Module 1

Question 1

What are the four definitions of the Caribbean?

Answer 1

Historical, Geographical, Political, and Geological

Question 2

What is the definition of the Historical Caribbean?

Answer 2

This is the area colonized by European powers (Spanish, British, French and Dutch) and which has been deeply affected by the brand of European Colonialism.

Question 3

What is the definition of the Historical Caribbean?

Answer 3

The Spanish through the Encomienda system and other means exterminated the original inhabitants. The British introduced the plantation system and with it, the enslavement of Africans and the indentureship of the Chinese and East Indians.

Question 4

What is the definition of the Geographical Caribbean?

Answer 4

Geographically the Caribbean is defined as the land area which has its coastline washed by the Caribbean Sea

Question 5

What is the definition of the Political Caribbean

Answer 5

Three kinds of governmental systems exist independent states, associated states, and colonial dependencies. Several of the former colonial powers still possess territories in the Caribbean or have very close relations with them.

Question 6

In understanding Society and Culture, how do we define The Social?

Answer 6

The social is described by Jeniffer Mohammed as the ‘totality of explanations describing how people interact and make meanings from their experiences’
It has no existence of itself but is merely a construct through which we represent all the ways we make meanings in our lives

Question 7

What is a Society?

Answer 7

A Society is the largest unit or group to which an individual belongs. To the layman society is usually understood to mean a collection of persons, living in the same geographical area with which one feels a sense of belonging.
To the sociologist however society is mainly defined through its group structure framework.

Question 8

What are the elements of society?

Answer 8

population characteristics
social behavior
social institutions 
cultural influences 
social change

Question 9

What are population characteristics?

Answer 9

Population characteristics determine the general social patterns of a group of people living within a certain geographical area.
There are two chief kinds of population studies, demography, and human ecology.

Question 10

What are Social behaviors?

Answer 10

Social Behaviour is studied extensively in the field of sociology. Social psychologists usually work with small groups and observe attitude change, conformity, leadership morale, and other forms of behaviour. They also study social interaction which is the way members of a group respond to one another and to other groups. In addition, sociologists examine the results of conflicts between groups such as crime, social movement, and war.

Question 11

What are Social Institutions?

Answer 11

Social Institutions are organized relationships among people which tend to perform specific actions within the society. These institutions include business organizations, churches, government, security forces, hospitals, family and schools. Each institution has a direct effect on the society in which it exists.

Question 12

What is Culture?

Answer 12

Culture in the eyes of a sociologist can be defined as “the accumulated store of symbols, ideas, and material products associated with a social system, whether it be an entire society or a family”. (Johnson, 1995, p.68).

Question 13

What are the characteristics of Culture?

Answer 13

a culture satisfies human needs in a particular way
culture is acquired through learning
culture is based on the use of symbols
a culture consists of individual traits and groups of traits called patterns

Question 14

How does Culture satisfy human needs?

Answer 14

All cultures serve to meet basic needs shared by human beings. For example, every culture has methods of obtaining food and shelter. Every culture also has family relationships, economic and governmental systems, religious practices, and forms of artistic expression.
Each culture shapes the way its members satisfy human needs. Human beings have to eat but their culture teaches them what, when, and how to eat for example many British people eat smoked fish for breakfast but many Americans prefer cold cereals

Question 15

How is Culture acquired through learning?

Answer 15

Culture is acquired through learning not through biological inheritance i.e. no person is born with a culture. Children take on the culture in which they are raised through enculturation.

Question 16

How is a culture based on the use of symbols?

Answer 16

Cultural learning is based on the ability to use symbols. A symbol is something that stands for something else. The most important types of symbols are the words of a language. There is no obvious or necessary connection between a symbol and what it stands for.

Question 17

How does Culture develop patterns?

Answer 17

Cultures are made up of individual elements called cultural traits. A group of related traits or elements is a cultural pattern. Cultural traits may be divided into the material culture or nonmaterial culture.

Question 18

What is Material Culture?

Answer 18

Material culture consists of all the tangible things that are made by the members of society. It includes such objects as (architectural styles) buildings, jewelry, machines, cuisine, forms of technology, economic organization, paintings, and artistic creations.

Question 19

What is Non- Material Culture?

Answer 19

Nonmaterial culture refers to a society’s norms, beliefs, superstitions, and values that guide their behavior. A handshake, a marriage ceremony, and a system of justice are examples of nonmaterial culture. Cultural patterns may include numerous traits (both material and non-material).

Question 20

What is a Sub Culture?

