Caribbean Sociology Essay

OVERVIEWE very(prenominal) discourse has a context. Every discourse has a motive. The Sociology that unquestion suitable in 19th one C France was a response to the genial crisis that was do itd there at that time. The Sociology that developed in 19th atomic number 6 France had a context. The man who is considered to be the base father of Sociology, Auguste Comte was convinced that a science of bon ton was viable and would be capable of reconstructing French society. The major lineatic of France in the 19th century was the need to reconstruct French society. Thus, the motive of 19th century European Sociology was to develop principles that would guide the reconstruction of France. It is extremely important to recognize that Auguste Comte was make by the need to make a contribution to the growing of his society. As sociologists of the Caribbean, we stool non overlook this diminutive component of sociological discourse. Sociologists of the Caribbean mustiness focus on maki ng a contribution to the upliftment of the people of the Caribbean. In come out to do this, we must identify the major debatable of the region i.e. the context upon which a documented sociology of the Caribbean is built.Caribbean Sociologists wad make a positive contribution to the phylogenesis of the region. However, in order to this, they must charter a highly critical perspective. We fucknot continue to engage in what Holmes and Crossley (2004) refer to as the uncritical, intercultural transfer of familiarity and models of development. While sociological models of the Caribbean (plural, creole, plantation society theses) focus on the outer-structural features of the Caribbean legitimateity, it is important to appreciate that Caribbean society isreflected in a powerful panache in the consciousness of Caribbean people. The distinguishing characteristic and complexity of the reality that is the Caribbean lies in the situation that making sense of the Caribbean is not on ly if around unravelling the denouement of exder structure more thanso, it is well-nigh a peculiar and complex experience. The Caribbean experience is some humans cosmoss struggling to find a sense of place. This comes out powerfully in the work of Derek Walcott. In the poem A Far blazon out From Africa, Walcott writesI who am poisoned with the blood of both, where shall I turn divided to the mineral vein? I who return cursed the drunken officer of British rule, how drive I between this Africa and the English tongue I love? I betray them both or give back what they give? How can I face such slaughter and be cool? How can I turn from Africa and live?Derek Walcotts work must be seen as a response to his experience of the Caribbean and as such must be regarded as sociological. Sociology is a response to cordial conditions. It does not bring on to be a science. It has to be true. We need to examine the Caribbean reality finished pure lenses. The Caribbean region is an inv aded space a space invaded by capitalism. The theory invaded suggests that there is a fundamental difference between a genuine capitalistic state and one that has been invaded. The Caribbean is yet to enjoy the benefits of capitalism as derived by real capitalist states such as the United States of the States and Great Britain. It is safe to contend that the Caribbean is not a real capitalist space.The Caribbean is an end product of capitalism Mark Figueroa (2007) argued that the enigma of the Caribbean lies in the point that the region has always been associated with capitalism. How and then can we describe that space that has always been associated with capitalism? Related to the notion of invaded space is the notion of kinky space. A distorted social space refers to that which is characte standd by multiple distortions and contradictions. The caprice of distorted space has significant implications for the human beings that inhabit that space. Do we expect that the human b eings of a distorted social space to have a hefty consciousness?Caribbean society was born out of oppression. slavery was an oppressive basis and therefore had a destructive effect on the human being. Slavery did not serve to humanise. Slavery dehumanised. We must come to terms with this item slavery had a dehumanising effect on Caribbean people. The question is what have we do to rehumanise Caribbean people?Our issue in the Caribbean is to reconstruct the human being whose social and psychological orientation has been built on the legacy of an oppressive and dehumanizing schema. The notions plural society, plantation society and creole society underscore the preoccupation of Caribbean social scientists with the structure of society. What we need to be concerned near is not simply the structure of Caribbean society but rather the state of the human being in the Caribbean. We should have developed perspectives on how to reconstruct the human being in the Caribbean. In so doing we would have been true to our context. In so doing, we would have contributed immensely to the progress of the region.It was Professor Hilary Beckles (2004) who said that the situation in the Caribbean is grave. He went on to say that we have not had economic product in the region for twenty years. He therefore asked a very serious question What be we to make of our history?I ask, what is the reputation of the Caribbean development problem?THE INNERINNERNNER-DYNAMICS OF THE CARIBBEAN DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMThe development problem of the Caribbean extends beyond the parameters of Economics. It emerges from a peculiar set of historico-psychological conditions. Non-economic factors therefore represent major components of the Caribbean development equation. Don Marshalls (1998) examination of the West-Indian development experience illustrates the critical role of non-economic factors. Marshall argues that the constitute economic players the planters, the merchants and the royalists ha d no real stake in the transformation of the region. It was not in the interest of these key players to transform the local economy.Rather, it was in the expansion ofthe commercial sphere of the compound economy that the planter-merchant elite could reproduce and entrench itself. The behaviour of the plantermerchant elite in West-Indian society is no doubt peculiar. It portrays the planter-merchant