Theories of Caribbean society

SY26BWeek 4-5

Plantation societyPlantation society/economy:“Countries…where the internal and external

dimensions of the plantation system dominate the country’s economic, social and political structure and its relations with the rest of the world.” (Beckford)

Where several plantations dominate most of the arable land in a predominantly agricultural country Social, economic systems resemble that of

plantation system

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”

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

Plantation societyLegacy 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”

Plantation societyThomas (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

Plantation societyBeckford: 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

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

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

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.”

PluralismFurnivall (cont.): plural society seems calm because under

pressure of force

independence would lead to anarchy and interethnic strife in struggle for hegemony

PluralismPlural 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

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

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…)

Pluralism

Emphasis on culture welcome – importance of individuals in society

Debunks myth of cultural unity, racial harmony

PluralismCriticisms: 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

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.”

Creole society

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

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

Creole societyCreolisation is the result of: Acculturation: absorption of one

culture by another socialisation, imitation, language, sex

etc

Interculturation: more reciprocal, spontaneous process of mixture

Creolisation

Tendency to imitate European, but African influence still important

Uneven process, variation in degree of Euro-Creole vs Afro-Creole dominance

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

Creole society No attention to interaction of subordinate

ethnic groups among each other

Not enough attention to conflictual relations among groups

Overemphasises unity?

CreolisationJean 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

CreolisationEuro-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

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.”

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

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

Underdevelopment/Dependency theoryUnderdeveloped 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

Underdevelopment/Dependency theoryAssumptions 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

Underdevelopment/Dependency theoryIn 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

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

Underdevelopment/Dependency theorySolutions: Import substitution

Promotion of national industry and manufacturing for domestic consumption

Nationalisation

Prohibition of foreign investment

Underdevelopment/Dependency theoryCriticisms Some of poorest countries have not been

subject to European influence (economic contacts/colonisation)

Solutions would lead to corruption and lack of competition