Joseph Obrebski, the West Indian Social Survey, and the Ethnology of the West Indian Family

Abstract

Finally Obrebski was convinced that rural Jamaican society could be understood only by an intensive study of origins functions and prospects. He felt that the lasting scientific worth of his work lay here and not in the collection of statistics on rural communities followed by the interpretation of the results. This latter analysis he considered of administrative but not scientific value since it failed to produce generalized explanations. Unfortunately the immediate goals of the West Indian Social Survey were to provide statistical descriptions of selected peasant communities. While Obrebski was free to work with his data in any manner he chose he was unable to supply the needed time for his analyses because of his United Nations responsibilities and his ill-health. Hence he never fully completed his discussion of Rock- meadow family dysfunction and social malintegration. Even so his extensive background in peasant societies produced an alternative interpretation of rural Jamaican family structure unique among the general trends of Caribbean ethnology. Consequently the preservation of the original data and the partial analyses of Joseph Obrebski count as an important addition to the body of literature in the field of Caribbean studies as well as Afro-American studies generally. (excerpt)