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8518985

Maze, Brian Lawrence

THE SELECTIVE UTILIZATION OF LEGAL AVENUES OF ASSISTANCE BY WOMEN ON THE CARIBBEAN ISLAND OF ST. KITTS IN THE BRITISH LEEWARDS

The Ohio State University Ph.D. 1985

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University Microfilms International

THE SELECTIVE UTILIZATION OF LEGAL AVENUES

OF ASSISTANCE BY WOMEN ON THE CARIBBEAN ISLAND

OF ST. KITTS IN THE BRITISH LEEWARDS

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of The Ohio State University

By

Brian L. Maze, B.S., M.A.

* * * * *

The Ohio State University

1985

Reading Committee: Approved By

Dr. Erika Bourguignon

Dr. John Messenger

Dr. Amy Zaharlick Advisor K Department of Anthrppolo DEDICATED TO

RICHARD LAKE MAZE

HE DARED TO DREAM FOR HIS SON

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Through the years in which I conducted my research

and prepared this dissertation, I received help and support

from a number of people. I am especially indebted to my

advisor, Dr. Erika Bourguignon, for her patience, guidance,

encouragement and constant belief in me. I would also

like to thank my present dissertation committee, Dr. John

Messenger and Dr. Amy Zaharlick, for their invaluable sug­

gestions, encouragement and friendship. A special note of

thanks goes to Dr. Ojo Arewa and Dr. Daniel Hughes, who due to circumstances, could not be with me throughout this

lengthy work.

Support, aid and advice also came from beyond The Ohio

State University. I particularly wish to thank Dr. Judith

Gussler for her assistance from the research planning

stage through to the writing of the first draft. Without

her suggestions, networks in St. Kitts, and insight, this

fieldwork might not have been accomplished. My thanks,

too, to Rhonda Hill and Dr. Robert Johnson for data organi­

zation and statistical consultation, and to Jean Baulu for

his aid in the field. A special thanks goes to Karen Greene

for the best secretarial assistance anyone could ever hope to find.

A general thanks to my family, friends and colleagues at Franklin University without whose faith and support I would not have accomplished so much. A special thanks to t Virginia Blasingame, K. Sue Foley, Steve Nida and Ed Menge.

My greatest debt, however, is to my family. My wife,

Cathey, who went with me from the best of times in the field to the worst of times during the constant re-writes, and my son, Ian, who was always there with unquestioning love whenever "Daddy” needed it. Finally, my sincere thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Frank

Henville, Joey Quinlin, Miss Helen Browne, Clemintine and

Charles Steinbergen, Mr. Stanley Phillips and all my in­ formants and friends on St. Kitts. You represent the great people of Basseterre and Challenger's village who took me by the hand and led me through the world of Kittitians until I too began to act and think like someone from St.

Kitts. I hope I have captured on paper your vibrant society. VITA

16 June 1947 ...... Born - Johnstown, Pennsylvania

1971 ...... B.S., Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1974 ...... M.A., Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1973 - 1979 Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1979 Research Consultant, Study of Infant Feeding Patterns in The Third World, Ross Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio

1979 - 1985 ...... Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio

1983 - Present ...... Chairperson, Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio

1984 - Present ...... Consultant, Employee Assistance Counseling, The Ohio Manufac­ turers Association, Columbus, Ohio

PUBLICATIONS

1979 - A Working Paper on Women in the Third World: The Caribbean. The United Nations Publication Services.

v TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iii

VITA ...... V

LIST OF TABLES ...... X

LIST OF FIGURES ...... xi

Chapter

I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Assumptions and Hypotheses ...... 2 The Research S i t e ...... 4 The Theoretical Basis of the Research . 5 Anthropology of Law Literature ...... 6 Historical and Ethnographic Accounts of the Culture Area with Special Reference to St. Kitts .... 9 The Anthropology of Women Literature .. 13 Methodology...... 13 Descriptive Materials ...... 13

II. ETHNOLEGAL RESEARCH WITH SPECIAL REFERENCES TO THE CARIBBEAN: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE...... 18

Defining What is Meant by the Term 'Law' ...... 20 The Structure, Functions and Universals of Law ...... 26 Summary ...... 45

III. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF WEST INDIAN LIFE AND WOMEN'S STUDIES ...... 47

General West Indian Characteristics in Historical and Ecological Perspective...... 48 Village and City ...... 50

vi Page Family and Social Organization ...... 59 F a m i l y ...... 59 Social Organization ...... 63 Work ...... 70 Income and Employment ...... 71 Religion...... 78 Women's Studies ...... 80 Summary ...... 92

■ IV. RESEARCH DESIGN ...... 93

Introduction ...... 93 Location of Research ...... 94 Field Methods ...... 94

V. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY AND DEMOGRAPHY OF ST. KITTS ...... 103

Location, Physical Geography and Climate ...... 103 Native Flora and Fauna ...... 108 History ...... 113 The Evolution of the Plantation System ...... 113 The Transition from Slavery to Wage Labor and Self Government .... 122 Demography ...... 129

VI. ST. KITTS CULTURE ...... 138

Village and City ...... 138 Family and Social Organization ...... 148 Family ...... 148 Social Organization ...... 152 Work and Recreation...... 161 Religion ...... 169 Law ...... 174 Class ...... 178 Summary ...... 180

VII. WOMEN ON ST. KITTS - GENERAL...... 182

Adaptive and Adapted Behaviors ...... 182 The Reproductive Cycle ...... 186 A Double Standard of Morality ...... 187 Subordinate Legal and Social Status ... 191 Separation of Work and H o m e ...... 192

vii Page

The Role of Women on St. Kitts - Specific .. 203 A Typical Day in the Life of Kittitian Women ...... 203 Family and Social Organization ...... 208 Work and Relaxation ...... 226 Religion ...... 229 L a w ...... 234 Criminal Law ...... 234 Civil L a w ...... 238 Family Law ...... 238 Law of Property...... 246 Summary ...... 251

VIII. THE SELECTIVE UTILIZATION OF THE LAW BY WOMEN ON THE ISLAND OF ST. KITTS ...... 252

Selective Utilization on St. Kitts .... 252 Reasons for Selective Use of the Law ... 258 'I Didn't Know It Was There*— The Awareness Factor ...... 258 Legal Assistance/ an Avenue for the Wealthy— -The Economic Factor ...... 261 'But That Doesn't Fit the Family System Found Here'— The Social/ Cultural Conflict F a c t o r ...... 262 The Political Arm of the Law— The Perception Factor ...... 265 An Alternative System of Social Control ...... 279 Summary ...... 292

IX. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ...... 294

Selective Utilization on St. Kitts .... 294 Factors for Selective Utilization of the Law ...... 295 An Alternative System for Conflict Resolution and Social Control ...... 297 Attitudinal Factors and Their Role in Kittitian Behavior Towards the Law ... 300

APPENDIXES

A. Attitudinal Questionnaire ...... 304

B. Definitions of Invisible Factors Tested for in Field Questionnaire (Podgorecki 1974) .. 311

viii Page

C. Questionnaire Development and Administration ...... 313

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 322

ix LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1 Per Capita Incomes and Growth Rates ...... 72

2 Caribbean Net Emigration 1950-72 ...... 74

3 Patterns of Caribbean Urbanization 1950-70 .. 77

4 Birth By Legitimacy ...... 130

5 Live Births by Order and Age of Mother 1976 ...... 132

6 Migration Balance 1967-1976 ...... 135

7 Money and Postal Orders Paid 1967-1976 ...... 137

8 Social/Individual Orientation to Ethics by Sex, Residence and A g e ...... 269

9 Principled/Instrumental Attitude by Sex, Residence and Age ...... 271

10 Security/Insecurity by Sex, Residence and Age ...... 273

11 Internal/External Dependence Upon Reinforcement by Sex, Residence and Age ..... 274

12 Sample Population ...... 319

x LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page 1 Map of St. Kitts ...... 104

xi CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In the Cologne trial of 1849 Karl Marx said:

Society is not based on law, that is a legal fiction, rather law must be based on society; it must be the expression of society's common interests and needs... The 'Code Napoleon', which I have in my hand, did not produce modern bourgeois society. Bourgeois society, as it arose in the eighteenth century and developed in the nineteenth, merely finds its legal expression in that Code. As soon as it no longer corresponds to social relation­ ships, it is worth no more than the paper it.is written on (Marx: 'Speech in His Defense' in McLellan, 1973, pp. 215-216).

In that speech Marx touched upon two issues which have become focal points of investigation in legal anthropology:

(1) that the law is the distilled essence of a society; and (2) when the law fails to correspond to the socio­ cultural relationships and values of the people then the integrity of the rules and of the law itself may be under­ cut. In 1978 I undertook an investigation of the law and its relationship to women on the island of St. Kitts in the eastern Caribbean. For this purpose I lived in St.

Kitts from January through June 1978 to collect legal and other cultural data by employing the methods and perspec­ tives of both the cultural anthropologist and the legal 1 researcher. The general research goals which guided my fieldwork were: « 1) to expand the body of data concerning the relation­ ships between the law and culture;

2) to add to the needed ethnographic data from an area in the West Indies that has largely been overlooked by both anthropologists and sociologists;

3) to provide further evidence for the utility of using the methods and perspectives of anthropology in the study of the law; and

4) to contribute both to the study of the anthropology of law and the anthropology of women by doing a study that had never before been attempted in the West Indies.

The scope of the research narrowed as preparations began. The focus became the working level of the law and its use by women in St. Kitts. I concentrated upon an ethnolegal study as it pertained to the women of St. Kitts.

Within this framework I sought to identify the sociocul­ tural parameters of differential utilization of legal avenues of assistance by women and the effects of this selective utilization upon the culture and upon the legal system.

Assumptions and Hypotheses

To investigate the selective utilization of legal avenues of assistance by women, certain assumptions were made and several hypotheses were generated. On the general

level the basic assumption is:

The points where law and society interact determine

the* working level of law. It is at this pragmatic level

that the formal ("substantive") law of a society is most

directly shaped by social and cultural processes and vice versa. It is at this level where explanations for selec­

tive utilization will be found.

The general hypothesis is:

The working level of the "law of women" on St. Kitts

Involves the selective utilization of the law and its

institutions as avenues of assistance.

Several corollaries follow:

This selective utilization of these formal areas of assistance is due in part to a conflict of values between

some Kittitian women and the values both implicit and explicit within the British law.

It is the women of the lower strata of the society/

those who maintain stronger Kittitian values, who ignore

the avenues of assistance, while the women of the upper class (a small minority of the women on the island) have accepted British values and therefore will use the legal areas because there will be no conflict between value

systems.

At the outset of the research I predicted that the major explanation for the selective utilization of legal avenues of assistance would be the conflict in values and that the major conflict would be found among the lower classes. My research results indicate that there indeed is a selective utilization of the law by women on St. Kitts, but the magnitude and nature of the selective utilization was not indicated by the information I collected prior to the field investigation. Furthermore, other factors were involved in non-utilization. Selective utilization of legal avenues of assistance by women on St. Kitts is shaped by factors such as awareness, economics, political inter­ pretations of the law and social reasons. Ultimately, I concluded that there are four major social parameters of selective utilization: 1) awareness of the law and its avenues of assistance; 2) the personal wealth of individ­ uals; 3} viewing and responding to the law in political terms rather than legal terms; 4) the social values of women and the conflict in values between the law and St.

Kitts culture as seen and practiced by the people. In

Chapters VII and VIII of this dissertation the evidence upon which these conclusions are based is examined.

The Research Site My choice of St. Kitts as a field site was based on

several considerations. The island is particularly suited

for the problem posed because of its legal and cultural

structures, the small size of its population, and the fact that the legal system has been recorded in Commonwealth documents dating back to the seventeenth century. There were also pragmatic concerns in the choice. Because my

finances were limited, I wanted to work in an area where

travel was relatively inexpensive. Also, due to the limited amount of time I would be able to spend in the field, St.

Kitts seemed to be the most reasonable choice. This is because I already had an established network of informants on the island through my wife Cathey and Dr. Judith Gussler who had both previously done research on the island. This

saved me many hours searching out contacts necessary for me to begin my research.

The work in St. Kitts was carried out from January

1978 through June 1978. The total time spent in the field was six months.

The Theoretical Basis of the Research

Preparation for investigating the actual field problem

and for a later understanding of the results entailed my becoming familiar with two major bodies of data, those pertaining to historical and ethnographic accounts of St.

Kitts and other Anglo-Caribbean countries and those per­

taining to the anthropology of law. In order to understand

the operation of the law in St. Kitts properly, I had to

be familiar with the nature and quality of the social life

in which I was to become a participant observer. I therefore reviewed the literature relevant to English-

speaking West Indian societies with special attention to ethnographic and historical accounts of St. Kitts. These materials are reviewed in Chapter II and III of this disser­

tation. Some discussion of the literature on the anthro­ pology of women is also included.

Anthropology of Law Literature

The law involves a whole complex of patterns. If one

sets out to study the law in isolation, he slices out an artificial field of inquiry which will seriously handicap his work. What about other aspects of social life that may be relevant to the "law," such as economics, language, ecology, or stratification and rank systems? Legal anthro­ pologists and jurists over the last twenty to thirty years have recognized this and.proceeded accordingly. As Laura

Nader (1965: 17) states: "A legal system reflects many

facets of a society; because of this an ethnographic study of law is more than a study of judicial institutions."

Legal studies have gained a great deal by adopting the anthropological perspective. Those anthropological data

are reviewed in Chapter II. The first group of anthropo­

logical data relevant to studies of the law concerns the problem of defining the area to be studied. Among the

authors who contributed to the important recognition of the

limited validity of generally accepted legal definitions are Donald Black (1976), Paul Bohannan (1957), E. Sidney

Hartland (1924), L.T. Hobhouse (1906), Karl Llewellyn and

E. Adamson Hoebel (1941), Sir Henry Maine (1861), Bronislaw

Malinowski (1932), Leopold Pospisil (1958), A.R. Radcliffe-

Brown (1952), and W.H.R. Rivers (1924).

The second group of works discussed deals with both

the recognition of the links between the law and other

aspects of culture and the relatively narrow validity of

the law itself. Books and articles by such people as Paul

Bohannan (1965), E.A. Hoebel (1954, 1965), Laura Nader

(1965, 1978, 1980) and others explicate law as part of a many-threaded fabric. Several empirical anthropological

studies conducted by Bohannan (1957), and Max-Gluckman

(1969) as well as the findings from a study by Pyong-Chroon

Hahm (1967) show that the law has a limited influence on

human behavior. When the interplay of all possible kinds of motives determining human social activities is analyzed

it becomes apparent that motives which have a strictly

legal character play a quite limited role.

Procedures used for settling disputes are not always

found within the formal legal system. Formal law is just

one system among many that may be operating simultaneously.

Literature focusing upon other systems of settlement are

reviewed. Simon Roberts (1979) discusses interpersonal

violence, ritual, and the supernatural as systems for dis­

pute resolution. Vilhelm Aubert (1969), William Felstiner (1974), and Albert Hirschman (1970) discuss informal, unofficial and sometimes private settlement systems such as negotiation, mediation, avoidance and "lumping it."

' Next, I examined a third group of legal publications, those dealing with knowledge, evaluation and prestige of the law and those dealing with "invisible factors," defined as psychological factors that fill the space between legal and moral attitudes and the behavior relevant to these attitudes. Studies by Adam Podgrecki (1971, 1974) and

P. Vinke and Van Houtte (1973) have shown that if such

"invisible factors" as instrumental attitudes, individual- istically oriented ethics and insecurity enter into the picture, then in spite of strong moral and legal attitudes on the lip-service or even acceptance level, it is possible that behavior, eroded by the cumulative influence of the

"invisible factors," could contradict manifested and viable moral and legal values.

Finally I discuss ethnological research in the Carib­ bean. Compared to other culture areas, the West Indies have been severely neglected in terms of legal studies.

Most of the works surveyed are not specifically aimed at law but rather at social relationships, the family, the psychological makeup of Caribbean people, economics and politics, all of which can be seen as playing a role in the legal process. The works of David Lowenthal (1972) and the

British Institute of International and Comparative Law (1965) are specifically discussed.

Together,*'al*l the legal data suggest that to under­ stand the law within a particular culture entails much more than looking',at strictly legal institutions. To grasp the nature of the 'working level of the law it is necessary to define what the law is, at what level of society one is working, the links between the law and other institutions and all other relevant social and cultural complexes and the influence they may have upon such things as knowledge, prestige and evaluation. Hidden psychological factors have also been shown to be important.

Historical and Ethnographic Accounts of the Culture Area With Special Reference to St. Kitts

St. Kitts is a small island, an associated state of the British Commonwealth, situated in the eastern Caribbean.

The major features of Kittitian society have been shaped by a history of slavery and continuing poverty for the majority of its people. For more than 300 years, this fertile island has been dominated by a monopolistic sugar industry and fluctuating Western economic interests. Thousands of

African slaves were imported during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to work the cane fields. As their number and the domination of the sugar estates grew in the mid-seventeenth century, most independent white farmers and many of the successful planters moved, either to other 10

Islands or back to England. When emancipation was pro­ claimed in the British possessions in 1833, the island was • • populated primarily by poor black people who remained eco­ nomically if not legally bound to the estates. Today the population of St. Kitts is predominantly black, with approximately 98% of the people classified by the census as of '’African" or "mixed" ancestry (West Indies Popula­ tion Census 1960; 11, table 1.4). The island is still basically agricultural, with tourism and other industries having little impact at this time.

Since St. Kitts is a very small island (approximately

68 square miles), and all good agricultural land was controlled by sugar estates, emancipated men and women had nowhere to go on the island to be free of estate control and establish their own independent communities and eco­ nomic activities. To Kittitians, freedom from the estate system has always meant leaving the island, traveling to the

Virgin Islands, London, New York, or wherever economic opportunities open up. The outlet that migration provides is important beyond the fact that the island population pressures are eased and local economic competition reduced; kin and friends overseas are expected to send back a por­ tion of their financial gains to those at home. Some of the Kittitian population depend upon these remittances as much as other Kittitians do on income from estate work. 11 In this social setting, with economic resources mar­ ginal, fluctuating, and often remote, the individual (not the group) is the primary unit of organization. The individual Kittitian can respond quickly to opportunity and would have few social obligations beyond those to lineal kinsmen to strain meager resources in bad times.

Thus, personal networks rather than group structures char­ acterize social organization. The work of George Foster

(1967 a and b) on dyadic contract and the image of limited good, and Eric Wolf's work (1966) on diffuse and narrow coalitions provided valuable insight into the type of unit or organization found in St. Kitts even though St. Kitts is not actually a peasant society such as those studied by

Foster and Wolf. Within the social context, the roles and activities of women have remained generalized, individual and adaptive rather than specific, kin/group based and adapted, with relatively numerous options for social and geographic mobility.

Historical studies of St. Kitts specifically and the

West Indies in general such as Richard Dunn (1970), Elsa

Goveia (1965, 1976), Kathleen Manchester (1971), Gordon

Merrill (1958), and John Parry and P.M. Sherlock (1956) provide useful perspectives for understanding Kittitian culture today and analyzing data collected during fieldwork.

Few sociocultural studies have been conducted in this part of the Caribbean. There have only been three major works from St. Kitts. In 1920, a Handbook of St. Kitts-

Nevis (Katherine Burdon, 1920) was published, however, providing some geographic and historical information about the' island. The first publication with some actual ethno­ graphic content did not appear until 1958 (Gordon Merrill),

followed by Joel Aronoff's book Psychological Needs and

Cultural Systems in 1967 and his article "The Cane Cutters of St. Kitts" in 1971. That same year another short his­

torical account was published; the author was a young

Kittitian woman (Kathleen Manchester, 1971). Two unpub­

lished dissertations also were completed in the early

1970's, one of them dealing with political and economic change in the island (David Bai, 1972), the other describ­

ing failure of a nutrition program (Doreen Low, 1971). The only other ethnographic sources of Kittitian culture are

the dissertation (1975) and several papers of Judith Gussler who has conducted fieldwork on St. Kitts during 1972, 1973,

1976 and 1978.

Anthropological materials concerning social relation­

ships, politics, communities, families and subsistence in

the West Indies provided me with insights into my research

site. The works of Charles Wagley (1957) and Sidney Mintz

(1966) outlined the major features that define the Carib­

bean as a distinct area of which St. Kitts is a part. Mel­

ville and Frances Herskovits (1947) in their work focused

upon Caribbean community cultural patterns while Julian 13

Steward, et al. (1956), Edith Clarke (1957) and Michael

Horowitz (1971) emphasized ecological relationships between communities.

The works of Judith Blake (1961), Edith Clarke (1957),

Nancie Gonzalez (1970), Sidney Greenfield (1959), Robert

Manners and Julian Steward (1953), Keith Otterbein (1965) ,

Mariam Slater (1977), M.G. Smith (1955, 1962, 1965a, 1965c), and Raymond T. Smith (1956) aided my understanding of family relationships within West Indian communities. Yehudi Cohen

(1971) whose research in Jamaica concerning interpersonal competition and hostility also proved useful.

The materials mentioned above provided me with the theoretical basis and necessary information to understand and interpret St. Kitts culture. That, plus additional ethnographic data gathered while I was in the field, gave me the contextual backdrop necessary to understand the working level of the law and women, the level where the reasons for selective utilization of legal avenues of assis­ tance can be found.

The Anthropology of Women Literature

Since the focus of this research is upon selective utilization of legal avenues of assistance by women on St.

Kitts certain aspects of women’s literature had to be dis­ cussed. 14

Discussion of women on St. Kitts necessitated a back­ ground in the concept of public/private (domestic) domains.

The works of Bourguignon (1980), Draper (1975), Friedl

(1975), Gonzalez (1973) , Martin (1975), Reiter (1975), and

Rosaldo (1974) were utilized to define the domain and dis­ cuss which domains were occupied by which sex. Bourguignon's concept that the domains are not at all distinct and that much interpenetration of spheres occurs is confirmed in

Chapter VII where Kittitian women are discussed.

Rogers (1975) introduced the idea of ritual deference which involves the surface appearance of male dominance but with the power lying beneath the surface in the domains

traditionally controlled by the women. This concept is discussed in Chapter III and later employed in Chapter VII.

Finally, the literature dealing with the manipulation and control of information, gossip, dropping remarks and attacks upon male reputation is discussed. The general

idea of information control is outlined by such works as

Patrick Connor (1982), Linda Michili et al. (1984), Andrew

Szilagyi (1981) and A. Szilagyi and Marc Wallace (1980).

Specific examples involving women are then presented in­ cluding Judith Blake (1961), Suad Joseph (1983), and

Augusta Molnar (1982). Gossip and dropping remarks are discussed including such works as Bruce Cox (1970),

Lawrence Fisher (1976), Max Gluckman (1963a), Judith Gus-

sler (1975b), David Lowenthal (1972), Robert Paine (1967), 15

John Szwed (1966) and Peter Wilson (1973).

Methodology

In Chapter IV, I discuss the observations and methods employed in the collection and analysis of the legal data.

I developed a close ethnographer-informant relationship with several people from different villages. These infor­ mants were of different ages and both men and women were represented. From them, I gathered specific information concerning the law and other relevant aspects of St. Kitts culture with a special focus on the role of women in St.

Kitts.

On both the village and city levels I relied upon the anthropological techniques of careful participant observa­ tion and systematic interviews of well-identified indivi­ duals in specified cultural settings. In this way I gathered ethnographic data. These data, in addition to historical and geographical references and other West Indian ethnographies enabled me to construct a picture of life on

St. Kitts.

Specific research into the law involved locating and searching through the available records on the island regarding births, marriages, land ownership, census data and so forth. The "case method" approach was also used and is explained in this chapter. Finally, I developed a questionnaire based upon the works of A. Podgorecki (1971, 1974) and P. Vinke and Van

Houtte (1973) concerning the difference in attitude to various types of legal rules and the relation to socio- structural, socio-cultural and psychological factors. The questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 240 individuals stratified by age, sex and residence (rural or urban). This aided me in defining the psychological dimen­ sions involved in the selective utilization of legal avenues of assistance.

Descriptive Materials

In Chapter V, I have summarized the physical geography and history of St. Kitts. Of greatest importance to the dissertation are the facts relevant to the exploitation- adaptation pattern that is revealed, so that there is a historical basis for the contemporary social situtation of

Kittitians.

Chapter VI is a compilation of my general ethnographic data. Included here are descriptions of village and city physical features and life ways focusing upon social rela­ tionships that are found to be essentially competitive and individuated with little or no trust in others.

In Chapter VII, I constructed an ethnography of women on St. Kitts. This focuses upon the life of women in

Kittitian society and each aspect is related to its more 17 general pattern as outlined In the first part of Chapter

VI. This provides the basis for both the contemporary social and legal situation as it applies to women.

Chapter VIII discusses the results of the ethnographic and legal investigation. I show that there is indeed a selective utilization of the legal avenues of assistance not only by women but also by men. I identify and discuss five reasons for the selective utilization of the law: awareness, personal wealth, perception of the law, social roles and values conflict. Each is related to the specific information found in Chapter VII and the more general pat­ terns described in Chapter VI. I also weigh the relative impact this has upon the culture.

In Chapter IX the results are summarized and conclu­ sions are drawn. Some suggestions are offered and future research possibilities are mentioned. CHAPTER II

ETHNOLEGAL RESEARCH WITH SPECIAL REFERENCES TO THE CARIBBEAN: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Since the late 1800*s, anthropologists have attempted to describe how the political and legal systems of a culture interact with other cultural systems (e.g. religion, kin­ ship, etc.). This interest began with the pioneering efforts of Franz Boas, his students (Alfred Kroeber 1922, 1923;

Robert Lowie 1927) and others (R.F. Barton 1919; J.H. Driberg

1928; E. Sidney Hartland 1924) in providing ethnographic data in response to the evolutionary schemes of law offered by Sir Henry Maine (1861, 1883) and his students. The modern approach to the anthropological study of legal sys­ tems is firmly based in the British school of functionalism and has produced a number of excellent legal anthropology studies (Bronislaw Malinowski 1925, 1926a, 1934, 1942; Paul

Bohannan 1957; Max Gluckman 1962, 1963a, 1963b, 1965, 1969;

B. Haar 1948; R.S. Rattray 1929; I. Schapera 1938, 1957).

Also of significance are the texts and theoretical contri­ butions of T.O. Elias 1954, 1956; E. Adamson Hoebel 1954;

Laura Nader 1965, 1978; and Leopold Pospisil 1958, 1974.

