Caribbean society models soci 1002

J.S. Furnivall vs. M.G. Smith (Pluralism Focus)

Furnivall analyzed plural societies primarily through economic pluralism, whereas Smith focused on social and cultural pluralism.

Homogenous society (M.G. Smith)

A society where members share the same basic social institutions (such as family forms, religion, and education), leading to institutional uniformity.

Plural society (M.G. Smith)

A society where distinct cultural groups live in the same geographic area under one political administration but share virtually no basic social institutions.

Heterogeneous society (M.G. Smith)

A society whose members share compulsory public institutions (such as law, economy, and government) while maintaining diverse private institutions (such as kinship and religion).

Carl Stone's critique of the Plural Society thesis

Argues that M.G. Smith overstates cultural divides and overlooks the way economic class and material dispossession define modern post-independence social stratification.

Plantation-America (Charles Wagley)

One of three cultural spheres in the New World, characterized historically by coastal agrarian estates, monocrop export agriculture, and enslaved labor.

Plantation as a total institution

A closed, authoritarian social and economic environment where daily life, socialization, and rules are strictly dictated by management to maximize crop production.

Seasoning

A coercive acculturation process applied to enslaved Africans to break prior cultural ties and force conformity to the plantation work regime.

Pigmentocracy

A stratification system derived from plantation history where social status, power, and privilege correspond directly with skin complexion and racial hierarchy.

Foreign-mindedness

A psychological remnant of the plantation economy where metropolitan foreign goods and values are deemed superior to locally produced alternatives.

Urban bias (Plantation Economy)

The historical post-colonial tendency to prioritize infrastructure and commercial development in urban port centers while neglecting rural agricultural regions.

Best and Levitt's alternative economic strategy

Promoting indigenous development by focusing on the non-plantation subsistence sector, local food production, and domestic entrepreneurship over foreign exports.

Primacy of the material (Carl Stone)

The thesis asserting that occupational strata and income-earning power are the primary determinants of status and power in modern urban Caribbean society.

Poor-rich continuum (Carl Stone)

Stone's alternative to the orthodox two-class Marxist model, presenting social stratification as an income-based continuum reflecting varied access to resources.