Impact of Societal Institutions on Caribbean People Flashcards
Social Institutions
Social Institutions are influential societal frameworks that shape our lives. They represent a system of behavioral patterns that each society develops to meet its basic needs. They provide routine patterns for dealing with predictable elements of social life. The main social institutions that influence society and culture in the Caribbean are:
-Family
-Education
-Religion
-Political and Justice Systems
They are fundamental to the good functioning of society. Society shapes peoples’ lives through norms, roles and values instituted and reinforced by these social institutions
The Family in the Caribbean
The social institution of the family is common to all societies and cultures. It represents different ideas and beliefs that people of a certain community have about rearing children and socializing them into the norms of that particular society.
Functions of a Family
The Socialisation Function- the family functions, through socialisation, to teach the young the norms and values of their culture and society. The family provides the earliest set of concepts, values, knowledge and skills.
The reproduction/ Procreation Function- through procreation, the family serves to provide new members for society, and, at a fundamental level, it ensures the continuation of the human species in order for societies to survive.
The emotional support function- the family provides its members with love, comfort and help in times of emotional distress. This is important to the mental, intellectual and social well-being of its members.
the economic function- the family provides its members with certain basic needs, such as food, shelter and clothing, and practices support in the shape of finance where possible.
Problems in Defining the Caribbean Family
Due to the complexity of historical factors that have come to bear on Caribbean society and culture, such as slavery, colonialism, emancipation and indentureship, and the hybridisation of Caribbean culture, the family in the Caribbean is complex, fluid concept, sharing multiple creolised features brought by all the communities. These influence have all determined the diversity that exists in the ways Caribbean families are organised, including a multiplicity of family dynamics.
Family Forms in the Caribbean and their Characteristics
Nuclear Family- consists of a mother, father and their unmarried children living under the same roof.
Extended Family- consists of members beyond a mother, father and their children. Several generations may live together in one household.
Single Parent Family- occurs when one parent lives with and takes responsibility for raising children.
The ‘Visiting’ Family- a variation on the single parent family in that it involves the mother and children living separately from the father, often in her parents home, and the father visiting them there. The difference is that the parents are still in a sexual, and often emotional, relationship.
Common-law Unions- involves a couple committing to each other in a lasting relationship without any form of registration of the ‘marriage’.
Blended Family- the union of parents with children from previous relationships. It is common among all ethnicities.
Historical Factors Influencing the Structure of Caribbean Families
Colonialism and the Establishment of the Plantation System- the white planters brought their families to the Caribbean and introduced and promoted the Western European idea of the nuclear family.
Slavery- During slavery, planters did not allow their slaves to bond and marriage among slaves was banned. The practice of polygamy, brought from West Africa, influenced patterns of sexual activity among slaves, with men often fathering children by different women.
Indentureship- East Indians introduced the extended family in the form of a joint household- a strong patriarchal family structure with a stress on early marriage. During and after indentureship, the extended family remained dominant among East Indians.
Modernisation- influences have come to bear on the institution of the family. Modernisation has resulted in governments recognising common-law unions in the Caribbean.
Trends Affecting Caribbean Families Today
Migration- the Caribbean region has always had a high degree of migration. Most of the Caribbean diaspora lives in the United States or Europe. Research shows such mass migration has major consequences on family life.
Poverty- research shows that poor, unemployed Caribbean women are willing to get involved on sexual relationships for financial help, especially if they are mother (E.x. Natalie). This results in successive relationships, which helps to provide the means for family survival rather than stability.
Education in the Caribbean
Education plays an important role in the socialisation process: it transmits norms, values and beliefs that work to underpin a society. It does this openly by teaching and instructing and implicitly through engraining and reinforcing certain attitude and beliefs. It has also played a key role in the facilitation of social mobility.
The development of the education in the Caribbean needs to be viewed within the context of the region’s colonialist past. In the English speaking Caribbean, the education system was established along the lines of the British system and its subsequent development can be analysed as a series of responses to key events such as emancipation and independence.
The Impact of Education on Society
Education has affected and still affect different socioeconomic groups. For example, a global trend that is apparent in today’s English-speaking Caribbean is that the approach of many schools is biased to the middle classes and to a system that rewards children that have the necessary advantages such as higher level of linguistic competence to succeed in the academic world.
Access- the level of education provided to different groups in society during the colonial period highlighted the perceived needs of the different social groupings according to the colonial authorities.
The Curriculum and the Importance of Credentials- the curriculum in the colonial period mirrored that or traditional British private schools, out of which many of the teachers originated, with stress placed on teaching students the culture of the Empire in all subjects including History, Geography and Literature.
The Role of Missionaries and the Church- as a main provider of the education throughout the colonial period, especially after emancipation, the Church and affiliated groups, such as missionaries, placed stress on the teaching of the Bible, and chose passages that encouraged a sense of duty towards those in authority and the promise of a better life after death once the required colonial labor was carried out on Earth.
Religion in the Caribbean
Religion affects lives as a conservative force linked largely with positive values, as Christian worship in the region has historically been associated with the preserving social life in keeping with the accepted norms and values. However, the existence of syncretism of religious forms, such as Rastafarianism, exhibits aspects of resistance and independence.
The Main Caribbean Religions- Christianity
Christianity- Post-conquest, religion was used as a tool for colonisation. European colonisers brought with them Christianity- together with their Western education and justice systems- and imposed it on the other peoples in the region as the only permitted religious system. In order to survive the rest of the population, Amerindians and African slaves, had no choice but to adopt Christianity and with it acceptance of the social values it entailed.
African Religions
Despite outwardly adhering to Christianity, within their household and close communities the enslaved still kept some of their own African religious beliefs. These beliefs themselves had diverse features because of the different geographical and tribal origins of the slaves within West Africa. (Vodou, Obeah)
Creolised or Syncretic Religions
After emancipation, the region witnessed a flowering of Creole religions. These all had their roots in West African religions, which were then blended with aspects of Christianity. Rastafari, developed in Jamaica in the 1930s, was a later addition to this group of religious beliefs, all of which are unique to the Caribbean.
These religions all represent a resistance to, or subversion pf, dominant Western religious beliefs and structures, and with them mainstream values and European power and authority over the colonies, while still providing the traditional ‘comfort’ and ‘safety’ functions of religion by combining traditional beliefs and practices with more recently acquired Christian ones.
Hinduism and Islam
These religions were brought to the Caribbean from Asia by indentured East Indians and Javanese. These groups for the most part have retained their religion and still practise them among their communities, though in Trinidad and Tobago there is a relatively large Presbyterian following among the East Indian community.
The Impact of Religion on Caribbean Society and Culture
- Religion can provide or add to a sense of heritage while also serving as an expression of cultural diversity
- Religion spiritually grounds Caribbean people and allows them to have an identity.
- Religion exerts an influence on different aspects of culture such as literature, art and music by providing both an avenue and subject matter foe artists, performers and writers.