The above mentioned studies all share the basic tenet that legal processes are social processes. Law is not above

18 19 and apart from society, but it is an aspect of ongoing social life. As such one must try to eliminate ethnocentric bias and take all relevant facts, or at least representative samples from many cultures into account in any study of the law. This is where other fields (jurisprudence, philosophy of law, sociology of the law and the like) are different because they concentrate their efforts on the study of

Western law only, thus restricting their studies to one of the many forms that law can assume. This leads to an in­ ability to make valid universal generalizations about legal matters and, more importantly, to understand the nature of the very legal system studied. The history of legal anthro­ pology can be seen as a history of attempts (some not suc­ cessful) to eliminate such restriction. Anthropology.does not exclusively concentrate on what it conceives law to be, or even on the broader scope of political and social struc­ ture. Instead, it studies culture as a functionally and structurally related whole and does not exclude a priori any segment of it as nonrelevant. The law is seen not as an autonomous institution, but rather as an integral part of a culture. It is dynamic, not static— a 'living law' that is always changing.

This approach has led to important discussion about the nature of law and its functions and relationships to other cultural institutions. The major contributions relevant to this study are discussed in this chapter. 20 Defining What is Meant by the Term 'Law'

The first contribution involves the question "What is

the law?" How can we recognize the law and differentiate i it from other socio-cultural phenomena? In the history of

legal anthropology many major attempts have been made to

answer these questions. These attempts can be broken down

into several approaches.

The first and earliest approach involves those theories

that see law emerging as an achievement of cultural evolu­

tion only in complex societies or only in stratified or

'civilized' societies. Tribal peoples, especially those whose subsistence involves hunting and gathering, are seen

as not enjoying the benefits of law. Social control and conformity in these societies are seen as being achieved primarily through the effect of the power of custom— custom

that is known to everyone and needs no restatement, eluci­ dation or enforcement. The stimulus for this group of

theories comes from Sir Henry Maine (1861, 1883), L.T.

Hobhouse (1906), E. Sidney Hartland (1924), and W.H.R.

Rivers (1924). These theories make the law relatively

static by identifying it with prescribed behavior and divorcing it from the decision-making process. Some cul­

tures by definition would have no law.

The second group of definitions of the law are formu­

lated by scholars who refused to dissolve law into an all-embracing, omnipotent custom. They defined the law by rigorous criteria derived from Western legal traditions.

Radcliffe-Brown is the major initiator for this approach.

In his 1952 work, Structure and Function in Primitive

Society, he reacts against the first group of explanations of what is the law by defining the law in Roscoe Pound's tradition as "social control through the systematic appli­ cation of the force of politically organized society"

(1952: 212). This criterion conceptualized law too nar­ rowly so the concept was still inapplicable in many socie­ ties. Radcliffe-Brown, himself, concluded that, based on this definition, such groups as the Yurok Indians of

California and the Ifugao of Luzon have no law (1952: 216-

217). The problem is that his definition is based not on a foundation of extensive cross-cultural research and experi­ ence but rather in ethnocentric, narrow terms of Western civilization.

A third approach developed as a negative response to a perceived ethnocentrism on the part of the first two groups.

These definitions moved to the opposite end of the pole, towards cultural relativism. They reject the use of Western legal categories in order to try to comprehend the law through the frame of thought of the people whose legal structure they are studying. No analytical definition of law is given. Instead, they offer statements concerning folk classification. Bohannan (1957: 4-5) points out that there is a dichotomy between "folk" and "analytical" con­

cepts. The folk concepts are the categories of a given

people, a theoretical frame of reference developed by the

people in a particular culture that as a rule, is unique in

its totality. Analytical concepts are a theoretical scheme

anthropologists have created by scientific methods. For

Bohannan, Western legal concepts were developed from the

study of Western society only. Therefore, they belong to

Western culture, constituting their legal folk system and

cannot and must not be applied to other cultures. The two

are not isomorphic so the folk system of the people we are

studying must be found. Although this group of theorists might be accused of cultural solipsism, they do point out

the precautions one must take when in the field investigat­

ing legal concepts that are based on Western jurisprudence.

Even the term "law" may mean something different.

A fourth group of definitions involve attempts to ex­

plain the law in a cross-cultural manner but utilizing a

single criterion for delimitation of the meaning of the

concept. Some of these definitions use criteria that are vague. Others rely upon criteria that are applicable to

other categories of culture. The use of such criteria

renders them ineffectual as a cross-cultural definition.

Malinowski, for example, in his 1936 work Crime and Custom

in Savage Society, defined the principle of law as an obli­

gation, conformity with which is achieved through the expectation of future reciprocal favors. This definition is confusing and unacceptable because it defines too broad- ly the law, thereby making it applicable to most of society's customs. Radcliffe-Brown's definition has a similar problem. It utilizes a single criterion, a "physi­ cal sanction” administered by a politically organized society, but that criterion is applicable to other areas.

Physical sanction can be applied outside the field of law such as when a mother disciplines her child. Also, often within the law, there is substituted a form of psychologi­ cal sanction more powerful than any physical force that could be administered. The threat of ostracism is such a sanction found in many hunting and gathering societies

(Pospisil 1958: 270).

The last group of approaches includes those that ex­ plain the law by a set of multiple attributes. These defi­ nitions assume that the law cannot be understood by refer­ ence to one sweeping criterion. Rather, a pattern of several attributes coexisting in social phenomena are needed to accurately define the law. Karl Llewellyn and

G. Adamson Hoebel (1941) were among the first to approach the law in this manner. To them there are four elements essential to the existence of law. Those four elements that coexist, the sum of which they call authority, are:

(1) the enforceability of an imperative which compels an individual to behave in a certain way, (2) supremacy which is manifested by the fact that when in conflict with other values# the legal prevails# (3) system# referring to the fact that the law belongs to an organized body of social phehomena and (4) officialdom which provides official pub­ licity.

Pospisil (1958) offers another set of attributes. In his Kapauku Papuans and Their Law# he outlines a definition for law that has proven to be a most useful tool for ethno- legal researchers. He begins by defining the law by its outward# overall form— the law is manifested by decisions of legal authority. The researcher must look to decisions by authorities to find the law# not to abstract rules or the behavior of the litigants. Those decisions are legal deci­ sions if they possess four attributes. The first attribute he calls "authority" which he defines as "an individual or group of individuals who pass binding decisions" (1958: 258).

They have an influence which can cause others to conform to their decisions. This attribute separates law from custom— custom has no authority present. The second attribute is the "intention of universal application." An authority# when making a legal decision# intends that decision to be applied to all similar or identical situations in the future.

The decision solves a specific case and also formulates an ideal that binds all those who did not participate in the case. This second attribute separates law from political decisions. This is very important because in many cultures both legal and political decisions are made by the same indi vidual. The law must also have the attribute of "obligatio.

It corresponds to that part of the decision of an authority which determines the rights of one party and the duties of the other. Both parties, it has been contended, must be represented by living persons (1958: 264). This attribute excludes all obligations toward the dead or supernatural from the realm of the law unless they are represented by living people (priest, shaman) and if they are so represen­ ted, then it is religious law. The final attribute is

"sanction" which to Pospisil need not be physical.

If a decision by an authority has these attributes then the researcher can feel safe that what he sees is the law and not some other cultural phenomenon. This elimi­ nates the problem of custom, political behavior and relig­ ious behavior which may all be performed by the same indi­ vidual.

Pospisil's theory also points out that there are many levels of law. There is not one single legal system. In­ stead, in any society there are alternatives or choices to be made when disputes arise. Some involve recognized insti­ tutions of dispute settlement, others may involve systems outside the formal legal system. Nevertheless, they all involve the law. 26 The Structure, Function and Universals of Law

One of the earliest contributions of ethnographic in­ quiry into the structure and function of law can be dated with the appearance of a fundamental work by the ethnog­

rapher, E. Adamson Hoebel, and the lawyer, Karl Llewellyn, on the law of American Indians published in 1941. Their investigations were focused on the reconstruction of the past legal and political system as it had existed before the colonial administration was introduced, or during the initial phase of its functioning. This factor, together with the concern of Anglo-Saxon law for actual court cases rather than for abstract regulations or enactments, has been especially favorable for the study of traditional systems. The study led to the rejection of the traditional approach to law in favor of asking what are the prevailing ways of solving specified types of legal problems, as well as what obligations and rights are involved in them. Inves­ tigations into the dimensions of the disputing process and the structure of social relationships began. Llewellyn and

Hoebel's study was based mainly on the analysis of concrete cases of internal conflict within a community and the ways of resolving it. These cases are observed where it is pos­ sible, or are recorded thanks to interviews made with reliable informants. Emphasis was put on the question of who is entitled to settle the dispute or punish the 27 lawbreaker, what procedures are applied and, above all, what directives are practically, in contrast to ideally, employed in conflict resolution.

By the 1950’s these structural-functional studies of disputes with their inherent equilibrium principle began to shift from an emphasis upon structure to a more dynamic approach centering upon process. Disputes began to be viewed as "but one event in a series of events linking persons and groups over time and possibly involving other disputes" (Laura Nader 1978: 16). Disputes are social processes and, as such, they are embedded in social rela­ tions between people. The dispute itself was not as impor­ tant as the social processes of which the dispute is a part. The individual and the choices he or she must make in disputing begins to appear in studies such as Elizabeth

Colson (1953), Victor Turner (1957), F.G. Bailey (1960,

1969), P.H. Gulliver (1971), and Laura Nader (1978).

It very quickly became clear that social relationships play an important role in the legal process of disputes.

For example, S. Macauley (1963) showed that where continuing relations between people are important the law may be avoided as a way of building and maintaining good relations.

People will choose paths that reinforce their goals. If the major goal is to maintain a series of relationships, then if the law might interfere with that goal it will be skirted. A settlement procedure will be chosen that promotes reconciliation. The work of S. van der Spenkel

(1962), p. Tong-Choon Hahm (1967), J.F. Collier (1973), and

K.F. Koch (1974) confirm Macaulay*s basic argument, but they also point out that one must be careful not to general­ ize about all face-to-face societies. Sometimes social relationships such as the ties within a family itself may

.give rise to disputes (June Starr 1978) or may create the dispute but act as a constraint on escalation (Barbara

Yngvesson 1978), the social dimensions of disputing are dynamic and ties between disputants, or disputants and remedy agents, may be rooted in a variety of principles such as kinship, residence, patron-client, friendship or competition. These must be analyzed to achieve a clear understanding of the social relational dimensions of dis­ puting . Scarce materials may force the disputants to rank-order their priorities. June Starr and Barbara Yngvesson (1975) showed that where a scarce resource was the basis of a dis­ pute, the resource may rank higher than the relationship and the people involved may be willing to forsake the rela­ tionship in order to gain access to it. Sylvia Forman

(1972) in her study in Ecuador showed that different issues generate different strategies regardless of the relation­ ships between the disputants. Those issues involving land and other important property, prestige and access to power and influence in the community (all scarce resources) 29 seldom, if ever, end in compromise even though the disputants know that it may damage relationships. Although scarce re­ sources are most often defined in material terms, they need not'be. As many of the contributors to Nader's book, The

Disputing Process— Law in Ten Societies (1978), point out, nonmaterial resources such as prestige, honor, pride and power may be, and often are, considered scarce.

Linked to the idea that scarce resources play a role in the disputing process is the possibility of the role of the distribution of power. It is obvious that legal struc­ tures affect the distribution of power in many societies and power in turn can affect the legal structure. Law has often been used as a mechanism to distribute or centralize power or to legitimate and maintain power groups (see Phillippe

Nonet and Philip Selznick 1978: 29-46). It has often been accused of favoring certain groups (Robert Lefcourt 1971).

Examples can also be found where people have invented tac­ tics to increase equity. Barton (1919) described the

Ifugao of the Philippines, mentioning that they had devel­ oped a system of fines organized according to the ability of each class to pay, and Nader (1969b), in an article about

Zapotec courts, pointed out that the powerful are considered more responsible and therefore are penalized more severely.

The information from the studies mentioned and other studies stemming from the initial works of Llewellyn and

Hoebel point out the importance of the social dimension to 30 an understanding of the operation of the law. Social rela­ tionships, scarce resources, power, the aims of the parti­ cipants, their access to forums, time and costs all play a role and must be considered when attempting to understand the law and its many functions.

Donald Black, in his book The Behavior of Law (1976), takes a slightly different approach in order to understand the operation of the law. He is interested in explaining the variation of law across social space and trying to develop a way of predicting that variation. He argues that the law is a quantitative variable (increasing, decreasing, one setting can have more than another) which varies in time and space.

He begins by discussing social control, showing that the law, defined as governmental social control, is only one form of social control and that it will vary inversely with other kinds of social control. In Africa, for example, family control is still so strong that juvenile law hardly exists. In Swaziland, Lesotto and Botswana juvenile courts did not even exist until 1969 (Black 1976: 108). As social controls weaken, the law will become stronger.

Law also is relevant to and will vary with variables of social life according to Black. He points out four such variables— stratification, morphology, culture and organi­ zation. Stratification he defines as the "vertical aspect of social life" which can be measured by differences in wealth. Law varies directly with the amount of stratifica­ tion. The more stratification found in a society, the more law one will find. The vertical location within the strati­ fication system, called "rank," will vary directly with the law. Lower ranks will have less law. In the U.S., Southern blacks have been of lesser rank than whites. Historically, if a black offends another black, the punishment is less severe than a white offending another white. The harshest punishment is meted out when the case involves an offense between members of different ranks, in our example a black offending a white. The reverse does not hold true, however, because law also has a direction within stratification.

Downward law is greater than upward law. It is directed against the lower ranks and, therefore, is used as a mech­ anism to legitimate and maintain power. This fact is extremely important when studying law in the Caribbean or other areas that have experienced colonialism and the stratification system that comes with it.

The second variable Black discusses in relation to the law involves the horizontal aspect of social life which he calls "morphology." This variable is concerned with the distribution of people in relation to one another. Law will increase with differentiation to the point of interdepen­ dence, but will decline as a society moves toward symbiosis.

There is little law where people are undifferentiated by function or where each is completely dependent upon the next. 32

In Black's words:

Law Is Inactive among intimates, increasing as the distance between people increases but decreasing as this reaches the point at which people live in entirely separate worlds. In a modern society, relational distance rarely reaches the point where people are entirely separate, but it is greater than in simpler societies. Modern­ ization destroys the closeness of tribal and other traditional settings, weakening kinship and other communal relationships. At the same time, however, it draws people together, combining worlds that were once separate. People increasingly become strangers to each other, but this is a relationship in itself. In the midst of strangers, law reaches its highest level (Black 1976: 41).

Within an integrated society there are some more integrated than others. The law will vary with the integration. An offense between marginal people will be seen as less serious than between people more integrated into the social world.

"Culture" is a variable with which the law will also vary directly. By "culture," Black means the symbolic aspect of social life. He includes expressions of what is true, good, beautiful, right or wrong as well as material items. He feels that "culture" will vary in its quantity, defined by Black as the amount and complexity of material goods and the diversity of ideas, values or arts coexisting within the society, from one setting to another. "Where

'culture' is sparse, so is the law; where it is rich, law flourished" (Black 1976: 63).

The last variable is organization. This involves the corporate aspect of life and can be measured by counting the presence and number of administrative offices, the cen­

tralization and continuity of decision making, and the quan-

tity of collective action itself. The law will vary

directly with the amount of organization. For example, the

law increases directly with war, since war implies organiza­

tion. Other things that cause organization in a society will also vary directly with the law. As foreign contacts in­

crease, so will organization. Thus, the first tribal council of Comanches was convened to discuss a treaty with the

United States. Until then no central organization had ever

spoken for the numerous Comanche bands (Hoebel 1940: 11).

Law will also increase with increases in foreign trade and collective action within a society such as irrigation and

flood control {Karl Wittfogel 1957).

Black's work is thought-provoking. His definition of

law as "governmental social control" creates problems because it is too limited. Based on his definition, many cultures would be without law. Anthropologists would also disagree with his definition of culture. Still, the book does provide important insight into the behavior of the law, especially as it is linked to stratification and mor­ phology. It also points out that law is directional and provides a way of measuring it.

The law is part of a many-threaded fabric that touches the lives of all people, but its influence may not be

strong. Several empirical anthropological studies conducted 34 by P. Bohannan (1957), and M. Gluckman (1969), as well as the findings from a study of Pyong-Chroon Hahm (1967), show that the law has a limited influence on human behavior.

When the interplay of all possible kinds of motives determin­ ing social activities is analyzed, it becomes apparent that motives which have a strictly legal character play a quite limited role. Within the law itself there are conflicting motives, many of which are not strictly legal. As Michael

Lowry puts it (Nader 1978: 21):

We are forced to drop the assumption that litigants use remedy agents merely or even primarily to resolve specific incidents of conflict. We no longer see the court as an institution devoted to clearing up "social messes," but rather as an arena in which litigants are engaged in behavior with diverse meaning.

What motivates people may be the quest for power or personal ambition. Going to court may be a way to elicit an apology or to gain prestige, to maintain a good name (Lowry 1978) or to neutralize rank differences between litigants (June

Starr 1978). As Hahm shows (1967) in his study of Korea, there may even be motives based upon disrespect for the law such as found in societies that have conflicting systems of law. Here one system inay be used to discredit the other.

In every society, there is a wide variety of methods for the settlement of disputes. Often a formal legal system can be seen operating side-by-side with other systems of informal social control. Simon Roberts (1979: 57-59) points 35 out that direct interpersonal violence (self help) is an accepted form of settlement in some societies. In other societies conflict can be channeled into rituals such as the song and dance duels of Eskimos. Roberts reports that shaming, ostracism, and resorting to supernatural agencies as systems of dispute settlement can be found operating simultaneously with formal legal systems.

Still other dispute settlement systems found include such informal methods as negotiation, mediation, avoidance and "lumping it." According to Vilhelm Aubert (1969) nego­ tiations take place when disputants seek to resolve their disagreements without the help of neutral third parties.

Each party tries to persuade the other, establish a common ground for discussion and feel their way by a process of give and take towards a settlement (Aubert 1969: 284).

Mediation is any noncoercive third-party intervention. The role of the third party is to influence the parties to come to an agreement by appealing to their own interests. Avoid­ ance refers to limiting the relationship with other disput­ ants sufficiently so that the dispute no longer remains salient (William Felstiner 1975). This is what Albert

Hirschman (1970) calls "exit" which entails withdrawing from a situation or terminating or cutailing a relationship.

"Lumping it" refers simply to inaction. The issue or dif­ ficulty that gave rise to the disagreement is simply ignored and the relationship with the offending party continues (Marc Galanter 1974: 124-125).

One other growing body of research must be mentioned concerning the link between the law and such psychological variables as awareness, knowledge, prestige and motives.

This research is, in the main, a European phenomenon growing out of the sociology of law, but its impact is spreading to England and the United States as interest in the law expands. Its thrust is one of liberal social engineering and a desire to find out what is 'really' happening. This move has taken place in an attempt to 'bring the law to the people;' in taking the law to 'where the action is.' We can see this clearly stated in the quotation from L. Scarman

(1974).

Undoubtedly a more positive approach is now called for from the law to the problems of daily life, if only because a more positive contribution in terms of money and adminis­ trative help is called for from the govern­ ment. It is no longer sufficient for the law to provide framework of freedom in which men, women and children may work out their own destinies: social justice, as our society now understands the term, requires the law to be loaded in favour of the weak and the exposed, to provide them with financial and other support, and with access to courts, tribunals, and other adminis­ trative agencies where their rights can be enforced (1974: 29).

The scenario for this sort of research is set in the introduction to Adam Podgorecki et al. (1973: 18) where the editors state: The orientation set out is one which a sociology of law purporting to embrace not 37

just the rules of law but the rule of law cannot afford to ignore... and so one has to move to a new framework, one which is more in touch with reality. Thus, P. Vinke (1970: 5) says:

It is especially here, that research may help to provide information on the impor­ tance of legal sociological factors in determining judicial opinions and usages so that the manner of wielding legal rules may be more in keeping with the legal reality than is often the case at present.

This is very important because Vinke (1970) and Van Houtte

(1973) claim to have verified two hypotheses, confounding some of the underlying assumptions that writers on legal philosophy make: first, that with respect to various rules of law in the collective sphere, the population has highly divergent attitudes; second, that the differences in atti­ tude to various types of legal rules is related to socio- structural, socio-cultural and psychological factors.

Our times demand that jurisprudence should have the sociological imagination to real­ ize the extent to which social changes in tempo and in values, in the groups involved, have fundamentally changed the social milieu of the law (Vinke and Van Houtts 1973: 16).

The key notion here is that of legitimation. As sociolo­ gists of law emphatically state, when legality goes into crisis the need arises to bring law down to earth and to legitimate it with science. Concepts like 'the sense of justice' and 'moral solidarity' must be verified by seeing what people actually think. We cannot assume that a society 38 and its laws are working— we must find out. The 'knowledge of the law' work rests on this belief.

Studies such as W. Kaupen (1971), A. Podgorecki (1971), and' B. Kutchinsky (1S73) give a broad and in-depth diagnosis of public opinions and attitudes toward the law and basic moral issues. They show that basic knowledge of the law, prestige of the law and evaluation of the law are quite divergent within populations, and that this divergence is related to sociological structures. The following cate­ gories in Western Europe, with only slight national differ­ ences, were shown to possess a relatively better knowledge of the law:

Males of the 35-49 age group Persons of a higher educational level (those with an elementary education show a better acquaintance with the law than those without any formal educa­ tion; those who had completed secondary educa­ tion know more than those with only an elementary education) Persons involved in social service work Those with legal experience (criminal or civil) asso­ ciated with appearances in court Persons who declared a past or present need for legal advice Persons interested in following press reports, radio or television broadcasts dealing with legal matters (Podgorecki: 1973 and 1974).

Evaluation of the law, the extent to which a given legal system is generally regarded as just or unjust, was found to be higher in younger people, those with relatively higher education, inhabitants of smaller cities and rural areas, and persons actively engaged in social service work. The prestige of the law (respect for the law), another crucial 39 feature necessary for effective functioning of a legal sys­ tem was linked to people between the ages of 35-49 and * those over 60, persons with higher education, white collar workers, those whose families belong to the intelligentsia, people who feel secure, people having stable and limited affiliations, the rationally disposed (not dogmatic) and those engaged in social service work. These groups all tend— more than others— to respect the law even when it is considered wrong.

The findings on knowledge of the law, evaluation of the law from the point of view of its ethical justification, and prestige of the law give in general a fairly consistent picture. Those at the 'top' more than the 'underdogs' express a tendency to accept and support the law. Attitudes toward the law are linked with a definite social and eco­ nomic structure.

Podgorecki (1974) feels that more is needed to under­ stand the law than the results mentioned above. He and his associates believe that there is something else which forges a link between moral and legal beliefs and relevant behavior.

They refer to this link as a group of 'invisible factors' which they define as certain personality traits which are internalized through the processes of (positive or negative) socialization. The following invisible factors were recog­ nized, operationalized and tested: principled and instru­ mental attitudes, individually and socially oriented ethics, 40

feelings of security and insecurity, and affiliation atti­

tudes. These invisible factors are not seen as dealing with human behavior. They do not have direct links with legal, moral, sexual and economic, political, etc., behavior. In­

stead they should more properly be viewed as meta-attitudes.

They structure, or put together different types of attitudes according to a certain, more general pattern and paradigm.

A 'principled attitude' was defined as "a direct, spon­ taneous acceptance or negation of some rule relative to an imaginary or actual mode of behavior" (Podgorecki 1974: 98).

The 'instrumental attitude' was described as "one where the acceptance or negation of imaginary or actual behavior is dependent upon weighing the possible alternatives of behavior against an evaluation of their effects" (1974: 98-99).

Results of testing this attitude showed the 'principled attitudes' were associated with those individuals better adapted to life, more secure economically and socially, white collar workers and those who saw their political sys­ tem as being stratified. The principled attitude was also found to increase with age. The instrumental attitude, on the other hand, was associated with those in a changing system, individuals with feelings of insecurity, rank and file labor and those with an overall lack of good life ad­ justment. Further analysis showed that the "rural inhabi­ tants tend to have principled orientations, while city- dwellers are more instrumentally oriented" (1974: 100). 41

The instrumental orientation seems to be the best adaptation

to continually shifting circumstances.

'Social and individualistic attitudes' deal with a

different dimension of social reality. Socially oriented

ethics refer to "the roles and positions which are occupied

by an individual, whereas individually oriented ethics

regulate the social behavior of people according to patterns which are prevalent in small more or less informal groups"

(1974: 100). A person with 'individually oriented ethics'

evaluates others on the basis of their personal performance;

an individual with 'socially oriented ethics' will take into

consideration the long-range social effects of behavior which seem to be, at first glance, morally neutral.

A general analysis of the findings in Europe suggest

that the individualistic predominates over the social orien­

tation. The individualistic orientation was related to:

A comparatively lower educational level, rank and file position, symptoms of an in­ security feeling, poor adaptation to life, instrumental disposition, declared friendli­ ness as a personality pattern for others, and the trait of a more sharply condemning transgression against private than against public property (1974: 103).

The social orientation linked with the following traits:

...comparatively higher educational level, managerial position, lack of insecurity feelings, better adaptation to life, prin­ cipled attitude, declared industriousness, honesty as a personality pattern for others and the trait of more sharply con­ demning transgression against public than against private property (1974: 103). Security or insecurity was defined and measured accord­ ing to positive or negative responses to a series of ques­ tions such as "Do you think that people should be trusted?"

Insecurity was linked with individualistic orientation to ethics, poor adaptation to life, instrumental attitudes and lower education. Affiliation attitudes were defined as

"depth of attachment to the group or social system" and were linked with an orientation for external or internal depen­ dency upon reinforcement. Attachment to the group involves dependency upon external reinforcement while attachment to the individual centered around internal reinforcement.

Those with principled attitudes, signs of security, and socially oriented ethics tended to view the law as just, deserving of respect and in legalistic terms. Individuals with instrumental attitudes, insecurity, and individually oriented ethics, on the other hand, saw the law as 'down­ ward directed' against them. The law is not neutral, rather it is used politically to keep the masses in their place.

Anthropologists interested in legal studies have con­ ducted extensive field work, in Oceania, Africa, S.E. Asia, the Middle East, Meso-America, South America, and among the

Indians of the United States and Canada. Conspicuously absent are detailed ethnolegal studies of the Caribbean except for several ethnohistorical studies focusing upon slavery and the law regulating slave behavior (Ira Berlin 1974, David Cohen and Jack Green 1972, Philip Curtin 1969,

Richard Dunn 1970, Stanley Elkins 1959, Elsa Goveia 1965,

Herbert Gutman 1976, Douglas Hall 1962, G. Hall 1971, Daniel

Manhix and Malcolm Cowley 1965, Sidney Mintz 1969, 1974,

Richard Sheridan 1974, M.G. Smith 1965a, Frank Tannenbaum

1974). This lack of ethnolegal research is due to the com­ plexity of study in the Caribbean which is characterized by: (1) no native populations since the original inhabi­ tants, the Amerindians, have all but been eliminated, (2) a replacement population made up largely of Blacks brought over as slaves, (3) the larger islands being part of plan­ tation America, (4) plural societies, (5) a history of slavery and post-slavery adjustment, and (6) a long history of colonization by European countries.

Most ethnolegal information that is available must be gleaned from reports and studies not dealing specifically with the law but mentioning, in passing, something about legal attitudes and behavior of the people toward the law.

