and

Identity

Social Formation

Amelia Sookoo, Enarie Narine and Priya Mohammed

 Caribbean Identity
Caribbean Identity-
Caribbean identity is a group of traits
that together define a nation or region
and are used to identify or refer to that
nation or region. The establishment of a
bond, a shared sense of solidarity,
loyalty, and belongingness are all
Identity develops influenced by this identity. It also
from a collective
group
consciousness that
transmits a close resemblance of feeling
results from
community and understanding.
membership.
 Factors that strengthen/weaken the notion of
a Caribbean Identiy

Historical Process- Commonalities whcih foster a Caribbean Identity.

a) Genocide, enslavement, and indentureship are some of the historical
legacies of European colonialism that we all share, with the bulk of
Caribbean territory being British.

b) Plantation society's rules and values have been passed down

generally. For example, socioeconomic stratification, the pigmentocracy,
and demand for imported products.

c) We are all transplanted people who arrived as laborers, including

Africans, Indians, Chinese, and Portuguese, with the exception of the
Americans.
 Factors that strengthen/weaken the notion of
a Caribbean Identiy

Historical Process- Differences which may prevent the growth of

aCaribbean Identity.
a) Multiple colonizers were brought in via European colonialism,
including French, Spanish, Dutch, and English territories.
 Factors that strengthen/weaken the notion of
a Caribbean Identiy

Geography- Commonalities whcih foster a Caribbean Identity.

a) Caribbean nations are situated close to one another.

Geography- Differences which may prevent the growth of aCaribbean

Identity.
a) Due to our isolation and fragmentation, we are physically divided by
ocean barriers despite sharing the same geographical space. As a result,
many people tend to view the Caribbean as a whole rather than as an
island chain.
 Factors that strengthen/weaken the notion of
a Caribbean Identiy
Political Arrangements- Commonalities whcih foster a Caribbean Identity.
a) Most territories have democratically elected governments and are
independent.

Political Arrangements- Differences which may prevent the growth of

Caribbean Identity.
a) There are a variety of political arrangements, including communist,
associate state, and British overseas territories.
 Factors that strengthen/weaken the notion of
a Caribbean Identiy

Language- Commonalities whcih foster a Caribbean Identity.

a) The majority of Caribbean nations speak English.

Language- Differences which may prevent the growth of Caribbean

Identity.
a) Language difficulties exist because the Caribbean republics speak a
variety of languages, including French, Spanish, English, and Dutch. This
linguistic barrier prevents the development of stronger relationships.

b) Diversity in accent, regional intonation of English spoken, and dialectal

differences in creole languages all serve as extra obstacles to forging a
shared identity.
 Factors that strengthen/weaken the notion of
a Caribbean Identiy

Race and Colour- Commonalities whcih foster a Caribbean Identity.

a) The bulk of people in the Caribbean (78%) are of African heritage.

Race and Colour- Differences which may prevent the growth of Caribbean
Identity.
a) Several diasporas live in Caribbean nations, including those of the
Indian, Chinese, Syrian, and Lebanese people.

b) Historically, a rigorous system of stratification was produced by race

and color. Pigmentocracy, in which people with lighter skin tones were
given advantages and opportunities that others were not allowed to enjoy.
 Factors that strengthen/weaken the notion of
a Caribbean Identiy

Resources- Commonalities whcih foster a Caribbean Identity.

a)The majority of countries and territories share resources and depend
on offshore banking, tourism, and other economic activities.

Resources- Differences which may prevent the growth of Caribbean

Identity.
b)Due to their mineral richness, some Caribbean nations have different
development paths. Take Trinidad and Tobago, for example.
Cultural Diversity
What is cultural Diversity?
A wide phrase, culture can be thought of
as our "way of being" and includes ideas,
values, customs, and actions. In light of
this, the term "cultural diversity"
describes people who may reside in the
same area yet have different customs
and habits.
 What is used to determine whether a society
is culturally diverse?
1. Race- Based on their physical, genetic, or
biological characteristics, racial groups are
classified.
Eg: Hair type, skin, eye color, facial
characteristics.

2. Ethnicity-A group of individuals who have a

recognizable culture or set of social
A society's culture
may not be uniform
characteristics is this.
even though it
appears to be racially Eg: Religion, music, language, dress, value
and ethnically
homogeneous since
various people have
system, traditions and beliefs, nationality (Indo-
diverse beliefs and
value systems. Caribbean, Afro-Caribbean)
 How did the Caribbean region become
culturally diverse?

1. History- Amerindians, Europeans, Africans,

Chinese, Portuguese and Indian cultures
interacted within the context of European
dominance and plantation life.
2. Geography- Insular islands separated by
water boundaries has lad to the
development of cultural or ethnic difference
among people of similar races.
3. Intermarriages- The mixing of the races
produced new racial and ethnical groups
(Dougla, Mulattoes)
 How did the Caribbean region become
culturally diverse?

