The Impact of Societal Institution on Caribbean People Linton’s Academic Services 7 we The Impact of Religion on Health and Diet ‘The church taught that ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’, Members are therefore encouraged to practice good hygiene, ‘Some denominations such as the Seventh Day Adventist taught their followers to abstain from eating certain foods such as pork and beef. Some still stick to mainly vegetarian diet. Jehovah's ‘Witnesses refuse blood transfusion on spiritual principles. Rastafarians also follow a strict code of conduct with regards to diet and dress. Like the Muslims and Seventh Day Adventist, they do not eat pork. They consider the pig to be an unclean meat ‘The Hindus (Brahmins) are vegetarians. This has prompted nutritionist, various restaurants and companies to create attractive vegetarian dishes to capture a niche market. Supermarkets now stock all sort of vegetarian food items. Rastas eat strictly Ital, which means their food is cooked or prepared without salt. They believe that all herbs and tyes are given for food and healing. During Easter fishing industry gets a boost. A number of Christians not only fast during Lent, but they ‘give up’ certain pleasures or habits. One of these is the eating of all flesh except fish. The Impact of Religion on Education Religion has impacted on the school’s calendar. Throughout the Caribbean, Easter is recognized ‘as an important even on the national calendar. Schools are officially closed for Easter break. Good Friday and Easter Monday are official holidays. Trinidad and Guyana may have the distinction of having more national holidays than everyone else as they recognized Christian, Muslin and Hindu special days. We have already leamed that a number of schools are operated by various Churches and religious groups fromthe elementary to the secondary and even tertiary levels. ‘The Justice System The Justice system is important to the maintenance of law and order in society. It is instrumental in decreasing and/st preventing crime and violence. It presents every citizen with recourse in time of conflit’The system provides for dispute resolution. This is especially evident in family matters. Consider the case were two siblings had a heated dispute that led to threats being issue and the near use of violence against each other. One of the siblings took the matter to court. Instead of imposing a custodial sentence, the court referred the matter to mediation. The siblings were advised to ‘sort out the issue’. =