For example, from studies of folklore such as Edric Connor

(1958) and Roger Abrahams (1967, 1970) who collected West

Indian folktales and songs, impressions about attitudes toward the law can be discerned. An excerpt goes as follows:

In Laventille and John John (two Trinidad slum areas) They treat a man like a Viet-Cong Police hounding you everyday Magistrate want to jail you right away All because you come from behind the bridge (Lowenthal 1972: 102) . 44

From that verse, coupled with similar verses from thousands of other calypso and reggae songs, one can begin to see that many of the people view the formal law as a weapon in the hands of the elite. The law is not something to be trusted and respected because it is used against you (David Lowenthal

1972: 101-104).

Similarly, information concerning ethnolegal situations can be gathered from studies in the Caribbean dealing with the family, psychological makeup and adjustments of Carib­ bean people, and political investigations. To cite only a few of numerous studies: David Bai (1972), M. Beckwith

(1929), A. A. Cambell (1943), Edith Clark (1953), David Cohen

(1954), Leo Despres (1967), Frantz Fanon (1967), Mancie

Gonzales (1965, 1969), William Goode (1960), C.V.D. Hadley

(1949), Melville Herskovits (1934, 1947), Madeline Kerr

(1952), Lambros Comitas and David Lowenthal (1973), Vera

Rubin (1957, 1960), Mariam Slater (1977), M.G. Smith (1965a,

1965b), Peter Wilson (1973), H.O.B. Wooding (1960).

Few specific legal and ethnolegal studies can be found with the West Indies as their focus. Of special mention are

R.S. Bryce-Laporte (1970), Guy (1962), C. Jayawardena (1963),

Andre Kobben (1969), and Fenton Ramsahoye (1966). One other work that must be mentioned is a book published by the

British Institute of International and Comparative Law titled Law in the West Indies: Some Recent Trends (1965) .

This work, however, is mainly oriented towards the formal 45 legal structure; a few articles deal with the cultural setting where the law is found and the effects of that cul- * ture on the law.

' Putting together these bits and pieces from different works, Lowenthal (1972) summarizes the law in the Caribbean in four statements:

1. The law-making and law-enforcing agencies remain in elite hands and reflect elite social values.

2. Unfamiliarity with the forms gravely disadvantage the folk litigant, who finds legal aid costly and often futile.

3. The mass of West Indians regard law as 'an alien thing,' not felt as applying to their daily life because there are so many basic points at which it runs counter to their habits of thought.

4. Proficiency in undermining, disobeying, or cir­ cumventing the law gains young people status among their peers.

Summary This chapter provides the theoretical basis of this research. Here I have shown the variety of definitions, techniques and methods employed in ethnolegal research through the years and the links between the law and other social phenomena.

The research discussed later in this work is based upon

Pospisil's definition of law. It also relies heavily upon the evidence presented by Bohannan (1965), Gluckman (1969),

Hahm (1967) and Nader (1978, 1980) to understand the limited influence law may have and how alternative systems operate. 46 Aubert (1969), Felstiner (1974), Kirschman (1970), Nader (1980) and Roberts (1979) provide a base for understanding the other systems. Finally, Podgorecki (1974) is important in the analysis of the research data. Chapter IV discusses the specific methodology employed in answering the legal questions posed at the beginning of this dissertation. CHAPTER III

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OP WEST INDIAN LIFE AND WOMEN'S STUDIES

In order to understand the working level of law, de­ fined as the points where law and society interact, it was necessary to become familiar with the research work that had been done in the Caribbean area. This included general information about the entire culture area, as well as spe­ cific information about St. Kitts and other English-speaking islands. The major focus was directed towards those works that discussed cultural institutions and social interactions in the West Indies. Works on history and ecology, however, were also studied, because most of the cultural research had analyzed the institutions and interactions in the Caribbean against the backdrop of adaptive responses to the history and ecology of the area.

Certain research from the field of women's studies was also necessary for the success of this research since the focus of the study is women and the law. Those studies about women and culture and West Indian life that are pertinent to this research are surveyed in this chapter.

47 48

General West Indian Characteristics in Historical and Ecological Perspective

Although a number of works discuss Caribbean culture, as a result of or as a response to historical and/or ecologi- i cal constraints, only two works that concern general charac­ teristics will be discussed here. These two were chosen to be highlighted because they had the greatest impact on the theoretical perspective of this research. One is the 1957 article, "Plantation America: A Culture Sphere" by Charles

Wagley, and the other is Sidney Mints's "The Caribbean as a

Socio-Cultural Area," written in 1966.

Both authors' main concern is to define the Caribbean as a cultural area. They believe that when the New World and’its cultures are viewed objectively they form clusters that are sufficiently homogeneous so that the regions in which they occur can be delimitated. The Caribbean area is one such region.

Wagley lists several characteristics which separate the

Caribbean from other areas. They include the importance of plantations in the history and society of the region, heavy sugar production based upon slave labor, and similarities in basic features. Some of these basic features include a monocrop economy, rigid class lines, multi-racial societies emphasizing the social value of phenotypes, weak community structure leading to the importance of independent networks, and some form of a matrifocal family system accompanied by a 49

high rate of consensual unions.

These similarities Wagley sees as being brought about

by the physical environment, the low density of the abor­

iginal populations, the form of European occupation since

1500, and the process of historical events that has unfolded

in the New World. The ecology and history of the area are

vital to an understanding of the basic features that char­

acterize this region. Each feature can be viewed as having

been molded, shaped or affected in some way by the environ­ ment and/or the history of the area.

Mintz (1966) concurs with Wagley. He argues that these are social-structural features that are shared, and these features indeed delimit the Caribbean as a separate region.

Many of the features are identical to those that Wagley describes. Mintz also agrees with Wagley that these fea­ tures can best be understood in their historical, ecological perspective. Each feature is an adaptive response to or an adaptive reaction against ecological and historical re­

straints.

These articles clearly point out the influence of the environment and history upon the social organization and institutions of Caribben cultures. They also provide a theoretical perspective from which to view West Indian life.

West Indian life can be seen and understood through the concept of adaptive strategies. 50 Village and City

To study the selective utilization of legal avenues of assistance by women required familiarity with the differ­ ences, if any, between rural and urban dwellers. Since the women I was studying could be found living in both settings, I wanted to familiarize myself with any differences that might affect their selective utilization.

The literature on rural versus urban life is quite extensive, so this section will only highlight the more important works that relate to my research area. These highlights will follow a historical progression.

One of the earliest works emphasizing anthropology's cross-cultural perspective and holistic approach to cities was Robert Redfield's The Folk Culture of Yucatan (1941).

He showed that the city could be a proper locale for anthro­ pological study, and defined the folk-urban continuum as a model for its investigation. Redfield's idea (1954, 1956) was that as folk communities evolve into urban societies, there are certain changes that occur. The major changes are from small, isolated, self-contained, highly personalized, religious and traditional social locales into large imper­ sonal, heterogeneous, secular and innovative social milieus.

The work of later scholars such as Sjoberg (1960) and Lewis

(1952) criticized Redfield's image of urbanism as being too heavily pinned to Western industrial cities. Sjoberg (1960) in his study pointed out a distinction between 51

"preindustrial” and "industrial" cities, arguing that the former do not share the characteristics of impersonality, secularism and great size as assumed in Redfield's "folk- urban continuum." In a different vein, Oscar Lewis (1952), found that migrants to an urban center (Mexico City) did not suffer the family breakdown by which Redfield typified urban existence.

Later, Redfield, in cooperation with Singer (1954), responded to these criticisms by reformulating the "folk- urban continuum" by delineating two cultural roles that all urban places performed, although with ranging degrees of intensity and elaboration. One cultural role involved

"orthogenetic" functions. Cities with predominantly "ortho- genetic" functions serve as centers for the construction and codification of the society's traditions. Here, groups of litterati rationalize a great tradition of cultural per­ formance and ideology and disseminate it to society at large.

The second cultural role involves "heterogenetic" functions.

Here, cities emphasizing these functions act as centers of technical and/or economic change. Their cultural role de­ pends on the creation and introduction of new ideas, cos­ mologies and social procedures into the wider society.

Other scholars like Conrad Arensberg (1968), Abner

Cohen (1969), Kenneth Little (1965), Horace Miner (1967),

J. Clyde Mitchell (1969), Milton Singer (1960), James

Spradley (1970), and Charles Valentine (1968), following in the footsteps of Redfield and Lewis, continue to investigate

the qualities of urban life and social institutions that differentiate it from primitive societies and peasant commu­ nities, as well as to study ghetto populations, urban ethnic

subcultures and urban social adaptations to poverty. Some explore the conceptual framework that orients life among the urban poor, while others investigate the movement of rural peoples to cities and the adaptations of these immigrant populations to the new urban environment. As research con­ tinues, it becomes more apparent that there is a great deal of diversity and variety of cities and adaptations to them.

Definitions and descriptive qualities are formulated, yet many cities, especially in Africa and the New World, do not fit these formulations. This is true of many Caribbean cities. Malcolm Cross, in his 1979 book Urbanization and Urban

Growth in the Caribbean, argues that the rural-urban con­ tinuum theory (Robert Redfield, 1941), modernization theory

(J.A. Kahl, 1968), dual economy thesis (J.H. Boeke, 1953), and Marxist theory (J. Lajkine, 1976) are all inadequate to explain urbanization and the effects of urbanism upon life- ways in most of the Caribbean. Other than a small select population within the city characterized by second or greater generation urban life, secure employment, at least middle- class income and social status, and great upward social mobility potential, the majority of urban dwellers appear to be little different from the rural dwellers along socio­ cultural dimensions. They do not display the characteris­ tic changes predicted for groups who have made the move from a rural to an urban environment. For Cross, the answer lies in.the history of the area. To describe a Caribbean city, one must look at the colonial and succeeding neocolonial context in which the city arose and grew. Under the re­ straints of colonialism, and later neocolonial administra­ tion, one would not expect to find a city similar to cities in areas not affected by such constraints, nor to find the exact same effects upon lifeways, values, and attitudes.

One such work does exist, and that is Richard Fox's

1977 book, Urban Anthropology: Cities in Their Cultural

Context. In his work on urban anthropology, he describes a type of city which he refers to as a "Colonial City."

This type of city is found in state societies that were, until recently, the colonial dependencies of Western indus­ trial nations. Despite the acquisition of independence, the legacy of colonialism remains in the state and its cities. The state is beset with problems as it attempts to industrialize— insufficient agricultural production, political dissension, and overpopulation. These problems, more often than not developments from their colonial past, have their analogs in the colonial city. "Overurbaniza­ tion and slums filled with urban villagers, disruption of traditional urban organizations, and the rise of a new 54 political competition for wealth and power are among the cities' problems" (Fox, 1977: 117).

According to Fox, these cities were partially trans­

formed to fit Western industrial patterns due to their sub­

jugation to political and/or economic domination. The

Western colonial powers instituted new power in the state, and new cities were created or old ones reconstituted to

serve the needs of the West. Everybody was linked in some way to the Colonial power. This brought the society, cities and people into the industrial world "without allowing them full attainment of industrial, economic and political insti­ tutions" (Fox, 1977: 117). They are placed in an ambiguous

situation— no longer preindustrial and yet not truly indus­ trial.

Western industrial models transformed the ideology of rule. Highly bureaucratic states were set up, dominated by industrial powers who set about to centralize, sophisticate and bureaucratize control and the urban elites who exercised it. Political innovations attuned to industry were in the forefront of change. Western industrial patterns, however, were not pursued as rigorously in the economic sphere.

For their greater economic benefit and political mastery, they fossilized the productivity of their colonies at a preindustrial level. Rural subsistence agriculture— rather than urban factories and rural agro-business— remained the major economic resources: when the latter existed their profits went to the 55

home country instead of the colonized population (Fox, 1977: 118-119).

This created societies and their cities with indus­ trialized political order combined with preindustrial i peasant economies. The urban area houses a finely-devel­ oped bureaucracy with no autonomous economic center to produce industrial wealth. The cities and the states in which they are found are placed in a position of heavy depen dence upon a subsistence agriculture to feed its population and subsidize the state.

According to Fox the major characteristics of Colonial

States and their cities are:

1. Power is organized within a highly elaborate admin­ istration that places uniform standards among the populace.

These standards, however, fade away very rapidly as one leaves the urban areas. In the rural areas traditional standards, often counter to those of the government, still operate.

2. There is extreme competition to gain political office or civil service positions. This competition is ' neither controlled by traditional values nor industrial se­ lection methods. This is due to their colonial past where the main path to wealth and influence were bureaucratic positions. 3. The cities, despite rapid urbanization, do not lead to the absorption of rural migrants into an industrial 56 way of life. This is because the city is not the center of an expanding industrial economy. "They are urban in resi­ dence but rural in the lives they lead and the ideals they hold"1 (emphasis mine) (Fox, 1977: 126).

4. The rural migrants usually occupy the lower rungs of society and tend to live in the most delapidated and overcrowded sections of the city. Their wages, if they earn any at all, are used to satisfy only the most basic needs so that the rest can be freed for remittances to their rural homes.

5. The worker core groups deride the migrants, letting them know they aie not truly a part of the city. They also redefine and manipulate the bureaucratic machinery to forge ahead through appeals to ascriptive identity. If that does not work, they often resort to nepotism, bureaucratic pat­ ronage and bribery.

These characteristics and the preceding discussion describe English-speaking Caribbean cities quite accurately.

Their history is a story of colonialism and exploitation.

The emphasis on the majority of the English-speaking Carib­ bean countries was focused on the production of a nonsub­ sistence crop destined for an international market. Slaves, denied the potential for greater consumption and political demands, supplied the labor but were denied access to the marketing of the crop. After slavery, the system gave way to a plantation economy where the freed slaves, the majority of the inhabitants of the islands, were still denied access to crop marketing. Thereby, many people were not introduced into an industrial cash economy. Two cultural systems had been1 fused together. A preindustrial economic sphere was fused with industrial patterns such that one could not fully replace the other. The people reaped the crops, and the English reaped the profits which were quickly funneled back to England, thereby constraining the people in a pre­ industrial economy with a political system and value system that reflected industrialization.

Power and authority, concentrated in an administration drawn up along industrial lines, is located in the city and attempts to impose uniform standards and values backed by English law, a legacy from the past. These standards rapidly dimish, however, the further away from the city one travels. They tend to be replaced by traditional standards, or at least modified by them.

Within the confines of the city there is stiff compe­ tition to acquire political position or civil service employment. Access is often gained through patronage. Over the years from 1970 to 1978, competition has also developed between the civil service and the small industries located in the city. Several of the industries on St. Kitts which are U.S. controlled wanted, for example, to offer salaries somewhat comparable to those in the United States. They also wanted to pay their employees in U.S. currency. The 58

government and civil service board refused permission to do

so on the grounds that it would entice their own employees

away with the promise of higher pay and speedy advancement.

■ In the past twenty years the population of Caribbean

cities increased as more and more rural migrants entered the cities in hope of employment. This has led to overpopula­

tion, which in turn has led to extreme poverty, misery and

substandard lifestyles. The majority of the people in the cities occupy the lower levels of the socio-economic ladder.

In fact, one may say that Caribbean cities are almost homo­ geneous in their population— first or second generation migrants from the villages who are poor. A very small per­ centage of people in West Indian cities represent an urban core who have dwelled in the city for generations. This urban core has learned to adapt and alter the organization of the city to fit the realities of political power and office. They look down upon the rural migrants whom they see as "country folk." Even those migrants who were brought to the city from a village as babies are still "country folk" and will be denied access to the black elite.

While the urban core has adapted to the city and can manipulate it for its own ends, the rural migrants have not.

They are never fully absorbed into the urban sphere. They seek insulation and protection from the urban core, which both exploits and disowns them. They do this by geographic isolation in rapidly expanding shanty towns which comprise 59 the greatest areas of habitation in the cities. The small areas that are left are comprised of public buildings, stores and habitation areas for the urban core groups. In­ sulation is also acquired by retaining traditional ways that were adaptive in the rural settings. Richard Fox sums it up this way: "The migrant adapts to his lowly economic con­ dition, his perjorative social status, his exclusion from mainstream urban life, by retaining many rural ways. These are readapted to the urban context to provide a supportive milieu for the migrants' difficult life in the city” (Fox,

1977: 128). These responses are the migrant's ways of adapting to the urban environment. This form of adaptation has led to isolation from the city and a removal from politi­ cal, economic or social competition.

Yet, despite all this, the urban migrant has status in the eyes of the villager. To him the city is everything.

Ideally, moving to the city means access to better paying employment, a higher standard of living, and the desirable middle class— in reality, the move is merely geographical.

Family and Social Organization

Family

Afro-American family styles have been the topic of dis­ cussion and research since the 1930's. Often, these discus­ sions have become heated as disagreement over definitions and etiology arose. There appeared to be little agreement 60 except that the structure of the American Black and West

Indian family was different than that found among American and European whites.

■ The debate over the Afro-American family begins with the work of the American sociologist E. Franklin Frazier.

In 1937# he published a book entitled The Negro Family in the United States, in which he stated that the social and economic conditions of slavery precluded the development of a stable nuclear family among Afro-Americans. Other scholars soon followed suit, most notably Simey (1946) and Henriques

(1953). The anthropologist Melville Herskovits took issue with this interpretation of the black family system. In

1941, in The Myth of the Negro Past, he criticized such a simplistic view of the family and offered his own interpre­ tation based on his experiences with West African and Afro-

American family systems. He argued that the organizational patterns seen in post-slave families in the Americas were not the result of the slave system, but were rather of Afri­ can derivation. They could be understood more properly as the effects or correlates of practices where Old World polygyny had been modified and reinterpreted by institution­ alized serial matings. The debate was on— the slave system versus African retentions or reinterpretations.

In 1956, the British sociologist Raymond F. Smith entered the discussion. He set out to conduct one of the first systematic studies of West Indian family life, 61 emphasizing the influence of current social and economic conditions on the family. He believed that the observable variety of domestic groups found in the Americas among blacks could be explained by reference to current events.

One did not need to search the past for the answer. First/ he redefined the unit of focus. He felt that the proper unit of focus should be the household, not the family.

His study in a Guyanan village showed there were three stages in the development of a household:

(1) young men and women form relationships with a series of lovers and become parents without being with a spouse; (2) they begin to live together, thereby forming a nuclear family; and

(3) the household becomes matrifocal, usually includ­ ing members of a three generation matri-line (mother, daugh­ ter and daughter's children).

In a village, all three stages exist and can be found.

Matrifocally, the pattern of family most focused upon in the literature, was only a matter of degree. According to

Smith, it results from the peripheral social position of the non-white in the total society, thus giving the male no status-defining structures. The males are marginal due to ascriptive stratification, low rate of social mobility, restricted public roles, and the absence of managerial func­ tions or political responsibility. 62

One year later, Edith Clark published her systematic

study of West Indian family life. Her study involved three

different communities in Jamaica; a sugar town, an impover­

ished agricultural village, and a relatively prosperous

peasant village. Her emphasis was, like R.T. Smith, on

current social and economic conditions but, unlike Smith,

she felt that it is misleading to assume an undifferentiated

and uniform pattern of family organization among the "lower

class." Even simple economic differences were not enough to

explain the differing family patterns. Instead, it is a

combination of present-day class and economic differences

coupled with community organization and ethos, making it

impossible for men to perform their roles as father and hus­

band that directly affects the types of cohabitation and

household organization found (Clark, 1957).

Other researchers pointed out still other factors that may play a role in structuring household organization.

Manners and Steward (1953) showed that Puerto Rico family organization and values differed from one community to another, depending upon the productive techniques and land

tenure involved in the raising of different crops. Otter- bein (1965), in a comparative analysis, showed that imbal­ ances in the adult sex ratios of local populations produced by movements of men to seek wage employment had a determin­ ing effect upon family systems. He found a high correla­

tion between adult sex ratios, percentage of consensual unions and homes with female heads. Still more recent research by Mariam Slater (1977) pointed out another pos­ sible factor. In her study in Martinique, she found the simultaneous existence of family types usually found sep­ arately. She believes that this is due to an absence of a

"rule of legitimacy" as defined by Malinowski. Instead of a "rule of legitimacy/' she found values such as status equality, conviviality, and in-group solidarity expressed in hospitality obligations that seemed to replace this fundamental rule. She feels that it is these values, in varying degrees, that shape the kind of family organization found.

These works oriented my investigation to households rather than the family, and prepared me for the possibility of finding more than one type of organization operating sirAkltaneously at the research site.

Social Organization

Social organization in the Caribbean can be best de­ scribed as being characterized by a high degree of individ­ ualization, interpersonal competition, hostility and dis­ trust. Wagley, in his article "Plantation America: A Cul- ft ture Sphere" (1957), stated that one of the major features in the Caribbean is weak community structure. Local commu­ nities are loosely organized, with few kin-based organiza­ tions. Instead, independent networks are the most important 64 means of organization. Nine years later, Mintz (1966), in his article discussing the Caribbean as a culture area, also drew attention to this individualization. He found an absence of community-based and kin-based organizations.

Instead, the people of the Caribbean place more reliance upon individual networks, particularly concerning economic issues. Robert Manners, in an article on community analysis, touches upon individuated social structure by emphasizing the importance of extra-community ties in shaping local lifestyles (1957: 71).

A series of articles on nonfamilial interpersonal rela­ tionships and individual social structures appeared in the

1950's and 1960's. Most dealt specifically with dyadic relationships rather than whole systems. Mintz (1959, 1960 with Douglas Hall, and 1961) discussed marketing roles and relationships in Jamaica and Haiti. In the latter work, he pointed out the advantages of a special institutionalized, individuated relationship for both the seller and buyer in a society with few economic opportunities and the lack of storage facilities and modern transportation. The indi­ viduated relationship was an adaptation to local conditions.

In a similar vein, Katzin wrote of "higglers" in Jamaica

(1960), and Michael Horowitz of reveneuses in Martinique

(1967). Horowitz, in an article entitled "A Typology of Rural

Community Forms in the Caribbean" in his Peoples and 65

Cultures of the Caribbean, developed a classification system derived from Eric Wolf, which placed a number of communities along a continuum from "closed" and tightly integrated to

"open" and loosely organized and integrated. The "closed" communities tend to be peasant communities, the "open" plantation or "rural proletariat" economies (1971: 180).

In the "open" community, movement into and out of the groups is great, and there are few demands on "loyalty" by its members. Horowitz states:

Where the land is held in great estates, or where the population is forced to sell its labor in an industrial situa­ tion, the associated community structure does not serve to join all the members in a common matrix. Rather, it results in a stratified system which opposed the establishment of a wide range of mutual assistance. In the peasant community, the emphasis is on the household and larger groupings for economic and other activities; in the plantation community the emphasis is on the individual (1971: 183).

Y. Cohen, in an article in Horowitz's Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean, related the family and community struc­ ture in a Jamaican village to the "emotional and motiva­ tional" characteristics of the villagers. He found that the economic competition in the village is the basis of anxiety in individuals that is expressed in jealousy and distrust.

There is a lack of "kin groupings and voluntary groupings....

While 80% of the families...are related, the culture of the community has not worked out, even in ideal form, patterns 66 of aid of systematized economic relationships along kinship lines" (1971: 416). The people do not trust each other, and there is a great deal of malicious and aggressive gossiping.

Cohen feels that gossip is a very effective means of social control. Cohen also points out that the only "true focus of authority...iB parental authority" (1971: 421).

In communities like Cohen's Rocky Road which are char­ acterized by extreme competitiveness, diverseness, jealousy and mistrust, the individuated network can be seen as the most adaptive form of organization. Each network can be characterized by two important interactional qualities which

J. Clyde Mitchell (1969: 19,20) calls "range" and "content."

"Range" refers to the number of direct contacts any one individual has, while "content" focuses on the "meaning" or nature of the linking relationships, such as friendships, kinship, employment and so forth.

As Mitchell states:

...a person's networks may thus be defined as a category of people who in terms of the general norms or values ofthe commu­ nity might be expected to provide ego with some specified type of service or support or alternatively who might expect ego to provide them with some specified type of service or support.... Each personal network...will be unique though obviously influenced by such factors as the social position at which he is placed, the stage of the life cycle he is at and a number of purely idiosyncratic factors relating to the individual's personal history (Mitchell, 1969: 43). 67

Each person sets up a network with its own "range” and

"content," members of which may overlap with another's net­ work at a different position in the "range" and involved in a different "content." For example, a woman and her child­ ren may find it extremely difficult to make it on their own.

She, therefore, begins to set up a network with a distinct

"range” and "content." The mother-child household is then embedded in a larger sharing network which acts as a kind of

"super-family." Within the network circulate resources, services such as childcare, and sometimes even family mem­ bers— especially children (see e.g., Stack, 1970, 1974;

Lombardi, 1973). Some of the members of this network may be involved in other networks.

Whitten (1970), in an article entitled "Strategies of

Adaptive Mobility in the Columbian-Ecuadorian Littoral," discusses individual networks as an adaptive strategy.

Because the network can be seen as a development out of the personal efforts and actions of individuals through inter­ action, one can discuss the "skill" involved in the forming and managing of the network system in terms of a strategy.

The Cost^enos have little control over economic resources,

* thus their survival is contingent upon successful manipula­ tion of both spatial and social mobility. This successful manipulation is achieved through the individual networks.

Whitten states:

All the strategies employed by Negroes and light Cost&nos can be described in terms of their tactical opening, closing, and breaking of dyadic contracts, usually within a network of real, ritual, or fic- tive kinsmen.... The adaptive signifi­ cance of kinship among Negro peasants and proletariat is bound to the ability of kinsmen to manipulate dyadic rela­ tionships. The dispersed lower class kindred makes possible spatial mobility which is essential in a subsistence econ­ omy with shifting cultivation and a marginal, fluctuating money economy {1970: 333);

Several works from the area of peasant studies also proved useful. One must, however, mention that the term

"peasant" in the classical sense is not directly applicable to rural society in the chosen research setting. These studies do, however, discuss the nature and quality of interactions and, therefore, proved to be valuable for my understanding of Kittitian culture and society.

George Foster (1967) discusses individual networks, based upon the principle of reciprocity in terms of "dyadic contracts." He claims these networks underlie most peasant interactions. They begin at an early age and become the overriding tie between individuals by the time that they reach adulthood. These "contracts" are informal or impli­ cit, existing only because the participants want them to exist. The relationship is maintained through mutual rein­ forcement of the tie by reciprocal giving and receiving.

Foster defines and describes several types of contracts, but does not discuss their adaptive social function. Another peasant scholar, Eric Wolf, does however dis­ cuss the adaptive social function of peasant relationships.

In his 1966 book, Peasants, Eric Wolf develops a model of social relationships along similar lines to Foster, and proceeds to discuss their adaptiveness to the ecological and social setting. According to Wolf, peasants enter into loosely-structured alliances to face the pressure of natural and social forces over which they have little control. The loose structure of the coalition is important because it enables the peasant to exempt himself from any obligation to other members during periods of severe trial. A rela­ tionship is set up that provides emotional, economic and social support that can be activated in times of need with­ out committing any of the participants to becoming involved in a situation that would be detrimental to themselves.

