthal have been successful in interpreting cultural change in this area. But once we know that the geographer’s view may be extended to include the brilliant spectacle of world powers in Caribbean collision, why should we be content with a study of minor landscape change which uses fragmentary evidence drawn from some outpost islands? Ball State University
TOM L. MARTINSON
ALLENF. DAVISand MARK H. HALLER(Eds), The Peoples of Philadelphia: A History of Ethnic Groups and Lower-class Life, 1790-1940 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1973. Pp. ix+301. $9.95 and $3.25 softback) DENNISCLARK, The Irish in Philadelphia: Ten Generations of Urban Experience (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1973. Pp. xvi + 246. $10.00) In recent years American urban history has placed increased emphasis on three approaches : the linkage of sociological theory with historical data, quantitative techniques and the social experience of ordinary people. Part of what is frequently called the “new” urban history has been the rediscovery of ethnicity in the past and a heightened ethnic consciousness. The books reviewed here in varying degrees reflect the new urban history. The Peoples of PhiIadelphia is based on twelve papers originally prepared for a conference
375
density, form and social interaction. Olmsted, in the words of Mumford, attempted to naturalize the city. As the author rightly stresses, however far-sighted may have been the attempts of Brace and Olmsted to tame incipient American metropolis, they did not succeed. In part the pace of urban change overwhelmed their designs, but more important, perhaps, the late nineteenth century also saw the passing of the collective social ethic within which their designs had been forged. Urban America, as opposed to urbanizing America, posed new problems, to be met by new men with new visions. New literary symbols began to appear-bureaucratism, sophisticated managerial control, unionization, and soon the novelty of total mobility provided by the automobile. Professor Bender offers us a timely reminder that what happened in history depended as much upon men with visions as it did upon processes which often take on mythical inexorable qualities. That there could have been a different America is now clear; the search for “humane concern for nature within a fuller definition of democracy and culture” still continues. What is equally important is the fact that this urban vision was not unique to Anglo-America, but relates to a wider realm. It helps us understand the urban revolutionary movement of France in the 184Os, which led to the demise of Rousseavian dualism; it clarifies our viewof theintellectual tensions of urban nationalism in the Latin American republics and, most important, it permits us to reappraise the malaise of contemporary urbanization in the Third World. Though for most of us the formalism of the Gesellschaft of Tonnies and the “disembedding” of Polanyi may seem remote from day-to-day living, that fact is that we are what we have experienced in the widest cultural sense. For shedding light on that complex process with such a wealth of imagination Professor Bender deserves our thanks and congratulations. Syracuse University
DAVID J. ROBINSON
WILLIAM V. DAVIDSON,Historical Geography of the Bay Islands, Honduras: Anglo-Hispanic
Conflict in the Western Caribbean (Birmingham, Alabama:
Southern University Press, 1974. Pp. 199. $12.50) There is no doubt that William Davidson’s Historical Geography of the Bay Islands is clearly and competently written. It meets the standards of scholarship expected from dissertation work in geography. Yet, perhaps in the process of translation from a research study to a “popular” publication, it may have acquired some questionable qualities which deserve investigation. Davidson’s objective is straightforward enough: to describe and explain some aspects of the landscape history of the Bay Islands. These islands, just off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, have been objects of Anglo-Hispanic conflict for hundreds of years. Changes in their landscapes reflect a succession of cultures from the ancient Paya Indian to the contemporary Honduran. The scant evidence available suggests that the early Bay Island Indians did not live in isolation but rather participated in the cultural life of the adjacent mainland. When the Spaniards arrived in force, the Bay Islands fared as other accessible Caribbean places did, and were raided for slaves and then Christianized. Little can be inferred about landscape alterations brought about by the slave trade and the influence of the Church, but the encomienda changed the landscape from its semi-primeval state into a land geared to provisioning the Spanish fleet. As the conflict between England and Spain intensified in the western Caribbean, the Bay Islands changed hands a number of times, being occupied by the Spanish, the English, the buccaneers and the Black Caribs. Apparently there was little large-scale landscape disturbance during this period, but two landscapes did nevertheless develop: the concentrated settlements of former slaves and the scattered houses of the former owners. Davidson indicates that the modern cultural landscape has been shaped first by the early tropical crop enterprises, then by merchant sailing and boatbuilding and finally by tourism. Landscape changes due to Honduranization have
376
REVIEWS
been operating only in the past five years, and their impact has been slight. Although the principal cause of landscape change in the Bay Islands has apparently been the 400-yearold conflict between Spanish and English cultures in the western Caribbean, it can be argued that actual evidence of landscape change is minimal. Almost no trace survives of the Paya culture, there is very little indication of landscape change due to the slave trade or to the activities of the early Church, few accounts exist of the effects of early English colonization on the landscape, and there is little direct evidence even for analysis of recent landscape change. Has Davidson been forced by the fragmentary evidence to spin a web of supposition rather than substance around his thesis? This doubt colours even those details of landscape change which havebeen accumulated to form the basis of the Wisconsin geographer’s work. There are many unresolved questions. Did the Paya Indians use the Bay Islands as sites for religious shrines? Why did the Church pay so little attention to the islands during the Colonial period? Why did the English come and go from the islands so often, even when Spanish weakness and English self-interest dictated otherwise? Why did some Black Caribs remain on the islands after the majority moved to the Honduran mainland? Why did so many Cayman Islanders move to the Bay Islands even after Great Britain reaffirmed Honduran sovereignty there? Why did the islands’ plantation landscape disappear so quickly in the early 19OOs?Why is it that the interior villages on Roatan Island are now inhabited only by Ladinos from interior Honduras? Although landscape change is an interesting topic, each of the foregoing questions is equally as challenging. It also may be argued that landscape disturbance is too narrow a theme to pursue in any investigation of the complexities of the turbulent Caribbean. Missing from any account which concentrates upon this theme is the sense of drama so prevalent in the early history of this region. The Bay Islands may have been pawns in the interplay of empire without experiencing much change in their landscapes. Does this theme reflect accurately the nature of AngloHispanic conflict in the Caribbean or, indeed, the islands themselves? Although Davidson’s work is the only available historical geography on this region and although he has done an excellent job in investigating the geographical and historical record there, his sense of perspective is not as broad or as challenging as it might be. A book whose setting is in an era of conquest, genocide, buccaneering, war and revolution might be expected to be more interesting. Simply to attempt to describe the few landscape changes taking place on the Bay Islands is to view a tumultuous Caribbean history with tunnel vision. Almost any historical geography of the Caribbean must suffer by comparison with actual events there, and only such scholars as Carl Sauer and David Lowenthal have been successful in interpreting cultural change in this area. But once we know that the geographer’s view may be extended to include the brilliant spectacle of world powers in Caribbean collision, why should we be content with a study of minor landscape change which uses fragmentary evidence drawn from some outpost islands? Ball State University
TOM L. MARTINSON
ALLENF. DAVISand MARK H. HALLER(Eds), The Peoples of Philadelphia: A History of Ethnic Groups and Lower-class Life, 1790-1940 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1973. Pp. ix+301. $9.95 and $3.25 softback) DENNISCLARK, The Irish in Philadelphia: Ten Generations of Urban Experience (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1973. Pp. xvi + 246. $10.00) In recent years American urban history has placed increased emphasis on three approaches : the linkage of sociological theory with historical data, quantitative techniques and the social experience of ordinary people. Part of what is frequently called the “new” urban history has been the rediscovery of ethnicity in the past and a heightened ethnic consciousness. The books reviewed here in varying degrees reflect the new urban history. The Peoples of PhiIadelphia is based on twelve papers originally prepared for a conference