Caribbean Sociology Essay

OVERVIEW all converse has a stage setting. Every discourse has a motive. The Sociology that real in nineteenth century France was a response to the companionable crisis that was experienced on that point at that time. The Sociology that give riseed in nineteenth century France had a context. The man who is considered to be the founding military chaplain of Sociology, Auguste Comte was convinced that a science of ordination was realistic and would be capable of reconstructing cut ordination. The study disputable of France in the 19th century was the need to reconstruct French ordination. Thus, the motive of 19th century European Sociology was to develop principles that would guide the reconstruction of France. It is highly big to recognize that Auguste Comte was motivated by the need to make a ara to the growth of his association. As sociologists of the Caribbean, we commode non overlook this small component of sociological discourse. Sociologists of the Caribbe an essential focal point on making a piece to the upliftment of the people of the Caribbean. In coif to do this, we must identify the major worryatic of the region i.e. the context upon which a sincere sociology of the Caribbean is built.Caribbean Sociologists can make a positivistic contri nonwithstandingion to the development of the region. However, in come out to this, they must adopt a highly comminuted perspective. We can non continue to engage in what Holmes and Crossley (2004) match to as the un vituperative, intercultural transfer of familiarity and models of development. term sociological models of the Caribbean (plural, creole, grove society theses) focus on the outer-structural features of the Caribbean reality, it is entailmentant to appreciate that Caribbean society isreflected in a powerful commission in the k instantlyingness of Caribbean people. The eccentricity and complexity of the reality that is the Caribbean lies in the fact that making common maven of the Caribbean is non hardly around unravelling the denouement of complaisant structure moreso, it is slightly a homophile(a) and complex experience. The Caribbean experience is roughly serviceman beings struggling to find a sense of bum. This sticks out powerfully in the ready of Derek Walcott. In the poem A removed Cry From Africa, Walcott writesI who am poisoned with the telephone circuit of some(prenominal), where shall I turn divided to the vena? I who suck up cursed the drunk officer of British rule, how choose I surrounded by this Africa and the English tongue I love? I betray them both or outpouring back what they give? How can I face overmuch(prenominal) slaughter and be cool? How can I turn from Africa and live?Derek Walcotts resolve must be seen as a response to his experience of the Caribbean and as much(prenominal) must be strikeed as sociological. Sociology is a response to societal conditions. It does non tolerate to be a science. It has to be avowedly. We need to examine the Caribbean reality finished pure lenses. The Caribbean region is an invaded put a plaza invaded by upper- fount letterist parsimoniousness. The judgment invaded suggests that there is a fundamental difference between a genuine capitalist evidence 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 cont revoke that the Caribbean is not a real capitalist space.The Caribbean is an end product of capitalism Mark Figueroa (2007) argued that the riddle of the Caribbean lies in the fact that the region has forever and a day been associated with capitalism. How then(prenominal) can we describe that space that has always been associated with capitalism? Related to the vox populi of invaded space is the notion of ill-shapen space. A distorted social space refers to that which is characteri sed by multiple distortions and contradictions. The psyche of distorted space has significant implications for the human beings that inhabit that space. Do we expect that the human beings of a distorted social space to have a healthy intelligence?Caribbean society was natural out of oppression. Slavery was an oppressive origin and therefore had a destructive exploit on the human being. Slavery did not serve to humanise. Slavery dehumanised. We must come to terms with this fact slavery had a dehumanising effect on Caribbean people. The question is what have we done to rehumanise Caribbean people?Our issue in the Caribbean is to reconstruct the human being whose social and psychological predilection has been built on the legacy of an oppressive and dehumanizing system. The notions plural society, woodlet society and creole society stress the preoccupation of Caribbean social scientists with the structure of society. What we need to be concerned about is not simply the structure of Caribbean society exclusively or else 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(p) 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 circumstance in the Caribbean is grave. He went on to pronounce that we have not had frugal metre-up in the region for twenty years. He therefore asked a very weighty question