W.

Long (2015)
SOCIETY & CULTURE
TOPIC 3
W. LONG

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Characteristics of Society

• Society: a collection of people occupying a defined

geographical area over a long period of time.

• Society can be defined as people having a shared common

purpose. Therefore, the unit or group to which an individual

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belongs can be called a society.

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In search of a Definition of Society & Culture

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In search of a Definition of Society & Culture
(cont’d)
• Caribbean society: identified as groups of islands occupying a
bounded geographical zone. Additionally, a sub-group of this
larger zone can be referred to as a national society. E.g.
Trinidad and Tobago belong to society that is usually limited by
the national borders of the islands.

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• Within this large group an individual would belong to a socio-
economic group, religious affiliation, ethnic group or
geographical area e.g. Chaguanas.

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In search of a Definition of Society & Culture
(cont’d)
• In the Caribbean, people belonging to a national society feel
that if they become incorporated with another state, chances
are that their way of life may be adversely affected. Even
though they stand to gain economically from an integrated
arrangement, there exists a deep sense in which people

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values, the traditions of their land, and feel that sharing
statehood would jeopardize that.

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Culture

• It is widely regarded as the way of life of a people, that is,

learnt through socialization into the values and norms of the
society. Sometimes culture can be better understood when
divided into components

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 CULTURE

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Culture: material and non
material
• Material culture- refers to the products of a people such as
their styles, architecture, types of food, economic
organization, and their forms of technology.

• Non- material culture- refers to cherished ideas, beliefs, values

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and norms which becomes tangible in the form of behavior
and material objects which they give rise. All forms of learnt
behavior like cultural behavior refer to what collective society
believes is true.

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Cultural Values

• This refers to the set of rankings people in a society give to

numerous social behavior. Practices are ranked highly if they
perceived as something good or of value to the society
• Strongly condemned are: murder, treason, incest, adultery and
not so strongly condemned are: unmannerly behavior,

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untidiness, cheating and bragging. Therefore, values are
shared ideas on how behaviors and disposition are to be
ranked.

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Norms Norms are culturally
accepted standards of
behaviour that comes
from cultural values
that we share

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• The importance of norms is that they evoke arrangement of
awards/rewards and sanctions to be conferred on members of
society according to behavior. Thus in this way, norms are tied
to social behaviors and give support to cultural values.

Values Norms
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IDENTITY & SOCIAL

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FORMATION
TOPIC 4

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Cultural diversity is the existence of sub-cultures within a main

culture or different cultures in a large area such as the Caribbean

• In most instances a particular culture which is indigenous to an

island/country diffuses to other Caribbean countries.

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Furthermore Caribbean countries acculturate (absorbs the
culture of other groups) giving rise to a mixed culture.

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY
POSITIVES
1)Diff usion of other cultures
can lead to tolerance
2)increase harmony amongst
diff ering groups over
ti me/next generati ons
3)leaning new cultures
N E G AT I V E S
1)att empts to engage in
protecti on of culture may
cause separati st/clan
behaviour.
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2)Short run discriminati on
based on race, religion and
class
3)risk of loss of indigenous
culture to a dominant culture
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Social stratification
• Social Stratification refers to the division of society into layers
or strata. When we talk about social stratification, we draw
attention to the unequal position occupied by individuals of
society. An individual class position is in some parts achieved
and not simply given.

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• Social mobility both upwards and downward the class
structure is the fairly common feature of class stratification.

• Intra-generational, refers to movement up and down the

social scale within the individual’s life.

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• Inter-generational is the movement upward and downward
across generations.

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Stratification of a Plantation
Society
• Within the plantation system developed an insular social
structure in which there was sharply differentiated access to
land, wealth and political power and the use of physical
differences as status markers. These experiences have
effectively created multi racial societies with mixed culture

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and a social stratification based on race, education and
wealth.
• George Beckford (1972) the plantation as a total institution -
both economic and social i.e. organized with well defined
boundaries, self-containing and with a hierarchical structure
similar to a caste system.

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Stratification of a Plantation
Society (cont’d)
• In its original form the society as a whole was rigidly stratified
by race and colour directly correlated with occupational status
on the plantation and without upward social mobility

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 Plantation Society Pyramid
The Sugar Pla
Plantation was a nto
microcosm of cra
cy
[larger] West Attorneys and
Indian Social Merchants
Structure.

