SOCIOLOGY PRESENTATI

ON

GROUP SIX

ALEX ELLISPRESONA MCLEANPHILLIP BIGGSDAVINA SMITH

RESEARCH QUESTION

The Caribbean remains a plantation only in terms of its demographic character and not in terms of its economic, political and social make up. Discuss in light of Beckford’s Plantation Society model.

KEY TERMS

CaribbeanPlantationDemographyEconomicsPoliticsSocial make up

CARIBBEAN A geographic area in which the people of the region have a shared historical experience, and in the context of a shared historic experience we see a linkage with the whole chain of islands and some of the mainland territories themselves

PLANTATION SOCIETY

The plantation is a total economic institution. It binds everyone in its embrace to the one task of executing the will of the owner or owners. And because it is omnipotent and omnipresent in the lives of those living within its confines, it is also a total institution. (Beckford, 1972)

DEMOGRAPHY The study of population. It provides information on population size, its composition, and changes that occur as a result of death, migration and social mobility.

ECONOMICS A science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses. (Robbins, 1935)

POLITICAL SYSTEM

A social institution that depends on a set of procedures that are recognized for implementing and achieving the goals of the society.

SOCIAL MAKE UPThis is how persons of a society or a region are socialized whether it is good or bad, and how they are stratified in society.

BECKFORD’S VIEWS ON:

DEMOGRAPHYECONOMICSPOLITICSSOCIAL MAKE UP

DEMOGRAPHYThe structure of races in the Caribbean

remains the same now as the days of slavery and indentureship:

Throughout the West Indies, white people are a very small percentage, while black people make up the bulk of the population.

ECONOMYThe ownership of property remains in the hands of the

few elite (predominantly White)

The economic system transcends the local level to the international level as multinational corporations continue to settle in the Caribbean. Note that majority of the profits are returned to the metropole.

Caribbean territories remain dependent on the export of agricultural products, including the plantation crops of sugar and banana. Metropolitan economies are the primary targets for export.

POLITICALPolitical power remains in the hands the few

white elites. The black leaders that are forefront in the society are elected and maintained by the white minority.

As in all societies, the distribution of real political power is identical to the pattern of economic and social power

The ruling ideologies therefore remain the ideologies of the white (behind a black face).

EXAMPLE In Jamaica we still uses the Westminster system

of government as the system of government. In order for a government to have real political

power it has to have enough capital to finance elections, therefore he/she needs financial backing

SOCIALCaribbean society comprises different racial and

cultural groupings brought together for economic purposes.

The plantation influence can be traced almost directly in every important aspect of social life.

The stratification system of white at top, brown in middle and black at bottom infuse into the occupational ranking in today’s societies.

CLASS-CASTE SYSTEM

Learned professionals,

planters

Small planters, merchants, lesser

professionals

Yeomen, artisan

Labourers, servants

Slaves

SOCIAL CONT’D Education is now a vehicle for mobility

increasing the numbers in the intermediary brown group. Notwithstanding this persons still adhere to the view of the supremacy of the white culture. Social mobility becomes synonymous with adopting a white European way of life.

CARL STONE

ECONOMICSThe growth of the capitalist class includes

a wider grouping of light-skinned ethnic minorities offering competition to the white elites.

The increase in inequality in levels of living between the most affluent and most impoverished classes as the economy diversified and the modern sector expanded due mainly to foreign investment.

POLITICALThe development of party politics as a

middle-class power base, increased upward mobility between the lower and middle levels of the stratification system.

SOCIALThe growth of counter ideological social

belief systems emphasizing black consciousness, racial pride and African identities among the more militant and alienated within the poorer classes.

SMITH AND THE PLURAL SOCIETY Smith identifies that: The cultural sections in the Caribbean are Whites,

Browns, Blacks, with East Indians and Chinese, in other territories.

Plural societies as being stratified by classes, but there may be internal classification among various groups.

Homogeneous societies are those with one set of institutions whilst those with alternative institutions are heterogeneous.

Societies where the basic institutions (family, school, and religion) are not shared are plural societies

BRATHWAITE’S VIEWS

Creolisation is a “way of seeing the society, not in terms of white and black, master and slave, in separate nuclear units, but as contributory parts of a whole”. Brathwaite criticizes ‘plantation-thesis’ of George Beckford and company: he is explicit that it is wrong to see Jamaica solely as a “‘slave’ society “or an “enormous sugar factory”. Brathwaite also distant himself from the pluralist model of Caribbean society by M. G. Smith and his own notion of creolisation. The former is “based on an apprehension of cultural polarity, on an ‘either/or’ principle, on the idea of people sharing common divisions instead of increasingly common values”. (Brathwaite, 1971)

CONCLUSION

Fundamentally, the Caribbean does not only remains as a plantation in terms of demographic character but also in terms of economics, politics and social make up to a lesser extent. Although George Beckford saw today’s society as a replica of plantation society, however his work was done in 1972 therefore it would not give a good reflection of the Caribbean today.

However, Carl Stone works gave a much more clearer reflection on today’s society where he highlighted that there is upward social mobility causing a the Caribbean to change slightly in terms of political, economic and social but remains in terms of demography.