Transformation of African and Indian Family Traditions in the Southern Caribbean
- 1 January 1973
- journal article
- rural social-structures
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Comparative Studies in Society and History
- Vol. 15 (2) , 171-198
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0010417500007027
Abstract
Around the Caribbean, it is commonly believed that slavery and the plantation system have been responsible for the prevalence of short-term consensual unions, matrifocal households and children out of wedlock who grow up without the authority and support of a father or definite father- surrogate. This explanation is accepted as often by social scientists as by public opinion. Of course, this is the obverse of the line of Western social thought maintaining that small holdings and independent family farming are the basis of strong patrifocal households, exclusive life-long marriages and paternal responsibility for children.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- Caste and Endogamy in TrinidadSouthwestern Journal of Anthropology, 1964
- East Indians in TrinidadPublished by Columbia University Press ,1961
- Illegitimacy in the Caribbean Social StructureAmerican Sociological Review, 1960