Lecture Notes

• FOUR historical processes


  • Migration
  • Systems of labour and production
  • Responses to Oppression
  • Movements towards Independence
• Without the process of migration, Caribbean society would not exist because every group of people who comprise of Caribbean society came here through the process of migration
• It is the first stage in the formation of a society and in the process of creolization
• Impact of 1st diaspora migration

  • Brought a diverse group of people together in a shared geographic space
  • Transculturation and demographic shifts - racial make up of place, age, gender, everything to do with population and its features/characteristics, location/dislocation and birth and death rates
  • Systems of beliefs and values from religion and traditions were brought together (non-material culture)
  • Norms and behaviours based on these beliefs and values produce material culture
• REGIONAL MIGRATION


  1. Started immediate post-Emancipation period

  2. Panama Canal 1881 - 1888 (French tried and failed due to diseases) and 1900s, many migrants that built the Panama Canal came from Barbados, called 'Silvermen' because they were paid in silver which were repatriated to their families. Today, we have the culture of remittances which comes from this period

  3. Banana plantations — Honduras and Costa Rica

  4. Oil refineries — Aruba and Curaçao

  5. Coffee and sugar estates - Cuba

  6. Sugar estates — Dominican Republic

  7. World War II — American bases in Antigua, Trinidad, British Guiana, St. Thomas, St. Lucia
• 2nd DIASPORA MIGRATION FROM THE CARIBBEAN

  1. World War I — 1914 - 1917 British West Indies Regiment (1. Either fighting in the war or 2. Working in Britain while Britain citizens went to the war), over 15,000 West Indian males fought in the war

  2. World War II — War Food Administration and The War Manpower Commission (recruiting persons as cooks, nurses, not only to fight in the war) US, not Britain, 40,000 West Indians went

  3. Need for skilled labour in post-World War II Britain (war ended in 1945, high death toll due to war and many jobs became available), carrying Caribbean culture as people went to settle , one generation after, Nottinghill Carnival started (Transculturation)

  4. Fruit pickers, factory workers — tobacco and canneries in Canada

  5. Current Migratory patterns to United States, Canada and Britain which result in the formation of diasporic communities
• Migration to the Caribbean

  • Creolization
  • Formation of society
  • Transculturation
  • Socio-cultural development
  • 2nd diasporic migration
  • Transculturation
  • Formation of diasporic communities
• Using FOUR examples, explain how the MAJOR migrations into the Caribbean impacted society and culture
• In order to understand fully the nature of Caribbean society and culture one must address the impact of migratory patterns into and from the region
• Labour Systems and People

  • Encomienda/ Repartimiento - Amerindians
  • White Indentureship - Europeans
  • Chattel slavery - Africans
  • Indentureship - Chinese, Madeirans, Javanese and East Indians
• Encomienda


  A system of forced labour. Spanish crown granted rights to an encomendero (landlord) over an area of land and a group of Amerindians. The Amerindians were required to work the land and pay tributes of gold. The encomendero was responsible for the protection and religious instruction of the Amerindian.
• Performed jobs like mining for gold and silver, engaged in agriculture and sugar industry in the early years
• Acculturation as Christianity was enforced on the Tainos hence why many indigenous groups now are Catholic / Christian
• Repartimiento


  The process by which the Amerindians were shared out to the encomendero
• Took Tainos and shared up as labourers
• Cater to the souls of Amerindians in that we christianise them, they will be saved
• ENCOMIENDA AND SOCIETY


  • Demographic: Genocide and decimation of Amerindians, population reduced by 90%, died from overwork, malnutrition, suicide, patricide (entire family takes their lives), infanticide, communicable diseases major factor (fly, small pox, syphilis), brutal punishments, killed off for sport (fun activities). In today's society, Amerindian groups are marginalised and largely invisible. Miscegenation- Mestizo (mixed race between Amerindian and Spaniard). Marginalisation and invisibility
  • Economic: Slash and burn, terracing for agriculture, sustainable development (non-exploitation of resources), tourism (Mayan pyramids in Belize, Cleaver Woods in Trinidad)
  • Social: Basket weaving, hammocks, food / culinary practices, place names, road paths (East-West corridor, Mucurapo Road)
  • Political: Laws on land use, preservation of sites (governments recognise Amerindians as being largely close to the environment, despite being marginalised they have impacted on our sustainable policies, recognised as guardians of forests as in Guyana and Suriname, the law: Amerindians must give permission to the government before utilising forested areas and placing industries that can affect the forestry). Spanish: Amerindian syncretism (Feast of Santa Rosa, syncretic festival between Spanish and Amerindian, Mayans in Belize crossover with the Spaniards - interculturation, adopted Catholicism, dress: Mayan indigenous prints on the Spaniard-styled skirt). Need for cultural renewal: First People's festival
• White Indentureship


  Arrangement in French and English colonies by which whites from the metropolis and Ireland were recruited for labour. Given contracts stipulated 5-7 years labour with minimal pay, shelter, food and some measure of clothing. At the end of the term, indentureds would receive return passage, a sum of money or a piece of land.
• A group of poor whites was created, they were seen as superior based on race but economically poor. This created conflict in society among the upper class rich whites, poor whites and the enslaved Africans who were to enter.
• FEATURES OF PLANTATION SOCIETY

