West Indian Society Research Articles

Fertility Differentials between Slaves in the United States and the British West Indies: A Note on Lactation Practices and Their Possible Implications

RECENT studies of the Atlantic slave trade by Philip Curtin and others have demonstrated that the United States received a relatively small share of the total African migration to the Americas.' Yet, the United States emerged by the end of slavery with a black population comparable in size to those of the Brazilian and West Indian slave societies which experienced much greater migrations of Africans. The causes of these differential rates of population growth have long been debated by contemporaries and by historians, and have been most frequently attributed to differing planter attitudes toward slave reproduction and material treatment, particularly as they were influenced by the opportunity to obtain new slaves from Africa. We shall argue, however, that explanations resting solely on planter attitudes are insufficient, and, based upon available data, other forces must be considered. Interpretation of the data is made difficult by the fact that newly imported Africans formed greatly different proportions of the total slave population in these societies. Inferences drawn without distinguishing between these imported slaves and those Creoles born in the New World are apt to be highly misleading.2 Nevertheless, even after allowing for these

The Retention of Caste Notions Among the Indian Immigrants in British Guiana During the Nineteenth Century

Indian immigration into the West Indies generally during the nineteenthcentury, and in particular to British Guiana, forms a small portion of migrationmovements from one area to another in the world during thatperiod. But in terms of West Indian societies, this immigration representeda major influx and so had significant social effects, especially inBritish Guiana and in Trinidad. By 1917 when the system was terminated some 429,286 Indians had been introduced into the West Indies since 1838, of which 238,909 went to British Guiana, and 143,939 to Trinidad.

: West Indian Societies . David Lowenthal.

American AnthropologistVolume 77, Issue 1 p. 108-109 Free Access Ethnology: West Indian Societies. DAVID LOWENTHAL. Foreword by Philip Mason. American Geographical Society Research Series, 26 RICHARD FRUCHT, RICHARD FRUCHT University of Alberta References CitedSearch for more papers by this author RICHARD FRUCHT, RICHARD FRUCHT University of Alberta References CitedSearch for more papers by this author First published: March 1975 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1975.77.1.02a00310Citations: 1AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume77, Issue1March 1975Pages 108-109 ReferencesRelatedInformation

West Indian Societies.

West Indian Societies.

A Socialization in Ambiguity: Child-Lending in a British West Indian Society

A Socialization in Ambiguity: Child-Lending in a British West Indian Society

David Lowenthal: West Indian Societies (New York and London, Oxford University Press, 1972, £4.50). Pp. xvii + 385. Published for the Institute of Race Relations, London, in collaboration with the American Geographical Society.

David Lowenthal: West Indian Societies (New York and London, Oxford University Press, 1972, £4.50). Pp. xvii + 385. Published for the Institute of Race Relations, London, in collaboration with the American Geographical Society.

West Indian Societies

West Indian Societies

West Indian Societies.

West Indian Societies.

