Caribbean Society: Culture, Race & Ethnicity

• Society is definable as the largest group to which all humans belong.
• Society also refers to people sharing historical background, culture and interests.
• Caribbean society exemplifies this definition.

Culture

• Culture includes values, beliefs and practices shared by members of a society.
• Culture transmits from one generation verbally and non-verbally.
• Culture evolves over time and is continuous.
• Caribbean culture can be considered a way of life which is common to people in the region.
• It comprises learned behaviors fostered via interaction among members of Caribbean society.

Race and Ethnicity

• Race defines a human population believed distinct based on real or imagined physical differences like skin color.
• Ethnicity defines a human population sharing cultural traits like nationality, religion, language, and culture.

Types of Culture

• Material culture includes tangible items produced and used by a society, e.g., food and clothing.
• Non-material culture refers to a society's intangible components, like languages, beliefs, ideas, and values, expressed via consistent actions.
• High culture relates to the dominant group in society, influencing public policy.
• Folk culture refers to culture of the ordinary person, typically expressed in oral traditions.
• Mass culture includes concepts and expressions accepted and understood by the masses, like texting.
• Popular culture sometimes serves as a synonym for mass culture, for example Caribbean music and football.
• Subculture refers to groups sharing common characteristics that distinguish them; Rastafarians are an example.
• Ideal culture includes the values and standards held in high esteem, even if not widely practiced, e.g., abstinence until marriage.
• Real culture includes the values and standards people follow in a society, e.g., divorce or pre-marriage pregnancy.

Cultural Diversity

• Cultural diversity means a range of societies with different origins, religions, and traditions interacting.
• Culture is diverse because individuals experience it differently, while the way individuals in a society view culture may contrast with an outsider's view.
• Culture can vary within a society due to ethnicity.
• Ethnicity involves ties binding people who see themselves as similar and interact, which can overlap or contradict.
• 'Social race' is cultural diversity in terms of race, all races are scientifically the same but distinguished by external features.

Cultural Pluralism

• Cultural pluralism refers to multiple ethnic groups sharing space without significant mixing.
• An example is the East Indians and people of African descent.
• Another example is the Bush Negros and the population of Suriname.

Positive Effects of Cultural Diversity

• Cultural diversity increases opportunity to enjoy a variety of cultural expressions.
• The availability of diverse cultural options presents citizens with a variety of alternatives and experiences.
• National dialogue is created, allowing society to reflect on norms and values of others.
• Cultural diversity helps to develop unity as society realizes that everyone is important and there should be balance among all ethnicities.
• Cultural mixing creates opportunity, which allows new forms emerge, especially in language, art, and music.

Negative Effects of Cultural Diversity

• Prejudices may arise against groups, perpetuated through socialization.
• Differences between groups may appear so profound that myths may be perceived as facts.
• Ethnic hate may arise due to ethnic superiority.
• Ethnic biases may be seen in policies, workplaces, and promotions.
• Continued discrimination or exploitation among groups in a diverse area may lead to social unrest.
• Cultural diversity creates opportunity for the ‘us and them’ syndrome, where one group feels like an outsider.

'Us' and 'Them' Syndrome

• The history of the Caribbean illustrates the development of the 'us' and 'them' syndrome.
• On plantations, European white planters did not mix with the Africans.
• Africans had a diversity of tribes, also diverse in terms of creole vs. African born.
• After emancipation, Africans were hostile to immigrants due to job competition and lower wages.
• Groups wanted to 'own' or 'belong' to the society and create an identity improving status and 'claim' to the Caribbean.

Social Stratification

• Social stratification is the ranking of social groups based on societal values.
• Individuals are ranked based on money, power, prestige, and religion, which reflects levels of inferiority or superiority.
• Status is an individual's rank/position.
• In plantation society, race and color determined status, while contemporary Caribbean society allows participation in certain religions; some read newspapers or patronize activities.

Types of Stratification

• Societies have closed or open stratifications.
• Closed stratification has clear boundaries, strict social status, and no social mobility.
• The caste system in India makes people interact/intermarry within their caste, where ascribed criteria determines your caste.
• During plantation society in the West Indies, status was based on a system of 'institutionalized racism'.
• Open stratification means social position is based on efforts and economic standing.

