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When Curaçao came under Dutch control in 1634, the small island off South America's northern coast was isolated and sleepy. The introduction of increased trade (both legal and illegal) led to a dramatic transformation, and Curaçao emerged as a major hub within Caribbean and wider Atlantic networks. It would also become the commercial and administrative seat of the Dutch West India Company in the Americas. The island's main city, Willemstad, had a non-Dutch majority composed largely of free blacks, urban slaves, and Sephardic Jews, who communicated across ethnic divisions in a new creole language called Papiamentu. For Linda M. Rupert, the emergence of this creole language was one of the two defining phenomena that gave shape to early modern Curaçao. The other was smuggling. Both developments, she argues, were informal adaptations to life in a place that was at once polyglot and regimented. They were the sort of improvisations that occurred wherever expanding European empires thrust different peoples together. Creolization and Contraband uses the history of Curaçao to develop the first book-length analysis of the relationship between illicit interimperial trade and processes of social, cultural, and linguistic exchange in the early modern world. Rupert argues that by breaking through multiple barriers, smuggling opened particularly rich opportunities for cross-cultural and interethnic interaction. Far from marginal, these extra-official exchanges were the very building blocks of colonial society.

The Caribbean imagination as framed within a Dutch historical setting has deep Portuguese-African roots. The Seven Provinces were the first European power, in the first half of the 17th century, to challenge the Iberian countries directly for a share in the slave trade. This book analyzes the philosophy underlying this transoceanic link, when contacts with Africa started to be developed. The ambiguous morality of the 'air of liberty' governing the Afro-Portuguese past had its impact on the creole cultures (white, black, Jewish) of the Dutch territories of Suriname and Curaçao. Although this influence is gradually disappearing, it is astonishing to witness the engagement with which writers and visual artists have interpreted this heritage in their different ways. Recent narratives from Angola and Brazil offer an appropriate starting-point for an examination of strategies of self-representation and national consolidation in works by authors from the Dutch Caribbean. In order to reveal this complex historical pattern, the (formerly) Dutch-related port communities are conceived of as cultural agents whose 'lettered cities' (Ángel Rama) have engaged in critical dialogue with the heritage of the South Atlantic trade in human lives. Artists and writers discussed include (colonial period): Caspar Barlaeus, David Nassy, Frans Post, and John Gabriel Stedman; (modern period): Frank Martinus Arion, Cola Debrot, Gabriel García Márquez, Albert Helman, Francisco Herrera Luque, Boeli van Leeuwen, Tip Marugg, Alberto Mussa, Pepetela, Julio Perrenal, and Mário Pinto de Andrade.

Michiel van Kempen is bijzonder hoogleraar West-Indische Letteren aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam vanwege de Stichting Instituut ter Bevordering van de Surinamistiek en met steun van het Bert Schierbeek-fonds. Hij schreef een tweedelige geschiedenis van de Surinaamse literatuur en legde met tal van publicaties de literatuur van Suriname, de Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba vast. Daarvoor ontving hij de ANV Visser Neerlandia-prijs. Voor het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde te Leiden werkt hij aan een biografie van Albert Helman.

Much has been written on the post-war decolonisation in the Caribbean, but rarely from a truly comparative perspective, and seldom with serious attention to the former Dutch colonies of Surinam, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. This study bridges both gaps. In their analysis of Dutch decolonisation policies since the 1940s, the authors discuss not only political processes, but also development aid, the Dutch Caribbean exodus to the metropolis and cultural antagonisms. A balance is drawn both of the costs and benefits of independence in the Caribbean and of the outlines and results of the policies pursued in the non-sovereign Caribbean by France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Waarom verliep de dekolonisatie van 'West-Indië', anders dan die van Indonesië, vreedzaam en zelfs rustig? Waarom werd Suriname uiteindelijk wél onafhankelijk, terwijl de Nederlandse Antillen en het hiervan afgesplitste eiland Aruba beiden een plaats als autonoom land binnen het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden wisten te behouden? Hoe is te verklaren dat ruim een derde van de Surinamers en Antillianen in Nederland woont, ondanks relatief. zeer ruime Haagse ontwikkelingshulp? Hoe verhoudt het Nederlandse beleid ten aanzien van de laatst overgebleven Caraïbische delen van het Koninkrijk zich met dat van Frankrijk, Groot-Brittannië en de Verenigde Staten, landen die elk met een ander model van dekolonisatie in de Caraïben experimenteren? Welke lessen kunnen worden getrokken uit een systematische vergelijking van de vier modellen op dimensies als ontwikkelingshulp, zorg voor deugdelijkheid van bestuur, migratiebeleid en culturele identiteit? Deze vragen staan centraal in Decolonising the Caribbean. De analyse van het Nederlandse beleid is een samenvatting en een update van de veelgeprezen driedelige studie Knellende Koninkrijksbanden die in 2001 verscheen. De nieuwe vergelijkende delen bestrijken een derde deel van het boek en bieden een unieke verkennende exercitie, die ook elders niet eerder zo systematisch werd verricht.