4. Migration- The Caribbean became the home

to several Diasporas in the region each with their
unique racial and ethnic affiliation- Europeans,
Africans, Chinese, Portuguese, Indians and the
Syrian and Lebanese community.
 Whatcan cultural Diversity give rise to?

1. Plural society- A plural society is one in which

two or more racial or ethnic groups coexist in the
same area without mixing significantly. In the
job or in school, they frequently mix. For
example in Trinnidad, Guyana and Suriname.

2. Ethnocentrism- It based on the idea that your

own culture or group is superior to others or has
more significance. It involves only using the
values and norms of one's own culture to
evaluate another culture.
 Whatcan cultural Diversity give rise to?

3. Miscegenation- This refers to sexual

relationships between individuals of various
racial groupings. For instance Douglas.

4. Pigmentocracy- This is racial prejudice based

on skin tone. It is a type of discrimination or
prejudice where people are treated differently
based on the social connotations associated with
their skin tone.
 What can cultural Diversity give rise to?

5. Subcultures- Social groupings frequently

create unique cultural patterns that distinguish
them from the larger society they are a part of.
Subcultures are those communities that adhere
to different beliefs and norms than the
mainstream. Minority cultures found within a
larger dominant culture are referred to as
subcultures. For instance in Jamica there are the
Rastas who practice Rastafarianism.
 Effects of Cultural Diversity

Positive effects-
a) A greater degree of tolerance for people of different races and
ethnicities, as well as a greater appreciation and understanding of them.
This may encourage more tolerance for diverse viewpoints and
civilizations. For instance, being invited to religious festivals and
celebrations, or having close friends from other racial or ethnic groups.

b) Exposure to many cultural components that can improve a people's

experience and enrich our lives. For example, cuisines, events, music,
clothing, and dance.
 Effects of Cultural Diversity

Positive effects-
c) There may be a fusion of cultures, resulting in a new foundation that
can promote harmony. As an illustration, new musical genres like soca,
chutney, parang, and reggaeton were created through the fusion of
several musical styles.

d) The development of the nation draws on a wide range of talents and

customs. For instance, arts & crafts, farming, music, literature, and poetry.
 Effects of Cultural Diversity

Negative effects-
a) A political division based on racial or ethnic differences may result
from the polarization of society. Race and ethnicity may cause political
parties to polarize. Then, politics turns into a race conflict. People of the
same race or ethnicity who are members of a particular party may only
be eligible for certain jobs, promotions, and opportunities.

b) Ethnic hatred may develop from a sense of superiority coupled with

the idea that another group is receiving a larger share of the "national pie"
than one's own group. Ethnocentrism might develop.
 Effects of Cultural Diversity

Negative effects-
c) As one social group tries to oppress another in order to maintain their

dominant position or to acquire social awareness and recognition, racial or

ethnic differences may result in ethnic clashes or ethnic cleansing. Conflicts

and discontent can trigger riots, racial bloodshed, civil wars, and genocide.

d) Cultural erasure can result through the blending of many civilizations,

which might give rise to new cultural traditions.

 Social Stratification (Enarie Narine)
What is Social Stratification?
Social Stratification is a system by which society categorizes people and rank them in a

hierarchy, which gives rise to distinct social groups ranked one above the other based on

some perceived social or economic rank. The most common basis of stratification includes
race, colour, wealth or income, prestige or power,
education, which determine a group's status.
Social stratification exists when inequality becomes patterned and institutionalized. In
the Caribbean, social stratification has been influenced by slavery, colonialism,
plantation and indentured servitude.
The system indicates that the occupants have unequal access to opportunities. Thus
we can infer that those higher in the hierarchy can indulge in privileges that are not
accessible to those of the lower strata. This can continue onto a generational cycle.
 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PLANTATION SOCIETY
What is the Plantation Society?
The plantation society was part of an agricultural system of production, characterized by s

large resident labour force of cheap, unskilled workers, with a huge acreage of land under

cultivation, which was directed by a small governing group with central authority but

operated as dictators.

It controlled the wats in which societal groups would be stratified according to race, colour

and even wealth. This was a RIGID system of stratification with limitted movement in

times of slavery and colonialism.

 HOW DID THE PLANTATION SOCIETY IMPACT

ON SOCIAL STRATIFICATION?
Diagram showing social stratification under slavery
 HOW DID THE PLANTATION SOCIETY IMPACT ON

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION?
This system designated that the African-Caribbean labour force was an enslaved labour

force for the production of crops- in this case sugar cane

Plantation society set the stage for the evolution of a system in which one's race became

inextricably linked skin colour, social and by extension the class that one occupied in

society.
The colour white then became associated with power, wealth, prestige and upper-class

status while black skin became associated with belonging to the labouring class and was

"property".
Since everyone lived on the plantation from 1500s-1800s, labour was supplied in different

periods by African slaves and later Indentured labourers.