Each alliance becomes a personal adaptive strategy to en­ hance survival.

Several works conducted at the research site chosen for this study agree with the works discussed in this sec­ tion. Judith Gussler (1975, 1980), in her studies on food distribution among women in St. Kitts, found that the social organization of the island was based on such indi­ viduated networks with all the characteristics described in the foregoing discussion. Every mother is involved in a network of mutually supportive relationships. These relationships may involve some kin (usually female kin), 70 as well as an established relationship of mutual aid with friends who come thereby to serve as kin-surrogates. The

Kittitians do not perceive their relationships as such, but researchers might characterize the situation by the phrase "consanguineal family" with the addendum that it is most often based on fictive kinship. Gussler also found these networks to be adaptive for the women on the island.

In summation, Caribbean social organization appears to be best described as being characterized by a high degree of isolation, individuated networks, interpersonal compe­ tition, hostility and distrust. Most of this can be ex­ plained by the fact that these characteristics are the result of individual adaptive strategies, rather than a group strategy. This type of social organization leads to what Peter Wilson (1973) calls "crab antics." Wilson de­ fines crab antics as a form of behavior that resembles that of a number of crabs in a barrel. All are trying to climb out and as one crab nears the top, the one below pulls him down in his own effort to climb out. As a result of this type of behavior, only a particularly strong crab will ever climb out— the rest, in the long run, remain in the same place.

Work To work in the West Indies is to come face to face with the problems "of making a living in an impoverished environment with a sharply disjunctive, economic system"

(Comitas and Lowenthal, 1973: xii). One part of the system is geared to industrialization, mass producing commodities for 'export. The second part involves producing for sub­ sistence and local markets. The first part is heavily financed by multinational corporations with large capital, and is dominated by metropolitan markets. The subsistence part relies upon small farmers who must work with little to no capital, rudimentary tools, and produces low yields and small profits. As Comitas and Lowenthal point out, the dualistic economic system "exacerbates the chronic instability of a region which has a surplus of available manpower but is woefully short of arable land, energy sup­ plies, and other natural resources" (1973: xii).

Income and Employment

Overall levels of income for a country give a very crude measure of development. Per capita incomes for the

Caribbean are recorded in Table 1, which shows that the richest islands had an average income per capita 45 times that of the poorest. The World Bank estimates that the

Caribbean contained 20,000,000 people in 1974, but 80% of them lived in areas with average per capita incomes of less than U.S. $1,000. So, although these are relatively rich territories, the majority of Caribbean people are poor, their countries qualifying for the label "underprivileged." 72

In fact, 21% lived in countries with average per capita incomes less than half this figure.

TABLE 1

Per Capita Incomes and Growth Rates

Average Annual GNP/Capita Growth Rate as a % Country U.S. $ of Per Capita GNP 1972 1960-65 1965-70

Antigua 430 4.0 -0.6 Bahamas 2240 3.3 0.6 Barbados 800 3.2 6.2 Belize 670 1.9 1.9 Cuba 450 -1.2 -1.0 Dominica 320 1.7 -0.5 Dominican Republic 480 2.4 5.0 Grenada 420 4.1 5.0 Guadeloupe 910 4.2 5.0 Guiana (French) 1170 3.1 5.2 Guyana 400 1.4 1.3 Haiti 130 0.3 1.3 Jamaica 810 3.1 3.9 St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla 410 2.8 -0.1 St. Lucia 420 6.0 3.1 Martinique 1050 4.8 4.6 Netherlands Antilles 1500 0.7 0.6 Puerto Rico 2050 6.0 5.7 Surinam 810 5.7 4.7 Trinidad & Tobago 970 2.8 3.6 1 U.S. Virgin Islands 3590 9.7 12.2 St. Vincent 270 1.4 3.8

For Comparison: Canada 4440 3.6 3.2 U.K. 2600 2.3 2.0 U.S.A. 5590 3.0 2.0

Source: World Bank Atlas 1974 (The Changing Face of the Caribbean! Irene Hawkins 1976, Cedar Press, Barbados, W.I.) 73

Information on the distribution of income within each country is difficult to obtain. There is, however, some evidence of gross inequalities and widening differences between urban and rural areas. This may act as a triggering mechanism for migration, since decisions to migrate may be based upon the comparison of how well one is doing now against how well one might do on the basis of perceptions of other people's wealth in the city.

One thing is clear and that is that for most of the

Caribbean there is the maintenance of very high levels of unemployment. The 1970 Census of the Commonwealth Caribbean states that for the smaller islands, unemployment ranged between 2.5% of the active labor force for the tiny, pros­ perous Cayman Islands to 12.5% for St. Vincent. These figures are almost certainly underestimates because of the problem of deciding who is in the work force, and what con­ stitutes unemployment in islands without an organized work force and with seasonal jobs.

Unemployment and underemployment appear as chronic problems in the Caribbean affecting the young in both rural and urban locations. This, coupled with low income, has led to a pattern of migration, both internal and external, as a sought-after solution by many people. The British

Commonwealth Immigration Act of 1962 brought to a close a period of unrestricted migration. Segal (1975) estimates that from 1950 to 1962, about 3,000,000 people migrated overseas, and no society's net emigration was less than 5%

of the total population. He writes: "Between 1947 and

# 1962...approximately 10% of the total population of the

Caribbean emigrated outside the area" (Segal, 1975: 10).

The estimated movements and their destinations are given

in Table 2.

TABLE 2

Caribbean Net Emigration 1950-72 (000s)

Country Destination

Puerto Rico 810-60 US Cuba 620 US Jamaica 169 UK 110-200 US 30-5 Canada Dominican Republic 155-250 US Haiti 51-200 US 10-15 Canada 4 France Trinidad & Tobago 41-65 US 35-40 Canada 24 UK Leeward & Windward Islands 22-45 US 59 UK 8-10 Canada Barbados 28 UK 14-30 US 7-10 Canada Guyana 28 UK 15-18 Canada 12-15 US Martinique 55 France Guadeloupe 45 France Surinam 30 Netherlands Netherlands Antilles 10 Netherlands

Source: Segal, 1975: 219. This Caribbean migration has attracted a great deal of attention in the last 10 to 15 years. There is now a large body of anthropological and sociological literature dealing with different aspects of the adjustment of the West Indian to-the host country. These studies, though they have varied as to empirical content and orientation, have tended to focus on the relationships established with the host country, isolating such factors as assimilation and discrimination or the internal mechanisms operating on the migration popula­ tion themselves, or both (Bantan, 1955? Glass, 1960? Patter­ son, 1963).

Prior to Stuart Philpott's 1973 study of West Indian

Migration, the connections maintained by the migrants with the mother societies had been largely ignored. Philpott's fieldwork was the first study to attempt to examine system­ atically the implications of migration for the major insti­ tutional complexes of a Caribbean society. Three institu­ tionalized contexts were considered with regard to their implications of migration: the total society, as manifested in the island's social, political and economic hierarchies? the community? and the household. The results showed that migration can be linked with social continuity in one con­ text and social change in another. The nature of the impact of migration on the sending society is dependent upon several factors: the pre-existing social structure that may mediate implications of migration such as 76 specificity or differences of expectations of social roles, rigidity of sexual division of labor? residence patterns and the like; social processes within the society that may be selecting migrants; the type of migration--seasonal, temporary non-seasonal, continuous, recurrent, or permanent removal; the nature and goals of the migrants and the fami­ lies they leave behind; and the types of social organization and obligations established among the migrants and their families.

The importance of external migration on Caribbean societies cannot be doubted. The loss of young adults has reduced the overall growth rate by at least 1% per annum the last two decades. Disproportionate effects have also been established by the greater loss of males. This, how­ ever, does appear to be of less significance than in earlier periods. Nonetheless, there is still a marked difference in the sex ratio between urban and rural sectors, with a higher ratio of men in rural areas at each age group (Sin­ clair and Boland, 1974).

Internal migration continues to increase, and can be seen as one of the primary causes of urbanization in the

Caribbean, if by urbanization we mean increasing the popu­ lation in urban areas. Table 3 shows the growth rates of urban populations from 1950-70. Areas defined as urban con­ sistently show higher annual growth rates than those areas defined as rural. TABLE 3

Patterns of Caribbean Urbanization 1950-70

Proportion Annual growth rates Urban absorp- of popula­ <%) tion rate tion urban

1950-60 1960-70 1950- 60 1960-70 1960 1970 Country Rural Urban Rural Urban <%) (%) (%) (%) Change Bahamas 2.7 6.0 1.3 4.4 64 76 47 54 +7 Barbados 0.2 2.2 0.1 2.0 90 95 40 45 +5 Belize 3.0 3.0 3.2 3.3 35 38 37 37 0 Cuba 1.9 2.3 2.2 2.6 61 62 57 58 +1 Dominican Republic 2.7 6.1 2.6 5.7 46 53 30 37 +7 Guadeloupe 2.3 5.4 1.6 4.5 31 42 19 23 +4 Guyana 2.7 3.2 2.6 3.2 32 33 29 30 +1 Haiti 2.3 4.6 1.6 3.8 24 31 15 18 +3 Jamaica 0.9 4.3 1.2 4.3 62 64 29 36 +7 Leeward Islands 0.5 3.5 -0.3 2.2 73 150 23 34 +6 Martinique 1.0 5.6 0.3 4.4 75 91 39 49 +10 Netherlands Antilles -0.1 3.6 -0.3 3.1 104 110 50 58 +8 Puerto Rico -0.0 1.5 1.3 2.8 102 64 44 43 +4 Surinam 2.4 3.2 3.7 4.5 42 42 36 38 +2 Trinidad and Tobago 0.7 7.2 0.3 6.0 84 94 40 53 +13 US Virgin Islands 2.4 1.4 6.7 9.3 40 67 56 62 +6 Windward Islands 1.7 2.7 1.6 2.6 24 37 17 19 +2 All Caribbean 1.7 3.0 1.7 3.3 51 56 38 42 +4

Source: Davis, 1979: Tables A and D. This migration is not the result of industrial devel­ opment, nor what Clarke (C.G. Clarke, 1975: 79) calls "an aimless drift to the towns"; rather, it is an urgent at­ tempt to escape from rural poverty. Like its counterpoint, external migration, it is an adaptive strategy to a harsh physical and social environment. It is an option to be used when necessary, a part of the West Indian repertoire of actions held in readiness to be used when the opportunity arises.

Religion

Religious organizations are an important form of asso­ ciation in the Caribbean. Church attendance is very high, especially among women and children, and can provide a strong form of organization. Beliefs differ widely, par­ tially as a response to variations in colonial experience which intrasocietal stratification serves to compound.

Roman Catholicism dominates the religious observance in islands subjected to French or Spanish colonialism, while

Protestantism predominates in most former British or Dutch colonies. These orthodox denominations in the past served as buttresses to the imperial presence, and many today are still intimately bound up with the stratification system, acting as brokers for the colonizer. There are other forms of worship, however, that can be interpreted as rejection 79 of colonial orthodoxy. This rejection takes many forms.

Horowitz (1967) and Safa (1974) found specific rejection in Martinique and Puerto Rico respectively. Horowitz found relatively low levels of support for Catholicism, despite total adherence in principle to its belief (1967: 81-82), while Safa found that many shanty town dwellers in San Juan never attended church (1974: 70-71). Both, in their way, represent rejection of official religions.

Other rejections take several general forms. The first is the acceptance of nonconformist sects such as the Black

Baptists, Seventh Day Adventism, and the success of Pente- costalism. These fundamentalist beliefs are divided into a multitude of faiths with little in common except the proba­ bility of frenzied observance involving possession by the

Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, and the achievement of trance ecstasy. They often entail the healing of the sick, baptism by total immersion, and public confessions. These faiths invoke warmth, intensity and camaraderie; and serve to canalize frustration and despair.

The second line of rejection of religious orthodoxy is much more characteristic of the urban areas. It is charac­ terized by a move towards an identification with the Afri­ can past of many of the people, usually creating a belief system that is an amalgam of Christianity and elements of

African religious practice. Included here are such relig­ ious cults as Pocomania and Kumina in Jamaica, Vodoun in 80

Haiti, Shango in Trinidad, Santefia in Cuba, and Kele in St.

Lucia. In the Lesser Antilles, these cults are small, and » many predict that they will decline as societies become more urbanized and educated.

One other cult must be mentioned, the Jamaican cult of

Rastafari. It has grown rather than declined precisely in those areas that have suffered the most consequences of un- controlled urbanization and peripheral poverty. This sect, called "the cult of outcasts” and a "millennial cult"

(G. Simpson, 1970; L. Barrett, 1968), started in the 1930's among the poverty-stricken unemployed of West Kingston.

Their objective is total rejection of Western orthodoxy, which they refer to as "Babylon." It is the product of enforced marginality, and seems unlikely to decline in importance, as can be seen through its spread to other

Caribbean islands. Its political and economic impact has yet to be determined.

Women's Studies

The major focus of this dissertation is the selective utilization of a cultural institution, the legal system, by women on St. Kitts. As such it is necessary to discuss certain important aspects of the Anthropology of Women that are necessary for broad understanding of the role of women in St. Kitts culture. The areas this author focused on are: public versus private or domestic roles; ritual 81 deference; and women and social control through networks, information withholding and gossip.

An important concern for this dissertation from the lite'rature about women centers around the distinction be­ tween the public domain and the private or domestic. The problem seems to reside in the descriptive definitions of the elements to be included within each domain and whether or not based upon those definitions one can clearly deline­ ate a particular domain associated with a particular sex, i.e. the domestic domain with women and the public domain with men.

Rosaldo (1974: 23) focuses upon institutions and modes of activity defining the domestic as "those minimal insti­ tutions and modes of activity that are organized around one or more mothers and their children." In contrast, she de­ fines public as "institutions, activities, and forms of association that link, rank, organize, or subsume particular mother-child groups" (Rosaldo, 1974: 23). Women, primarily because of their role as mothers, become absorbed into the domestic sphere. Their focus becomes directed towards child care and its responsibilities and this drastically curtails their ability to manipulate their social environment be­ cause they have less control over the ability to maintain distance from the people with whom they interact. Men, on the other hand, are not absorbed into the child care role and its lack of interactional distance. Instead they are 82 identified with groups that cut across domestic units and have access to authority, prestige and cultural value. This results in an imbalance that according to Rosaldo is neces­ sarily asymmetrical. Even if a woman exercises power it would often be perceived as illegitimate. For a woman, authority, prestige, and cultural value are shaped and often limited by their association with the domestic world.

Sanday (1974) takes a slightly different approach by focusing upon what she calls "the realm of the localized family unit" and their particular actions and status. To her, all activities performed within the realm of this unit comprise the domestic domain. For human survival, males and females must expend energy in three major activities: reproduction, defense, and subsistence. The reproductive activity, constrained by the biological process, falls to the women and this constrains the amount of energy they can expend in the other activities. Males, lacking such a con­ straint, devote more of their energy to other activities, thus putting them in a position to gain control of the resources. This control goes beyond the localized family unit. Males can allocate or dispose of items beyond the unit. Their produce has value beyond the localized family, often in an external market and the males can actively par­ ticipate in economic and political behaviors that occur outside of or impact beyond the "localized family unit."

This is the realm of the public domain. Sanday agrees with 83

Rosaldo that the public domain has higher status but her focus is more on the conditions that enable a woman to devote more energy to defense and subsistence, thereby enabling a female to move towards the public domain which will alter the imbalance of power. This approach more narrowly defines the domestic unit to particular places, actions and people than Rosaldo while at the same time opens up the public domain by insisting upon the inclusion of economic and political behaviors.

Reiter (1975) begins with a particular place and ac­ tivities similar to Rosaldo but quickly adds kinship which takes her domestic sphere into the public domain of both

Rosaldo and Sanday. Reiter's public is similar to Sanday*s but here too she calls for an expansion of elements.

Besides economic and political behavior such as the ability to affect people beyond the domestic unit and the ability to protect and/or represent their economic interests, Reiter believes that the church and church activities must also be included in the public sphere.

Gonzalez (1973) argues that two clear-cut domains are not as clear-cut as we might think and offers a third do­ main that at least might fit for western societies as an intermediate sphere. Her concept "the supradomestic" is similar to Priedl's (1975) "extradomestic" which involves the ability to distribute goods and/or services to those that are not part of one's own domestic unit. The only thing at the surface that seems to link these

various definitions is the link between the status of the

female and her role as an economic producer. In hunting-

gathering groups where the female activity of gathering

supplies a substantial proportion of subsistence their

status is nearly equal to that of the men. This is par­

tially because in these societies there are few well-defined male-held offices and little restraint on any form of author­

ity over others. There does not appear to be any, however defined, division into public and private domains (see

Draper, 1975). When a society leaves the hunting-gathering world of subsistence and begins to move towards intensive agriculture and eventually industrialization the distinction between spheres appears with women being assigned to the domestic domain and characterized by lesser status.

Boserup (1970) argues that with the shift from shifting cultivation to intensive agriculture accompanied by exten­

sive plowing and the construction and maintenance of irri­ gation works women's role in economic production decreased because of the demand for physical strength and perhaps the disruption of infant care that such labor-intensive work entails. Burton and White (1984) in their article "Sexual

Division of Labor in Agriculture" tested five variables that may play a role in the variance of women's contribu­

tions to agriculture. Their results necessitated a major modification of Boserup's theory. They found that population density and the introduction of the plow had some effect on

sexual division of labor, but not as strong an effect as

Boserup had stated. Instead, the importance of domestic

animals to subsistence and the number of dry months in the agricultural cycle were better predictors of sexual division of labor. Extensive dry seasons require more male partici­ pation in agriculture and as dependence upon domestic ani­ mals increases the more time necessary to care for them and process their products also increases and this results in less female participation in agriculture. This increases their role in the domestic sphere. Martin (1975) adds to this the idea that such intensive subsistence systems make polygynous families a liability and therefore obsolete, as well as increase individual land tenure which undermines the extended family. This encourages the emergence of the nuclear family, a self-sufficient unit where the women rely upon their husbands for subsistence, thereby focusing atten­ tion upon tasks involved more with food processing. This isolates them from men and the public domain. Reiter (1975) and Sacks (1976) tend to agree. To them, men were favored for public work because of strength and mobility and there­ fore could be more intensively exploited. In the shift from intensive agriculture to industrialization Reiter feels that an even greater separation of work and home occurred thereby further increasing the distinction be­ tween domestic and public. As this process occurs, at 86 each stage the woman is relegated to a more marginal posi­ tion in the labor force and therefore her status is dimin­ ished. Draper {1975), Friedl (1975) and Sanday (1974) all concur. In Sanday's study she found that women have low status if they contribute a little or a lot to productive activities.

Bourguignon in her 1980 work The World of Women dis­ cusses the problem of the public/private domains in both the introductory chapter as well as in the concluding chap­ ter. In the introduction she reviews basic concepts and definitions and then argues that an emic approach might be extremely beneficial to clarify these definitional concepts.

She raises the possibility that much of this dialogue might reflect the superimposition of our own Western subjective evaluations and the probability that the domains, espe­ cially for many parts of the cultural world, are not nearly as distinct and rigid as inferred. The body of her book consists of chapters about women from different cultures by her colleagues, discussing women's roles within these di­ verse cultures. From these mini-ethnographic role dis­ cussions she then concludes:

Seeking to deal with our materials within the conceptual framework of contrasting domains has required a critical examina­ tion of these concepts. Only in the Mediterranean cultures, particularly the Islamic ones, could the bipolar scheme of domains be applied readily, for the division of the world into male/female, public/private, and a series of other 87

related pairs of opposites represents the ideological underpinning of these cultures. Elsewhere we struggled with situations where the concepts of opposing domains proved applicable only with dif­ ficulty, if at all. We found the synonymy of supradomestic/public/male, contrasted with domestic/private/female, to be ques­ tionable. Domestic and private spheres may overlap only partially, and males as well as females may have important roles in both of them (Bourguignon, 1980: 338).

Also important to any discussion of public/private domains and women is the concept of ritual deference and the "myth of male dominance." Rogers (1975) discusses this ritual deference in peasant society pointing out that this form of male/female interaction frequently occurs in socie­ ties where the following components are found: (1) Women are primarily associated with the domestic. (2) The society is domestic-oriented; that is the domestic sphere is of central importance, at least socially, and has important implications for life beyond the domestic. (3) To the ex­ tent that the distribution of jural and other formal rights belie the power of women, most ordinary and important inter­ actions occur in the context of a face-to-face community, where informal relationships and forms of power are at least as significant a force in everyday life as formalized authorized relationships and power. (4) Men have greater access to jural and other formal rights. (5) They are occupied with activities which may at least be overtly con­ sidered important. (6) Men and women are approximately 88

equally dependent on each other economically, socially,

politically, or in the other important ways (Rogers 1975:

730). These components are found in St. Kitts culture and will' be explained in more detail in Chapter VII which dis­

cusses the life of women on the island.

When these components are found in a culture, Rogers believes that in the domestic sphere the women have consid­ erable power. In fact, this may be the only place in

society where the people in the villages have power. It is this domain that traditionally is controlled by the women. Why, therefore, does it appear that the men are the ones in charge and dominant? Because, says Rogers, the women allow the men to think that they are dominant.

This is not male dominance one is seeing but the "myth" of male dominance.

One final body of works need mention concerning women.

This is their role in dispute resolution and social con­ trol through manipulating access to goods, services, and information as well as the use of gossip, abuse and direct attacks upon male reputations. The manipulation of net­ works for purposes of dispute resolution and social control is well known and has already been discussed in an earlier section on social organization. To sum, women through expanding and shrinking of the social networks which con­ trol food and service distributions as well as support systems can put a great deal of pressure to bear upon an 89

individual to conform to the ideas of the group. This pres­

sure or its threat can and often does bring about social

conformity and can be used to resolve a dispute (see Gussler,

1975b and 1980).

Like networks/ the flow of information can also be

manipulated. And like those networks the control of infor­ mation through said manipulation can and is used for social

control and power. The manipulation of information can

take varied forms such as withholding, filtering, controlled

leaks or information overload. General discussions of the

role of control of information can be found in a number of

books dealing with organizational behavior, management and management communication (e.g. Connor 1982; Micheli et al.

1984; Szilagyi 1981; Szilagyi and Wallace 1980). Blake

(1961) in her work Family Structures in Jamaica has an ex­

cellent example of the use of controlled information. She

points out that Jamaican parents begin to use this approach

to bring about some social control of their children. When

the parents perceive that their chidren are reaching the

age of sexual curiosity two things occur; (1) they attempt

to restrict the interactions between the child and members of the opposite sex and, (2) they withhold all information

about sex. The idea is that by restricting access and in­

hibiting knowledge through withheld information the problems of sexual behavior between the young will be diminished. 90

Molnar (1982) discusses the control of information by women in a Kham Magar community in Nepal and how that con­ trol plays a significant role in local politics and commu­ nity decisions. She states:

Women's traditional power to influence village decisions is exercised through their control of information channels (used for economic and social, as well as political, purposes), their use of ritual settings to express opinions, and their manipulation of their ties to their husband's and their natal lineages. Women have more access to and control of those information channels than do men. Because their central role in household decision making requires them to visit other households in the village, women tend to maintain more extensive daily ties to other households than do men.... Ritual is another important setting for information exchange and is useful to both men and women for this purpose. However, women participate in more rituals than do men, and they are mostly responsible for the preparation. Thus, the ritual setting is used more fre­ quently by women for information ex­ change, and it serves to maintain more distant kin networks. Because rituals, excluding those of birth, are joint events in which both women and men par­ ticipate, this setting also provides a forum for women and men to discuss vil­ lage affairs. Women have a chance to pass on to the men information they have exchanged among themselves; they can also present their arguments to influence decisions regarding local disputes or village fund raising, for example (Molnar 1982: 489).

Through these informal channels of communication the women participate in village decisions of a political nature.

By disseminating information to the men in these informal 91 settings they are able to influence behavior.

Joseph (1983) provides another example of the use by women of control of information and manipulation of social networks to bring about social control and in this case community stability. Joseph studied the networks that were created by working-class women in Camp Trad in Lebanon that cut across national, religious, ethnic and cultural ties. Through visiting in the neighborhoods the women became intimately involved in each other's lives and upon this built new bonds. Through their visiting networks they obtained information that was selectively forwarded to their menfolk thereby affecting decisions and "also helped to maintain local order. Heavily concentrated within the streets, their networks imposed boundary markers on the streets, thereby providing informal units of the social order for children and adults" (Joseph 1983: 8).

According to Joseph these women were actively involved in intervention into such areas as marital relations, par- ent-child interactions and problems between neighbors and outsiders. They acted as "agitators and arbitors to admin­ ister customary justice and maintain local order" (Joseph

1983: 8). These Camp Trad women also subjected all their neighbors to the social control of gossip.

The idea of gossip as a form of social control and a way of furthering oneself is not new. Its role as a selec­ tive way of disseminating certain information by women to manipulate men in the Caribbean has been found by Gussler

(1975b), Lowenthal (1972), and Wilson (1973). Wilson, in particular, points out clearly that the women can manipulate the'men through the use of gossip, especially when it im­ pacts upon the man's reputation. This can be done through either direct or indirect discourse. Fisher's (1976) article on "dropping remarks" shows clearly the use of indirect dis­ course to get a point across. The dropped remark occurs when "the speaker makes a comment ostensibly for one hearer, though the intention is to demean an overhearer who recog­ nizes the speaker's intention to insult" (Fisher 1976: 227).

Gossip in the form of a dropped remark can demean a man's reputation and as such can bring about social control be­ cause the man does not want his reputation demeaned.

Summary

This chapter surveys the social/cultural literature necessary for an accurate understanding of the Caribbean cultural region. Here I have discussed the theoretical per­ spectives of West Indian life such as rural/urban differ­ ences, family and social organization, work, migration and religion in order to set the stage for an in-depth discus­ sion specifically centering upon St. Kitts. I also in this chapter discuss some of the major concepts and information from the Anthropology of Women that is necessary for this research. CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH DESIGN

Introduction

The research problem involves three questions:

1. Is there a selective utilization of legal avenues of assistance by women on the Island of St. Kitts?

2. If so, what are the major factors operating to cause this selective utilization?

3. What is being used in place of the established legal system?

These questions arose out of an interest in the general problem of selective utilization of institutional benefits by different people in many countries, including the United

States. With the belief that this problem is an important issue here and in many other parts of the world, and. that answers to it could lead to a better understanding for all concerned, a research problem involving the above questions was formulated.

Pattern, detailed description, and analysis form the theoretical basis of this research, coupled with a socio­ logical measure of the attitudes held by the people. Hence, the criteria of scientific validity and logic used in this research are those usually employed by ethnographer, ethno- legal researcher, and other social behavioral scientists 93 94 conducting research on culture patterns and the dynamics of culture and social systems. Mathematical measures of validity and reliability were employed where appropriate and' useful.