  • A Total Institution: total control of labour force, labour-master relations on the plantations, characterised their relationship in social and political spheres
  • Monocrop Economy: one crop for export, for sugar to be profitable, there needed to be large tracts of land for sugar
  • Oligarchic Rule: group of planters who held most power
  • Absenteeism: rich planters who lived in England but had an estate/s in the Caribbean, who had someone managing and supervising the estate while they were in England receiving the money
  • Dependence on foreign protected markets and investments: according to the Mercantilism System, colonies were there for the benefit of the mother country, meaning all the wealth being produced is to benefit the mother country, colony could only trade with mother country
  • Forced labour systems
  • Rigid Social Stratification based on colour and wealth
  • Cultural Erasure, Cultural Vacuum, Acculturation (Africans)
• How these features of plantation society still exist in the Caribbean society today
• Features of plantation society that still exist in Caribbean society today

  • Monocrop Economy
  • Oligarchic Rule
  • Absenteeism
  • Dependence on foreign protected markets and investments
  • Forced labour systems
  • Rigid Social Stratification
  • Cultural Erasure
• Triangular Trade


  • From Europe to West Africa (traded goods for slaves)
  • From West Africa to the Caribbean (traded slaves for sugar, rum and molasses)
  • From the Caribbean to Europe (took back sugar, rum and molasses back to their homeland after they traded the slaves)
• Middle Passage


  The crossing of the Atlantic Ocean
• Treatment of Africans


  • Poor conditions, ships created to maximise amount of persons to be packed on the deck, stacked on levels lying down, many developed stomach diseases as they were fed in the night and they couldn't see what they were eating (spoiled food). Sold off like property in the Caribbean as Africans were chattel slaves (no human rights), first time in history that a human being was being sold off as property, disregard for family, kinship, culture, language, tribes, and relationships as they were sold off separately. Can transfer an enslaved African.
• Atlantic Slave Trade


  Atlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans (politically correct term). Refers to 2nd part of journey (West Africa to the Caribbean)
• African slavery was a total labour force (required for sugar estate): they were labourers 24/7 whether you were working on the plantation or not. Relationship between master and slave continued after work hours and the master determined when they worked or not.
• African Slavery and Society


  • Demographic: Addition of a new race, Miscegenation - mulatto, garifuna (Kalinago mixed with African) (SVG, Dominica)
  • African culture is introduced: transculturation but immediately acculturation takes place and African culture becomes illegalised and European culture is enforced onto the Africans —> cultural vacuum. Physical and psychological control of the labour force (revolt or completely submit)
• IMPACT ON CULTURE


  • Transculturation; Acculturation; Assimilation; Syncretism or Hybridisation
  • Subjugation and stigmatisation of African Culture: seen as inferior in the Caribbean
  • Religious beliefs and practices - lots of people today have a fear of the cultural practices (marketing voodoo as touristic in Haiti to remove the fear)
  • Family structure and child raring practices - matrifocal families, matrilineal families, visiting family and more non-nuclear/extended families came out of African slavery because marriage was not allowed
  • Performance culture - folk culture, performance space: yard is an African construct because in Africa, polygamy was legal so a man could have many wives and each wife and her children had a hut built and in the middle, the space would be the yard where prayer etc would occur
  • Language - creole: structure came from the Africans
  • Ecology - herbal medicine, food, culinary practices: seasonings (partly Amerindian), stews, spices, boiled dishes. Our ancestors knew the medical science behind the nutrition and its benefits.
• INDENTURESHIP


  1. 1834 British Caribbean Emancipation

  2. 1834-1838 system of apprenticeship

  3. 1838 Apprenticeship ends, Africans totally freed in British West Indies

  4. 1848 French West Indies Emancipation

  5. 1880 Spanish Slavery ends (Cuba)

  6. Planters began compensating for the loss of enslaved Africans by recruiting indentured labourers from China, India, Portugal and Java
• Family structure and child raring practices

  • Matrifocal families, matrilineal families, visiting family and more non-nuclear/extended families came out of African slavery because marriage was not allowed
• Performance culture


  • Folk culture, performance space: yard is an African construct because in Africa, polygamy was legal so a man could have many wives and each wife and her children had a hut built and in the middle, the space would be the yard where prayer etc would occur
• Language


  • Creole: structure came from the Africans
• Ecology


  • Herbal medicine, food, culinary practices: seasonings (partly Amerindian), stews, spices, boiled dishes. Our ancestors knew the medical science behind the nutrition and its benefits
• British Caribbean Emancipation


  1834
• System of apprenticeship


  1834-1838
• Apprenticeship ends, Africans totally freed in British West Indies

  1838
• French West Indies Emancipation


  1848
• Spanish Slavery ends (Cuba)

  1880
• Planters began complaining of labour shortage as they've lost their total labour force (but it really was a shortage of free labour as they did not want to pay the Africans)