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Artisans

Poor Whites

Freed /Former African enslaved

Domestic enslaved

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Field enslaved
Plantation Pyramid & Culture
• Cultural & economic hegemony imposed on others
Planter Class

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• Always in search of upward mobility
Middle

• emasculated cultually and socialized towards planter

Enslaved class culture
Africans
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Important Concepts in
Social Stratification
• Plantocracy: Belonging to the planter class and also members of the
representative and crown colony governments

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• Intelligentsia: is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and
creative labour directed to the development and dissemination of culture,
encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them (e.g., artists and
school teachers).

• Bourgeoise: Upper middle class. According to Marx a member of the

property-owning class i.e. a capitalist.

• Middle Class: The socioeconomic class between the working class and the
upper class, usually including professionals, highly skilled labourers, and lower 20
and middle management.
• Working Class: The socioeconomic class consisting of people
who work for wages, especially low wages, including unskilled
and semiskilled labourers and their families.

• Underclass: a class beneath the usual social scale consisting of

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the most disadvantaged people, such as the unemployed in
inner cities

• Caste: any social class or system based on such distinctions

as heredity, rank, wealth, profession, etc.

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Hybridization

• Hybridization refers to mixtures in terms of people’s racial,

heritage and cultural expression:

• religion

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• language
• These mixtures of people and culture began with the era of
discovery. However, plantation society was the institution
under which hybridization became deeply established in
Caribbean society and culture. It was not necessarily an
expected outcome because the plantation as an institution
sought to control the relationship of various groups of
workers. The governance and management practices of white 22
plantation owners tried to keep the races apart.
Hybridization (cont’d)
• Hybridization has deepened cultural diversity in the
Caribbean. One must remember that it was not only the
physical person that was involved in the union of someone in
another race but it was as well two cultures meeting and
mixing.

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Hybridization (cont’d)
Therefore, in the Caribbean, as a result of racial admixture, the following terms arose:

• Mulatto: of European and African origin/ancestry

• Mestizo: of European and Amerindian origin/ancestry

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• Dougla: of both African and East Indian Origin/ancestry

• Transculturation: the introduction of foreign elements into an established culture. In

extreme cases can cause cultural erasure

• Interculturation: refers to the mutual exchange of cultural traits between cultures in long
term, close contact. It contributes to the emergence of a new culture – such as
Caribbean/West Indian culture

• Creole: a simplification and modification of standard English that can be traced back to the 24
plantation
Cultural Erasure
• This refers to the discontinuance/diminishing of cultural
practices. In the Caribbean, in general and within individual
countries, there are many examples of cultural erasure.
• In terms of food, fast food restaurants such as K.F.C., Burger
King and Mc. Donald’s have diminished restaurants and other

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eating places that serve local dishes. Indeed so persuasive and
powerful has been the invasion of these food chains from
abroad, more and more people are no longer relying on home
cooked meals. In terms of family, erasure has been seen by the
practice of the “whole community” bringing up a child has
given way to parents/guardians alone taking full responsibility
for nurturing of children.
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Cultural Erasure (cont’d)
• The use of godparents is fast disappearing as practical and
even more so for effectiveness. Many tribal/folk cultures such
as burial sites, worship of supernatural and use of “obeah”
have generally become unpopular or erased.

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Cultural Retention

• This is where cultural practices of the past continue into the

present. No society will continue to exist unless it retains
cultural practices from one generation to the next in spite of
modernization. Caribbean culture depicts several examples of
retention from our colonial past. Wherever there has been

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strong ethnic settlement of one kind, many cultural traits have
been retained. E.g. Amerindians Africans Europeans Asians
have left their stamp on Caribbean culture from music, dance,
religion, food, dress, economic activities to norms and values.

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Cultural renewal
• This refers to instances to practices discontinued have been
revived. In Trinidad and Tobago, the introduction of Shouter
Baptist Liberation Day as a holiday has revived
recognition/awareness of this group. In Jamaica, the
reintroduction of emancipation day as a holiday and opening

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of Emancipation Park are good signs of renewal. In Barbados
– “crop over” is another good example of efforts at cultural
renewal. Additionally, the recent re-kindled interest in folk
medicine/herbal medicine is the renewal of the once popular
practice in the Caribbean.

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Hybridization

Cultural
Cultural
Renewal
Renewal

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Cultural
Cultural
Cultural
Cultural Erasure
Erasure Retentio
Retentio
nn

Hybridization
Hybridization

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