theories of caribbean society

1. Theories of Caribbean society SY26B Week 4-5

3. Plantation society Caribbean society is a macrocosm of the plantation Plantation and legacy of slavery are the most important features of Caribbean life Plantation as �total institution�

4. Plantation society Legacy: Internal characteristics Mono-crop culture Rigid stratification Poor cohesion Peasant marginality External characteristics Dependence on external economic systems Poverty, underdevelopment, powerlessness are result of internal characteristics of system and external element of dependence on metropolis and external financial/economic systems

5. Plantation society Legacy of plantation system (Thomas): Link between Caribbean economic system and metropole economic system and consumption habits, plus links between local and metropole bourgeoisie created roots of modern dependency No other cultivation allowed in sugar economies i.e. dependence on one crop for survival Very stratified workforce, whites controlling blacks Ideology and culture used to justify system: �white supremacy�

6. Plantation society Thomas (cont.) Speculative approach to sugar: interested in windfalls, not improving efficiency Production of primary exports using domestic resources; consumption of imports No local technological advancement

7. Plantation society Beckford: Unit of authority controlling every aspect of people�s lives Caste system: people under system and relations between them dictated by plantation needs Plantation�s internal dimension - social system Plantation�s external dimension - economic system

8. Plantation society Social and political organisation in plantation economies in Third World resemble that of colonial period Lack of real development post-colonialism Peasant development constrained by legacy of plantation system

9. Plantation society Foregrounds legacy of slavery, racism, inequality and links that to present conditions: Blame / responsibility assigned to the colonial powers Not enough focus on individual agency Too much focus on institution Individuals can carve out niches of autonomy People within system had own social organisation, values, beliefs

10. Pluralism (MG Smith) Based on Furnivall�s study of Far East: people of different ethnic groups come together but �do not combine. Each group holds its own religion, its own culture and language, its own ideas and ways�different sections of the community living side by side, but separately within the same political unit. Even in the economic sphere there is a division of labour along racial lines.�

11. Pluralism Furnivall (cont.): plural society seems calm because under pressure of force independence would lead to anarchy and interethnic strife in struggle for hegemony

12. Pluralism Plural society: heterogeneity to the point of incompatibility between various sections/segments no cultural unity; political only societies depend on regulation of inter-section relations by one of the cultural sections in order to operate as a single unit

13. Pluralism WI �structurally peculiar�: society dominated by a small section with European (British) culture and allegiance, in cooperation with� an intermediate local section of ambivalent culture over� the majority of alien African culture

14. Pluralism Example of plurality: religion Agnosticism of British society + faith and skill in modern science; dominant value is materialism Christianity African-type ritual forms (spirit possession, sacrifice, obeah, witchcraft, divination�)

15. Pluralism Emphasis on culture welcome � importance of individuals in society Debunks myth of cultural unity, racial harmony

16. Pluralism Criticisms: Discuss race and class as well as / instead of culture in differentiating groups in society Society also held together by domination in various aspects of social life (customs, language�) �Cross-sectional snapshot�: no allowance for change

17. Creole society (Kamau Brathwaite) �In Jamaica, fixed within the dehumanising institution of slavery, were two cultures of people, having to adapt themselves to a new environment and to each other. The friction created by this confrontation was cruel, but it was also creative.�

18. Creole society Europeans and Africans both contributed to the development of a distinctive society and culture that was neither European or African, but Creole

19. Creole society black/brown/white, but �infinite possibilities within these distinctions, and many ways of asserting identity� representation of creolisation: coloured as bridge between black and white, helping to integrate society

20. Creole society Creolisation is the result of: Acculturation: absorption of one culture by another socialisation, imitation, language, sex etc Interculturation: more reciprocal, spontaneous process of mixture

21. Creolisation Tendency to imitate European, but African influence still important Uneven process, variation in degree of Euro-Creole vs Afro-Creole dominance

22. Creolisation Seen as defining feature of Caribbean society despite diversity Allows treatment of Caribbean as a unit Used to explain impact of globalisation/global flows

23. Creole society No attention to interaction of subordinate ethnic groups among each other Not enough attention to conflictual relations among groups Overemphasises unity?

24. Creolisation Jean Besson: Creolisation as indigenisation/localisation (Mintz) Several creole identities in West-Central Jamaica Cultures of: Afro-Creoles: slaves (black & coloured) Euro-Creoles: white colonists Meso-Creoles: free coloureds/peasants/middle class Rooted in plantations, maroon settlements, farms, towns, transnational networks

25. Creolisation Euro-Creoles: (land, architecture) Planters (English, Scottish) Links established through Marriage, kinship, friendship Alliances against slave resistance Slave, land sales �Managerial elite� (plantation managers) Sports, social clubs Migration between UK and Jamaica Corporate plantations Diasporic care/renovation of heritage sites; social events

26. Underdevelopment/Dependency theory (Walter Rodney, Andre Gunder Frank) �Europe did not �discover� the underdeveloped countries�she created them.� �Modern underdevelopment expresses a particular relationship of exploitation�.All of the countries named as �underdeveloped� in the world are exploited by others; and the underdevelopment with which the world is now pre-occupied is a product of capitalist, imperialist and colonialist exploitation.�

27. Underdevelopment/Dependency theory History of underdeveloped countries in the last 5 centuries = history of consequences of European expansion International economy created underdevelopment and then hindered efforts to escape it Metropoles develop and satellites underdevelop Developed countries blocked or distorted the development of poor countries

28. Underdevelopment/Dependency theory Underdevelopment is caused by: Capture of wealth Restrictions on capacity to maximise economic potential Structural dependence: Dependent on economies of Euro-American countries Dependency perpetuated/exacerbated through policies/incentives Attempts to resist dependence result in actions by developed countries

29. Underdevelopment/Dependency theory Underdeveloped countries� features: Export of surplus Low national income Stagnation/slow rates of growth Low levels of industrialisation Savings exported/wasted Poor health indicators Low levels of basic food consumption �etc

30. Underdevelopment/Dependency theory Assumptions of stage theories of development: Past and present resemble earlier histories of developed countries Development through assuming metropoles� capital, institutions, values �Dual society� thesis: one affected by economic relations with outside world the other isolated, pre-capitalist, thus underdeveloped

31. Underdevelopment/Dependency theory In fact� Underdeveloped countries� past and present don�t look like any stage of the developed countries� past Developed countries were never underdeveloped � possibly undeveloped Underdevelopment is product of past and continuing economic and other relations between underdeveloped countries and the metropole Economic development can only happen independently of diffusion of capital etc Capitalist system has penetrated all of society, even the underdeveloped part

32. Underdevelopment/Dependency theory Satellites develop most when ties to metropole are weakest: e.g. during the WW and the Depression Most underdeveloped countries now had strongest ties to metropolis in past and were eventually abandoned by metropolis greatest exporters of primary products, biggest sources of capital e.g. Caribbean: had typical capitalist export economy when market for sugar declined, abandoned by metropolis no autonomous generation of economic development

33. Underdevelopment/Dependency theory Solutions: Import substitution Promotion of national industry and manufacturing for domestic consumption Nationalisation Prohibition of foreign investment

34. Underdevelopment/Dependency theory Criticisms Some of poorest countries have not been subject to European influence (economic contacts/colonisation) Solutions would lead to corruption and lack of competition