West Indian Societies

West Indian Societies

Recent Publications

Book Reviewed in this article: REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY. Geography of Latin America: A Regional Analysis. Kempton E. Webb. Bolivia: Land, Location, and Politics Sirtce 1825. J. Valerie Fifer. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. Introduction to Geomorfihology. Alistair F. Pitty. Hillslope Form and Process. M. A. Carson and M. J. Kirkby. Introduction to the Atmosphere. Herbert Riehl. ENVIRONMENT AND MAN. Perception und Attitudes in Resources Management. W. R. D. Sewell and I. Burton(eds.) Symposium on Investigations and Resources of the Caribbean Sea and Adjacent Regions. WATER SUPPLY. Residential Water Demand: Alternative choices for management. Angelo P. Grima. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY. A Primer on Economic Geografihy. Robert B. Mcnee. Location in Space: A Theoretical Approach to Economic Geography. Peter Lloyd and Peter Dicken. Regional Input-Output Study: Recollections, Reflections and Diverse Notes on the Philadelphia Experience. Walter Isard and Thomas W. Langford. Persisteltt Poverty: Underdevelopment of Plantation Economies of the Third World. George L. Beckford. Agricultural Geography. W. B. Morgan and R. J. C. Munton. An Agricultural Geography of Great Britain. J. T. Coppock. G. Bell Economic Atlas of the Soviet Union. George Kish. Fishing Ports and Markets. SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY. Explorations in Social Geography. Hbr Bert G. Kariel and Patricia E. Kariel. The Black Ghetto: A Spatial Behavioral Perspectiue. Harold M. Rose. West Indian Societies. David Lowenthal. CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY. Environments and peoples. Philip L. Wagner. Man and Marijuana. Mark D. Merlin and Fairleich Dickinson. MEDICAL GEOGRAPHY. Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke in Chicago. Gerald F. Pyle. Medical Geography: Techniques and Field Studies. N. D. Mcglashan(ed.) URBAN GEOGRAPHY. Spatial Poundations of Urbanism. Dean S. Rugg. Social and Economic Information for Urbron Planning; Volume 1, Its Selection and Use. Doris B. Holleb. Planning the Developing Primate City: Bangkok 2000. Larry Sternstein. A System View of Planning: Toward a Theory of the Urban and Regional Planning Process. George Chadwick. Character of a Conurbation: A Computer Atlas of Birmingham and the Black Country. Kenneth E. Rosing and Peter A. Wood. City Scene: An Exploration into the lmage of Central Birmingham as Seen by Area Residents. Brian Goodey, Alan W. Duffett, John R. Gold and David Spencer. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY. The Making of the Dutch Landscape: An Historical Geography of the Netherlands. Audrey M. Lambert. Pioneer Settlement in Northeast Argentina. Robert C. Eidt. European Impressions of the New England Coast, 1497-1 620. Douglas R. Mcmanis. The Best Poor Man's Country: A Geographical Study of Early Southeastern Pennsylvania. James T. Lemon. Northern Plainsmen: Adaptive Strategy and Agrarian Life. John W. Bennett. Washington State Place Names. James W. Phillips. AIDS TO GEOGRAPHICAL STUDY. Color Aerial Stereograms of Selected Coastal Areas of the United States. Harland R. Cravat and Raymond Glaser.

West Indian Societies

West Indian Societies

The Growth of the Modern West Indies.

When The Growth of the Modern West Indies appeared in the late 1960s, it was among the first publications to provide a comprehensive view of the British Caribbean, including Bermuda, the Bahamas and the small Leeward and Windward islands. The book covers the crucial inter-war years from the 1920s to the period of the 1960s and provides an in-depth analysis of the forces that contributed to the shaping of West Indian society. Among the most outstanding features of the book is Lewis's use of a wide variety of written sources including recently published monographs, articles in obscure places and an array of newspapers from almost all the islands discussed in the study. However, it was Lewis's extensive travels across the entire region and the insights he gained from interviews and discussions with persons in both high and low places that account for the breath and the depth of his analysis. First published in 1968, The Growth of the Modern West Indies was welcomed as 'being nothing short of brilliant' and in the following three decades, established itself as the standard text for the study of the English-speaking Caribbean. A number of similar book have since appeared, extending the survey of Caribbean post-independence society to the present; however, few have equalled, much less surpassed The Growth of the Modern West Indies in its clever combination of political biography and social history or in the sheer brilliance of Lewis's intellectual and in-depth analysis. Franklin Knight's Introduction to this new edition underscores the continuing relevance and value of this text for students of Caribbean history and for anyone interested in understanding the dynamics of present-day Caribbean societies.