This approach was chosen in the belief that to under­ stand what is occurring within a culture cannot be fully comprehended until the culture as a whole is understood. By finding cultural patterns, describing them in detail and then analyzing what has been observed, the cultural setting for the research problem becomes clear.

Location of Research

The research was conducted on the island of St. Kitts in the West Indies from January through June 1978.

Preliminary preparations for the research were com­ pleted at The Ohio State University, making extensive searches of holdings in the university and law school libraries for documents, reports, books, and other support­ ing materials, as well as extensive interviews with Dr.

Judith Gussler. Preparations for the field trip and per­ mission to conduct the study from the St. Kitts government were done at this time also.

Field Methods

The first stage of the fieldwork (two weeks) consisted of locating and searching through the available records on 95 the island collecting the following: records of births, christenings, marriages, land tax evaluations and holding sizes, census data, government statistical data and reports, maps and survey materials and historical data. This infor­ mation was found in government publications provided by the statistical office that are listed as public documents, and in the St. Kitts library. All relevant information on the

St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla statuses involving women were recorded. Permission to sit in on the Magistrates Court and

Supreme Court was obtained and contacts with solicitors was established. Contacts with potential informants was also begun in several villages and the capital city of Basseterre.

This phase also involved finding a convenient place to live, renting a car and stocking up on supplies. My wife and I found a small house near the village of Conaree on the Atlantic side that was close to several villages and the urban center of Basseterre where my study was to be conducted.

The second stage of the fieldwork began the participant observation and interviewing which, coupled with more spe­ cific methodologies to be discussed below, proceeded until the fieldwork was terminated. The participant observation entailed immersion in the lives of the people, residence in the local scene and some internalization of the significant aspects of behavior displayed by Kittitians. This allowed me to achieve what P. Pelto refers to as "imbedded emicism" (1970: 84); to identify the insider’s point of view so that

I could interact in the local setting in a way that would approach local cultural acceptability. This was done by in-depth observation of day-to-day behavior and a critical listening to the concerns and attitudes verbalized by in­ formants. I began by moving about the two villages and the city, meeting with as many individuals as possible until I was no longer a stranger. I was also capitalizing on my wife's previous contacts on the island made several years before. In this way, I met many people who accepted me immediately because of my being linked to my wife. This link proved invaluable later on when my focus narrowed to the lifeways of the women. There was a great deal of information that I could not gather myself because a man does not talk to Kittitian women about such things as sexual matters, so my wife gathered that information. As I became closer to the people, I began to travel with them to market, church, parties and dances, and began to share with them moments of happiness and grief. I also shared recreational activities with the people, which increased the rapport between us and allowed me to sort out status and patterns of visiting. I was also able to analyze some Kittitian values, based on conversations chosen by the people them­ selves. After approximately two months, my wife and I received fictive kin status. We were made a part of a food network based upon reciprocation and were invited inside 97 villagers' houses. Large amounts of food were given to us from a limited surplus and this, coupled with actual en-

* trance into their houses meant that we were accepted by the villagers as members of their family. Only kin, actual or fictive, are usually invited into their houses. Preliminary data from this method provided me with insights and clues into my own ethnocentrism that, at times, slowed my progress and the necessary information needed to develop interviews and a questionnaire. For example, I quickly learned that when I spoke to Kittitians about a city, the law or the concept of property, we were talking about different things.

Basseterre they called a city, but based on my ideas of a city, characterized by heterogeniety, impersonal contacts, alienation and so forth, Basseterre was not. It had all the characteristics of a village except it was much larger.

The law I saw in legalistic terms— Kittitians saw it in political terms. Property as I defined it, referred to ownership of land, while property to Kittitians was a house, not the land it was on.

Two types of interviewing were also employed throughout the length of the study. One was "key-informant" inter­ viewing where key informants, with whom I had established a good relationship, were used as sources of information.

The other involved the use of "structured interviews" both with key informants and others. The structured interviews proved very useful to gather census data in villages and the 98 city such as detailed information on household members in­

cluding sex, age, kinship ties and affiliations both within

and beyond the household, education, occupation, marital

status, and the like. Both interviewing techniques were

closely integrated with participant observation. Often, I would personally observe an event and then interview infor­ mants at the time of the event, or just after it. Life histories were also gathered.

I was aware that my observations were partially dis­

torted through my inexperience and the cultural limitations of my perceptions of events. I was also aware that my in­ formants might distort data through rationalization, projec­ tion and sublimation. I therefore, systematically, attempted to determine the accuracy of the Kittitian cultur­ al data I was gathering. Several methods were employed.

Similar questions were asked of a great variety of infor­ mants, and the same questions were asked of different key informants several times during the study. The answers were then compared to see if there was agreement among informants and by the same informant over time. If there was a lack of internal consistency, I would double and sometimes triple-check the data. My own participant"ob­ servations were also used to check and evaluate key-infor- mant data. When possible, I would match up statements made by my informants concerning their behavior with their actual behavior. Lastly, several key informants were asked to give a retrospective account of an event which I had per­ sonally witnessed and had recorded in detail. This gave me an idea about the kind of recall and accuracy character­ istic of my key informants. My wife, who was present during many of the interviews, especially with the women, ran this test on me so that I might check my own recall and accuracy.

This was necessary since often my use of notepad or tape recorder was limited by the setting or social situation.

The use of the "case method," generally regarded as the central procedure in all legal anthropology studies, was also employed during the second phase of the fieldwork.

The "case method" consists of recording, in detail, actual cases and then doing a content analysis of each case to determine specific patterns of behavior which can then be used as the groundwork for prediction or interpretation.

Current cases in the Magistrate's and Supreme Court were observed as they proceeded to judgment and then each case was subjected to a detailed content analysis recording the following: (1) the people who use the courts, (2) the range of grievances which they take there, (3) the dyads which appear in oppositions, (4) the age of participants, and (5) the relationship between type of conflict and outcome.

I also gathered similar information about past cases for three years back from court records, old newspapers, and interviews with several solicitors. This enriched my under­ standing of the data acquired by observation and interview techniques, and provided answers to such questions as (1)

Are the sanctions that are meted out ordered in any way by the sex of the offender?; (2) In what roles do the people who' use the court appear (husband rather than father, wife rather than mother)?? (3) For what complaints do they appear?; (4) With whom do they dispute (kin or nonkin)?;

(5) Do families participate as a group in a case at law or as dyads within the family? Such an analysis led to the ability to predict tendencies. Also, I was able to predict aspects of social organization and the status of the people in that organization. This type of approach has been very informative in the past, as can be seen from Laura Nader's work of Zapotec law cases (Nader 1964). Key participants in actual cases were also interviewed and observed in the course of dispute definition, actions, and settlement.

Along with the "case method" another anthropological technique of field research, the "hypothetical situation" was also employed. It consists of devising "situations in the life of a people in terms of hypothetical persons, relationships and events, which, being in accord with the prevalent patterns of the culture, are used to direct and give form to discussions with informants and other members of a group being studied" (Herskovits 1950; 32). The con­ tent of the "hypothetical situations" was derived from knowledge gained from the "case method" approach. These situations were presented to Kittitians of varying age and 101 strata regardless of whether they had dealings with the legal system. They were asked to state how they felt the situation should be resolved and asked to comment on the resolutions. Herskovits, who developed this technique while doing research on the cultures of the black peoples of West

Africa and various parts of the Caribbean area and South

America, recognized that this technique acts as a kind of projective device. The device taps the creative process of the individual.

Students of literature and psychology have known for years that this creative process which is tapped is fed by experience. Even the most fantastic tale bases its fantasy on reality? even when writing most objec­ tively about his characters, an author reveals his own beliefs, his own desires, making of his tale a reflection of his own background and of his own personality (Herskovits 1950: 39).

Herskovits and his students employing this technique found it to be extremely useful for leading discussions about abstract principles. This technique proved useful on

St. Kitts where many of the people had difficulty discussing the legal situation in abstract terms. By putting it in terms of a hypothetical situation where the respondent was asked to state how he or she felt the situation would be resolved in another village on the other side of the island, a more concrete problem or situation was presented which could then be discussed. 102

Another aspect of the fieldwork involved the drawing up and administering of a questionnaire based upon the work of Podgorecki {1971, 1973, 1974) to test the "invisible factors" mentioned in Chapter II. This was necessitated by a preliminary analysis of some of the field data while still in the field. It was becoming quite clear that

Kittitians viewed the law in a political manner similar to

Podgorecki's findings among European peasants. This view, according to Podgorecki, would cause the people to avoid the law whenever possible. Also, this view was positively correlated with particular "invisible factors." I, there­ fore, designed a modified form of Podgorecki's questionnaire, making it culturally specific, to enhance later analysis.

A detailed discussion of this process can be found in

Chapter VIII. CHAPTER V

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY AND DEMOGRAPHY OF ST. KITTS

This chapter presents the ecological, historical and demographic background for the research problem. It in­ cludes descriptions of the topography, climate, soil use and the native flora and. fauna of the island. A brief history of St. Kitts and a discussion of settlement patterns and demographic features follow. The physical geography and history are described in some detail because the clearest way to understand Kittitian history and culture is to view it as a series of adaptive responses to exploitation of the land, and of the people.

Location, Physical Geography and Climate

St. Kitts, the main island of the St. Kitts-Nevis-

Anguilla Associated States is situated 17' 15* N and 62*

40' W in the northern Lesser Antilles (the Leeward Islands).

The British Leeward Islands also include Antigua, Montserrat, and the British Virgin Islands. St. Kitts is 19 miles long and 5 miles wide, and is shaped like a drumstick, covering 68 square miles. The island is mountainous in the interior, changing to broad,

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tu to r'* tag ■anan* tag .•— a] .'. h a ll ta g .

r i« u r * 1 Hap of ft. Pitta 105 gently-sloping lowlands around the perimeter. There is a

Northern range dominated by Mount Misery, the highest point

on the island at 3711 feet; next, the Middle and Southern

groups of mountains are Verchild's (3000 ft.) and Olivee's

Range (2800 ft.) respectively. These three peaks form a

spine-like ridge running from North-West to South-East.

They are the result of volcanic activity which occurred some

20,000 years ago. Other evidence of volcanic activity

abounds, such as large black igneous rocks and the dark

volcanic beaches. This is of economical significance since

it is impossible to find white sand beaches which attract

tourists to the Caribbean. From the southern part of the

main ridge, stretching South-East lies a broken range of low

hills called the Canada Hills, Conaree Hills and Morne Hills

which are about 950 feet high. Extending to the south and

east of the hills is a long, narrow peninsula that is rela­

tively dry and scattered with peaks up to 1100 feet. Among

the peaks at the end of the peninsula there is a large salt

lake called Salt Pond.

Between the peaks are ravines called ghauts, or "guts,"

radiating towards the sea. During the rainy season, floods often occur on the low lands due to run-off water. There

are no true rivers on the island, but some of the ghauts on

the upper slopes have been dammed to provide a water supply

for the villages. The land among many of the ghauts is not

suitable for sugar cane cultivation, and is often used for 106 small gardens by the villagers. Despite the large amounts of water that rush down the hills, St. Kitts has been for­ tunate in that the island has suffered relatively little soil erosion. Gordon Merrill (1958: 40, 41) has suggested that rapid soil formation offsets the erosive effects of the floods.

The climate of St. Kitts is tropical over most of the island, with a desert ecology on the perimeter. Average annual temperature is 79-80*F. The humidity is approxi­ mately 75%. Due to the moisture-bearing North-East trade winds, rainfall on the island is more consistent than on neighboring islands, but there are nevertheless considerable fluctuations from year to year and among the various loca­ tions that correlate with altitude.

On the island, the dry season lasts from January to

July and this is the time when the sugar cane is harvested.

This is the busiest time of the year for many Kittitians.

The wet season lasts from August to December, and is often referred to as the dull season because the Sugar Factory is shut down, and the sugar estates operate with only skeleton crews who usually work only two or three days per week. As noted above, however, the rainy season varies with altitude and area, and may also be affected by droughts.

Four basic soil types have been identified by Merrill

(1958: 38) on St. Kitts: yellow, brown-yellow, red-brown, and shoal. The yellow and brown-yellow soils are good for 107

crop cultivation, and, according to Merrill, the yellow ash

earth is the finest. Most of the sugar cane cultivation is carried out on these types of soil which cover over 70% of

the’ island.

The red-brown soils are found on the upper mountain

slopes and are higher in nitrogen and organic matter, but heavy rainfall and dense vegetation have resulted in leached, poorly aerated soils. This fact, plus the inaccessibility of many of the upper slopes, have left these soils mostly uncultivated.

The fourth soil type is shoal. It is a heavy clay soil caused by the long process of weathering, thus it is slip­ pery when wet and hard when dry, making it difficult to cul­ tivate. It covers much of the South-Eastern section of St.

Kitts— the desert peninsula. No sugar cane is cultivated here. Goats and sheep are able, however, to graze on the vegetation common to this area. St. Kitts truly deserves the name Liamuiga, the "Fertile

Isle" which was the name given her by the Carib Indians.

The fertility is the result of adequate rainfall and good volcanic soil which has lasted for over 300 years despite continuous cultivation. The history, demography, and present culture of St. Kitts revolve around the physical geography. 108

Native Flora and Fauna

The flora and fauna of St. Kitts have changed drasti­ cally since the original occupation of the island. Much of it has been disturbed by either human activity {Indians and

Europeans adding to and using up the island's resources) or nature (high winds or hurricanes which prevent the growth of tall trees). The greatest changes have been brought about by exploitation of the land, at first to survive, later to produce a surplus for the landowners and capital­ ists. According to David Harris (1965) the plant-animal eco­ logical relationships on some of the Leeward Islands

(Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla) began to change with the arrival of the first people, the Arawak Indians, around

600 A.D. They changed the ecological balance by (1) intro­ ducing a number of new South American species; (2) inten­ sively utilizing certain indigenous plants; and (3) prac­ ticing a shifting cultivation technique. The same is probably true for St. Kitts. D. Harris (1965: 73, 74) states that the Arawaks intro­ duced such food crops as manoic, maize, tania, sweet potatoes, peanut, bean, lima bean and pepper. Fruits such as pineapple, mamey apple, guava, soursop and sweetsop were also probably brought to the island in a similar fashion.

Tobacco, cotton, coconut, plantain and undomesticated sugar cane might also have arrived during the Arawak migrations, 109 but, despite elaborate attempts to establish the origins of these plants, the evidence remains ambiguous and contradic­ tory.

' Indian preference for certain food items changed the distribution of some of the native flora through selective utilization. The distribution of such plants as prickly pear, coco plum and sea grape, which according to Harris were considered prize food for the Arawaks, affected their distribution "accidentally or deliberately" (1965: 76).

Arawak cultural practices may also have played a role in rearranging the ecological balance. The use of gava for basket making and hammocks might have led to a redistribu­ tion of this plant or the introduction of some species.

Certain tree species may also have been affected by their importance in Arawak economy for medicinal purposes, the construction of shelters, and the boats used to travel among the islands.

Lastly, on some islands, the indigenous vegetation may have been drastically changed by the cultivation practices of the Indians. The Arawaks usually settled along the coasts so they could better exploit the resources from the sea. Cultivated land was usually limited to the lower slopes of the mountains and the coastal plains. On some small islands and restricted stretches of land, the repeated clearing, firing and planting could have led to considerable destruction of vegetation and soil (Harris 1965: 78), 110

Following the wave of Arawaks came the Carib Indians.

Little is known of their settlements and way of life, ex­

cept for some tools and rock drawings remaining on St. Kitts,

but' it is believed that their adaptation to the islands was

similar to that of the Indians before them. We can, there­

fore, assume that the ecological modifications began by the

Arawaks continued.

The last to arrive on the islands were the Europeans

in 1622. After several years of establishing settlements,

they set about organizing the means of production. This

eventually evolved into a plantation system which involved the most extensive exploitation of land to produce surplus

for profit that the islands have ever seen. Entire forests were destroyed to clear areas for planting food crops and to provide wood and fuel. Tobacco, indigo, ginger and cotton were introduced as cash crops in the early seventeenth cen­ tury. By the mid-seventeenth century, sugar cane was intro­ duced. The soil and climate were ideal for sugar growing and, because of the huge profits that could be made from this plant, it quickly supplanted all the others. King Sugar had arrived— a mono-crop agricultural economy— that from its introduction has shaped and molded most of the culture of the West Indies in general, and of St. Kitts specifically, up to the present. With regard to fauna, the changes in distribution of animal species by the Indians are less well understood than Ill the changes caused by the Europeans. According to Harris, several species of rodents and birds were hunted and some were exterminated. The guinea pig, agouti and iguana were inttoduced. Merrill (1958), speaking of the entire Lesser

Antilles, states that there were "two species of oppossum, one armadillo, three agouti, four rats, one racoon, and twenty-three species of bat" (1958: 29). The majority of these are unknown on St. Kitts.

With the arrival of Europeans, changes in animal popu­ lations are more easily discerned. In the seventeenth cen­ tury, several species of reptiles and amphibians were favored as food and soon became extinct (Merrill 1958: 29).

The Europeans introduced into St. Kitts the mongoose and the African Green Monkey in the nineteenth century. The animals upset the ecosystem of the island. The mongoose, introduced from Jamaica by planters to control the cane rats and snakes, brought about the extinction of many species of mammals, reptiles and birds (those which lay eggs on the ground) (Merrill 1958: 36). As a result, insect control through birds is rare, and pesticides have become the major means of controlling them. This affects the villagers in two ways: (1) there is a great deal of insect damage to vegetables; (2) many of their chickens are killed by the mongoose. The Green Monkey has had an even greater effect on the ecological balance. It was first brought to the island by 112 settlers as pets, probably during the nineteenth century.

Many of them escaped and were able to adapt rapidly and successfully to different econiches. Some researchers sug­ gest that today there may be as many monkeys as people on the island (approximately 40,000) (M. McGuire, 1974). They have probably contributed to the redistribution of many kinds of fruit trees and have affected populations of small animals and birds. They have also had an impact upon human adaptation by raiding the gardens of villagers, destroying many of the vegetables grown for family consumption. Many villagers complain that up to half their crop has been lost to raiding monkeys.

Lastly, the Europeans imported livestock. Goats, sheep and cattle can be found almost everywhere. Pigs and chick­ ens are also common, as well as dogs used by people for protection at night but who compete with them for food.

Thus, St. Kitts has changed a great deal since its first occupation by humans. Most of the forest cover has been replaced by sugar cane on the plains and lower slopes of the mountains. Higher up the slopes the primary forest has given way to small garden plots, grazing land and scrub. Many non-native species of plants and animals pre­ dominate . 113

History

A. The Evolution of the Plantation System

The following history has been derived primarily from i secondary and tertiary sources, the most important of which are Elsa Goveia (1965), Gordon Merrill (1958), and John

Parry and P.M. Sherlock (1956) who gathered their informa­ tion from the personal papers of many of the leading families who were associated with St. Kitts, as well as the colonial records and primary sources found in England,

France and the University of the West Indies. The unpub­ lished dissertations of David Bai (1972) and Judith Gussler

(1975) also proved to be very useful. This information has been supplemented with several journals, diaries and notebooks written by early Kittitian colonists that can be found in the St. Kitts Library, and were made available to this author. Personal communications from Mr. Matheson, a local historian and Director of the Society for the Restora­ tion of Brimstone Hill, also proved beneficial. The his­ torical interpretation found in this section is primarily that of the above-mentioned authors.

The human history of St. Kitts parallels, to a great extent, the natural history of the island. Both can be best understood as adaptive responses to exploitation.

The Arawaks began to exploit the physical geography upon arrival to the island. The fierce, warlike Caribs continued 114 this exploitation, as well as to exploit the Arawaks. In

1493, on his second voyage, Columbus discovered St. Kitts1 which he named St. Christopher. He laid claim to most of the Greater Antilles for Spain, who, for over a century maintained a monopoly over most New World lands. Many of the islands comprising the Lesser Antilles, of which St.

Kitts is a part, were passed over as settlements by the

Spanish in their pursuit of gold and other minerals to be found on the mainland. Despite the lack of settlements, control was maintained by Spain through Spanish warships who constantly sailed among the islands preventing colonization by other European powers. This monopoly was not to be successfully challenged until the beginning of the seven­ teenth century by the French and English.

In 1622, an Englishman named Thomas Warner arrived on

St. Kitts after a turbulent journey to the Guiana Coast in search of Sir Walter Scott's fabled city of gold. He was impressed with the fertile, relatively diseaBe-free island, and returned to England to seek support and finances to colonize it. He was soon successful in obtaining a charter, and by 1624 the first English settlement on St. Kitts was established (Parry and Sherlock 1956: 48).

Other European countries were also seeking colonies in the New World. Soon after the first English settlements had

1The name "St. Christopher" became shortened to "St. Kitts" at the end of the seventeenth century. 115 been established, a group of colonists from France arrived in St. Kitts led by Pierre d'Esnabuc. A treaty between the British and French was quickly signed for mutual aid in settling the island, and for defense against both the Carib

Indians who continued to occupy the island and the Spanish who still patrolled the seas. The treaty split the island.

The British controlled the center part of the island, while both end portions were given over to the French who named them Capesterre and Basseterre.

For a while after the treaty, the colonists and the

Caribs lived side by side peaceably. At times the Indians even supplied the new settlers with food. The Europeans, however, constantly feared the Caribs, and in 1626 they decided that the island must be rid of them. They joined forces, and under the cover of darkness, staged a surprise attack on the main Carib village, killing most of the in­ habitants. The few survivors fled the island, never seri­ ously to threaten the island after that time (Merrill 1958:

51).

In 1629, the Spanish decided to chase the settlers from what Spain considered her islands. An armada was sent which appeared off the coast of Nevis, the sister island of St.

Kitts, and forced both the French and English inhabitants on St. Kitts to flee. Spain, however, had no real interest in inhabiting these small islands, and soon thereafter with­ drew. The colonists then returned to the islands to resume 116

their settlements and attempted to develop an economy. They

tried growing indigo, ginger, cotton and tobacco for markets

in Europe. The physical geographer Merrill suggests that

tob'acco may have been the ideal crop for the time and place.

Tobacco can easily be grown successfully on a small scale by independent farmers using simple equipment and technology

(Merrill, 1958: 53).

Problems of settlement now began within the island.

With Spain out of the picture, at least for awhile, the

English and French began to quarrel. The French colony was strengthened by the establishment in 1635 of the Compagnie des lies de l'Axnerique, and the appointment of Philippe de Lonvilliers de Poincy as governor of St. Kitts in 1639.

The French company soon decided to sell some of its island property. The British West Indian Company in 1665 bought out several of the French colonial claims in the Caribbean, including St. Kitts, St. Bartholomew, and St. Croix

(Merrill 1958: 52). This, however, did not end all of the arguments. The British and French waged continued attacks until Napoleon's defeat in 1815. From that time on, Britain alone claimed and dominated St. Kitts until the island be­ came an Associated State of the British Commonwealth in 1967.

While these disputes were taking place, the colonists continued to develop an economy. The St. Kitts farmers settled upon tobacco production, but soon discovered that the soil was rapidly being used up and the small independent 117 fanner could not compete with the North American tobacco

growers. Pressure from Europe and the search for larger

capitals led to an investigation for more competitive cash

crofc>s. Around 1640, sugar cane was introduced. It quickly

was established as the major product of the island, and

continues to be so today. In the process, the small farmer

was driven out of business to be replaced by the plantation

system. This early and quick success of cane production is

attributed to two major factors: (1) sugar cane grows

exceptionally well in the natural tropical conditions found

in much of the West Indies; (2) the demands for sugar use

were continually expanding at this time in Europe. The St.

Kitts sugar production system developed as part of the

emerging capitalist society of the New World, referred to

by Dunn (1972) as the "Plantocracy" and as part of the

colonial economic system it played a major role in the accu­

mulation of capital for British merchant-capitalists.

The introduction of cane production in St. Kitts and

the West Indies in general brought far-reaching change to

the pattern of settlement because of the different require­

ments for production of cane, as compared to the other cash

crops that had been attempted. Sugar cane production re­

quires (1) large cultivated areas, (2) a large labor force,

< and (3) expensive equipment and a sophisticated technology.

Its initial development was toward a "field and factory

combine" relying upon slave labor and the protection of the 118

British market. All of which entails exploitation— ex­ ploitation of people, and exploitation of land.

Since sugar cane production is dependent upon extensive

cultivated areas, the small independent Kittitian fanners of indigo and tobacco soon began to disappear, as they were either bought out or forced out to open up more land for

cane growing. This led to the disappearance of small house- hold-based cultivation, and the emergency of relatively

large units of production dependent upon capital raised by

British merchants. In the meantime, more white settlers were arriving. Many of these immigrants were criminals deported by England for crimes such as rioting and rebel­

lion in England and Ireland. These new arrivals swelled

the population of the poor and landless who had little or no power. It is during this period in the history of St.

Kitts that the white population of the island reached its greatest number. Forced by the severe economic pressures that were beginning to appear, many of these landless people moved on either to become buccaneers or to settle other islands such as Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua and Barbuda.

This change from small-scale tobacco farms to sugar production in the form of plantations dictated the change in labor supply. The cheapest sources of labor at this time were African slaves and the small white farmers were dis­ placed by the change. In 1645 in Barbados, there were 11,200 small white farmers and 5,680 slaves. By 1677, there were only 745 large plantation owners and 82,023 slaves (Williams

1966: 54), In Nevis, the population of whites decreased by three-fifths, while the black population more than doubled between 1672 and 1708. In Montserrat, during the same period, the white population decreased by more than two- thirds while the slave population increased by more than eleven times (Williams 1966: 65). In St. Kitts in 1727, there were 1,747 whites and 2,861 blacks, but by the end of the eighteenth century, there was a total population of

4,000 whites and over 26,000 slaves (Merrill 1958: 72-73).

It has been estimated that over 2,000,000 slaves were brought to the British West Indies from Africa by the time of the abolution of the slave trade in 1808 (see P. Curtin

1969).

The rapid decline in the number of whites, concurrent with the arrival of a huge black slave labor force, led to a radical change in the social structure based upon a clear- cut class and race hierarchy. This hierarchy consisted of the white planters as an elite with the black slaves at the bottom, and in between a small but expanding number of free

"coloured" people born of unions between the white planters and black women. This free "coloured" population had no real place in the plantation society. They were barred from inheritance, the management of estates, and public office.

The only avenues open to them were to become peddlers, craftsmen, or small merchants until the second half of the 120 nineteenth century when some of them could become lawyers, merchants, managers and planters due to the growing phenom­ enon of landlord absenteeism. (For a detailed discussion see'Edward Cox 1984.)

The New World plantation system had begun as a specific adaptation to the environment of the New World, based upon a new order emerging out of the decline of the old world feudal order. It did not entail an expansion of the old world feudal-manorial land tenure system, nor did it involve a relationship between land and man of the family farm type.

