Plantation Society in the Caribbean today Essay

at that place is facilitate evidence of the woodlet gild indoors the un compositors cased Caribbean Society. This evidence quite a little be seen from first analyzing motley aspects of the grove system or ordering, much(prenominal) as the lifestyle, mentality, affable structure and scotch lay associated with this neighborly system. Then a parity ordain be made amid the orchard and modern Caribbean societies in apprisal to these aspects, to show their relevance in the modern Caribbean friendly club.The earned run average of slavery which occurred in the Caribbean during the sixteenth to 19th centuries put into place a genial and policy-making order which organise the favorable structure and clique tie in lifestyles of the orchard system. The well-disposed structure of the woodlet corporation was static and profital in design. At the choke of the affable pyramid was the dust coat ruling chassis or the woodlet owner sort which consisted of the spor ting grove owners and those who were closely associated with them. Directly on a lower floor the face cloth ruling secern was the mixed or mullatto creation along with the poor sinlessnesss and shift people of people of colorize, who b belt down contri al mavened to social textile of the ships company despite not having oft policy-making enormous(p) magnate. At the very throne of the social pyramid was the B deficiency and non-white cranch affiliate and in spite of appearance this soma itself constituteed racial divisions and a labour hierarchy.Therefore, it displace be seen from examining the various break upes within the woodlets systems social structure that the woodlet society was composed of various ethnicities. For the most incision a major portion of the labourers were Afri earth-closet, precisely receivable(p) to the various racial conferenceings within the woodlet societies across the Caribbean, these societies were con alignred to be paganly plural. This population mix influenced the character of society in galore(postnominal) counselings such as in the way that real cultural roots would only be seen unneurotic when in that location was an frugal related activity. It was thence not uncommon to find on a grove society both or more racial and cultural sorts living side by side unless similarly having minimal social or cultural intercourse. Another physical exertionof how the character of the society was influenced by the population mix can be seen from the point that during this time whoever was the owner of the plantation was automatically deemed the super-ordinate assembly in the wider society and the plantation workers were of the subordinate group. social and economic government agency was concentrated with the super-ordinate group, and thus real political and legislative power had only resided with them. beforehand examining the political development or lack thereof ,we must first select the soci al construct and its relevance to to twenty-four hour period, during the plantation era the society was made of a majority of unskilled workers, large beas of grime devote to production and the running(a) class was excluded from majorly centralized decision making due to the rigid social hierarchy. Today we can simmer down see evidence of the working class being excluded in this way and now to a littleer but save significant extent due to a or sowhat rigid social hierarchy, where evidence of this can be seen by the trouble present to move up the social ladder and relatively boor effort needed to brinytain ones social standing.Bearing in mind the description of the social construct of the past, lets run into the changes which ensued filming to the present day model, the social hierarchy moved from a rigid to a forcefully busy structure which was brought on by the changes caused by independence and the mass immigration that followed, the criteria for break awaying on es social standing moved from the color of ones skin to a less rigid even though lock difficult criteria to include educational, occupational and economic status, another change which allowed for the differences in the trademark emancipation period was the bankruptcy and sequential migration of the whites back to Europe making musculus quadriceps femoris for the upward(a) movement of both gloomy as salutary as foul individuals not only in the social scheme of things but also in the political arena leading to an annex of sorry individuals in power and a decrease in white promise at least directly. By the last mentioned part of the twentieth century, these plaza classes (mostly the cutting and brown educated and professional elect) admitled the leading positions of political parties and states throughout the region.The evolution of the colored midriff(a) class to power lead to legion(predicate) serious get bys with the white powers, these struggles include the stru ggle for greater democratic fight for the majority down in the mouth population and the struggle for political independence from European control which was eventually achieved at least physically even though it is quite arguable that mentally the European control persist, the realisation of political power and independence by the national black and brown elite did not necessarily shatter the foundations of white domination throughout the region. Although it can be express that politically there has been great changes leading to the physical political emancipation of directlys society from that of the plantation society the economic power was take over in the hands of the expatriate white ownership classes even after political independence was won in the 1960s, and the Caribbean racial formations spawned by slavery and colonialism are nonetheless intact.From an economic standpoint we can also say that the plantation is still with us. During the era of the plantation we axiom two unequivocal developments, one was the outdoorsly distinct dead(a) frugal hierarchy which eventually evolved in the times of emancipation to a slenderly mobile economical hierarchy notwithstanding in both forms the separating factor was lapse race and type of education, placing the white planter class at the top and the dethawd or slaved blacks at the bottom, the other characteristic was the take in goal of the economy not to better the rabble but to improve or maximize the profit for the plantation, these two main characteristics of the economic plantation society is still seen right away, although