A community developed with a highly stratified social structure where Africans and later

the East Indians were subordinate to white control.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
SYSTEM UNDER PLANTATION SOCIETY
Rigid stratified system- This system has clear demarcated class boundaries that

were inflexibly observed along the lines of colour,race and wealth that governed

social and economic relations

Allowed for little social mobility- It was almost impossible for individuals to change

their social class status. Social status determined the access to opportunities and

social mobility from one level to another was not possible as it was based on

colour, race and wealth(a few of the enslaved however were allowed to purchase

their freedom or were even set free b a benevolent slave master).

Stratification system determined at birth - An ascribed status is a position in a

social group that one is born into or has no control over. This is different from an

achieved status as it not earned based on their choices or efforts.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
SYSTEM UNDER PLANTATION SOCIETY
Class system became "caste-like"- This was similar to the caste system developed

in India where it divided society into hereditary classes based on birth where your

status can never be altered.

 EDUCATION AS A BASIS FOR A NEW CLASS

FORMATION
SOCIAL MOBILITY
-This is the movement of individuals from one social class to the next either going up or

down the hierarchy. In closed systems like the Plantation society, social mobility was

very limited or even impossible.

-After 1838, education provided an avenue for mainly males from the lower stratas to

achieve upward social mobility b engaging in occupations such as law, engineering

accounting, etc. This advanced to the emergence of a new social class where its

members could advance socially based on achievements. This is known as Meritocracy

Meritocracy- A system where social mobility is based on the ability and

individual talent rather than class privilege/wealth.

 EDUCATION AS A BASIS FOR A NEW CLASS

FORMATION

-Although colour, race and wealth were still important factors in determining social

belonging, the class system was not as rigid and individuals were now able to move

out of their class.

-Simultaneously, it also became a new agent of stratification between those who were

educated and had high paying jobs and those who were uneducated and still engaged

in manual class labour.

 THE MAIN WAYS OF ADVANCEMENT AFTER 1838

-EDUCATION
-PROMOTIONS IN THE WORKPLACE
-RELIGION
-LAND OWNERSHIP
-MARRYING UP
-SPORTS
-OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE
 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION ON CONTEMPORARY

CARIBBEAN
UPPER CLASS
Although there is not more slavery, social class divide

Syrians, Lebanese, Chinese, few

still exists due to factors such as ancestry, lineage, race,

Africans, Indians, Mixed

education, financial status politics, religion, etc.
MIDDLE CLASS
There is still a strong resemblance to the colonial

Educated Africans, Indians,

economy where raw materials are exported, there is

Mixed
minimum of manufacturing, taste for foreign goods

LOWER CLASS
and the perception of their superiority.
Unskilled Africans, Indians,

Here, cultural plurism is still evident. Certain ethnic

Mixed
groups may be found is specific geographical locations,

in certain occupations and in certain associations

IMPACT OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION ON CONTEMPORARY

SOCIETY
HERE ARE THREE IMPACTS:
Non-white population continue to be situated at the lower end of the strata. They

constitute public servants and unskilled workers in society. Labouring classes whose

ancestors are from Africa and Asia continue to occupy the lowest levels due to the

lack of wealth and colour. Education opportunities continue to be limited in some

territories and cannot bring about the drastic changes needed to shift the classic

pyramid of social stratification.

Legacies of plantation society still exist in contemporary Caribbean as individuals still

adhere to the ideology that race, lineage and ancestry still play a fundamental role in

who occupies positions of "high stature".

IMPACT OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION ON CONTEMPORARY

SOCIETY
Social institutions are stratified (e.g.)
Education -children of the wealthy and elite go to the denominational schools rather
than government schools

Religion - orisha, voodoo etc. are perceived to be the religion of the lower class

Justice System -crime is perceived to be committed by the lower class, white collar
crimes are rarely pursued
 HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED?
Mass public primary education in the first half of the twentieth century made few of

the poor and oppressed classes eligible for free secondary and tertiary education at

Oxford and Cambridge. These were coloured and particularly boys who came back to

the Caribbean to be teachers, doctors, writers, pharmacists, politicians and who were

seen as good marital prospects.

Social class in modern society is perceived as based on meritocracy-achieved criteria

referring to one's performance in being able to earn what the society values (wealth,

power, prestige). There is however unequal opportunity in getting rewards.

CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH STRATIFICATION

1. Class
2. Caste
3. Upper Class
4. Middle Class
5. Lower/Working Class
6. Underclass
7. Plantocracy
8. Bourgeoise
9. Proletariat
10. Intelligentsia
11. Plantation Society
12. Plantation Model
Creolization and Hybridization (Priya
Mohammed)
Creole - This is any person or anything created in the
Caribbean. eg: people, language, food etc.

Creolisation - This is a term specific to the Caribbean that occured

within a context of colonization. It can be defined as the cultural
changes that occur when people of different races, cultures, and
traditions come together to create a new distinct culture. Thus, it is not
just the mixing but it involves the creation of new cultures.
 CREOLISATION AS ARGUED BY EDWARD KAMUA
BRAITHWAITE

Edaward, poet and scholar from Barbados, has a theory which is widely used to
account for the racial, ethnic and cultural variations in the Caribbean. He sought to
establish patterns of creole interaction as a foundation for Caribbean societies. In his
works- The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica, 1770-1820, Brathwaite
proposed that Jamaican society went through several stages of the evolution
process. By 1820, he insisted that Jamaica had developed a distinctive culture that
was neither West African nor British.
 He noted that the Caribbean can be said to have emerged from colonization,
the slave trade and migration, all of which caused individuals from a variety of
ethnic, cultural and geographical backgrounds to integrate within one society.
This by extension caused the formation of a new culture within the Caribbean
to facilitate the ccoming togther of the people.
He argues :
against a Eurocentric understanding of how Caribbean culture evolved which had stressed
that European culture was the dominant force in the Caribbean Culture
that both the culture of the colonizers and the culture of the colonized were evident in the
Caribbean and both play an important role in the process of creating a Caribbean cultural
identity.
 Braithwaite believed that Creolization occurs at 2 levels :

1. Acculturation - This is the forced acceptance of aspects of another's culture.

e.g. Religion
2. Interculturation - This is an unplanned, unconscious and somewhat conscious
but always willing absorption of aspects of another's culture. e.g. Cuisine
 HYBRIDISATION
This is the blending of elements from different cultures, that is the taking of
two or more unique groups of people or their original cultural practices and
mixing it to produce a new race or culture.

There are 2 types :

1. Racial
2. Ethnic
 RACIAL HYBRIDISATION
Sexual union between persons of different races resulted in children
of mixed races : miscegenation. Various terms have been coined to
define these groups :
Mulattoes - Offspring of enslaved African and white Europeans
Mestizo- A spanish term for a person who is of mixed European and
Amerindian ancestry.
Dougla - Traditionally used to describe the offspring of Africans and Indians in
Trinidad. The term "douglarisation" is used not only the Afro-Indo mix but is
more of a generalization to describe all mizes. As a result of douglarisation, new
races are introduced in the Caribbean.
1.

 Creole - This term has several meanings :

Used in colonial times to describe any White Europeans and then

later African persons born in the Caribbean
T&T - used to describe persons of African descent
French Creole - descendants of French planters
Racial slur towards African persons
 CULTURAL HYBRIDISATION
Through prolonged contact and interaction with other groups, new cultural
forms often develop.
Religion - Christian traditions blended with African practices
Language - Hybrid forms of languages usually referred to as
"creole/dialects" evolved from the main language sprinkled with words
from other languages that emerged during slavery and colonialism. e.g.
Patois.
Culinary Arts - The Carib's custom of cooking over an open fire has led to
the word barbeque.

 CULTURAL ERASURE, RETENTION & RENEWAL

Cultural Erasure - This refers to the diminishing or discontinuance of
cultural forms or practices that has been removed or may cease to exist. It
is a gradual process and happens over time.
Cultural Retention - This is the continuation of cultural practices of the
past into the present. Cultural forms are maintained and preserved in
their immediate manifestations.
Cultural Renewal - This can be defined as attempts to revive past
practices which have been discontinued, ignored or suppressed. Such
efforts stem from a feeling that there is much worth in what we have
neglected/ignored.
THE PROCESS OF CULTURAL CHANGE IN THE CAR'BB
The processes provide possible explanations for creolization
or hybridization as well as for cultural erasure, retnetion and
renewal.
Enculturation - This is the process where an individual learns the
culture of a society that is currently established or surrounded by.
Acculturation - This is the imposition of a distinctly dominant
foreign culture upon another subordinate or minority culture
through force.
 Assimilation- The process of a minority culture losing their
culture to a more dominant culture. It is the process of adapting
or adjusting to the culture of a dominant group or nation.

Transculturation - This describes cultural changes induced in one

culture by the introduction of elements from a foreign culture.

Interculturation - This occurs in plural societies and refers to the

mixing of cultures that gos on between groups who share the
same space.

 Plural Society
This can be defined by people of different ethnic groups coming together
but not combining and instead mixing to a certain extent. Each group
holds its own religion, culture, language, ideas etc whilst living side by
sideyet seperately within the same political unit.