Caribbean Diaspora in the USA: Diversity of Caribbean Religions in New York City

Variations of Caribbean Culture(s) in New York City 11
or of a structural system. 7 After describing the religious communities I will leave the
ethnographic level and move on to the theoretical debate. In doing so, I follow Ulf
Hannerz in using research in an urban area to inspire cultural-theoretical debate.
New York’s Urban Culture
The cornerstone for my portrayal of New York as living space for migrants from the
Caribbean is Werner Schiffauer’s concept of urban culture which he elaborates in a
small collection of essays based mainly on his investigations in Berlin and Turkey. He
describes the dynamic, fluid culture of a metropolis in a particular way. Searching for the
social logic behind the vibrancy of urban culture and the factors influencing the cultural
current, creating complex fluid patterns, he turns to Exploring the City by Ulf Hannerz
(1980) and La Distinction: Critique social de jugement by Pierre Bourdieu (1979,
English translation 1984). Though Hannerz focuses on communication modes and
Bourdieu on social stratification and power structures in urban areas, Schiffauer regards
the two ideas as complementary. Together they describe – according to Schiffauer’s
interpretation – a complex process: Hannerz the horizontal movements and the whirls
of interaction and Bourdieu the vertical movements of hierarchy creation. Though this
process does not only exist in urban areas, it develops more easily when the environment
is larger, more complex and more anonymous. According to Schiffauer the culture of
a metropolis is therefore a radically well-timed culture, a culture where everything is
fluid and where any increase in fluency creates opposite currents, whirls, variations and
even turbulences (Schiffauer 1997: 99). This process does not take place in an empty
environment but relates to people connected to a social area and divided into social
groups. In his characterization of urban culture Schiffauer refers to three aspects: the
meaning of interurban networking, the development of the division of labour and the
conception of urban law and order. Schiffauer argues that the third aspect in particular
characterizes different cities. While French cities, for instance, locate problematic
zones in suburban areas, British cities associate these areas with the city centre. While
European cities developed in a circular, organic process and are structured according to
class division, American cities are constructed on the idea of a grid which incorporates
the vision of controlling the natural and social environment. Schiffauer interprets this
grid as a Calvinistic counter-concept to the (European) circle and connects it to a high
degree of mobility where a citizen prefers to move to a new location instead of investing
time and power in changing the old one (Schiffauer 1997: 116–18).
This system describes New York, too, though I have observed a higher degree
of identification with New York than with any other city. Nevertheless, the ethnic
stratification of New York is always changing. Neighbourhoods occupied by Puerto
Ricans during my first visit to New York in 1991 are now dominated by Mexicans,
who in their turn replaced Dominicans. But, as will be explained later, the sense of
belonging to a religious community lives on.
The urban culture of New York City is characterized by two different but interconnected
systems. On the one hand New York is – in Schiffauer’s view quite similar to Berlin in
7 See, for instance, the crack house as structural system presented by Bourgois (1997).