More than 30 people at Oswego State were in attendance at “Taboos of the Caribbean Culture,” hosted by the Caribbean Student Association on March 6.
The event intended to showcase practices that were looked down upon in different Caribbean cultures and let the audience know what to do “for when you go on vacation,” in the words of host and event organizer, Jabari Daniel.
The crowd was animated, with about half of the attendees being students seeking IST credit. IST credit, a necessity for living in Hart Hall, is a popular draw for these events. Programs that offer it generally see spikes in attendance, according to club records. About a quarter of those that came out to support were club regulars or members of various committees and the executive board, and the remainder were those there for the first time.
The program was divided into two sections. The first part was a lecture-style presentation on eight Caribbean countries: Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, Guyana, St. Lucia and the Bahamas. The second was a trivia session about the information that the presentation had gone over.
One attendee, Fadi Gaye, remarked that this was her first time coming to a CSA program, although she attends other club meetings regularly. She went in knowing some background information on the Caribbean and wanted to hear people’s perspectives and the differences and similarities between taboos in the countries. She said homosexuality is a common taboo in Caribbean cultures.
“A lot of people don’t talk about [homosexuality],” Gaye said. “Even though gay marriage came out, it’s not as freely spoken about compared to other issues.”
Homosexuality was covered in the presentation in reference to Jamaica, where homosexual intercourse is held in the same regard as beastiality. Both hold the same punishment for men in the country – 10 years jail time for having sexual intercourse and seven years for attempting to do so.
As the program went along, the information stopped being about taboos and instead superstitions associated with each country. The crowd reacted with confusion at superstitions like the Guyana belief that “if you throw salt away anywhere except in water, you will pick it up with your eyes after you die” and surprise at the Trinidadian taboo against cutting hair or nails on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday for fear of bad luck.
CSA Committee member Dominique Perry said that even if she were not part of the club, she would still attend this program “to learn about certain things that different countries don’t agree with.”
The club hosts events such as this almost every Tuesday, and the turnout varies from meeting to meeting with IST-approved events generally gaining more traction.