elite as a variance motivated not solely by the need for capital collecting but rather by the need to preserve its position of dominance.This publisher contends that people of distorted social spaces do act in impedance to themselves. We now examine the link between capitalism and a penury of consciousness. I refer to a study I conducted in 1998. The prenomen settlement in a Banana Producing community in homespun St. Lucia A micro-level Sociological Investigation. The main aim of the study was to unmask the meanings that banana farmers attached to banana farming.CAPITALISM AND C ONSCIOUSNESSIntroductionThe Shift from cacography to Bananas in St.luciaCaribbean societies be very infelicitous in the sense that they do not own their spaces. While capitalism developed naturally in Europe, capitalism invaded our space at a time when we were not do for it. Invasions such as these do not facilitate the natural rise of the consciousness of a people. The introduction of the banana industry into the St. Lucian economy in the early 1950s represented a significant historical moment. It was the number 1 successful cash crop since slavery. Once again, the space that we refer to as the Caribbean was invaded by capitalist interests. It was the post-second world war period when Britain had befuddled its hegemony of the world. Consequently, it became more expensive for Britain to import fruit from America. Britain then encouraged its colonies to produce bananas for the British market.At the time of the introduction of the banana industry, St. Lucia had a spirited pea santry whose efforts resulted in a relatively change agricultural sector. Casimir and Acosta (1980) notemono-production was not as acute in St.Lucia as in the other West-Indian islands. The country enjoyed a comfortable position as far as the productionof pabulum was concerned.The radical shift from sugar to bananas that occurred in the late 1950s was possible through the existence of a vibrant peasantry. Elsie Le Franc (1980) noted St. Lucias uniqueness in that it was the only Caribbean island to have switched completely from one monocrop to another. In 1951, sugar represented 47% of the quantity value of St.Lucias exports, ten years later however, sugar represented a meager 1.3% of total exports.Plantation development in St.Lucia was relatively poor due to the inst efficacy created by the fourteen wars between France and Britain for its possession. As a result, land was easy for the ex-slaves to squat upon rather than work for low wages. The planters were therefore forced to adopt the metayage system that allowed them to reap the benefits of labour without paying wages. Through the metayage system, peasants worked a patch of land, paying rent in the form of produce. This opportunity allowed the peasant gradation to develop a sort of independent spirit from the early stages of emancipation. obscure from being suitable to the poor economic situation of the planter class, the system of metayage was similarly suited to the orientation of the rural population. Peter Adrien (1990) notes the strong sodden attachment to the land and the practice of communal ownership. By the late 1950s peasant production had replaced plantation production in St. Lucia. It was therefore the rise of the peasant class that enabled the radical shift from sugar to bananas in St. Lucia. At that crucial point in St.Lucias history when a vibrant peasantry had overthrown the planter class, a banana industry invaded the possibility of the emergence of an main(a) peasant class that co uld have evolved into a true capitalist class. The encroachment of the banana industry disturbed the trendment towards the establishment of a diversified agricultural sector in St.lucia. Consciousness and the Banana ExperienceIt was spy that the banana farmers under study attached a very specific sort of significance to money. For them, money was not simply about the index to satisfymaterial ask and wants. Rather, money performed a vital government agency within thecontext of the denude self. The latter was confirmed by the fact that these banana farmers relied on external stimulants such as alcoholic drink and marijuana. In fact, alcohol was the best selling commodity of the community.The research also revealed that the banana farmers under study saw themselves as neglected by society, they did not feel part of the society. They said to me that the general feeling in the society was that Castries, the capital was St. Lucia. They felt alienated particularly with regard to th e language. The egg language in St. Lucia was English while the language of the peasant was creole.The idea that farmers would do anything for money was extremely pervasive and is linked to the idea of the denuded self. This craving for money seemed to beassociated with isolation and neglect, as money helped to bridge the gap between the conditions of their existence and those to which they aspired. There was also a kind of nakedness about the banana farmer that needed to be clothed as banana farming was perceived to be a low- emplacement activity. As a low status activity, banana farming was regarded not for its own worth but rather for the money that was associated with it.It was therefore not difficult to predict that the collapse of the banana industry would lead to the develop movement of the young farmers in particular into the illegal drug business. In addition, a significant proportion migrated to neighbouring Martinique where they felt at home as far as language was conce rned.It was concluded that while the farmers were earning a solid income and while we celebrated the importance of the banana industry to the economy victimisation proclamations such as the banana industry is the bedrock/mainstay of the society, banana farming created among the farmers a false sense of selfhood, one establish on money/materialism. Their notion of self was based ontheir ability to possess material things their notion of self revolved around money. It cannot be said that this is linked in any direct way to an upliftment of consciousness. It is unfortunate that the development discourse of the Caribbean does not adequately deal with the component of consciousness. outgrowth has to do with the evolution of consciousness in the positive direction. When genuine development takes place in a society, it results