Social Inequality

• Social stratification is institutionalized inequality where race, color, money, education, and prestige act as gatekeepers.

Social Class and Social Stratification

• In the Caribbean social class is determined by one's ability to earn wealth, status, and prestige.
• Inequalities persist within the society because there are unequal chances of achieving rewards.

Social Groups by Karl Marx

• Bourgeoisie/capitalists own means of production and aim to maximize profit at the workers' expense.
• Proletariat workers sell labor for minimum wages.
• Petite bourgeoisie: farmers and small business owners.

Social Groups by Max Weber

• Weber thinks social class is based on power, prestige and class, where wealth and power improve access.
• Weber saw a middle class and intelligentsia, who might not own property but were not exploited.
• Weber acknowledged the 'underclass' at the lowest stratum below the poverty level.

Social Mobility

• Social mobility is the movement of individuals up or down the hierarchy via meritocracy.
• There was no meritocracy for enslaved Africans in plantation society.
• Advancement in contemporary West Indian society includes marriage, well-paying jobs, business, investment, and inheritance.
• Education/skills training is considered the best way to socially mobilize.

Hybridisation in the Caribbean

• Hybridisation is the processes of cultural and ethnic mixing.
• Hybridisation allows people to equate color to superiority/inferiority.
• Color supersedes economic status, where lighter skin means more prestige and power, which is pigmentocracy.
• Jamaica has two majority races creating their hybrid; other Caribbean societies have more, resulting in innumerable combinations.
• Miscegenation means sexual unions between different races leading to a mixed race.

Examples of Racial Hybrids

• Mestizos: mix of Europeans and Amerindians; all mixed Caribbean groups are called ‘mestizos.'
• Mulattoes: mix of enslaved Africans and Europeans.
• Dougla: mix of East Indian and African.
• Sambo: mix of mulatto and person of African descent.
• Quadroon: mix of mulatto and person of European descent.
• Octoroon: mix of a quadroon and a person of European descent.

Cultural Hybridisation

• Cultural hybridisation is the development of cultural forms via existing ones through contact/interaction.
• In the context of colonization, cultural hybridization is creolisation.

Religious Hybrids in the Caribbean

• Sometimes religious hybrids have more of one religion.
  • Myal: syncretism/hybridization of Christian elements and African views in Jamaica.
  • Shooter Baptist: syncretism/hybridization of Baptists and African beliefs in Trinidad.
• Religious hybrids use drumming, chanting, shouting, and dancing.
• Other examples are: Winti of Suriname, Orisha of Trinidad, Vodun of Haiti, and Santeria in Cuba.

Language Hybridisation

• Caribbean language hybrids are known as creole/patois, mainly derived from colonizers.
• Jamaica's patois has English as the base, St. Lucia's has French.
• Haitian creole has more African due to early independence.
• Standardization now is used to try to standardize Jamaican creole and it is used in the mainstream media.

Creole language has different levels

• Basilect: little similarity with standard language.
• Mesolect: the 'middle ground'.
• Acrolect: very similar to the standard language.

The Creole Society

• Creole typically means ‘something born or created in/at’ – the Caribbean.
• Creole is sometimes used to mean different things, such as persons of African descent in Trinidad and Tobago.
• Paradoxically in Trinidadian society descendants of East Indian or Chinese migrants are not referred to as creole.
• Creolisation is a process of change and adaptation.
• Caribbean culture creolisation is represented by mixtures of languages, religious rituals, musical expressions, and cuisine.

Terms associated with creolisation are:

• Cultural Erasure marks the discontinuation or decline of practices, which is the large-scale neglect/minimising of cultural practices.
• Cultural Retention means practices that survive when most other forms/symbols are no longer evident.
• Cultural Renewal is when a group returns to ignored/suppressed cultural elements via conscious rejuvenation.
• Enculturation means socialization where a person becomes part of another's culture.
• Assimilation happens when a dominant group dominates another culture.
• Transculturation is a drastic process of culture change caused by a revolution.
• Interculturation is the mixing of cultures between groups who share a space where groups are required to participate in each other's way of life.

External Influence

• Today, the younger generation has a lack of identification and so local culture is seen as antiquated.