Instead, the new system was from its beginning based upon a slave labor force. The entire organization of production and the social relationships associated with it were based upon a hierarchy of class, race and capital— black labor and white capital. The sugar manufacturers were able to realize a surplus through the fruits of slaves' labor and later of

"unfree" workers' labor.

As sugar profits continued to grow, the British mer­ chants increased their control of the colonies through the use of the Crown Colony system. The Colonies were allowed to elect their own Assemblies, but the Governor on each island was to be appointed by the Crown. He had the duty of nominating all members to the council, thereby controlling the political system as the Crown saw fit. As the colonies became more and more the main source of wealth for the

Crown, pressure was put on them to trade exclusively with 121

England. To that end, the British Navigation Acts of 1651 and 1660 were passed. These acts denied preferable trade with the Dutch on nearby islands, and replaced it with ex­ clusive dependence upon the British market. This eventually precipitated a crisis in the British West Indies, because the colonies began to face increasing costs of production at the very time when the price of sugar was rapidly declin­ ing as the result of increased production on other islands such as Hispaniola and Cuba. Under these conditions the planters agreed to pay a 4>$% tax on all exports and the

Crown, in return, would assume full responsibility for the future welfare and defense of the islands (Hall 1971: 5-6).

In short, the development of sugar production in the form of large estates and slave labor led to economic, political and military dependence by the Colonies upon the British.

The requirement of expensive equipment and an advanced technology for sugar production also contributed to change.

The production of sugar cane requires a certain amount of immediate processing. It cannot be harvested and shipped out. The cane cannot be stored for very long after cutting, because it loses sugar content, therefore, it must be milled immediately. Sugar mills mus*c be constructed and operated to convert the cane into rum, molasses, or unrefined brown sugar called muscovado, which can be successfully trans­ ported without loss to the overseas markets. This, in turn, required a great deal of capital to produce the equipment. 122

This is why Parry and Sherlock (1957: 66) refer to sugar as

"the rich man's crop."

B. The Transition from Slavery to Wage Labor and Self Government

By the middle of the eighteenth century, the very suc­

cess of British commercial and industrial expansion policy began to sow the seeds of its own destruction. The Naviga­

tion Acts resulted in competitive sugar production by colonies owned by the other major European powers which, in

turn, resulted in falling sugar prices and increased compe­ tition among the Europeans for control over sugar supplies, which culminated in the Seven Years War (175671763). The war disrupted trade, production of sugar, and caused major hardships for the people of the islands. Some of the islands changed hands and planters began to leave. Tax levies on sugar use continually increased, and exorbitant interest charges were placed upon the capital used by planters. At the same time, property values fell (Colqu- houn 1832: 14). In addition, Britain restricted most of the trading and stipulated that planters had to ship their produce on designated British ships with excessive freight rates. At the end of the Seven Years War, England, increas­ ingly recognizing the need for a wide market in which to sell its growing amount of manufactured goods, passed the 123 Free Port Act making trade easy (Goveia 1965: 13). Free trade increased the costs of sugar production, but, at the same time, increased the competition from other sugar pro­ ducers, which resulted in even lower sugar prices. At the same time, there was an increase in the cost of sugar pro­ duction and of slaves and their maintenance. This brought on an economic crisis which the manufacturers responded to by attacking slavery as the cause of the difficulty. They felt that the accumulation or surplus must come from a form of labor other than costly slavery, and from a further ex­ pansion in production (Goveia 1965}. Slavery was in conflict with the process of surplus accumulation. It was no longer adaptive, a new form of labor and a new means of production had to be found. Some of the sugar industry people began to call for the end of slavery. At the same time, an effective campaign against slavery was being waged by British abolitionists on religious and moral grounds.

In response to this pressure, the British ended the slave trade in 1807, and the emancipation of slaves became official in 1833. At that time there were few free blacks in St. Kitts. The Emancipation Act provided for a six-year period of apprenticeship for the transition of former slaves, and only slaves under the age of six were completely free. This limitation in freedom brought riots to St.

Kitts (G.M. Hall 1971: 24). 124

The apprenticeship provision was not very satisfactory to either the freed slaves nor the planters. The freed slaves were only to be paid for work which exceeded the obligatory minimum of 40>s hours a week, and they were, there­ fore, barely free from their former masters. Most left the estate yards to settle in newly-established villages, but continued to depend upon the sugar industry for their live­ lihood. By 1838, apprenticeship was completely abolished in the British Caribbean, and was replaced by a "free" labor system. The plantations began a period of reorganization. At­ tention turned to increasing efficiency, especially through the application of technology to cane cultivation. At the same time, the planters had to find ways to ensure a cheap and abundant labor force. The workers were allowed to remain on the estates, live in the estate houses, and grow provisions on estate land as they had done during slavery; however, if they did not supply the labor demanded by the estates, they could be evicted. By this method, St. Kitts workers had little choice but to work for their landlords at whatever wage rates they were offered. The St. Kitts planters also selectively introduced labor saving machinery such as plows, barrows, wheel-barrows and weeding machines.

They very quickly learned that they could reduce production costs through machinery, and thereby avoid the need to attract labor by increasing wages. They also began to 125 restrict emigration by passing laws making it more diffi­ cult to leave the island.

Under the conditions of free labor, the emancipated slaves were free in theory only. By utilizing the control of emigration, the power of eviction and the selective intro­ duction of machinery, the St. Kitts planters were able to ensure an abundant supply of labor at the lowest possible wage in spite of growing absenteeism by the workers. Those who were freed were still tied to the estates. This allowed the sugar industry to reach the pre-Emancipation level of production by 1860. By 1861, St. Kitts had clearly reestab­ lished the old plantation system, only this time it was based on free labor.

From the 1860's to the early 1900's the planters had to deal with the ever-increasing crisis of competition from more cost effective European beet sugar. A centralized sugar factory was established on St. Kitts in 1912 near

Basseterre as a partial response to the crisis.

A centralized decision-making body, the West Indies

Sugar Production Association, also in response to that competition was formed by the British sugar-producing islands. The Association would negotiate sugar marketing and prices on behalf of each of the sugar-producing islands, thus replacing separate negotiations by each island with the British Government. England would thus be assured of sugar deliveries and was able to control over-production. 126 Increased mechanization, consolidation of estates, and the establishment of both company and resident ownership con­ tinued.

' Merrill pointed out that sometime during the nineteenth century the efficiency of production created its own prob­ lems. The problem of a chronic labor shortage became a problem of chronic underemployment (1958: 98). As machines take over more and more of the work, jobs disappear. Dis­ gruntled workers strike and the sugar industry responds with more machines. More laborers are laid off and unemployment grows. Added to this is the problem that sugar work is seasonal. Labor is intense from February or March until

August, but for the rest of the year, only occasional estate work is available for a few people.

Economic pressures by the poor black population of St.

Kitts began to stimulate organization aimed mainly to im­ prove its economic and political plight. Worker movements began, despite the fact that union organization was pro­ hibited by law in 1916. The movements relied upon speeches to educate the people to the need for change, and to advo­ cate better living conditions and the reduction of the planter's power of eviction so that workers could struggle freely on wage issues. Secondly, the workers made use of the existing Charity Act to give themselves some degree of legitimization. Under this act, charity organizations such as the Heart and Hand Society were allowed to operate. In 127

1917, they formed the St. Kitts-Nevis Universal Benevolent

Society which did much to consolidate scattered workers.

In 1932, the Worker's League was established.

Also in 1932, a British commission known as the "Closer

Union Commission" headed by Sir William Ferguson, came to the West Indies. It met at Dominica and reached agreement with West Indian labor leaders on three points:

(a) no taxation without representation

(b) no federation without self-government, and

(c) the abolition of the Crown Colony.

The first point was a major issue at that time because an earlier commission {1922) had recommended further taxation while the majority of the people were not represented. The

Closer Union Commission recommended a limited elective sys­ tem in the Crown Colonies by introducing elected unofficial members to the Council. This was a victory for the workers in the Leeward Islands, because it opened the way to elect workers' leaders. The Colonial Office in London accepted the recommendation, so in July 1935 a change took place in the constitution. St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla would have three nominated unofficial and five elected unofficial mem­ bers; they would have three official members, including the

Administrator who could only vote in case of a tie.

In the 1930's, the West Indies workers exploded in protest of oppressive conditions. Strikes and riots occur­ red, and several times British troops were brought in to 128 handle the situation. Another Commission was set up in

1938, the result of which was the passing of minimum wage laws. In St. Kitts, a Trade and Labor Union was officially organized, and it took over all negotiations with the Sugar

Association. The union's political views began to crystal­ lize— the major goal was to break colonial rule. It felt that colonial government was on the decline.

According to David Bai (1972) , the workers' struggle between 1940-1967 became increasingly oriented toward taking over political power. The St. Kitts-Nevis Trade and Labor

Union became a true instrument of the workers. Workers were put in the position of leaders, such as Robert Bradshaw, who would become the first Premier of St. Kitts-Nevis-

Anguilla. Slowly, through the Union's efforts, colonial rule was eroded and local autonomy was on the verge of reality. The seven-week strike of 1940 and the 1948 thir­ teen-week strike left the unmistakable impression that the workers were united. After the 1948 strike, the Soulburg

Commission was established to investigate means of insti­ tuting greater participation by the people in politics. The result was the granting of universal suffrage in 1952.

After that, independence accelerated. David Bai described these changes:

...extensive programs of housing, water and utilities were carried out; and the educa­ tion systems extended. This was progress towards internal self-government for the people. Under this system the Governor could 129 only act according to the advice of the Cabinet, and so the most oppressive aspect of the Crown Colony system (namely, the un­ accountable power of the Governor over the people) was eliminated. In 1956 the Leeward Islands Colony was abolished, and the West Indian Federation was established in 1958. In January 1960 the constitution of St. Kitts was amended according to the Federation scheme, and the real responsibility for the island's government shifted to the elected representatives (1972: 81).

In 1967, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla were proclaimed an

Associated State in the British Commonwealth. As an Asso­ ciated State, they were responsible for handling all inter­ nal affairs while the responsibility for defense and ex­ ternal affairs remained with Great Britain. In 1983 St.

Kitts was granted its independence.

Demography

According to the 1970 Census, the population of St.

Kitts-Nevis was 44,884; the respective figures being 33,744 and 11,140. Of this total, 21,044 were male and 23,840 female. Close to 49% of the total population (21,854) are children fourteen years old or younger, and nearly half of the entire population lives in the only city, Basseterre.

Computations by the Health Department from the years

1967-1976 show that the natural increase in population for

1976 was 844 individuals for a growth rate of 2.8. A sum­ mary of the statistics from 1967 to 1976 shows that St.

Kitts has had an estimated population increase of 2% per annum (St. Kitts Population Census, 1970: 5, table 9). 130

This, coupled with a population density of 422 persons per square mile, makes St. Kitts one of the most populated states in the world. According to Bai, this heavy population den- i sity "...reflects the historical problem of the plantation system which required the concentration of a large number of workers in a small area" (1972: 42).

According to the Health Department Annual Reports for

1973-1976, the majority of the births on St. Kitts were illegitimate as defined by law (parents not married at the time the child was conceived). From Table 4, it can be seen that over 80% of the births from 1973 through 1976 were listed as illegitimate. This conforms to reports from other islands in the West Indies which claim that between 80% and

90% of all births in the Caribbean are illegitimate in the eyes of the law (see Lowenthal, 1972). This will be dis­ cussed in more detail in Chapter VIII.

TABLE 4 Birth by Legitimacy

YEAR LIVE/STILL BIRTH LEGITIMATE ILLEGITIMATE

1973 Livebirth 184 893 1973 Stillbirth 6 18 1974 Livebirth 128 747 1974 Stillbirth 2 18 1975 Livebirth 142 774 1975 Stillbirth 4 21 1976 Livebirth 178 764 1976 Stillbirth 2 25

(Source: St. Kitts Government 1973-1976) 131

Childbearing starts early on St. Kitts with some females

giving birth between the ages of 10 to 14. Of all age brackets, the 15-19 year old range registers the most births. i Some of these births are the fourth or fifth child for a woman. Table 5 shows the livebirths by age and order for

1976. It can also be seen from Table 5 that many women on

St. Kitts have a number of children, some having 12 or more in their lifetime.

Statistics on the working population by sex and age groups show that, as of 1970, there were 7657 males and 4598 females for a total of 12,255 people between the ages of 14 to 65 and older that were working. "Working*' is defined by the St. Kitts Government as "being employed by someone for a wage or salary" (personal communication from S.B. Daniel,

St. Kitts Labour Commissioner). This does not include those who are self employed such as turnhands or those who earn money from extra produce of their gardens or from products they have made by hand. Since the minimum age for working is 14, it can be computed that approximately 49% of the total eligible population is working. Taking into consid­ eration rates of emigration and the number of children be­ tween 14 and 18 still in school, it appears that the unem­ ployment rate is around 15% or higher. Due to the frequency of emigration and the seasonal nature of employment, exact figures are hard to ascertain. TABLE 5 Livebirths by Order and Age of Mother 1976

LIVEBIRTH ORDER

age of mother total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12+

total 1320 381 296 200 139 71 59 49 35 23 14 10 22

10-14 10 9 1

15-19 465 255 144 51 13 2

20-24 408 83 105 110 67 26 11 5 1

25-29 212 31 35 24 42 20 25 19 11 3 2

30-34 110 3 8 11 8 15 17 17 13 9 4 1 4

35-39 69 2 4 8 7 4 5 9 7 7 7 9

40-44 20 1 1 2 2 1 3 1 2 7

45+ 5 1 1 1 2

(Source: St. Kitts Government Health Department Annual Report 1976) 133

According to a personal communication from Mr. S.B.

Daniel, the St. Kitts Labour Commissioner in 1978, the main sources of employment from highest to lowest are: the sugar industry, construction, the garment industry, hotels, beverage (Carib Beer brewery and Coke plant), Frigate Bay

Development, the waterfront, electronics, domestic service, shops and offices, and banks and government employment. It must be noted that the largest source of employment, the sugar industry, employs a number of people to work four to five months per year when the cane is to be harvested, and the rest of the year these same people are unemployed. Only skeleton crews are retained. Many of the other occupations are also sporadic, with people coming and going. Often, women will work for awhile, then become pregnant, quit work to have the child, and return later, so at any given time period one gets a distorted picture of the number of people working. Because of the sporadic nature of many of the workers, the major forms of employment— the service indus­ try, the garment factories, the manufacturing industry and the agricultural industry— tend to balance out at the end of the year as regards salary. The average income for those working is around $600 U.S. per year. In per capita terms, it is around $410 U.S. (see Table 1, page 76). As of 1972, only four countries in the Caribbean had a lower per capita income— Guyana ($400), Dominica ($320), St. Vincent ($270), and Haiti ($130). In comparison, for 1972 the United Kingdom had a per capita income in U.S. dollars of $2600,

Canada $4440, and the United States had $5570. The coun­ tries with a large tourist trade or industry such as the

Bahamas, French Guiana, Martinique, the Netherlands

Antilles and the U.S. Virgin Islands, fared much better than the other islands. This helps to explain the large number of Kittitians who want to migrate each year to these islands or the United States or Canada. There they can earn more money, some of which can then be sent back to their rela­ tives on St. Kitts in the form of remittances. I was also told that some people work in the United States or the U.S.

Virgin Islands for years and pay into the social security system. When they retire, they return to St. Kitts and receive from.the United States a social security check for

$150 or more per month, about $350 Eastern Caribbean.

This, in itself, is a great incentive for migration. They can get jobs, something not easy on St. Kitts, make good money, some of which they can send back to support relatives at home and in old age, they can retire, return home to St.

Kitts and draw U.S. Social Security,

According to the St. Kitts Immigration Department, the migration balance, computed by subtracting the number of arrivals from departures, is a negative figure. More people are leaving St. Kitts than are arriving, although this figure has changed over the years both in total number and in the sex of the individual. Since 1976, fewer people are 135 migrating. This is primarily due to stricter laws on migra­ tion both on St. Kitts itself/ as well as new immigration policies by the United States and the British Commonwealth.

i Females are now beginning to migrate in larger numbers than males. What effect this will have on St. Kitts culture is not known at this time, but it does fit in well with the role of women on St. Kitts.

TABLE 6 Migration Balance 1967-1976

ST. KITTS PERIOD TOTAL MALE FEMALE

1967 -2354 -1190 -1164 1968 -252 -107 -145 1969 -1809 -737 -1072 1970 -934 -447 -487 1971 349 222 127 1972 -331 -103 -228 1973 -1299 -583 -716 1974 399 227 172 1975 294 294 — 1976 -109 82 -191

(Source: St. Kitts Government 1967-1976) Migration balance is calculated by subtracting the number of immigrants from emigrants in a given year.

As the total number of emigrants decreases, so does the amount of money in the form of remittances from over­ seas. At one time, it was estimated that more money came 136 in from remittances than as profit from the major industry on the island, the sugar industry (personal communication,

S.B. Daniel). In 1967, total income from remittances ex­ ceeded $368,000. By 1976, that total had dropped to $74,000, the majority of which came from the Commonwealth Caribbean and the United States. Table 7 shows the amount of remit­ tances paid between the years 1967 to 1976. As jobs became fewer., the price of goods higher, and the amount of remit­ tances decreased, the life of the typical Kittitian became harder. TABLE 7 Honey and Postal Orders Paid 1967-1976 EC $000

MONEY ORDERS OVERSEAS COMMONWEALTH UNITED OTHER BY POSTAL PERIOD TOTALS CARIBBEAN KINGDOM U.S.A. COUNTRIES INLAND ORDER

1967 368 12 96 235 25 20 723 1968 274 17 85 151 21 6 692 1969 216 7 88 91 30 9 658 1970 215 7 91 84 33 6 665 1971 262 26 94 92 50 8 629 1972 210 29 101 66 14 7 786 1973 166 28 103 25 10 8 1016 1974 48 20 18 6 4 9 1354 197S 42 28 8 3 3 16 1575 1976 74 50 4 18 2 6 1542

(Source: St. Kitts Government 1967-1976) 137 CHAPTER VI

ST. KITTS CULTURE

Discussion of St. Kitts culture requires consideration

of both the historical and ecological dimensions outlined

in Chapter V. Both Wagley- (1957) and Mintz (1971) show the

importance of history and ecology when trying to understand

any culture in the Caribbean. Their respective works out­

line the major features that distinguish the Caribbean as

a Socio-Cultural area. The majority of the features are

directly concerned with either the history or ecology of

the area, while the other features can be viewed as natural

responses to the ecology and history. This is also true

for St. Kitts. The following description of the culture of St. Kitts can be best understood as adaptive responses

to its history and ecology.

Village and City St. Kitts has one city, Besseterre, where about half the population of the island resides, and seventeen vil­ lages scattered around the perimeter of the island. There is also a series of former private estates near the villages, each one occupied by five to a dozen or more households. Each village has a population between 1,000

138 139 and 2,000 inhabitants.

The following is a brief description of one village, but that description could, with slight variation, depict any*village on St. Kitts. The village described is named

Challenger's. Like many Kittitian villages, Challenger's

Village was established after emancipation (1833). It is located on the perimeter road on the Caribbean side of the island approximately four miles from Basseterre near the

Stone Fort sugar estate. After emancipation, there was little room for the expansion of an independent peasant farming society. Villages sprung up on or near the estates where the majority of employment could be found. This was true of Challenger's. Sugar cane covers the fields on both sides of the road, dotted here and there with small groves of coconut palms and breadfruit trees.

The village is located along the road with dwellings crowding the uphill slope, three to five buildings deep.

"Alleys" dot the slope providing access to the upper houses.

These "alleys" consist of three to five feet wide, well- worn dirt paths scattered with litter and crowded with chickens, goats and pigs. During the dry season, the

"alleys" are passable, but when rain comes the paths are < turned into fast-moving streams that make access difficult, especially at night. Behind the village runs a wide path that parallels the sugar company railroad line, intersected by a dirt road leading to the cane fields in the west. 140

The seaward side has fewer houses. Here the ground slopes steeply to the sea, crossed by ghauts that drain off rainwater to the ocean. These ravines are covered with flowering trees and fruit trees such as coconut palms, breadfruit, mango, banana, papaya, plaintain, tamarind and soursop. These trees are privately owned by villagers, and permission is needed to pick their fruit.

There are five small shops in the village scattered among the dwellings. Two of these are rum shops which are similar to early American general stores. They sell rum, vodka, beer and some foodstuffs and other commodities. Most of the shops carry sugar cakes, bread, cheese in tins, cook­ ing oil, kerosene, soda crackers, spices, flour, corn meal, sugar and rice. The shops also contain canned milk, deter­ gent, matches, cigarettes, and toilet paper. Besides their importance in the distribution of food and commodities, the shops also play a very important role in social interaction.

They serve as the gathering place for men to talk, play dominoes, drink and find companionship.

Two churches are located in the middle of the village.

One is a Pentecostal Church, and the other is the Gospel

Hall. A larger Methodist Church is located at the west end of the village. Adjoining it is a community or youth cen­ ter that is run by the Methodist members, which serves as a gathering place for young people to dance, play table tennis, or just talk. It is also used for government- 141

sponsored movies, health clinics and ceremonial fetes. One

mile east of the village is the Anglican Church and the

primary school.

Many of the dwellings do not have running water, but

there are public baths at the west end of the village pro­

vided by the government, and several public water pipes

located throughout the village. The water is piped to the

village from a catchment on the upper slopes of a nearby

mountain. It is a common scene to see crowds of .people out'

side the baths with soap and a towel, singing and involving

themselves in play; and to see women carrying heavy buckets

of water on their heads from the public water pipes.

Across the road from the Methodist Church is a wide

open expanse of ground called "the pasture." It is used as

a playground for rugby, soccer and cricket. Some of the

villagers also use it as a pasture for their sheep, goats

and donkeys. Below "the pasture" are sea grape bushes,

manchineel trees, then the sea.

On both sides and above and below the village are the

• sugar cane fields. Further up the slopes of the mountain

are located the gardens of the villagers on land not suit­

able for sugar cane. Each day the villagers walk the long

distance to tend their gardens, and then return.

From the instant that light appears in the morning,

the village teems with noise. Roosters begin to crow, don­

keys bray and dogs begin to bark. Soon movement is heard 142 from the dwellings, and the sound of talk and radios begin.

As people begin to go to work, prepare breakfast, or get

ready to go to town, the noise increases. People go past

houses yelling to the inhabitants as they go by. Because

the houses are so close together, sometime only a few feet

apart, one can hear everything, and there is the impression

that there is no privacy— no one ever seems to be alone.

But as it becomes lighter and one scans the village, that

impression dissipates somewhat. Almost everywhere, space

is defined by barriers. Fences surround each house made out

of blocks, wire, wood, corrugated metal like the roofs, cane

trash, bamboo or plants. Some of the fences are ten to fif­

teen feet high, preventing anyone from seeing in. Some even

have cut glass on the very top of the fence. Added to this

are the dogs. Many of the villagers have dogs that have been teased to the point of being vicious, and they help keep people out. The villagers all know that the dogs have been trained to be mean, so they are very careful when entering someone else's space without warning, especially

at night. There is a feeling of distance that one senses

from this scene. Physical distance is impossible due to the area available, but social distance can be partially

achieved. This need for social distance plays an important role in informal social control at the working level of law in St. Kitts, and is discussed in detail in Chapter VIII. 143 Most of the houses are made of wood or masonry, or a

combination of both. The majority are made of wood. Most

have one or two rooms with some having as many as six, yet

evefn the six room house is quite small. An average house

has two rooms, a bedroom scarcely larger than the bed in it, and a second room with a small table, a cabinet and one or

two chairs. Each room is barely over thirty square feet.

The kitchen is usually a separate building beside or near

the house, consisting of four walls of corrugated sheet metal with a door on a wall away from the wind. Several wooden shelves with tins and bottles hang on one wall, and there are some tin saucepans, a small kerosene stove and a coal pot. The house itself is set up on blocks about four to five feet high, creating a partially enclosed cellar most often used as a pen at night for the goats, sheep or pigs.

Each house has wooden shutters or, in the better houses, glass louvered windows that are closed tight at night de- spite the heat. This, I am told, was to keep out the jumbies— giant ghosts of dead people who walk at night. Six to a dozen or more people occupy these typical houses.

The majority of the houses in the village do not have running water, indoor toilet facilities or electricity.

According to the 1960 census, less than 47% had indoor toi­ lets, 37% had the use of a pit and the rest were listed as

"no facility" (1960 Census of St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla).

Little had changed by 1978. Electricity is increasing in 144 availability, with approximately 30-35% of the homes having

electricity. Phone service has hardly expanded at all.

These "modern conveniences" are linked by the villagers

with increases in status. As a villager strives to raise

his status, the addition of these facilities to his home

serves as visible proof of his improved station in life.

Once some of these facilities are put in (electricity being

the most important addition), other visible signs of status,

such as refrigerator and.television, can be acquired.

Some of the homes are owned by a member of the house­

hold, while many others are rented for about $12 E.C. a

month. Often the houses are rented by women who have more

avenues for income than the men. Ownership of the house

one dwells in is also a sign of increased status. Posses­

sion of a house, however, does not necessarily mean that

one also owns the land it resides on. Therefore, in the

village one can find people who own a house without land,

land but not the house on it, or both, or neither. To the

Kittitian, the most important thing is to have the house,

not the land. Land does not mean a great deal on St.

Kitts to the people, and they do not see it as a means of

improving status or making oneself independent. This is quite different from the American view of land and the

viewpoint of the peasant farmers on the sister island,

Nevis. 145 Besides the villages, the government lists two cities,

Basseterre, the capital, and Cayon. The people themselves,

when asked, state that there is only one city, Basseterre.

This discrepancy is due to the fact that the government

definition of a city is based on a specified population

size of 4,000 or above. Cayon has a population that fits

this category, and, therefore, is listed on all statistical

reports as a city, yet even the government members them­

selves do not see Cayon as anything more than a large vil­

lage. The above description of a typical village is an

accurate description of Cayon, except the population density.

Basseterre, on the other hand, is indeed a city by all

indigenous classifications. Almost one-half the population

resides in Basseterre. Government House is located there,

the Supreme Court, what industry to be found is within the

confines of the city or on its edge, the majority of the elite and civil service employees reside there, the post office, and major grocery stores, the main hospital, shops

and hardware stores are all found in Basseterre. Even the main market place for the village turnhands is located on

the waterfront in this city.

Basseterre is located on the South' part of the island, on the Caribbean Sea overlooking Nevis. The main grocery stores and the market place are on the bay front which is

always crowded with people, trucks and wares. Two blocks north is the center of the city where there are a number of 146 small shops. These shops include several drug stores, a

book store, shoe shop, three hardware stores, several rest­

aurants and rumshops, and two bakeries. The buildings are

mainly wood, many of them dating back to the 1800's. The

streets are paved, with curbs acting as open sewers. To

the west of the central square is the Government House,

several other political buildings, some churches and two

hotels. North of the square is the high school, the Morav­

ian Church, Warner Park, and the St. Kitts Lawn Tennis Club.