in the upliftment of the consciousness of the people of that society. As stated earlier, the Caribbean region is characterized by a poverty of consciousness. What form then should Caribbean sociology take? The work of the sociologist of the Caribbean must be linked to the major problematic of the Caribbean. Caribbean sociology must be fundamentally different from other sociology. Caribbean sociology must be about raising the consciousness of Caribbean people.SOCIOSOCIO-POETRYAs a Sociologist of the Caribbean, I have identified a context and a motive for Caribbean sociology. The context is what I refer to as a poverty of consciousness. The motive therefore is to get ahead the consciousness of Caribbean people. My response so far has been the development of a invigorated field what I refer to as Socio-Poetry. Socio-Poetry is much more than rime that is stimulated by sociological issues the issues of poverty, crime, domestic violence, HIV/ AIDS, dysfunctional social institutions, unemployment and so on. Socio-Poetry is also about re-defining the boundaries of research and knowledge-making arguing for the greater habit of imagination in cap turing the complex and peculiar contours of the Caribbean. Socio-Poetry emerges from the conviction that the complexity and peculiarity of Caribbean society cannot be captured in its entirety by scientific methodology. Socio-Poetry offers a critical perspective.With regard to a critical perspective, in looking at Research ontogeny Initiatives in St. Lucia, Holmes and Crossley (2004) argue that the development agenda in small states such as those of the Caribbean lacks the critical dimension. Holmes and Crossley therefore make a case for forms of knowledge such as music, dance and art that are in harmony with the socio-cultural reality i.e. knowledge that is sensitive to the meanings, values and processes be events and actions. In addition, Dr. Bhoendradat Tewarie lamentsthe lack of attention paid to critical thinking in the Caribbean. Speaking of the extent to which critical thinking is being practiced at the University of the West-Indies, Dr. Tewarie contends.I suspect its not as widespread as it needs to be and perhaps we are not as persistent at it as we should be given the current environment.Dr. Tewarie also argues that by create verbally about our own situation in the region, we will develop perspectives and insights about ourselves to share with others in the rest of the world.Socio-Poetry is a step in that direction. Socio-Poetry is an election form of knowledge that represents the blend of sociological analysis and imaginative insight. Socio-Poetry is about writing about the Caribbean in an interesting way in order to reach a wider audience.To date, I have published two whole caboodle of Socio-Poetry. My first work was called SEEDS that was a response to the crisis of identity of the Caribbean. SEEDS, was meant for adolescents and it was also aimed at portraying the role of the arts in human development. The Harvest is about consciousness-raising. It is about writing about theCaribbean in interesting ways so as to stimulate dialogue, debate and further critical analysis . revel allow me to expose you to a socio-poetic portrait of the Caribbean from The HarvestLICKSFive womenat the street corner elaborateing ice-cream,strawberry flavour.Five licking womenclutching cones in the sun.Tongues racing againstthe disappearing hills.Licks for banana,licks for cane-sugar.And then the hands,the hands thatserved tongues,fall below thewaists defeated, deviation five lickingwomen in anger,searching for sweetnesson roughened lips.Tongues never win.Theyre trapped by teeththat delight intasteless carriers of cream.Licks for banana,licks for cane-sugar.Five licking women strandedat the street corner.Theyve lost the wayto the river, the sun burns.More ice-cream on astrawberry streetcorner.Licks for banana,licks for cane-sugar.The poem LICK S, examines the situation of the Caribbean in the global economy. It highlights the way in which we reinforce our status of dependency by being the tongues of the world, ready to lick foreign produced goo ds at the expense of our own development. Essentially, the poem speaks to the notion that we are both the lickers of the world as well asthose who get licks.Dependency is a fundamental fact of life in the Caribbean and we cannot wait savings bank students get to the university level to expose them to it. Therefore, while, we may not be able to teach the work of Lloyd Best and that of Andre Gunder Frank to Secondary school students we can expose them to LICKS paying great attention to its theme. In so doing, we would be raising the consciousness of our secondary level students on the dependency status of the Caribbean. It is extremely important to expose students ofthat age group to these themes as they are integral to who we are and as many of these students will not move on to university.Through socio-poetry, a sociologist of the Caribbean is not merely focusing on teaching at the University level but is developing ways of winning her analyses of Caribbean society to the lower le vels of the education system. The motive is to raise the consciousness of Caribbean people.A sociology of the Caribbean must be a mulish project, one with a specific, practical purpose one that is linked directly to the major problematic of the Caribbean.BIBLIOGRAPHYAdrien, Peter. 1990. Capitalism, Metayage and Development A shifting shifting Pattern ofDevelopment in Dennery, St. Lucia, 18401840-1959.1959. get the hang Thesis, University of the WestWestIndies, Consortium graduate School of genial Sciences, Jamaica.Beckford, George. 1967. The WestWest-Indian Banana Industry. Industry. Jamaica Institute of Socialand Economic Research.Casimir. J and Y. Acosta. 1982 . Social Structural changes in St. Lucia.Holmes Keith and Michael Crossley (2004). Whose Knowledge, Whose Values? The persona of Local Knowledge to Education Policy Processes A Case charter of Research Development Initiatives in the Small State of St. Lucia.Lewis, Arthur. 1993. The Evolution of the Peasantry in the Brit ish WestWest-Indies. LondonTewarie, Bhoendradat (2004), Critical Thinking. St. Augustine novels, October 2003 March 200410.200410.Walcott, Derek. Collected Poems. Faber and Faber, London. 1996.Walcott, Derek. Omeros. Farar Straus Giroux, New York. 1991.