ABSTRACT
The boundary is a key concept in Fredrik Barth’s work, not only in Ethnic Groups and Boundaries but also in his earlier writings about ecology in Pakistan and Iran and his later writings about pluralism in Oman and Bali. This chapter explores a different kind of boundary, or perhaps non-boundary, by looking at a social identity formation which eschews boundaries, embraces impurities and celebrates openness. The openness of creole cultural worlds, famously characterised by borrowing, mixing and a general disdain for purity and roots, has often been commented upon. Mauritius, an island-state in the Indian Ocean with no indigenous population, is one of the most determined multiculturalist societies in the world. Cultural meaning, in the Mauritian or Trinidadian environment, can often function as a commons, a shared resource flowing and mixing quite freely; while group membership is an either/or phenomenon.
