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HISTORY OF JAMAICAN CULTURE.   Term Paper ID:19822 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Marriage & kinship. Patterns, racial make-up of population, poverty, white rule.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Marriage & kinship. Patterns, racial make-up of population, poverty, white rule. Paper Introduction: History of Jamaican Culture Jamaica is rich in cultural history and anthropology. The family life of Jamaicans has been studied often because of its unusual marriage, settlement and kinship patterns. The study of these aspects of Jamaican culture offers insights into the economic condition of the people as well. Social relationships in Jamaica have changed considerably because of political and economic problems in the past 30 years. For this reason, politics and migration must also be examined. The island was discovered by Columbus and is located in the northern part of the tropical Caribbean. It is 49 miles wide and 140 miles long, with mountains around the entire perimeter. Because of the mountains, the temperature is varied and rainfall is plentiful, offering a variety of soil conditions and cool Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries,1971.----------------------- [i].Edith Clarke, My Mother Who Fathered Me (London:George Allen and Unwin, 1966), 18. Therefore, the mostskilled and educated usually migrate, leaving the tedious jobs, such aslooking after the crops, to the poor and unskilled. [xxx].Ibid., 14. Jamaica gained independence from Britain in 1962.[xxv] Since then, aJamaican identity has been called for by strong nationalistic attitudes andthe wish of Rastafarians to stay in Jamaica rather than go back to Africaor Ethiopia.[xxvi] Still, political upheaval in cities such as Kingstonhas increased white economic power in Jamaica,[xxvii] thus forcing manyblack people to migrate for stable employment. Since the period of British settlement and Africanslavery, there has been serious controversy about the kinds of jobsavailable to blacks in Jamaica. [xiv].Ibid., 1 5. The opportunity foreducated blacks to gain steady work in Jamaica is high, but the chance tomigrate to a more fulfilling job market such as that in the United Statesis also promising for skilled, educated Jamaicans. These cultural differences are readily seenthrough the institutions of marriage--predominant only in Afro-European,middle-class and small households--concubinage--the norm for most Jamaicansincluding Rastafarians--and the availability of government jobs for whitesand educated blacks. The man usually takes no responsibility unless he is older and ableto support the mother and child financially. [xv].Ibid., 1 7. However, the agricultural dependence of the society israpidly changing because of the growth of industrialization. [viii].Ibid. [xxvi].Ibid., 51. [xxxii].Kuper, 14. These benefits are that more women thanmen are migrating, which will significantly lower the birth rate inJamaica, and more young than old people are migrating.[xxix] The less-skilled workers, who represent two-thirds of the work force, hardly everhave the opportunity to migrate or gain status in Jamaica.[xxx] In theearly 198 s, unemployment averaged 26 percent; among young people, itaveraged 48 percent. This relationshipis useful because the man is at least partly responsible for the woman'swelfare. According to one writer, "the government did not havea compelling desire to circumvent the patronage system and create adevelopmental program that would have provided steady employment and upwardmobility for the lower classes."[xxxi] This causes a serious problem,considering the switch from an agricultural to urban society.[xxxii] Thesefactors are generating social change in Jamaica and hindering economicdevelopment.[xxxiii] The history of society and economics in Jamaica shows enormous changeand turmoil. [xxix].Ibid., 13. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1966.Edie, Carlene J. My Mother Who Fathered Me. Edie, Democracy By Default: Dependencyand Clientelism in Jamaica (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1991),133-34. London: Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1976.Nettleford, Rex M. New York: William Morrow,1972.Pim, Bedford. Another theory says that MarcusGarvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, which had a "limited butpowerful impact" on lower-class blacks, "set the stage for the emergence ofRastafarianism in Jamaica."[xxiv] That is, the movement came out ofstrength and anti-colonialism. [ii].Adam Kuper, Changing Jamaica (London: Routledge andKeegan Paul, 1976), 4. [xix].Kuper, 62. The relationship, however, isusually severed, and the woman's mother becomes burdened with the child. However, the woman cannot expect this type of concubinage tosupport her financially or to persuade the man to remain monogamous.[xi] The "African" type of matrilocal union occurs when the woman has ashare of the family land.[xii] This is the ideal situation between a manand a woman because, although the woman performs most of the duties of awife, i.e. [xii].Ibid., 99, 1 2. [vi].Clarke, 95-96. Edith Clarke, an anthropologistwho studied Jamaican family life in three communities, explains: The different class patterns of the Jamaicans appear as a result of the choice between two cultural traditions: the European, defined in terms of Christian monogamy and stress on the father role, and the African, defined in terms of the maternal family, concubinage, illegitimacy etc.[iv]Discussion of the latter, African family tradition is important becausepremarital sex, illegitimacy and single-parent childrearing are possiblereasons for the severe overpopulation in Jamaica today. [iii].Rex M. [ix].Ibid., 1 . [xxi].Pim Bedford, The Negro and Jamaica (Freeport, NY:Books for Libraries, 1971), 7. [xxii].Carlene J. Most children see and remember the quarrels between theirparents because of the overcrowded conditions in which concubinage andsingle-parent families live.[xviii] As far as marriage is concerned inthese populated areas, cousins are encouraged to marry to secure the wealthof the family and the responsibilities which occur with unwed pregnancyrather than marriage.