foun 1301 society

• Sociological imagination


  A particular way of looking at the world around us through sociological lenses
• Society


  An autonomous grouping of people who inhabit a common territory, have a common culture (shared set of values, beliefs, customs and so forth) and are linked to one another through routinized social interactions and interdependent statuses and roles
• Society


  • Usually a relatively large grouping of people in terms of size
  • Members share common and distinct culture
  • Has a definite, limited space or territory
  • Members have the feeling of identity and belongingness
  • Members have a common origin and common historical experience
  • Members may speak a common mother tongue or a major language
  • Is autonomous and independent with necessary social institutions and organizational arrangements
• Societies are not islands, there has always been inter-societal relations
• Important periods in the historical development of Caribbean society

  • Indigenous inhabitants of the Caribbean
  • Arrival of the Spaniards
  • European competition for power
  • Slavery and the plantation
  • East Indian indentureship
• Caribs


  • Lived on the smaller islands
  • Skilled sea people and boat makers
  • Had their own organised administrative structure, though more decentralized than the Arawaks
  • Fiercer and more aggressive, showed greater resistance to European aggression
• Arrival of the Spaniards

  1. Exerted control over a significant portion of the region for over three hundred years

  2. Plundered the natural wealth and destroyed the indigenous inhabitants

  3. Indigenous Indians died in large numbers due to Spanish aggression or were enslaved under the oppressive encomienda system
• Many names of places, plants and animals in the Caribbean today are derived from both Spanish and Amerindian words
• The Hispanic territories had a more unified religious culture due to the significant influence of the Catholic Church during the Spanish presence
• Slavery


  A cruel practice of capturing persons against their will and placing them in bondage
• Slavery lasted for over three hundred years in the Caribbean, during which approximately five million Africans were imported from West Africa to provide labour on the sugar cane plantations
• Several of the Africans were already enslaved in Africa, and were sold to the Europeans by their African owners
• By 1750, nine out of ten persons in the Caribbean islands were slaves
• East Indian indentureship


  • Brought to the Caribbean to fill the labour shortage on the sugar cane plantations after emancipation
  • Accustomed to hard work in hot and humid weather conditions
  • Docile and controllable nature made them more amenable to be supervised
  • Saw themselves as transients in an alien society, remained in isolation and interacted with the wider society only when absolutely necessary
• Theories of the Caribbean society

  • Plantation Society
  • Plural Society
  • Creole Society
• Plantation Society Theory


  • Attempts to explain Caribbean social structure on the basis of the plantation experience
  • Plantation system played a dominant role in the economic, social, political and cultural life of the Caribbean
  • Plantations have been a product of metropolitan capital and produced mono-crop cultivation for overseas markets
  • Distinct features include prevalence of mono-crop cultivation, marginalisation of the peasantry and focus on large producers, dependency on foreign investors, little control of crop prices, demand for foreign products at the expense of local products, social stratification based on race and colour
• The plantation system was an all-pervasive design that governed the lives of all members engaged in production
• After emancipation, the Caribbean society was still modeled along the lines of the plantation society
• The populations brought from all over the world existed as a plural society with lack of social integration
• and for foreign products at the expense of local products.
• Social stratification is based on factors such as race and colour.
• The plantation was the major institution that played a significant role in the development of Caribbean culture.
• The islands were developed where the demand for foreign products dominated and vast amounts of goods were brought in from abroad to satisfy the needs of the people. Even technology was imported and today we even see a high demand for foreign commodities.
• The plantation system was an all-pervasive design, which governed the lives of all members who were engaged in production.
• Horowitz (1971) sees it as a societal design which perpetuates a society divided into segments: one large and unfree, and another that is small and free and which controls power in the society.
• Beckford notes that in the 20th century after emancipation the Caribbean society was still modeled along the lines of the plantation society.
• Best (1968) comments on the lack of social integration and saw the populations that were brought from all over the world existing as a plural society with no basis for integration.
• M. G. Smith (1965) writing about Jamaican society also observed that nationalism was slow to develop, and that the abolition of slavery "freed a race, but failed to create a society.
• Plural Society Theory