Answer 20

Social scientists sometimes use the term subculture to describe variations within a culture. Social groups often develop some cultural patterns of their own that set them apart from the larger society of which they are apart. Subcultures may develop in businesses, ethnic groups, occupational groups, regional groups, religious groups, and other groups within a larger culture e.g. Maroons in Jamaica.

Question 21

What is Pluralism?

Answer 21

Pluralism: A society where two or more racial or ethnic groups live together but where there is limited mixing of cultures or intermarriage. Each culture has maintained its own social institutions’ ex. Religion, family

Question 22

What is Ethnocentrism?

Answer 22

Ethnocentrism: an idea and policy derived from a first world country and imposed on a third world country with the belief of superiority

Question 23

How do society and culture overlap?

Answer 23

We know society to have structure. The largest units or groups within society were called social institutions. Yet these were intangibles: ideas, beliefs, and values. From these, tangible organizations were created. So, too, we should be aware that the material products of society are derived from the dominant underlying values and beliefs of that society. Thus, the overlap between the two terms occurs at the level of the importance of values. Society and its culture are rooted in the same values.

Question 24

What are the characteristic Caribbean behaviors?

Answer 24

making fun of others, 
camaraderie, 
celebrations, 
insularity, 
religion, 
preference for white, western culture, 
kinship bonds/family ties 
informality

Question 25

How do people learn values?

Answer 25

Socialization is the process through which we learn the values, norms, and behaviors that are acceptable in our society and culture. We „learn‟ through various means – sometimes things are „caught‟, sometimes taught – formally, informally, by imitation, or reflection.

Question 26

What is Cultural Renewal?

Answer 26

Cultural renewal refers to efforts to salvage parts of our past by fashioning new practices based on the old. Such efforts stem from a feeling that there is much value in what we have neglected. Also, in incorporating new values and norms into our society and culture we find that traditional practices are re-cast and appear in different forms

Question 27

What is Cultural Retention?

Answer 27

This refers to practices that have survived even when most other forms and symbols of culture are no longer existent. Cultural retention usually refers to a specific aspect of culture for example religion or language

Question 28

What is Cultural Erasure?

Answer 28

This refers to practices that have died out or are currently dying.

Question 29

What is Cultural Diversity?

Answer 29

Culture is diverse, meaning, people interpret their culture however they want and act from their social location i.e. their context.

People will differ because of ethnic categories such as religion, traditions, and customs and even if these are all the same we don’t all experience them the same way.

Question 30

What is the “us” and “them” syndrome?

Answer 30

This refers to the group of social constructions which we as Caribbean people have inherited to keep people of different ethnic groups apart.
This is the main feature of Caribbean society & culture and has developed not because the Caribbean is diverse but because we have been socialized to behave in this ‘us vs. them’ way.

Question 31

What is Cultural Pluralism?

Answer 31

This is the term associated with cultural diversity as a result of European colonization, when different groups were brought here either forcibly or under contract.
In a plural society, their age two or more ethnic groups share the same space but do not mix to a significant extent ex. Mingling at School or workplace.

Question 32

What are the positive effects of cultural diversity?

Answer 32

add richness to the region’s society
exposure to multiculturalism
recognition and appreciation of other communication – different people’s lifestyle languages and dialects
the basis for growth into a tourism product
creates strong patriotism
gives awareness of cultural heritage

Question 33

What are the negative effects of cultural diversity?

Answer 33

creates insularity/narrow mindedness
ethnocentrism arises
dominant culture displaces cultural traits

Question 34

What is hybridization?

Answer 34

This refers to the processes of cultural and ethnic mixing to produce new or ‘creole’ forms.
For example, prior to Columbus’ arrival, the Kalinagos and Tainos adopted each others’ languages and customs.

Question 35

What are examples of racial and ethnic hybridization?

Answer 35

Amerindian, African, and to a lesser extent Indian women were forced to cohabit and have children for European oppressors
This went on for centuries resulting in a mixed or colored race of people. Sexual relations resulting in children of mixed race are called miscegenation.

Question 36

What is a pigmentocracy?

Answer 36

A pigmentocracy evolved where people of fairer complexions wielded more prestige and power in the society than others.
Thus skin color, facial features, and even hair texture are important in the discourse of culture and identity in the Caribbean, a social construct based on biological characteristics

Question 37

What is an example of cultural hybridization?

Answer 37

Religion
World Religions that met in the Caribbean underwent a large amount of hybridization or syncretism into creolized formats. These could be small differences or radical ones from the original.
Christian and African religions have undergone a larger process of syncretism than other ones since Conquest and later Missionary activity