Caribbean Sociology

• Plural Society Thesis


  Concept developed by M.G. Smith and J.S. Furnivall to describe societies with alternative and exclusive institutions among different cultural groups
• Plural societies


  • Lack a common system of basic institutions shared across the society
  • Have alternative and exclusive institutions for different cultural groups
  • Are not stratified by class but have internal classification among races
• Plural societies


  • Caribbean societies
  • Burma
  • Java
• Pluralism


  The condition in which members of a society are distinguished by fundamental differences in their institutional practices
• Plural society


  A society lacking in social will and collective agreement, where different cultural groups live side by side but separately
• In plural societies


  The one common feature of the different groups is the desire for economic advancement
• M.G. Smith's view of Caribbean society

  • Comprised separate racial sections identified as cultural sections
  • Each cultural section had its own institutions forming the matrix of the social structure
  • Institutions had their own sets of activities, ideas and values defining persistent forms of social life
  • Crucial and compulsory institutions include family and education
  • Different groups lived side by side but each had its own institutions
• After Emancipation, the migration of other groups increased the complexity causing further divisions in the Caribbean social structure
• Plural societies


  • Described as "unstable" in the absence of a collective agreement, therefore integration is non-existent
  • The form of stability which existed was as a result of the forced control based on colonial rule
  • The common value system which emerged was that of white superiority
• Black inferiority


  The colonized population accepted and incorporated a western scale of values which replaced their original values
• The antagonistic relationship increased

  With the movement towards self-government
• Once the superior social power had ceased

  The subordinate group now assumed power and each tried to assert itself
• Breakdown of the common value system

  White superiority and black inferiority
• The breakdown of the common value system

  Created a tendency towards disintegration of the social system
• The breakdown of the common value system

  Reflected in the formation of the lower class development of its own subculture which became dominant
• The breakdown of the common value system


  Reflected increased tensions among the separate groups
• Some groups looked for their original value system

  As they tried to maintain contact with their homeland as in the case of the East Indians and Chinese
• Homogeneous societies


  Those with one set of institutions
• Heterogeneous societies


  Those with alternative institutions
• Plural societies


  Where the basic institutions (family education and religion) are not shared
• Cultural sections in the Caribbean

  • Whites
  • Browns
  • Blacks
  • East Indians
  • Chinese
• Every society is 'pluralistic', in that there is no 'homogeneous' society
• Distinguishing between plural societies and homogeneous societies is difficult
• Plural societies


  Not always unstable; societies may possess 'a rich cultural variation' within a 'highly unified national society'
• Societies


  Should not be defined in cultural terms
• Particularistic-ascriptive values


  Values common to a specific group in society
• Universalistic-achievement values shared by groups in society are those values that hold the society together, as in Trinidad and Tobago with the East Indians and the Africans
• The differences are not 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 classes
• Smith's thesis is unable to explain social change, especially cultural change. Smith sees the social institutions as being ossified and impermeable to change
• The composition of the population of Trinidad and Tobago indicates a growing 'mixed' category
• Creolization


  A process of change and adaptation that occurs over time
• Creole


  Something or somebody derived from the Old World but developed in the New
• Creole society


  • Its historical base is in slavery, plantations systems, and colonialism
  • Its cultural composition mirrors its racial mixture. Europeans and Africans elements predominate in fairly standard combinations and relationship
• Creolization


  Involves both acculturation and interculturation
• Acculturation


  A process in which contacts between different cultural groups lead to the acquisition of new cultural patterns by the subordinate groups
• Interculturation


  Mutual, symbiotic exchange of cultural traits
• Cultural change did not occur as a one-way process, despite the dominance of European culture, rather the peoples of the Caribbean played an active role in shaping the new and distinctive cultures of the region
• Creole society theory acknowledges the existence of internal cleavages and conflict in the slave society, but also stresses the processes of interaction and mutual adjustment between the major cultural traditions of Europe and Africa