  This is described as the most influential image of the Caribbean by Craig (1982) and Sankatsing (1992). This theory was modified and applied to the Caribbean by M. G. Smith.
• Plural societies


  • They are made up of different cultural sections which all try to maintain their own values and institutions
  • These groups only meet in the marketplace where they interact for economic transactions
  • This theory is seen as too static and, hence, does not acknowledge the many changes that have been taking place in these societies
• M.G. Smith's plural society thesis

  • In homogeneous societies, there is a common system of basic institutions shared
  • In plural societies, there are alternative and exclusive institutions that exist and as a result the basic institutions are not shared
  • Smith does not see such plural societies as being stratified by classes, but there may be internal classification among the various races
  • The major cultural elements, the Whites, Africans, East Indians, and Chinese, each practising different forms of the common institutions such as marriage, family and religion
• Smith (1965) examined Grenadian society where he identified two sections of the society the Whites and Blacks. He also studied Jamaican society in which he identified sections in society such as the Whites, Blacks and Brown or intermediate categories. In Jamaican society, Smith identified alternative forms of all institutions in the society. In looking at the family, he recognized other forms besides the nuclear family.
• Smith's plural society thesis

  • Homogeneous societies are those with one set of institutions whilst those with alternative institutions are heterogeneous
  • Those societies where the basic institutions (family, education and religion) are not shared are plural societies
  • The cultural sections in the Caribbean are Whites, Browns, Blacks, with East Indians and Chinese, in other territories
• Brathwaite (1960) redefines a plural society as "one composed of such varying groups, each with its own subculture, that only a few cultural symbols are shared by all".
• Brathwaite criticizes Smith's theory on the grounds that every society is 'pluralistic' in that there is no 'homogeneous' society, and that distinguishing between plural societies and homogeneous societies is difficult that plural societies are not always unstable. Societies may possess "a rich cultural variation within a "highly unified national society".
• Brathwaite disagrees that societies should be defined in cultural terms. He speaks of shared values: universal-achievement values as opposed to particularistic-ascriptive values. Universalistic-achievement are the values to which all the groups aspire, and particularistic-ascriptive are those values common to a specific group in society. Brathwaite was of the opinion that the universalistic-achievement values shared by groups in society are those values which hold the society together, as in Trinidad: the East Indians and the Africans.
• Carl Stone's (1973) critique of Smith's thesis was based on a survey which Stone conducted in Jamaica. According to his critique: The differences are not based between the cultural sections, but have a material base. These differences are related to income and resources. The economy and the occupational structure should form the basis for any analysis. Respondents saw themselves as belonging to 'classes' and not to 'cultural sections'. They were of the opinion that they belonged to one of the upper, middle, working and lower class.
• Creole Society Theory


  This image of the Caribbean, developed by historians including E. K. Brathwaite, is said to be the best attempt to acknowledge the changing nature of Caribbean society, particularly the interaction between the various ethnic groups. It emphasises, the meeting and fusion of cultures, particularly European and African, to give birth to a new supposedly original culture. This creole culture, formed through acculturation and inter-culturation, replaces the true indigenous culture of the region, that of its original inhabitants.
• Creolisation


  • A process of change and adaptation that occurs over time. In the Caribbean, the mixture of languages, religious rituals, musical expressions, cuisine and people, represent the creolisation of Caribbean culture and society.
  • Acculturation: a process in which contacts between different cultural groups lead to the acquisition of new cultural patterns by the subordinate groups.
  • Interculturation refers to the mutual, symbiotic exchange of cultural traits.
• Plantation society fostered assimilation from the day of 'discovery' as the Europeans suppressed the cultural beliefs and practices of all groups they encountered. When differing cultural traits diffuse into a society on a massive scale, the culture of the subordinate group is significantly changed. However, acculturation does not necessarily result in new, alien cultural traits completely replacing the old ones. There often is a syncretism, or an amalgamation of traditional and introduced traits. The new traits may be blended with or worked into the indigenous cultural patterns to make them more acceptable.