[xix] Adam Kuper comments: Sixty-two percent of all children born of Negro parentage in Jamaica are illegitimate. [xxviii].Kuper, 11. [xiii].Ibid., 1 3. There is cultural variation among African-Jamaicans, Afro-Europeans,whites and Rastafarians. [xx].Kuper, 63-64. Changing Jamaica. The Negro and Jamaica. [xviii].Ibid., 142. [xvi].Ibid., 1 9. Also, the result of pregnancies is the "disruption at any moment ofthe closet kinship ties," such as between mother and daughter or man andconcubine.[xiv] The disruption of kinship ties accounts for some of thebitter attitudes of the children of such unions[xv] and is also recognizedas a sign of poverty.[xvi] As shown in the concubinage and matrilocal family systems, themother, father and grandmother play the important kinship roles.[xvii]However, the parental relationship between child and father is rarelyestablished. Most often and generally in the case of a young woman's firstpregnancy, the woman is severely reprimanded and kicked out of her mother'shouse. The familylife of Jamaicans has been studied often because of its unusual marriage,settlement and kinship patterns. [xxiv].Edie, 43-44. Endnotes BibliographyClarke, Edith. [iv].Clarke, 18. [xxxi].Edie, 125. For this reason,politics and migration must also be examined. [x].Ibid., 1 1. Therefore,she must contribute to the household by working wherever and whenever shecan. The main crops of Jamaica aresugar and bananas. Most of Jamaica is still inhabited bypoor and oppressed descendants of these African slaves, which accounts forthe dissatisfaction with black identity and the distribution of wealthamong whites and blacks on the island.[iii] These historical events and the split between European culturalhistory and African identity hold the key to the structure and perhapsdisintegration of family life in Jamaica. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1991.Kuper, Adam. [xvii].Ibid., 141. Awoman with several children is encouraged to build a house on her mother'sfamily land, which becomes a "denuded family household."[vii] Another type of family arrangement occurs when the mother allows thepregnant young woman to continue her relationship with her lover.[viii]This is, according to Clarke, "purposive concubinage,"[ix] a trial periodfor lovers to decide if they can spend the rest of their lives together.In some cases, a man may keep a woman as a "housekeeper or servant,"[x]which classes the woman much lower than a wife or lover. Those Jamaicans who own a small settlement such as ina matrilocal union are increasingly becoming burdened by overpopulation anda drop in the standard of living.[xxviii] There are some benefits of the migration of Jamaicans as shown inKuper's book, Changing Jamaica. On the other hand, one expert says that, when the government beganprivatizing industries in Jamaica after the sugar and banana industriesslumped in the early 198 s, the sugar workers opposed the change, fearing awage freeze and loss of jobs.[xxii] Some Jamaicans feel a perpetual inferiority about their color becauseof white superiority in the predominantly black society.[xxiii] One theorysays that this inferiority complex has resulted in the Rastafarianmovement, made up of lower-class Afro-Jamaicans who believe Jamaica willnever be recognized as a black country. The island was discovered by Columbus and is located in the northernpart of the tropical Caribbean. Therefore, there is no incentive for either men orwomen to avoid parenthood even in promiscuous relationships."[vi] There are several types of unions between men and women in Jamaicansociety, and these unions usually revolve around the impregnation of thewoman. In any case, confusion occurs because Afro-Europeans, often middle class and semi-employed, are caught between Africanand European ideals. [vii].Ibid., 99. Statistics should distinguish between those born of parents living as married folk without the ceremony, and those who come into the world as a result of mere vagrant passion where no household life is established.[xx] Familial economics leads to the examination of Jamaican economics andpolitics as a whole. This turmoil is most readily reflected in the study ofJamaican family life and the politics of migration and economic inequality. cooking, washing clothes and cleaning house, she may end theirrelationship at will since she owns the house.[xiii] The difference between these concubinage and matrilocal unions andmarriage is that the woman knows she is financially dependent. [xxxiii].Ibid., 15.----------------------- 3 History of Jamaican Culture Jamaica is rich in cultural history and anthropology. The study of these aspects of Jamaicanculture offers insights into the economic condition of the people as well.Social relationships in Jamaica have changed considerably because ofpolitical and economic problems in the past 3 years. In The Negro and Jamaica, Bedford Pim saysthat, "as a rule, the Negro despises agriculture."[xxi] Perhaps this isbecause of the intense labor which banana, tobacco and sugar croppingentail. Identity and race are emphasized in Jamaica becauseof the problem with the economy. [xxvii].Ibid., 137. [v].Kuper, 11. Therefore, they claim Africa andespecially Ethiopia as their homeland. This kind of work isunfulfilling because it contains no year-round salary and the poor remainpoor and unskilled. Because of the mountains, thetemperature is varied and rainfall is plentiful, offering a variety of soilconditions and cool relief for the interior. Also,overpopulation has resulted in a marked drop in the standard of living andhigh unemployment rates in the cities.[v] Clarke says, "Maternity is anormal and desirable state and the childless woman is an object of pity,contempt or derision. [xi].Ibid., 1 2. Nettleford, Identity, Race and Protest (NewYork: William Morrow, 1972), 25. Democracy By Default: Dependency and Clientelism in Jamaica. [xxv].Nettleford, 19. It is 49 miles wide and 14 miles long,with mountains around the entire perimeter. Identity, Race and Protest. Both European and African cultures have contributed to Jamaica'shistory.[i] After the discovery of the island in 1494, there was a shortSpanish occupation before Britain took Jamaica in 1655.[ii] These whiteBritish people brought a large number of Africans to the island to work asslaves in the huge sugar industry. [xxiii].Nettleford, 137. 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