The Catholic school and church, the public library, the

Supreme Court, several restaurants and Pall Mall Square

bordered by boutiques, are found to the east of the center

of the city. Surrounding the main market and business area

to the north, east and west are the residential areas, each

given a local name such as Taylor's Range, Birdrock, Irish

Town and so forth. The areas bordering the business sec­

tion are crammed with small houses identical to those found

in the villages. In the center of these areas, one would

be hard pressed to differentiate it from a village except

for the size and density. On the outer edge of the city

bordering on these crowded, depressed areas are small sec­

tions with large masonry houses and large yards enclosed by

high walls of concrete or chainlink fences. All these houses have well-cared-for gardens, electricity, indoor plumbing,.indoor kitchens, and an average of three bedrooms.

These houses are occupied by the government ministers, 147 civil servants and the white population of the island.

These areas are very similar to our suburbs in appear­ ance, yet even here one can get glimpses of a village.

Thd indoor plumbing is linked to the open sewer system, so waste is still seen running through the streets. Not all the streets are paved, so there are "alleys” similar to those in the villages. Everywhere one looks, animals can be seen. Even in the center of town near the Government

House, a pedestrian must walk around goats, chickens and donkeys. The noise level in these suburban areas is also the same as in the villages. People are always on the street, talking, playing or walking with radios blaring.

At the very edge of the city, just across the street from these suburban areas are sugar cane fields. As men­ tioned earlier, all available good land is planted in cane.

In the northeast is the sugar factory where all the cane is processed for the open market.

If Basseterre, the city, reminds one frequently of a village in terms of the physical description, then the general sociological depiction of this city will do nothing but add to that feeling of similarity. In the discussion in Chapter III, it was pointed out that many urban scholars view villages as small, isolated, self-contained, highly personalized, religious and traditional social locales.

Urban areas, on the other hand, are described as large, impersonal, heterogeneous, secular and innovative social 148 milieus. This dichotomy does not hold when describing the

vast majority of Bssseterre residents, except the size.

The majority of the population falls within the sociological

confines of village characteristics. The closest descrip­

tion of Basseterre is Fox’s (1977) discussion of a "Colon­

ial City," best described as an area populated by urban

villagers. The values, traditions, and way of life of the

rural folk are the same as the urban population. This is

due to the history and ecology of St. Kitts which has forced

a large migration from the hinterland into the city.

Family and Social Organization

Family

A review of the literature shows clearly several

things about West Indian and Afro-American family patterns.

One, in most villages it is very likely that the researcher will find more than one kind of organization existing simul­

taneously. Two, the focus should be the household rather

than the family per se. And, three, there are many factors, often operating together, that determine the structure

found. All three are true of household organization on St.

Kitts. Through participant observation and interviews with informants, government officials, and family planning mem­ bers, six family systems existing simultaneously were found on the island. 149

(1) The Nuclear Family Household

This type of household is rare. The mother and father

are legally married. Usually they are older, with

children grown before they get married. The reason for

this is that marriage is a very expensive ritual. The par­

ents usually want to own their own home and have some

economic security before getting married. This is very dif­

ficult and it may take years before the couple is finan­

cially secure. Marriage is an important sign of increasing

status; therefore, a public ceremony is important to an­

nounce the newly-acquired prestige. This also costs a great

deal of money since the ceremony is often open to most, if

not all, of the villagers. The most important thing to do

after being married is for the couple to have one more child

that is legitimate.

Some younger people in the city of Basseterre are

getting married. They are usually part of the rising middle

class of government officials. Here the status of the marriage is the most important thing. It is one step of many up the ladder of success. They must be economically

solvent enough to enable the wife-to-be to retire from working for other people.

In this type of household, be it found among villagers or the urban core, the man is the wage earner. This is

the only contribution the man is prepared to give. All the rest of the work is left for the woman to perform. 150 (2) Non-Married Union Household

This is the second most common household found on St.

Kitts. A man, woman and her children make up the household.

Thd man and woman are not married, and usually several of

the children are not his. The structure of this household

is built upon insecurity. The woman is constantly afraid

that' the man will move out, or if he owns the house, throw

her out so that he may live with or marry another woman,

leaving no proper guarantee of financial aid for the ex­

girlfriend and her children.

{3) One Parent Household

This type of household consists of a woman and her

children. The woman is in charge of the household and must manage as best she can. The father or fathers of the

children have either moved in with another woman or gone

abroad to find work. Quite often the mother is young,

seventeen or eighteen, and life for her is very hard. The

father or fathers sometimes send remittances or maintenance money for the children, but more often than not she is on

her own.

(4) Sibling Household

In this type of household structure, both parents are

absent. Usually they have migrated to find work to better

the conditions of the family. The eldest child is left in charge of the household. Although money is usually 151

provided through remittances from the parents for food,

clothing and shelter, the eldest child is often incapable

of providing all the care necessary. The children often

’’run wild" because the one in charge is usually too young

to give the guidance and supervision necessary to control

the younger siblings. The Kittitians find this type of

household shameful.

(5) Extended Household

This household is usually headed by a grandmother or older relative of the mother's. Often the head is too old

to take proper care of the children, or has a family of her own to look after. Many Kittitians feel that this type of household leads to juvenile delinquency, due to the doting of the grandmother. The children's mother is usually at home only at night. During the day she is working to bring in money to support the entire household.

(6) Foster Household

Like the nuclear family household, this is a rare type.

Here, some of the children in the household are not related to the adults by blood. The parents or parent could not afford to raise all the children, so they gave one to another family who is not related to raise. Here networks are set up where reciprocation is important. (See section on social organization.) 152

Social Organization

In Chapter III of this work, the literature on social

organization in the Caribben was discussed. Almost all

of the researchers agree that the Caribbean can best be

described as being characterized by a high degree of insu­

larity, individual networks, interpersonal competition,

hostility and distrust. This view of West Indian social

organization aptly describes the social picture on St.

Kitts.

The insularity found on St. Kitts was more extensive

than imagined. It was expected that this concept would be

expressed between islands, and that expectation was con­

firmed not long after our arrival on the island. Within

days of settling in, many comments were heard from people

about other islands. It appears that each island and its

people are characterized by a particular epithet. For

example, Nevisians are greedy, ~St. Lucians eat cat, Domini­

cans eat mountain chickens (frogs), Jamaicans are ugly,

and people from Guadeloupe all practice obeah for evil ends. These islanders, in turn, refer to the people of St.

Kitts as the "monkey eaters."

What was not expected was for the insularity to occur within the island, but one found that it did. On St. Kitts,

insularity is found between villages, between the people who live in the villages and the people who live in the 153 city of Basseterre, and within the villages and the city between families. It appears that the individualization, interpersonal competition, hostility and distrust are just extensions of the broader concept of insularity between islands.

The separation between the villages and the city is especially intense, and is found intertwined with the class system. If you are a "farm bwai" instead of a "city bwai" it is impossible for you to be accepted into certain social strata no matter what your circumstances. The fol­ lowing composite drawn from a number of Basseterre inform­ ants is a case in point. Note this example is not a real individual, but a fictitious one made up from a number of actual cases collected in the field. He is a thirty-seven year old black male who was born in the village of Sadlers on the Atlantic side of the island. When he was six months old, his mother gave him to his cousin who lived in the city to raise so that she could go to work. From that age to the present, he has lived in the city. After graduating from high school, he received training in the insurance field and eventually started his own business. As the business became more successful, he invested his money.

The money increased and he married, bought a modern home on the outskirts of the city, and two cars. Everyone on the island knows him, and he can be seen having lunch with all the government ministers, barristers, and important businessmen on the island. Yet, he is barred from access to the Black Upper Class on the island. They will talk with him, eat lunch and do business; but he is never incited to participate in their social gatherings, and he cannot become a leader in the community without their approval. The reason is because he is still a "country bwai." He was from there, and his mother and most of his family still live there. "Country bwai born, den country bwai you die," I was told by both villagers and city folk when I questioned them about their attitudes towards urban and rural dwellers. Although, in this example, some of the refusal for admittance to the Black Upper Class is based upon jealousy concerning money, this negative view is very typical of the attitude towards people born in the country. Even Robert Bradshaw, the Premier at the time of this record, was often referred to as "country bwai" by both members of his party and the opposition leader.

One interesting thing about this ubiquitous insularity is its shifting nature, similar to the operations of an

African segmentary lineage system. The insularity between families can be expanded or shrunk, based on the family's perception of threat from another family. It acts as a way of uniting this family or network against another when it is deemed necessary. This expansion and shrinkage can and does occur along all social dimensions. Villages can unite against other villages, rural areas against the city, the 155 Island against other islands, and the entire Caribbean area against other areas. A person has many options in his linkage and identification. He is a member of the Gumbs family, a Conaree folk, a villager, a Kittitian, or a West

Indian, depending upon what the circumstances call for.

This shifting identification is adaptive. It allows a person to mobilize whatever resources are necessary to maneuver through the particular circumstances for the best advantage. This type of strategy is also found in the second characteristic of Kittitian social structure, the individuated network system.

Both rural and urban Kittitians daily operate within the confines of a series of personal networks which can and do quite often act as a super-family. Each network con­ sists of four to eight individuals, sometimes more, organ­ ized into a mutual supportive relationship characterized by reciprocation. Each network has its own "range" and

"content," and the members quite often will overlap with another person's network at a different position in the

"range" and be involved in a different "content." There­ fore, a person may be a member of more than one network simultaneously. For example, one of my female informants operated out of three different networks. Network I con­ sisted of herself, her daughter, her sister, and two close friends that she grew up with. Network II involved herself, her sister, and four friends who lived on the same alleyway. The third network involved one of the friends

from .Network II, the two sisters of this friend, and two of

the friend's cousins who lived on the other side of the

village. Within these networks, resources and services

would circulate. Network I was deemed by my informant to

be the most important, and this network was utilized daily

in the movement of food, the sharing of the workload of the

women involved, and such services as childcare and trans­

portation. Networks II and III were used less often, but

were mutually reinforced at least once a week through food

giving and the sharing of time. This primarily involved

visiting the members or stopping to chat when passing by.

This time sharing provided recreation and a means of keep­

ing up with what was happening in the village or on the

island, or even concerning world affairs. Through this means, my informants were able to stay well informed about

even the most mundane events. Most important for this

research, it was found that these networks could promote

social control both through gossip and actual boycotting of services, resources, and interaction by playing on the

linkages between and within networks. A grievance against

another of the same network may be placed before the other members, and if they agree that a wrong is present that must be rectified, the network may shrink and exclude the one viewed as guilty of the wrong until a resolution is

achieved. A grievance with someone of another network can 157 be handled In a similar fashion through the linkages be­

tween networks which can cause the shrinking of more than

one network against the person in the wrong. Since sur­

vival is often dependent upon open channels of circulating

resources and services, this becomes a powerful force with which to bring about social control. An in-depth discus­

sion of this function of networks with specific examples can be found in Chapter VIII.

My wife and I discovered the importance of the network

system first-hand by being invited to become members of

two separate networks by our informants in one village.

It began with several of our informants bringing us food

from their gardens for which they refused any form of pay­ ment. They then began not only to bring the food, but to prepare it for us at our house. They only brought enough food for my wife and me, and they would cook it under the pretext of teaching us how Kittitians prepare food, and

then sit while we ate. After several meals under these circumstances, my wife and I began to feel quite guilty.

We felt that we were in their debt, and soon began to buy large supplies of food. We then told our informants to bring their family so we could all eat. In no time at all, we had two families for dinner every weekend with us supply­ ing all the food and beverages. A reciprocal bond had been established, and for everything they did for us, we would reciprocate first with food, later with transportation to 158

the market on Saturdays/ or to the beach on Sundays. The

network became our family, and provided us with many reward

ing experiences and support during the times when things

did not appear to be going very well. Becoming a member of

these networks opened new areas of information, and created

new sources of information as I travelled through the links

between my network and other networks. At the very end of

the research period, a double bond was created between us

and one network by our being chosen as the godparents to a

child of one of the informants in the network. We were now "real" kin and the reciprocation continues even though we have not been back to the island for several years now.

Being a member of a network not only allowed me to experience the importance of networks and their day-to-day operations, but it also allowed me to experience several other characteristics of social organization— competition, hostility, and distrust. Life on St. Kitts is permeated by economic competition. Each day people compete for scarce resources and services. Jobs and food are in high demand, but opportunities for access to them are limited. This produces anxiety in the people that is expressed in jeal­ ousy, distrust and hostility. These feelings are then filtered down to all areas of life rather than the narrowly defined sphere of economics, and are directed against all.

They occur between networks, within networks, and even within the family. Although the network or the family on 159 the surface functions as a supportive mechanism which dis- tributes resources and services among its members, the com­ petition and distrust are so great that the distribution is offen done in the strictest secrecy. This is especially true when the distributing involves food, clothing, or money. If one receives, all should receive equally. When this is impossible, secrecy is utilized.

Being a member of two separate networks clearly brought out the distrust and competition as both networks manipu­ lated to be the only one that included my wife and myself.

Even within the networks, the individual members jockeyed for a more favorable position with us. Members of each network told us stories about the other and about members of the same network. We were told not to trust certain members because they would take advantage of us by asking us to do all kinds of things for them. In one instance, a woman in the network told us to watch out for her sister who was also a member. She told us:

She a no-good, low-down rascal who tell lie pon you. Is true! She gonna get you fe take her place in the moke. Tell you she ha no money fe her or truck. Always want you fe drive her all over. Can tek care of herself but she tek advantage. Cho, I tell trut mon!

Within minutes of this conversation, this woman asked me to drive her to town so that she could go to the market. She had done the exact thing that she had warned me her sister would do. This type of situation went on continually in 160 the network.

In this world of insularity, individuated networks,

competition, distrust and hostility, conflicts and opposi­

tions are seldom played out to a final resolution. The

Kittitians see all this as just a part of life: one must

continually strive to combat problems with no hope of a

real end, only a truce. This generates an eternal search

for power— a way to control and manipulate situations and

individuals. The more alternatives one has available to

respond to the varied situations, the greater the chance

that one of them will be beneficial to the respondent.

The more networks to which one belongs, the greater the support.

A cognitive style is formed out of this approach— a style that dictates patience and a great deal of mulling over of the possibilities of the situation prior to re­ sponding. Work out the alternatives, and choose the one best suited for both you and the situation, based upon the premise of maximization of gain, then respond with force and style, always leaving a way out should unforeseen con­ sequences occur. In this manner, there are no wrong choices or contradictions; only misperceived alternatives on the part of the person being responded to. Misdirection and double-entendre are elevated to an art.

All of these characteristics of social organization are a part of an adaptive behavioral repertoire worked out 161 over the years in response to environmental and historical

constraints. They are survival mechanisms for a harsh life.

These mechanisms are found in all Kittitians of all ages,

however, they appear to be the most perfected in women.

Work and Recreation

As stated in an earlier section, unemployment is

extremely high. Only a small fraction of the local working

force have jobs in the manufacturing industry, service

industry, commerce or the tourist hotels. Most Kittitians

are still forced to earn their living from the land or

from occupations that are closely tied to "plantation” agriculture. Many villagers grow essential foods on scat­ tered, economically marginal garden plots on the side of hills sometimes a mile or more walk from their homes. Most of the produce of these plots are for family consumption, but some surplus may be available which will be sold in the

local market by women vendors called "turnhands.” Some­ times the surplus is redistributed through food networks to those who are needy. This redistributive economy operates on the reciprocal obligations built up through the individu­ ated networks (see Gussler 1975 for an in-depth discussion of the operation of food networks in a Kittitian village).

Life remains hard for the villagers of St. Kitts. It is also hard for those who try to escape to the city. They usually succeed only in swelling the ranks of the unem­ ployed . 162

Even those fortunate enough to find work do not find life very easy. The hours are long and the pay is small.

As one informant put it:

I got a job at Maxwell Textiles (fictitious name, author) where they are making gar­ ments like skirts and jogging sports short pants. I guess they are selling them in America, but they are paying us $26.50 E.C. per week (approximately $8.33 U.S., author) but to make a living you must have to work. They are taking out $4.00 for transporta­ tion, $1.30 for social security and $2.00 for union so I ending up with $19.20. So I can't buy anything like clothes or shoes because thing are expensive and we have to work to so hard from 7 o'clock in the morn­ ing until 4:38 in the afternoon.

This woman is 23 years old, has a 6 year old son, and lives in a small village house nine miles from where she works.

Finding a job is difficult. Once she had a job, other problems started to crop up that were unexpected. She had to get up at 5:30 each day to get ready. She needed clothes, shoes, and a few other things; and she had to find someone to take care of her child. Time for household chores was hard to find.

Despite the difficulties in finding a job or the new problems that may crop up after one has succeeded in be­ coming employed, the attitude towards work is favorable.

Kittitians want to work. The problem is the scarcity of jobs and the low pay. For many people, it is almost impos­ sible to earn a living from one job. Older people consider any job if it can bring some money into the household, even 163

though they wight feel some shame about the type of work they are doing. For example, many women find that the only work they can get is to break rock. Big piles of rock are

i placed in their yard or in a nearby field, and they will sit there for hours with a hammer and break it into small pieces. These are then sold to the government forroad repair. The women are ashamed of this type of work because it reflects how destitute they are, but many women told me, "It's a job, man, it bring food for my kids."

The attitude of the younger Kittitians is somewhat different, especially the young males. The major form of work on the island for young men centers around the sugar estates. Although the young men want to work, many will not do so in the cane fields because they feel that it is a reminder of slavery. "Slaves worked the fields, man, for years. Cane work is niggers' work. Me nobody's nigger."

Due to this attitude, many young men seek other alterna­ tives. Some drift into the Rastafari religion and move up to the mountains to become peasant farmers on land they do not own. Others try to escape their poverty by becoming musicians, hoping that they will become popular at calypso, and thereby succeed without having to "sell out." Still others do nothing, hoping to be granted permission to migrate elsewhere for jobs.

Migration is a dream of most Kittitians. As can be seen in Table 6, page 136, for the ten year period from 164 1967 to 1976, St. Kitts has shown a negative balance; that is, more people are leaving than arrive. Most of these people are between 20 and 35 years old; the majority having left for Great Britain, Canada, the United States, and the

U.S. Virgin Islands. Remittances are sent back home to support their families. This migration balance is decreas­ ing, however, as both the St. Kitts government and the government of other countries toughen up their policies concerning migration.

With economic resources marginal, fluctuating, and often remote, and with migration always as a possible solu­ tion to poverty, stress is every present in St. Kitts.

Kittitians have responded on several levels. On the struc­ tural level, the individual, not the group, is the primary unit of organization. The individual must be able to re­ spond quickly to opportunity, and has relatively few social obligations beyond those to lineal kinsmen to strain meager resources in bad times. The roles and activities of the populace are generalized, allowing numerous options for social and geographic mobility. On the psychological level, Kittitians have responded by becoming dependent upon external reinforcement. Belief in luck and fate is prevalent. The nature and control of things is seen as not being within their grasp, therefore, one need not waste time worrying about them (see Chapter VIII). 165 The harsh nature of life leaves little time for rec­ reation for many Kittitian women; The woman's day is devoted to domestic chores such as preparing meals, wash­ ing' clothes, cleaning the house, and taking care of the children (see Chapter VII), interspersed with trying to earn a living. Recreation comes in the form of talk and listening to the radio. Prom the time the women arise in the morning until they go to bed, the radio is on. They listen to music as they work, and in the afternoon, Ameri­ can and British soap operas. Often they may stop for a half-hour to listen to their favorite soap. Women's pro­ grams on the radio are also listened to while working.

These programs consist of cooking hints, discussion of childcare, household budgeting, and health care. Also, three times a day everyone stops to listen when ZIZ, the local radio station, broadcasts the death announcements.

Often, neighbors will drop by to talk for a time, or a group of women will meet at the public shower to bathe and spend their time gossiping. This gossip passes the time, informs villagers about what is happening both within their village and elsewhere on the island and acts as a form of social control.

Church is also a place for recreation. It provides a great deal for women to do. There are church groups in which women participate, such as the Woman's League and

AYPA, as well as the regular services, some of which are 166 held three and four times.a week. These allow women some recreation away from the house and a chance to get together to talk and sing. i For men, recreation takes different forms than for women. The main forms for males are— in order— sex, lyming, sports, and music. By contrast, sex is not per­ ceived as a form of recreation for women, rather it is viewed as utilitarian.

Sex is a major pastime of men on St. Kitts. The majority of their free time is devoted to either seeking sex, having sex, or talking about it. According to Kitti- tian males, it takes their minds off their worries, eases tension, and acts as a form of escape. It is also a major way for males to secure their identity. According to Wilson (1973, 1974), virility is the main foundation for a man's reputation. It stipulates the minimum requirements for adult manhood and respect. It is one's identity as a man, not as a class of men. As such, it is something that must be earned, not inherited. To earn it involves sexual skills and allied verbal and expressive expertise and, most importantly, the fathering of children, which is, when all is said and done, the bottom line proof of Kittitian man­ hood. Men must be articulate about their sexual experi­ ences as well as be experienced in other things such as travel, alcohol consumption, and problem solving. They 167 must also be able to handle themselves well in arguments which are verbal duels enabling the male to express various aspects of his reputation.

’ The second form of male recreation/ called by Kitti­ tians lyming, is more than mere recreation for males, it is an art. It allows males to get together to relax, joke, drink and discuss things. It also provides an arena for the enactment of male social roles and a place where repu­ tation can be expressed. Through this, males can gain respect in the world of men by enhancing their reputations which they need to succeed in the public domain. Lyming is the art of doing nothing, but doing it with style.

Style is expressed by dressing well, a complex of manner­ isms that convey nonchalance, control and masculine gender, and being highly visible.

Lyming groups, or in Wilson's (1973) terminology,

"crews," consist of small groups of four to seven male mem­ bers. Each group is a group of equalB— "of the same gen­ eration if not the same age, of the same life situation, and with a mutual compatibility" (1973: 168). In St.

Kitts, the lyming groups get together each day to drink, talk and relax. Verbal skills are employed to enhance their reputations, based on common values and sentiment.

Here, males receive gratification that is not contingent upon their performance as worker-earners, roles often denied them by the circumstances of life in St. Kitts. 168 They receive existential satisfaction from the interactions and confirm their own identity in a common culture. A

sense of "communitas" is achieved, based upon shared values that are intrinsic to the culture, not values imposed from the outside. According to Wilson, reputation, enhanced through such groups, sustain communities by emphasizing an egalitarian value system stressing the equality of human inequality. It is one part of a duality that exists in the social systems in the Caribbean. The other is a value sys­ tem that has been imposed from the outside which he calls

"respectability.M Respectability is an alien structure of domination premised upon inequality and stratification.

It is used by many to pull another down or to keep one in his place. A state of balance between the two systems is achieved which Wilson refers to as "crab-antics."

Lyming, therefore, serves a dual function. It pro­ vides recreation for males and, more importantly, it pro­ vides for the functioning and expression of reputation.

It is an adaptive response to a lingering colonial social system of "respectability" which encourages male margin- ality. Sport is another form of male recreation. Most males relax by either engaging in some form of sport such as soccer, cricket or basketball, or listening to games aired over the radio. Each village has teams which play other villages. St. Kitts has a national cricket and soccer team 169 that plays other islands. When the national teams play, thousands of people flood into Warner Park to watch. Busi­ nesses close and everybody who is able attends the game.

The*radio becomes important here. Whenever there is a game on the radio, the men will get together in their lym­ ing groups to listen to it. St. Kitts is within the air waves of the U.S. Armed Services radio, so the men often listen to American games such as the World Series, the

Super Bowl, basketball games, and boxing matches.

Music is the final major form of recreation. The radio, as mentioned before, is on constantly. While lyming, males will sing along with the music and dance.

On Saturday evenings, dances are held and a live band entertains. The men will dress up in their best clothes, usually arriving at the dance in groups. They will drink or smoke marijuana and lyme for awhile. This gives them time to "check out" the women who are there. They will then dance, sometimes by themselves (called "skanking"), more often with a woman who has caught their eye. This is usually a preclude to a trip "to the canefields" later that evening to engage in the number one form of recrea­ tion— sex.

Religion

Religious denominations in St. Kitts are similar to denominations in the United States or Great Britain. The 170 major churches represented on the island include the

Catholic (mostly the upper class white and government ministers), the Methodist, Baptist, Seventh Day Adventist,

Bpi&copal, and Pentecostals (often referred to as sideways churches).

Church attendance'is predominantly made up of women and children. Some older men attend, more so in Basseterre than in the villages. Married couples almost always attend as a family.

The major role of the Church appears to be a secular one. Its major concern is with the ideals of daily liv­ ing, but its most important function, in Wilson's view, is to "bring into sharp focus the degrees of respectability"

(Wilson 1973: 100). The mores advocated by the Church set the standards of respectability. Respectability entails monogamous marriages, the nuclear family, premarital chastity for girls, sober living for men, and self-improve­ ment for all (1973: 100). The Church mores advocate this through abstinence and restraint during the course of daily living. To be respectable is to: (1) go to church,

(2) have been married in the church, and (3) remain chaste until marriage.

The sermons preach respectability by focusing on domestic matters to the almost total exclusion of other related issues. The key topics are child-rearing, house­ hold organization, family management, marital relations, 171 parental relations, and so forth. This is aimed more at women than men, because such matters usually fall within the responsibilities of Kittitian women. The closer one coriforms to the demands and definitions of the Church, the more respectable one is. Respectability is largely in the hands of the women. This is not to say that men are only concerned with reputation, while women only with re­ spectability. The goal is to strike a balance between the two. To have high status is to have both respect and reputation. Men, therefore, will attend church "simply because their respectability is a function, in part, of the total respectability of their households" (Wilson

1973: 102).

The problem is that the respectability that is advo­ cated through the mores of the Church is not based upon indigenous values like reputation is for the males. In­ stead, it is an imposed alien structure carried over from the Colonial period that seeks to rank people. According to Wilson, this is the root of a large number of the social problems in the Caribbean. It causes a conflict of values that is expressed through separation of the sexes and crab-antics. This is true in St. Kitts.

Today many people are calling for the Church to repre­ sent and inspire indigenous tastes and goals. Many of my male informants called for such things as the following:

(1) Recognition of cults like Shango, Voodoism, Cumina and 172

Kele as positive expressions of people's resilience and

ingenuity.

(2) The use of steelbands, string-bands and drum music

during services.

(3) The use of the vernacular in the services.

(4) Instead of self-righteous outbursts on increasing

promiscuity and castigating illegitimacy, the Church should

struggle to remove the conditions that encourage them.

(5) The Church should foster the growth of "community"

among its people.

(6) The Church must take a direct involvement in the progress of radical decolonization.

If these suggestions succeed, "respectability" as it now

stands will be undermined. Many of the foreign referents will be removed, and respectability will become more closely aligned to reputation.