What are we to make of our tale?I ask, what is the nature 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 unpaired set of historico-psychological conditions. Non-economic factors therefore represent major components of the Caribbean development equation. Don Marshalls (1998) exam ination of the West-Indian development experience illustrates the critical grapheme of non-economic factors. Marshall argues that the key economic players the plantation owners, the merchants and the royalists had no real stake in the trans fit upation of the region. It was not in the pursuit of these key players to trans random variable the local economy.Rather, it was in the expansion ofthe commercial sphere of the colonial economy that the planter-merchant elite could re make believe and fasten it self. The behaviour of the plantermerchant elite in West-Indian society is no doubt peculiar. It portrays the planter-merchant elite as a line motivated not solely by the need for capital accumulation but or else by the need to preserve its power of dominance.This typography contends that people of distorted social spaces do act in opposition to themselves. We now examine the link between capitalism and a poverty of consciousness. I refer to a study I conducted in 1998. The tit le dependence in a banana tree Producing community in uncouth St. Lucia A micro- take aim Sociological Investigation. The main engineer of the study was to unmask the meanings that banana grangers precondition up to banana farming.CAPITALISM AND CONSCIOUSNESS gatewayThe Shift from Sugar to Bananas in St.luciaCaribbean societies are very unfortunate 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 ready for it. Invasions such as these do not avail the natural progression of the consciousness of a people. The founding of the banana perseverance into the St. Lucian economy in the early 1950s equal a significant historical moment. It was the source-class honours degree successful cash crop since slavery. erst again, the space that we refer to as the Caribbean was invaded by capitalist interests. It was the post-second world war arrest when Britain had lost 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 constancy, St. Lucia had a livelinessed small fryry whose efforts resulted in a relatively diversified pastoral sector. Casimir and Acosta (1980) notemono- merchandise was not as discriminating in St.Lucia as in the new(prenominal) West-Indian islands. The country enjoyed a comfortable position as far as the productionof food was concerned.The radical shift from loot to bananas that occurred in the late 1950s was possible through the origination of a vivacious peasantry. Elsie Le Franc (1980) noted St. Lucias singularity in that it was the only Caribbean island to have switched all from one monocrop to another. In 1951, wampum be 47% of the essence value of St.Lucias exports, ten years later however, sugar represented a meager 1.3% of total exports.Pla ntation development in St.Lucia was relatively poor due to the instability created by the fourteen wars between France and Britain for its makeion. As a result, land was available for the ex-slaves to squat upon rather than work for subaltern wages. The planters were therefore labored to adopt the metayage system that cedeed them to reap the benefits of childbed without paying wages. Through the metayage system, peasants worked a piece of land, paying rent in the form of produce. This opportunity allowed the peasant class to develop a signifier of independent spirit from the early stages of emancipation.A severalize from being fit to the poor economic situation of the planter class, the system of metayage was also suited to the orientation of the rural population. Peter Adrien (1990) notes the strong sentimental attachment to the land and the practice of common 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 manufacture invaded the possibility of the emergence of an autonomous peasant class that could have evolved into a true capitalist class. The invasion of the banana exertion disturbed the movement towards the establishment of a diversified agricultural sector in St.lucia. Consciousness and the Banana ExperienceIt was detect that the banana farmers under(a) study connected a very special sort of significance to specie. For them, bullion was not simply about the ability to satisfy real(a) needs and wants. Rather, bullion performed a racy function within thecontext of the barefaced self. The latter was confirmed by the fact that these banana farmers relied on away stimulants such as alcohol and marijuana. In fact, alcohol was the best selling trade good of the communit y.The research also revealed that the banana farmers under study saw themselves as leave out 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 anomic particularly with regard to the phrase. The formal address in St. Lucia was English bit the language of the peasant was creole.The idea that farmers would do anything for money was exceedingly pervasive and is cogitate 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 signifier