Models of Caribbean Society

Plantation - Best, Levitt, Beckford

Plural - M.G Smith
Creole - K. Braithwaite, E. Goveia
Class Stratified - Carl Stone
 The Most Developed Models

Plantation Society

Plural Society

Creole Society
 Plantation Society Model
A particular class of society with distinguishing
characteristics of social structure and political organization,
and laws of motion governing social change (Barrow and
Reddock, 2001).

Demographic, political and socio-economic structures are

almost identical to those found within the individual
plantation community.
 Plantation Society Model
Backdrop: - Analytical significance & pervasive influence of
the plantation in the New World

Two Variants -
- Weak (Horowitz, Patterson, Wagley)
Plantation communities characterized by unstable family units,
hierarchical class relations, low levels of community
integration, mobile populations often recruited for seasonal
work
- Strong : draws on analysis of structural dependency in the
Caribbean (Best & Levitt, Beckford, Witter)
 Plantation Models Characterizing
Caribbean Economies

Best and Levitt argued that:

Pure Plantation Economy of Slavery

Plantation Economy modified after Emancipation

Plantation Economy further modified after 1940 with

Industrialization by Invitation

They ignored the social forces that contributed to change

in the region
 George Beckfords Outline of
Plantation Society

Distinguished between plantation as social system and plantation

as economic system
Modern Plantation Society has roots in Slave Plantation system -
mercantile capitalism
Societies produced commodities for sale in international
Capitalist markets
Surpluses generated from exploitation of slave labour fueled
process of accumulation that gave rise to development of
Industrial Capitalism in Europe
Slave Plantation society was an integral part of International
Capitalist System
Beckford contd.
Future of Plantation Societies bound up with future of
International Capitalism

That future will be determined by interaction of 2

opposing forces
1. Continuing imperialist expansion of Capitalism in

new shapes & forms

2. The strengthening of popular forces worldwide for

national liberation
Beckford contd.
Hierarchical chain of command formed with White
Europeans as owners of the MOP

That occupational structure instituted race in the process

of production & set up a particular class society

Economic spin-off of the Plantation Society is the

production of commodities for export
 Beckford contd.
Trade marked by unequal exchange & keeps Plantation
Society backward relative to Industrial Capitalist societies. This
arises from existence of a reserve army of labour in Plantation
Society

Post Emancipation - nonagricultural activities (tourism, mining,

light manufacturing) began. These diversified mix of
commodity production & complicated class structure

Institutionalization of race & class remained with mode of

production
Beckford contd.

Plantation Society is one in a state of constant crisis

Capital - labour antagonism is central to all Capitalist

economies, but is heightened in Plantation Society due to
element of race

Plantation Society is a plural society - different racial &

cultural groups brought together only in realm of
economic activity
 Beckford contd.

Plantation Society is dependent on Metropolitan economy

Fortunes of all groups in Plantation Society bound up

with relations between Plantation Economy and
Metropolitan Economy

Plantation Society will always exhibit underlying social

tension & internal crisis will be a recurrent feature

Crises likely to involve racial divisions

 Features of Plantation Society

Culturally plural with races brought together mainly by

economic activity - rigid patterns of stratification

Political power exercised on behalf of planter class, in spite

of, for example, black political parties.

Development of local govt. inhibited & highly centralized

state due to legacy of loose & weak local communities
 Features of Plantation Society
Brittle social order maintained through expansion of educational
opportunities for lowest strata, nationalism against the metropole
& energies of races themselves

Examples : Privy Council abolition; Reparations debate,

Nationalism, etc.
Dependent industrialization (subservient partnership with
foreign capital)
Plantation Agriculture of diminished importance
 Some Visible Elements of
Plantation Society

1. Skin Bleaching / Preference for lighter complexion

2. Dependency Syndrome - negotiation for preferential trading
arrangements
3. Culturally Plural society - mixing but not combining;
class/colour stratification (rigid in parts)
4. Inequality & discrimination of poor, especially black
population (inner-cities)
5. Price - taking / weak manufacturing; primary production
6. Ill effects of globalization (economies threatened, as well as
companies)
 Has Anything Changed?

Tourism, Sports and Arts and Entertainment have been

able to move the Caribbean from being solely price-taking
to price-setting

Manufacturing and Service driven sectors have grown

over the period

Weakened rigidity of social order / social system through

increased opportunities for upward social mobility
 Has Anything Changed?

Kamau Brathwaite noted the rise and fall in the fortunes of

particular social groups and classes, and of their political,
cultural, economic and ideological practices and expressions
(Craig)

Diminished significance of Agriculture, particularly the

Plantation Agriculture Sector
Kumper noted, however, that capitalism has been reshaped
and morphed, evident now in partnerships that have some
subservient relationship by locals with foreign capital
 Plural Society
Alex de Tocqueville the older and better known usage links
pluralism with situations in which competing views and
program are canvassed freely on issues and subjects or public
interest eg. religious, political or educational processes and
conditions.

Presupposes the universalistic incorporation of all citizens.

 Plural Society

Furnivall- involves the differential incorporation of those who

participate freely in the juridical, civic and political institutions
and others who do not.

Each is in the strictest sense a medley, for they mix but do not
combine. Each holds by its own culture and language, its own
ideas and waysThere is a plural society, with 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
 Plural Society
M.G. Smith the most noted exponent
Societies seen as culturally & socially homogeneous
common system of basic institutions shared
Heterogeneous societies differing alternative and
exclusive institutions are practised
Plural societies basic institutions not shared by the cultural
sections that comprise them

Because of institutional and value differentiation, such

societies are inherently unstable and monopoly of power
by one cultural section is important to the status quo
(Craig).
 Some Criticisms of Plural Society
Model
Lloyd Braithwaite argued that every society is to some
extent pluralistic

Failure to consider acts of inter-culturation, according to

Kamau Brathwaite (Creole Society)

Static and failing to consider alliances between and

among groups

Stone argued that it is not institutional but material

differences that define social groups
 Creole Society
The single most important factor in the development of the
Caribbean was not the imported influence of the Mother
Country but a cultural action. (K. Brathwaite in Barrow and
Reddock, 2001).

This cultural action (creolization) was based on the

stimulus/response of individuals within the society to their
environment and to each other.

This action was a physical, psychological and spiritual one.

 Creole Society
For the Europeans, their was an obscure force working on
an entire section of society which made them conform to a
certain concept of themselves.

This force made them perform certain roles which they had
come to believe in.

A similar kind of pressure towards conformity operated on

the generality of slaves; creolization began with
seasoning.
 Creole Society
Creole society produced imitation of the whites. This
imitation naturally occurred among ex/slaves in close
contact with Europeans.

This mimicry was produced and cultivated widely by the

middle class in West Indian societies after emancipation.

In the white household, the negro influence was pervasive.