Jews of the Dutch Caribbean addresses identity and ethnicity, through a detailed study of a little-known group in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. It asks readers to take a broad perspective on the contexts that play a role in ethnicity including, for example, ecology, history, kinship, commerce and language use in everyday life and, crucially, rituals. It asks readers to take a broad perspective on the contexts that play a role in ethnicity and draws on ethnographic research to analyze ethnic identities and look at how it is shaped and negotiated. Alan F Benjamin is a Lecturer in the Jewish Studies Program of the Pennsylvania State University, where his interests include contemporary Jewish identity and social boundaries.

The leaf coral Agaricia humilis occurs mainly on the undersides of surfaces in shallow water, a distribution different from the vast majority of corals at our study site in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. A series of hypotheses were tested for specific mechanisms that could cause the observed distributions of Agaricia humilis. We found that a suite of larval swimming and settling behaviors, in large part, drives the adult distribution of the species. These behaviors include: (1) swimming behavior that causes larvae to position themselves in shallow water, (2) orientation behavior during settlement that causes larvae to preferentially settle on the undersides of surfaces, and (3) settlement behavior where chemosensory recognition of morphogenic molecules associated with the cell walls of specific crustose red algae is required for induction of settlement and metamorphosis. The consequences of atypical larval behavior are severe and include decreased survivorship, growth, and ability to reproduce sexually.

Equaliberty in the Dutch Caribbean is a collection of essays that explores fundamental questions of equality and freedom on the non-sovereign islands of the Dutch Caribbean. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic research, historical and media analysis, the study of popular culture, and autoethnographic accounts, the various contributions challenge conventional assumptions about political non/sovereignty. While the book recognizes the existence of nationalist independence movements, it opens a critical space to look at other forms of political articulation, autonomy, liberty, and a good life. Focusing on all six different islands and through a multitude of voices and stories, the volume engages with the everyday projects, ordinary imaginaries, and dreams of equaliberty alongside the work of independistas and traditional social movements aiming for more or full self-determination. As such, it offers a rich and powerful telling of the various ways of being in and belonging to our contemporary postcolonial world.

Census-based approaches can provide important measures of the ecological processes controlling reef carbonate production states. Here, we describe a rapid, non-destructive approach to carbonate budget assessments, termed ReefBudget that is census-based and which focuses on quantifying the relative contributions made by different biological carbonate producer/eroder groups to net reef framework carbonate production. The methodology is presently designed only for Caribbean sites, but has potential to be adapted for use in other regions. Rates are calculated using data on organism cover and abundance, combined with annual extension or production rate measures. Set against this are estimates of the rates at which bioeroding species of fish, urchins and internal substrate borers erode reef framework. Resultant data provide a measure of net rates of biologically driven carbonate production (kg CaCO 3  m −2  year −1 ). These data have potential to be integrated into ecological assessments of reef state, to aid monitoring of temporal (same-site) changes in rates of biological carbonate production and to provide insights into the key ecological drivers of reef growth or erosion as a function of environmental change. Individual aspects of the budget methodology can also be used alongside other census approaches if deemed appropriate for specific study aims. Furthermore, the methodology spreadsheets are user-changeable, allowing local or new process/rate data to be integrated into calculations. Application of the methodology is considered at sites around Bonaire. Highest net rates of carbonate production, +9.52 to +2.30 kg CaCO 3  m −2  year −1 , were calculated at leeward sites, whilst lower rates, +0.98 to −0.98 kg CaCO 3  m −2  year −1 , were calculated at windward sites. Data are within the ranges calculated in previous budget studies and provide confidence in the production estimates the methodology generates.

Excavating sponges are among the most important macro-eroders of carbonate substrates in marine systems. Their capacity to remove substantial amounts of limestone makes these animals significant players that can unbalance the reef carbonate budget of tropical coral reefs. Nevertheless, excavating sponges are currently rarely incorporated in standardized surveys and experimental work is often restricted to a few species. Here were provide chemical and mechanical bioerosion rates for the six excavating sponge species most commonly found on the shallow reef of Curaçao (southern Caribbean): Cliona caribbaea, C. aprica, C. delitrix, C. amplicavata, Siphonodictyon brevitubulatum and Suberea flavolivescens. Chemical, mechanical and total bioerosion rates were estimated based on various experimental approaches applied to sponge infested limestone cores. Conventional standing incubation techniques were shown to strongly influence the chemical dissolution signal. Final rates, based on the change in alkalinity of the incubation water, declined significantly as a function of incubation time. This effect was mitigated by the use of a flow-through incubation system. Additionally, we found that mechanically removed carbonate fragments collected in the flow-through chamber (1 h) as well as a long-term collection method (1 wk) generally yielded comparable estimates for the capacity of these sponges to mechanically remove substratum. Observed interspecific variation could evidently be linked to the adopted boring strategy (i.e. gallery-forming, cavity-forming or network-working) and presence or absence of symbiotic zooxanthellae. Notably, a clear diurnal pattern was found only in species that harbour a dense photosymbiotic community. In these species chemical erosion was substantially higher during the day. Overall, the sum of individually acquired chemical and mechanical erosion using flow-through incubations was comparable to rates obtained gravimetrically. Such consistency is a first in this field of research. These findings support the much needed confirmation that, depending on the scientific demand, the different approaches presented here can be implemented concurrently as standardized methods.