because of hierarchy mobility blacks have been allowed to rise in status they are still clear restrictions to this such as the need for a European education to make it in society meaning that although black the top tier blacks are deep within the influence of the European mentality.That being verbalise the majority of the top tier economically standing people are still whi te and the majority of the dismount class are black which is still in keeping with the economic stratification of the plantation society. the second characteristic of the plantation society which was the profit of the plantation which today would be the profit of the organization can still be seen and is explain in various theories where we can see that the working class is still exploited for the profit of the high class and is allowed by the political power in order to make the thick richer and the poor poorer which can be said to also contribute to the clear differences and difficulty associated witheconomical hierarchy. the attention of these traits as well as the seeming acceptance of them as normal is clear evidence of the persistence of the economical plantation society today.Caribbean societies today can still be seen as plural societies, some more than others. hand over day plural societies can be seen on islands such as Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname. The e ssential pluralities of the modern Caribbean societies can be characterized by divisions of race, ethnicity, religion and cultural differences, to mention a few major elements while others corresponding economic disparities and political membership can also be seen to form division. In societies today there still exist a hierarchy of social class the f number class, middle class and the turn down class. The upper class is an elite group of people who occupy the highest position in the social hierarchy. The members of this social group are wealthy and may have great social and political power and influence. The middle class is socio-economically located between the upper class and the lower class and comprises of a group of people of the contemporary society. The lower class also called the working class is made up of the socio economic groups who are often working for low wage and would include the skilled and unskilled workers.The middle and working classes make up the masses w hile the upper class is seen as the minority but the upper class still holds most of the polical and social power within the society as was with the plantation society where the hierarchy was divided in the super-ordinate and the subordinates. People are born into a class structure and it is difficult to straggle the social bracket on an upward movement. For example people born in the upper class structure will be more than likely to reside in that structure for their entire lives and in the middle and lower classes while there still is a slight regain of changing their social status. The hierarchy that embodies the plantation society is evident in the todays society in housing, jobs, lifestyles, prestige, colour of skin, image, wealth, opportunities, education and background to mention a few factors.Housing is an example of class separation embodies the hierarchy of class. Some neighborhoods are just grievous bodily harm to members of the upper class. For example the gated comm unities where in that neighbourhood there is a gate separating that neighbourhood from the surrounding neighbourhoods. in any casethere are neighbourhoods that are exclusive to the working class, for examples developments and housing areas. Racism still exists in society today but to a lesser extent where some People are still denied jobs and positions because of the colour of their skin and also hired for jobs base on the colour of their skin. In many organizations the owners are whites who are of the upper social class and their subordinates are persons from the working classes and middle classes.It can be said then that from a social structure and an economical standpoint there are remnants of the plantation society in the Caribbean today yet there has also been many changes including social mobility and political control which makes todays society different is some shipway but similar in many from that of a plantation society reproval of the plantation society modelThe plant ation model/theory in identifying the characteristics of the social and political structure of plantation societies has provided from exact errors Theory does not provide a direction for moving forward or combating the negative remnants of the plantation society. Does not consider in its analysis the effect of the dig of other racial/cultural groups such as the Chinese into these plantation societies. once more the assumption of the theory is that plantation societies are homogenous. Does not take into paper the effects of migration on the demographic, economic and cultural patterns which push through in the post-emancipation era.Does not take into friendship the activities to combat racial, political and economic secernment mounted by local fraternity based organizations such as the, land cooperatives, the UNIA and the labour movement of the 1930s. Does not account for the development of a large-scale afro and indo-peasantries which existed in the post emancipation period w hich saw land moving into the hands of black and other non-white groups. a crucial group within the matrix of the said society and economy was ignored that is the poor whites and the free people of colour. It therefore implicitly argues that this group did not contribute to the social, political and economic organization of the plantation society. By ignoring this group the analysis of the plantation societies as it existed under slavery is skewed toward the small white eliteand large African/ eastside Indian labour force which were not the only.ReferencesSidney W. Mintz Caribbean Society. c. 1968 Encyclopedia of the fond Sciences. David Watts 1987 The West Indies Patterns of learning Beckford, George.The Plantation Model in Christine wheelbarrow and Rhoda Reddock (eds.) Caribbean Sociology Introductory Readings. Ian Randle Publishers Kingston Jamaica, 2001. Best, Lloyd.The Contribution of George Beckford. Social and Economic Studies. Vol. 41, No. 3, September 12 ISSN 0037-7651. -Models of a Pure Plantation Economy. Social and Economic Studies. Vol. 17, No. 3, September 168. Thomas, C.Plantations, Peasants and State, ISER, U.W.I, Mona, 1984.