West Indian History and Society in the Art of Paule Marshall's Novel

Anglophobe West Indian literature-certainly its novels-has been mainly concerned with two main themes: the relationship of the author's persona or personae to his society, found in general to be limiting and frustrating; and stemming from this, a presentation of that society and an illustration of its lack of identity. West Indian novelists have so far, on the whole, attempted to see their society neither in the larger context of Third World underdevelopment, nor, with the exception of Vic Reid, in relation to communal history. Perhaps this has been artistically unnecessary. West Indian novels have been so richly home centered, that they have provided their own universe, with its own universal application. West Indian novelists, faced with the exciting if Sisyphean task of describing their own society in their own terms, for the first time, have had to provide for themselves a priority list in which, quite naturAlly, a relating of their own encounter with their environment, society and sensibility, has had to take pride of place. In addition, since most West Indian novelists have become exiles in several centres of the metropolitan West, their concern with a continuing and widening exploration of their societies has been limited by

Cary Helyar, Merchant and Planter of Seventeenth-Century Jamaica

I N Stuart England the character of imperialism was national, stemming from a whole society. Almost unknown to the colonial and metropolitan governments of i660-i714, one seemingly placid English village -typical in its pattern of landed family, rustic tenantry, and mercantile connections moved men and capital helter-skelter over the sea to create a dusky sister community, one of the first sugar estates in Jamaica. Exceedingly rare in kind, the Helyar plantation manuscripts depict the British West Indian economy and society in days when the Caribbean was both hub and cockpit of European empires. The record begins in East Coker, Somersetshire, with Squire William Helyar and his enterprising brother Cary.' To be a landed gentleman in England's west country did not ensure innocence of trade. Even the Squire Westerns of the cider counties knew Bristol's worldly ships and a cloth trade based on the industry of household spinners and weavers. In the case of the Helyars, lords of the manor of East Coker, family ties with such merchants as the Carys of Bristol and Nicholas Warren of London increased the pull of commerce, despite a wish to make lands multiply. After the Restoration of the monarchy in i66o, Squire William Helyar, who had served and suffered as a colonel in Charles I's defeated army, received titles befitting broad acres as well as tested loyalty.2 It arouses no surprise, however, to find the justice of the peace and high sheriff shipping goods to Bilbao, deeply involved in the commercial adventures of Cary Helyar. Like other younger sons and brothers of England's gentry, Cary

Households, Families and Kinship Systems in the West Indies

During the course of the past few decades the investigation of the social organization of the insular and continental regions of the Caribbean Sea has become of progressively more interest to students of sociology and anthropology. Beginning with the pioneer efforts of Herskovits (1937 and 1941) and Frazier (1939) and developing with the more recent works of Henriques (1953), R. T. Smith (1956), Edith Clarke (1957) and M. G. Smith (1962) the concepts family and household been indispensable tools of analysis for all researchers. In a recent paper, however, Nancie L. Solien (1960) points out few writers have distinguished between family and household on either a theoretical or a descriptive level. She also demonstrates this lack of distinction characterizes most anthropological discussions of social organization: It is my view, she concludes, that some distinction between family and household . . . is not only useful but necessary in dealing with Caribbean She then offers tentative definitions for the terms are intended to add clarity to the analysis of West Indian society. Her efforts represent a long awaited attempt to bring some rigor to the literature on the social organization of this region.2 The present paper is offered as an amplification and extension of Dr. Solien's work. Its specific objective is to provide a theoretical foundation for the apparently heuristic definitions to be found in her paper. In this sense it represents an attempt to add clarity to the study of kinship and social organization in general, as well as being a contribution to West Indian ethnology. 1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Central States Anthropological Society, Columbus, Ohio, April 4-6, 1961. 2In her paper Dr. Solien uses the term Afro-america to refer to this geographical region. The term is not used in the present paper because, 1) it assumes the existence of African cultural survivals throughout the area before they are actually demonstrated in all of the units by specific studies in specific places, and 2) it rules out, for purposes of investigation, other cultural traditions might be found in varying parts of the region. Recent investigation has shown this geographical area to be much too diverse racially and culturally to be characterized by any one of the racial groups or cultural traditions found there.

Aspects of West Indian Society

Aspects of West Indian Society