CARIBBEAN FAMILIES

1. CARIBBEAN FAMILIES Definitions Theoretical Approaches to Caribbean Families

2. Definitions Family Unit � social group of two or more people, related by blood, marriage or adoption, who usually live together. Kinship � a social bond, based on blood, marriage or adoption, that joins individuals into families. Marriage � a legally sanctioned relationship, involving economic cooperation as well as normative sexual activity and childbearing, that people expect to be enduring

3. Definitions Cont�d. Conjugal Family � consists of one or more mothers & their children, &/or spouses (usually husband). A subset of this family type is the nuclear family. Patrifocal Family � consists of a father and his children. Matrifocal Family � consists of a mother and her children. Patriarchal Family � family form in which the father is the head. Matriarchal Family � family form organized in which the mother or senior mother is the formal and functional head.

4. Caribbean Family Structure Theoretical Approaches: Origins � how family forms are created. Functions � how the family form functions in society. Origins (1930s): Melville Herskovits & Franklyn Frazier Negro family forms in U.S. differed from mainstream U.S. family patterns (nuclear). How the negro family in the U.S. had come to assume its current form. Negro families were maternal & extended

5. Theoretical Approaches to C�bean Families Origins Perspective Common law unions occurred frequently High rate of illegitimacy. Analyses rooted in the past (history). Herskovits Origin of negro family to be found in the African cultural heritage that had survived. Commitments to ancestral past made then culturally different from Americans.

6. Scale of Intensity of Africanism Survivals ????? Syncretism ???? (resemble closely original African forms) (Combine aspects of old with new to give new meaning) ? birthing practices ? dance rituals; drumming (African) ? burying of �navel string� bible reading (European: Christian) ? Nine nights ???Reinterpretations (Reinterpreting old into new parallels) ? Ceremony of Purification (African) ? Baptism (European: Christian) ? Calling on dead family for protection of new born ? Christening (European: Christian)

7. Noted That: Music } retained more folklore } African heritage magic &} than Religion} did: Economic Life Technology Art Political & Legal Institutions

8. Frazier Manner of negro enslavement destroyed completely African culture. Left instead cultural vacuum which brought about adoption (imperfectly) of western ideologies necessary for survival. No evidence to support the transfer, survival & retention of African family patterns Herskovits� explanation is purely speculative & unscientific. Attributable to: changing social & economic conditions of life in U.S. need to belong Need for economic sustenance ? nuclear families, single headed households, promiscuity etc. Exigencies of life on the plantations (slave & free), in the cities as well as the impact of white cultural patterns.

9. Functions Perspective (Post 1945) Concern with the functioning/malfunctioning family. Social Pathology Carried out mainly by social welfare workers. Investigation of C�bean family structure as a social problem Not concerned with providing theoretical explanation of family structure. Brought on by Moyne Commission 1938-39; set up to investigate social & economic conditions of West Indian families; disorganized due to: Promiscuity Common-law or consensual cohabitation Illegitimacy Female headed households.

10. Thomas Simey (social welfare worker: London) reported that: Family life was affected by poverty; Conjugal ties promiscuous and transitory; Father to child contact irregular ?poverty due to lack of economic support; Children illegitimate, fatherless, unschooled & subject to severe erratic parental discipline; Many boys between 12 � 16 years leave home to join street gangs. Solution: Mass Marriage Movement (1944) �An attempt to persuade people to adopt the superior co-residential, nuclear family sanctioned by marriage & to produce legitimate children.�

11. Structural Functionalism (Early 1950s) Edith Clarke, R.T. Smith, M.G. Smith et al. � �how the interrelated parts of a system functioned to meet the needs or functional prerequisites of the total structure� Analysis highlights the family as a functional response to the negative effects of socio-economic conditions. Family seen as indispensable unit responsible for smooth running of society. Performs several important functions: Childcare, sexual services, economic support, managerial and status defining functions; Purports division of labour; Women: household & childcare chores. Men: economic support for family. Used nuclear family as the model against which all else is judged.

12. Personal Choice & Adaptive Response (1970s) Hyman Rodman. Firmly grounded in structural functional theory but views family patterns as informal & flexible, thus enabling individs. to make personal choices from a number of alternative patterns & families & to adapt mechanisms necessary for survival. Behaviour & relationships seen as culturally appropriate solutions to problems of living in socio-economic circumstance of deprivation & uncertainty. Positive response.

13. Personal Choice Focuses on male economic inadequacy ??marginality ? loose conjugal relationships, marital shifting, child shifting. Loss of authority in family ? loss of self esteem Seek gratification elsewhere (other women or peers): less demanding unions. Adaptive Response Focuses on the ways in which family patterns represent culturally appropriate adaptive responses & strategies for survival. Conjugal Unions Marriage & Extra-legal Unions Child-Shifting Matrifocality Kinship Networks Female-headed Households.