Saramaka Emigration and Marriage: A Case Study of Social Change

Abstract

Since the late 19th century, Saramaka men have spent large portions of their lives in wage labor far from tribal territory. The shortage of marriageable men at home has produced significant changes in traditional patterns of betrothal, polygyny, and conjugal residence, as well as in the role definitions of husband and wife. An analysis of how these (and other related) changes occurred is supported by comparative data from neighboring Bush Negro groups. These data also suggest that differences in patterns of emigration may lie behind many of the hitherto unexplained differences in social structure among these groups.