of nakedness about the banana farmer that needed to be clothed as banana farming was perceived to be a low-status 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 ther efore not strong to predict that the collapse of the banana industry would lead to the direct movement of the younker farmers in particular into the illegal do drugs business. In addition, a significant symmetry migrated to neighbouring Martinique where they felt at home as far as language was concerned.It was reason out that while the farmers were earning a steady income and while we celebrated the importance of the banana industry to the economy using proclamations such as the banana industry is the bedrock/ spinal column of the society, banana farming created among the farmers a false sense of selfhood, one found on money/materialism. Their notion of self was based ontheir ability to possess material things their notion of self revolve around money. It cannot be said that this is united 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. discipl ineing 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 problematical of the Caribbean. Caribbean sociology must be fundamentally diametric 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 agitate the consciousness of Caribbean people. My response so far has been the development of a new surface area what I refer to as Socio-Poetry. Socio-Poetry is much more than p oetry that is stimulated by sociological issues the issues of poverty, crime, domestic violence, HIV/ AIDS, impaired social institutions, unemployment and so on. Socio-Poetry is also about re-defining the boundaries of research and cognition-making arguing for the great(p)er pulmonary tuberculosis of imagination in capturing 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 sounding at Research instruction 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, spring and art that are in harmony with the socio-cultural reality i.e. knowledge that i s sensitive to the meanings, determine and processes underlying events and actions. In addition, Dr. Bhoendradat Tewarie lamentsthe lack of precaution paid to critical opinion 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 peculiar its not as general as it needs to be and mayhap we are not as inexorable at it as we should be given the current environment.Dr. Tewarie also argues that by physical composition about our own situation in the region, we will develop perspectives and insights about ourselves to cover with others in the rest of the world.Socio-Poetry is a step in that direction. Socio-Poetry is an alternative form of knowledge that represents the blend of sociological analysis and fanciful 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 works of Socio-Poetry. My first w ork was called SEEDS that was a response to the crisis of identicalness of the Caribbean. SEEDS, was meant for adolescents and it was also aimed at portraying the role of the arts in human development. The reaping is about consciousness-raising. It is about writing about theCaribbean in interesting ways so as to stimulate dialogue, debate and go on critical analysis .Please allow me to expose you to a socio-poetic portrait of the Caribbean from The increaseLICKS phoebe bird womenat the lane nook frustration 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, departure five lickingwomen in anger, inquisitive for sweetnesson cracked lips.Tongues neer win.Theyre trapped by dentitionthat delight intasteless carriers of cream.Licks for banana,licks for cane-sugar.Five licking women strandedat the s treet corner.Theyve lost the wayto the river, the sun burns.to a greater extent 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 goods 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 liveliness in the Caribbean and we cannot wait till 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 meeting 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 taking her analyses of Caribbean society to the lower levels of the education system. The motive is to submit the consciousness of Caribbean people.A sociology of the Caribbean must be a practical 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 trope ofDevelopment in Dennery, St. Lucia, 18401840-1959.1959. Masters Thesis, University of the WestWestIndies, pocket billiards graduate School of Social Sciences, Jamaica.Beckford, George. 1967. The WestWest-Indian Banana Industry. Industry. Jamaica Institute of Social and Economic Research.Casimir. J and Y. Acosta. 1982 . Social Structural changes in St. Lucia.Holmes Keith and Michael Crossley (2004). Whose Knowledge, Whose value? The Contribution of Local Knowledge to pedagogy Policy Processes A Case occupy of Research Development Initiatives in the minor(ip) State of St. Lucia.Lewis, Arthur. 1993. The Evolution of the Peasantry in the British WestWest-Indies. LondonTewarie, Bhoendradat (2004), Critical Thinking. St. Augustine News, October 2003 establish 200410.200410.Walcott, Derek. Collected Poems. Faber and Faber, London. 1996.Walcott, Derek. Omeros. Farar Straus Giroux, New York. 1991.