Sex, Love and Marriage in the Caribbean

Abstract

ues without being an evangelist for any particular value position. In case of present volume, author clearly succeeded on first count. The book is well organized and well written and should be of interest to literate public as well as to professional community. On second point, scholarship is best where it counts most; namely, in chapters on Premarital Sexual Attitudes and on Premarital Sexual Behavior, although one could wonder whether author does not lean too heavily on a few sources (there are over 80 references to two Kinsey volumes and 50 to Ira Reiss's work). An exception to generally admirable scholarship is chapter on historical background which would make any modern historian wince. Hopefully at some early date someone will use wondrous techniques of current historiography to explore history of family life in this culture and thereby lay to rest once and for all dated, stereotypic images of the Puritan Family, the Southern Colonial Family, and the Turn-of-the-Century Family from which contemporary array of American families allegedly evolved. Another disappointment, though not justly a criticism, is that Professor Bell limited himself to role of digester of studies and purveyor of empirical generalizations. This is a valuable service in itself, but one hopes that he will someday take next step and suggest a conceptual model for understanding and exploring premarital sexual behavior as well.