ABSTRACT
The camp relied on friends’ and family members’ freely given time and skill to make costumes for the band. The things that matter most to women and men in one space are expressed through different relations in another, but circle constantly to return to the value of family, reciprocity, fairness and participation. Aesthetic authority is, therefore, the basis for the legitimacy that Trinidadians feel when they make decisions regarding their own lives and their relationships with others, things, spaces, institutions and practices. In the connection between these close relationships and the wider public sphere, women and men’s decisions about what really matters to them, and what they feel makes sense highlight the ideals and practices that order their lives. Together, their practices create and express an aesthetic that they use to legitimate what they do in the present and to mediate different forms of power and meaning. This is known as aesthetic authority.