A second role of the Church is to provide for funeral

services. As mentioned earlier, everyone stops to listen

to the death announcements on ZIZ radio. These broadcasts are such a part of Kittitian life that many people believe that they must, by law, report the death of a member of the family to the director of the radio station. These announcements give all the details about the funeral ar­ rangements and mention the grieving relatives and where they reside. Attendance at a family member’s funeral at the church, especially if the deceased is a parent, is 173 expected. Family members will be scorned if they do not attend. Therefore, one is very likely to see at the church service many relatives who are residing abroad. After the

i service by the minister or priest, and after the actual procession and burial, all the family get together to share stories, renew relationships and discuss business.

This reaffirms the family and, for those who reside on other islands or in other countries, this reaffirms their place in St. Kitts society.

Two other religious manifestations on St. Kitts must be mentioned. Within the last three or four years, some of the young men have joined the Rastafari Cult. This is a religious cult whose origins can be traced to Jamaica.

It is a messianic cult which identifies with Africa and rejects the West in all its manifestations. Although it is a major religious force in Jamaica, it is quite small on St. Kitts at this time. If the popularity of this cult continues to increase in the United States among

West Indians and in the Caribbean, it is likely to in­ crease on St. Kitts also. This is especially true with young men, who as economic conditions continue to get worse, will feel less and less a part of their society.

The second religious manifestation is obeah, an Afri­ can retention involving magic. Most Kittitians believe that there is no obeah practiced on St. Kitts now, but 174 fear of it is still strong. Everyone knows what it is and what it can do. (See Chapter VIII for a discussion of obeah and its use in social control.)

Law

The structure of the legal system of St. Kitts is based on that- of Great Britain. The laws, and the values that the laws reflect, are British. The legal definitions are British, and the final appeal is to England. The solicitors and barristers are all British trained.

The court system is a four-tier system. The first tier is the Magistrate's Court. There is one in Basseterre connected to the police station, and some of the larger villages such as Dieppe Bay and Sandy Point also have

Magistrate's Courts.

This court hears all legal cases first. Most minor crimes and civil cases such as maintenance, divorce, fighting, indecent language, and illegal rum making are settled here. Major crimes such as rape, murder, theft over a certain amount, and the like are first brought to the Magistrate's Court where the prosecutor must show just cause for the arrest and trial of the accused. In this sense, it acts as a form of arraignment for major crimes that are then handed over to the Supreme Court for actual trial. There is a Magisterial Appeals Court for 175 those cases settled at this level. It consists of two judges from St. Kitts.

The second tier of the judicial system is the High

i or Supreme Court. It is located in Basseterre in the same building as the Public Library. All major crimes are heard here. It meets only several times each year to hear cases on its calendar.

The hearings and trials that take place on these two levels are very popular with the people, juding from the number of spectators who attend. Each court has room for observers who fill the space to capacity on days that the court is meeting. Hundreds of others stand outside by the doors and windows to catch a glimpse of the proceed­ ings and to hear what is being said. Arguments occur, and people state their own opinions of the case, the people involved, and the final decision. If the person being tried is prominent such as a government official, the crowds are immense. People talk about the case for weeks, and the general atmosphere outside the courthouse resembles a circus. People mill about, talking, laughing, and yelling while food vendors are hawking their wares.

The third tier is the West Indies Appeals Court.

This is the first step for appeals from the Supreme Court.

The West Indies Appeals Court consists of three judges made up of citizens of the Caribbean Commonwealth. At the time 176 o£ this research, the Chief Justice was a Kittitian. This court has a calendar of cases made up of appeals from all the Commonwealth islands. They will travel to each island at -a specified time to hear all cases from the Supreme

Court of that island. When they have concluded their busi­ ness, they move on to the next island to hear all its appeals.

The final tier is the Privy Council. This is the highest court of appeals under English law. It is made up of five justices (the Lords of Lords) who are all members of the British House of Lords. All cases appealed to the

Privy Council must go to England to be resolved. The jurisdiction of the Council is that of the Sovereign in

Council. Consequently, all of its judgments take the form of advice, not rule, tendered to the Sovereign. Such advice is invariably implemented by an order in Council.

The quorum of the court is three, but usually five judges sit on the bench. Formerly, only one judgment was given, but it is now provided (by the Judicial Committee Dissent­ ing Opinions Order in Council 1966) that dissenting opin­ ions may be delivered in open court.

Few cases from St. Kitts reach this stage. The pro­ cess of appeal to the Privy Council is very difficult and too expensive for most Kittitians. The only case that I heard of while on the island that reached this stage was the case of the estate owners who sued the St. Kitts 177 government to acquire the money promised them by the govern­

ment for the confiscated sugar estates.

Just as the legal structure is British, so are the

values that the law reflects and the definitions it pre­

sents. English law has evolved over hundreds of years,

adjusting to the needs and feelings of the British. Revi­

sions have been made as the social climate of the times in

England has changed, the last change taking place in 1976.

Not so for the law in St. Kitts. British law was imposed

on the people by the colonial government despite the fact

that it did not reflect indigenous values, and has changed

very little since it was first imposed. Although the

Married Women's Property Act and Guardianship of Infants

Act, for example, have been revised several times in England,

in St. Kitts it remains substantially the same as when it was first written in 1882 and 1886. This is true of most

of the law. The fact that the values and definitions presented by

the law do not reflect indigenous Kittitian values or cir­

cumstances nor current British practices leads to conflicts between the two systems. This conflict is the focal point

for the topic of this dissertation and, as such, will be analyzed in the last chapters. 178 Class

The individuals who fill the varied government posi­ tions make up a large part of the Kittitian middle and

Black upper class. Admittance to the "true” upper class is still based upon stratification by skin color. It is composed only of the tiny white community of ex-estate owners and business people. The vast majority of the population (over 90%) makes up the lower class. The finan­ cial gaps between the classes is great and breeds distrust, disillusionment and hatred. The fires of fear and hatred between the classes are further fueled because the gap is much more than an economic issue; it is also a cultural issue. (See Chapter VIII.)

Kittitians, on the surface, have adopted the culture of their former rulers; their religion, concept of rule of law, parliamentary system, social stratification and con­ cept of property rights. But there is a great mass of the population for whom these concepts have little more sig­ nificance than the appurtenances of a privileged class to be enjoyed or not, as the opportunity may arise. It is largely this section of the population for whom the exist­ ing society has brought no benefits, and since they see no real opportunity of improving their lot, they can hardly be expected to have absorbed reverence for a society in the same way as those for whom it has given status, secu­ rity, and hope of advancement. This is the natural 179 consequence of colonialism which could not have achieved the limited ends it set itself without dividing the popu- * lation.

1 Stability was necessary for the colonialists, and stability could not indefinitely be assured by arms or even by expatriate owners and overseers. Progress towards a stable middle class, satisfactorily acculturated to the needs of the colonial power, was hastened by formal and informal alliances between white and black, producing a coloured middle class who understandably sought by all means at hand to advance themselves as rapidly as possible.

There was the plantocracy— the upper ruling class--and at the other end a mass of enslaved Africans who were left to their own devices at emancipation while their owners re­ ceived cash for the value lost. In between, there grew up a skilled, professional and trading middle class advanc­ ing into a local economy subservient to the needs of colonialism, counting all their blessings of status, wealth, conspicuous consumption and opportunity as flowing from a foreign domination and culture.

As discussed earlier, the middle class adopted a value system that was non-indigenous, a system based upon re­ spectability (Wilson 1973). But respectability is not easy to achieve and maintain. Many of the middle-class started life in the lower class and had to claw their way to the top. The island is small and there are few, if any, 180 secrets. Therefore, the details of the climb to the top are well known by all, and this information is often a source for some of the distrust and hatred.

' Once the climb has been achieved, those below are per­ ceived by the ones who have succeeded as threats to their position. The value system then becomes a weapon prevent­ ing others from succeeding. This instills more fear and distrust between the haves and have-nots. Anything in their hands may become a means for preserving the privi­ leges that they rapidly become accustomed to, especially politics and the law.

The political system, therefore, is seen not as some­ thing for the people, but as something apart from them by the majority of the population. This distrust of the system begins as small ripples in a pond until it finally reverberates throughout the other systems.

Summary

St. Kitts is a small island which throughout most of its colonial history has been British. Since the latter part of the seventeenth century, it has been primarily devoted to sugar plantations. The smallness of the island and the difficulty of moving elsewhere has meant that the stratification system, and many of the customs of planta­ tion society have persisted, until very recently. At emancipation, the ex-slaves had no place to go. Their 181 dependence on the plantations for a livelihood was ensured.

There was no need to import laborers from India or else­ where. The majority of the population are thus descen­ dants of African and New World-born slaves. A color class system (Smith 1955) exists, with a few whites at its head.

A number of significant groups or subgroups exist, and there have been recent changes and divisions in the power structure; but these do not yet— or are only beginning to— affect the pattern discussed. About one-half of this population live in villages. Although various kinds of people live in the villages, they are primarily associated with 'lower class' residents. The city is also populated mostly by the lower class who, for the most part, are migrants from the rural areas, referred to in an earlier section as "urban villalgers." CHAPTER VII

WOMEN ON ST. KITTS - GENERAL

In order to understand the working level of the law

as it pertains to women, it was necessary to understand women's roles in St. Kitts culture. Part of phase II of

the fieldwork involved a mini-ethnography of St. Kitts women. This is presented in this chapter.

Adaptive and Adapted Behaviors

Upon ethnographic investigation, it became obvious

that the role of women, as well as the role of men, could be perceived on two levels. One level, the surface level involving male-female interaction, could be best described by sexual asymmetry with male dominance. The second level, a deeper structural level, always masked on the surface by the sexual asymmetry, revealed two types of roles best described as an "adaptive" type and an "adapted" type.

In biology, an adaptive form is one in which a great deal of variation exists and the potential for occupation of varying econiches is a reality. Adaptive forms are not exceptionally well-adapted to any particular econiche; therefore their evolutionary potential is not restricted.

182 183

When an environmental change occurs, at least some of the adaptive forms will be capable of the adjustment needed for survival.

i Adapted forms, on the other hand, are not as success­ ful. They possess little variability and occupy limited econiches. In the short run they are better adapted than adaptive forms but in evolution, success is measured in terms of long-term survival and not short-term successful existence.

As Weiss and Mann (1975) put it:

What then is the best evolutionary situa­ tion for the continued success of a species? In the short run, a species inhabiting one very high peak and, there­ fore, not having interpopulational varia­ bility (adapted) is best off because all the populations are highly fit ... The species that pursues this evolutionary course is routed into a dead end, though. We know that inevitably environments do change and an invariant species, no matter how high the peaks it now inhabits, may find itself unable to reach a new peak when an environmental shift occurs.

On the other hand, a species divided into many smaller groups (adaptive) ... is in a much better position for long-term survival. Even if none of the peaks this species occupies is exceptionally well- adapted, it occupies so many peaks and the range of variation ... is so great that one or another of the ... complexes can tolerate almost any environmental change (1975: 263-264). 184

Gussler (1980) first began to apply this Idea to the

role of women. Her findings suggested that the role of

women in St. Kitts could be viewed from the standpoint of

an adaptive role. In this work I look at St. Kitts and

its people from an adaptation point of view— adaptation

to the physical environment and the social environment.

On the surface level, it seems that the adaptive role

typifies men while the adapted role typifies women? yet,

at the deeper level, the roles are reversed. Like other

aspects of Kittitian culture, alternate roles exist but

are denied and covered up by "taking on" dominant cultural

forms. The surface level, based upon non-indigenous

values, represents the "ideal" component of St. Kitts cul­

ture, an ideal based upon total sexual asymmetry. The

deep level represents the "real" component of the culture,

a reality based upon economic and ecological circumscrip­

tion, making it impossible to achieve the ideal of total

sexual asymmetry.

Males appear as the dominant sex in all public forms

of interaction, and seem to occupy all public roles while

the female is assigned to the private sector characterized by lower status, oppression and exploitation. The pri­ vate sector appears to block most access to the sorts of

authority, prestige and cultural value that are the preroga­

tives of men and perpetuates the woman's secondary status. 185 'Natural1 sex differences are used as a means to pre­

serve this separation of roles. They serve as a source of

legitimation of the separation of roles and social divi­

sions between men and women in two ways. First, inasmuch

aS they exist, there are the physical differences and

differing capacities that are referred to as support for

the separation. This, despite the fact that only some of

the differences are a consequence of different sexual

characteristics, the remainder being the emergent product

of historical processes of differential socialization and

opportunity. The second way in which the concept of

'natural* sex differences appears is in the form of an

ideology which overlays and helps perpetuate material dif­

ferences between men and women, and acts as a form of

social control of women.

Clearly, in a class-divided society such as St. Kitts,

both women and men are subject to material, repressive and

ideological forms of social control, although they are usually affected differently. In addition, however, there are dimensions of social control which women alone experi­ ence; these are in relation tc the following:

(a) the reproductive cycle; (b) a double standard of morality; (c) a subordinate social and legal status (vis-a-vis men) in the family; (d) the separation of 'home' and 'work' and the ideology of women's place. 186 The Reproductive Cycle

In the highly individualistic society of St. Kitts, the state of motherhood is generally conceived as a unique and individual event. In fact, it has come to symbolize the 'fulfillment' of womanhood. One is not truly a woman unless she has had a child. Pressure is applied quite early in life, both by men and women, to have a child. The pressure is twofold, because not only is a woman's identity as a 'real' woman considered in terms of child-bearing, but the man's identity as a man is also wrapped up in the idea of the ability to procreate.

Male informants discussed this pressure on men which begins around sixteen years of age and increases as one gets older. One village man had made it to age nineteen and had still not fathered a child. Not only did he receive a great deal of pressure (ridicule, gossip) from his peers, but even his elder sister and his female cousins began to talk to him. Soon he began to doubt himself and the stress increased. He continued to try, and finally he was successful. The pressure disappeared, and his status as a man was even further enhanced when the woman he was seeing gave birth not to one, but two boys. Females also feel this pressure. There was one woman in the village who had tried many times but could not get pregnant. The other women in the village constantly gossipped about her, and many of the men would not visit her. Even my wife and I felt this pressure. The entire time we were on the island, the men and women tried to talk to us about having a child. After all, I was in my early thirties and my wife was in her late twenties, yet we had no children. I was constantly fed food and dishes such as goatwater stew and coconut water that would make me virile. Finally, I could not stand the strain any longer, and therefore told them that I did have a child by a former marriage. Pressure from the males ceased because

I had proven my masculinity, but the pressure from the women increased because they interpreted my situation as selfishness. I had a child, but my wife did not and it was selfish of me to deny her one. This insight into

Kittitian women's ideas about children allowed me to break through the surface roles to eventually uncover a deeper structural level.

A Double Standard of Morality

The concept of a double standard of morality refers to a code of sexual mores which persistently encourages or condones sexual promiscuity in men (and boys) as a display of 'masculinity1 and male aggression, while condemning it in women (and girls) as a sign of 'unfeminine,' shameful or pathological behavior. Around the age of five or six, the Kittitian girl's family begins to insist that she not play with boys any more because they know that boys are 188 going to encourage sex, yet they never say anything to

their sons.

As the girl enters puberty, she is typically not well-

informed about sex. Some mothers told me they were embar-

assed to talk to their daughters about sex, while others

stated that they deliberately withheld sex information as

part of what they felt to be the only feasible method of parental control.

Such parental control almost always proves ineffective

and the girls become pregnant. The news of the girl's pregnancy is received by her mother (and father, if pres­ ent) with outrage if she is sixteen or younger. The girl is usually noisily upbraided in public, beaten and often expelled from the house. She will then go to the house of a friend or neighbor or kinswoman until who intercedes with the mother on the daughter’s behalf. Usually the girl eventually returns to the mother's house to await the birth of the child. In most cases, the father of the child is not present in the household and seldom enters signifi­ cantly into the post-conception interaction. His identity is generally known and reported in the village, thus paternity is socially conferred upon the newborn. The father's economic situation, however, is usually such that he is in no position to contribute meaningfully to the support of the young mother and infant. The father's mother, likewise, has little contact with his children. 189 Most of her contact is with her daughter's children. As

the Kittitians say, "Mother's mother is inside1" This

means that the daughter's mother is almost always there to

look after her child's children.

A double standard of morality exists despite the

pressure on both young males and females to have children

because of the differential reaction by the parents, the

church and others to the boy and girl. She is upbraided,

beat and needs intercession with her parents while nothing

is said to the boy by either set of parents. The church

fathers during the christening will chastize the girl for

her immorality but not mention the boy. The villagers

gossip about her and her shame for becoming a mother at so

young an age, yet see the situation as proof of the boy's

introduction into manhood and discuss it as an accomplish­ ment.

After the child is born, the responsibility for its

rearing frequently falls to the girl's mother, while the

girl resumes her social career in her adolescent peer group

and/or enters the labor force to contribute earnings to

her mother's household. Sometimes, she stays at home and

looks after her child as well as her younger brothers and

sisters while her mother works.

The double standard also exists with older men and women. Often a woman and her children will move in with a boyfriend. After moving in, the woman is expected not to 190 be promiscuous, while the boyfriend carries on affairs with

other women, although he does use some discretion. This

type of double standard is continued even if the couple

marry.

At the institutional level, the legal system on St.

Kitts epitomizes the double standard, imposing greater

control over female sexual behavior than male and, in

effect, punishing women and girls for behavior overlooked

in men and boys. The courts tend to treat sexual promis­

cuity on the part of teenage girls as a very serious matter.

Female offenders were treated differentially according to whether or not they appeared to have been sexually active.

The major concern was with deviations from the expected

form of feminine behavior. It was certainly not unusual

for questions to be asked by the Magistrate concerning the moral welfare of female offenders, but not for male offend­ ers. Out of the fifty-four cases actually observed by

this researcher involving yotfng offenders, sixteen

involved females and the other thirty-eight involved males.

Forty-seven of these cases involved either fighting or theft. In every case involving the female offender the

Magistrate asked questions of the girl, her parents, and other witnesses about her sexual behavior and reputation yet never once asked this about the male offenders, even in cases where the fighting occurred over a woman.

During the sentencing procedure the Magistrate would 191 discuss the morals of the female offender and express con­

cern for her welfare and reputation with never a mention of

these areas in the sentencing of a male offender. In some

cases the moral lectures almost became sermons very similar

to those heard at the christening service for a young

female's baby and were usually followed by threats that

he, the Magistrate, will be keeping an eye on the girl to

make sure that she is good and does not hang out with young

men. In rape cases, if it could be proved that the girl,

no matter what the age, had been previously sexually

active, the case was generally thrown out. This was ob­

served to be true in the two rape cases that I actually

followed, and four solicitors confirmed that this is indeed a usual and customary practice.

Subordinate Legal and Social Status

Women's legal and social status within the family is not equal to that of men. Their lack of social status is underpinned by their anomalous position with respect to

legal and civil rights. Upon marriage, a woman sacrifices rights that a man does not. Legally, she has no protec­ tion from rape by her husband, and the law protecting her from violent assault by her spouse is rarely utilized.

Married women, however, are a rarity on St. Kitts. In­ stead, what we find is a man and woman living together.

What are her rights? Unfortunately, she has little if 192 any— she is indeed in an anomalous position in the eyes of

the law.

Separation of Home and Work

Grounded in the structure of many societies is the distinction between the public domain {work) and the pri­ vate (home). The consequence for many women of this separ ation is that their work, domestic labor, which occurs in

the private domain has been consistently depreciated with­ in the community, the economy, and the political system.

The division between private and public has had a further correspondence for women in that it has given rise to the belief in a 'woman's place' being in the home rather than in the world of work and production. This ideology of woman's place being in the home has served to perpetuate the existing sexual division of labor and to effectively limit the forms of women's participation in the public domain. Kittitian males espouse this ideology at every opportunity, in the rum shops, on the streets, at dances, even in articles and letters in the newspaper. They see the woman's role as being in the home and are very upset with some

"Woman job to take care fe pickney. Dat's de way it tis. Is trueI" "Woman is a human being who does not work." 193

"Prom de age of twelve de woman looks fe provider and only role is breeder."

The public sector is the male sector, while the women fill the private sector. The men control all the interac- t tions— they initiate, determine the structure of and termi­ nate all male/female interactions, most of which involve sex. Woman cook for the men and raise their children with, and more often, without male help. A cursory glance gives the impression that the female role is very restricted and specialized while the male role is very general. The males appear to be in complete control, and the women appear to accept it without question.

It would be a mistake, however, to accept the surface picture as the reality. Women must be dependent upon and subservient to men in all areas for the surface to be true.

Is this true for Kittitians now or in the past? If the surface is peeled away, does complete male control con­ tinue to exist, or does it prove to be illusionary?

For the white male colonialists, their male roles were generalized with role expectations displaying tremendous plasticity as the result of the wide range of variations accepted within the male role. Not only did a wide array of acceptable behavior exist that could satisfy the role expectations of the male role, but also the major means for satisfying the role requirements were within the grasp of the man. The white woman's role, however, was very 194 restricted. A limited set o£ rigid expectations existed, with access to the means of satisfying their expectations highly circumscribed by the males and the culture. The female role was more rigidly defined and specialized. They were not allowed a great number of options pertaining to the fulfillment of the role expectations and the means by which these expectations could be satisfied.

Black Kittitians, raised, trained, and later educated under British colonial auspices, quickly learned that a key to survival was to carry a higher regard for things Euro­ pean, including behavior. In imitating the "supreme”

European ethics in every possible way, blacks negotiated their own identities, rendering dignity and self-esteem almost unreachable, impossible. As Hearne and Nettleford state:

The fact that this imitation was servile, sometimes clumsy and often ridiculous should not blind us to the feet that it was also thorough. It might have been uncreative and in some measure stifling but it penetrated deeply into the con­ sciousness of not only the brown middle class but the black peasantry and working class who are the majority...(1963: 18).

Thus, total sexual asymmetry with male dominance became the accepted norm of the populace.

The male role in St. Kitts, however, is not the gen­ eralized role of white European culture, nor is the female role that of a specialized, restricted nature such as that of their former white mistresses. In fact, it is just the 195 opposite. This point is very important for a greater understanding of the role of women on St. Kitts and fur­ ther elaboration is needed.

Male and female roles and behavior on St. Kitts can bfe interpreted with the aid of the biological analogy dis­ cussed at the beginning of this chapter. An adaptive role is one where there is a great deal of variation in expec­ tations and multiple paths for fulfillment are readily available. There is a wider range of acceptable behavior, and this allows the person who fills that particular role to respond to change more successfully, yet still meet the requirements of the role. Adapted roles, on the other hand, are more narrowly defined with very rigid expecta­ tions and limited paths to fulfillment. Any deviation necessitates non-role expectation fulfillment and subse­ quent social disapproval. On St. Kitts, underneath the surface, the women's roles are the adaptive roles, while the men's roles are adapted. Once this is understood, female cultural behavior on St. Kitts can be put into its proper context and be more properly understood. Also, the reason why total sexual asymmetry characterized by male dominance is only a surface ideal becomes clear.

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the surface ideal entails absolute male control with women dependent upon and subservient to the males. The male roles must be adaptive, while all female roles must be adapted. Is this 196 the case, at present, on St. Kitts for a majority of the populace (the blacks), or perhaps is this ideal a vestige

from an earlier time? The answer to the question is 'no.1

The black male roles at no time have been adaptive in the sense of the term as used in this dissertation. Their roles are severely restricted due to socio-historical and economic circumscription.

It is indeed true that the whitemale role was adaptive and the white female role was adapted during slavery and post-slavery times? however, the same is not true for black males and females. The black male historically has always been seen as a threat to the power, authority, and sexual­ ity of the whites. His roles, therefore, have always been severely restricted as a means of perpetuating exploitation based upon the concept of racial superiority. He was systematically denied access to public roles, managerial positions and political responsibility by ascriptive stratification and restricted social mobility. At times, it was impossible for the man to perform even his roles as a husband or father.

The female slave roles were not as severely restricted.

They were not seen as a threat to white supremacy, and more often than not, they were needed by the planters and their families. The women were treated differently than the males, and social mobility was less restricted through con­ cubinage which gave the female the opportunity to improve 197 'color' and through their children to improve their social

standing according to white values of respectability

(Wilson, 1973). The gap between the sexes emerged, and

even the socializing practices emphasized the separation

of the sexes. The men worked away from the house, and

there was a social division in the pursuit of leisure.

Ragatz (1953), writing about plantation systems in the

British West Indies, had this to say:

The highest aim of a colored girl...was to become the mistress of a planter, overseer, bookkeeper, merchant, or soldier. Mothers sought such unions for their daughters. The position assured their lives of ease, marked prestige in their own circles, and qualified them to become the mates of desirable freedmen.... The system pervaded all ranks of society. During the administration of Governor Ricketts in Barbados a negress reigned at the government house and enjoyed all a wife's privileges, save presiding pub­ licly at his table (1953: 33).

Not all women opted for this route of social mobility.

There were, however, many other paths which they could fol­ low to improve themselves and their children's station in life. Women became the carriers of respectability in the culture and this respectability, based upon white values, allowed access to areas that continued to be blocked to black men. (See Burns, 1954; Goveia, 1965, 1976; and

Genovese, 1976). Women's roles and behavior began to generalize. They had to be able to respond to any oppor­ tunity that would come along. Their behavior and roles had 198 to be flexible enough to respond quickly to change without

loss of identification with the role. Role definitions

and expectations expanded as the paths to fulfillment of

those roles increased. They became adaptive multiple roles.

These adaptive roles and behavior for women on St.

Kitts continue into the present. Their roles and activi­

ties have remained generalized, individual and adaptive with relatively numerous options for social and geographic mobility. The varied expectations and means to fulfill

them, and the blurred definitions, allow the women to maintain their role identities under almost all circum­

stances, even in the face of the ultimate threat to Kitti­

tian womanhood— no children.

Males do not have this privilege. Their adapted,

specialized roles are still restrictive. Expectations are so narrowly defined with little to no options available, that even slight deviation brings loss of the role iden­ tity and social pressure. All male roles are permeated with an indigenous value system called by Wilson "reputa­ tion" (see Chapter III). This reputation must constantly be expressed through word, deed and demeanor in all male roles. These adapted male roles are the end result of the socio-historical circumstances of St. Kitts during the past three centuries, just as the female adaptive roles are in response to earlier conditions. These socio-his­ torical conditions negate total sexual asymmetry with male 199 dominance since, by definition, this requires the exact reverse of what is found— adaptive male roles and adapted female roles.

' Male dominance as a reality is also denied Kittitian males due to economic restrictions of the male role. One major component of the male role is that of provider for his girlfriend and his children. This can clearly be seen in the attitudes expressed towards marriage. Out of the

120 males surveyed (see Chapter VIII) and 35 others used as informants from the village, 141 saw marriage as very important and wanted some day to be married. To them this is an outward manifestation of social mobility and increasing social status. Yet, when asked why they were not married if it is so important, all concurred that a man must first establish himself as the sole provider for the family. He must own his house, be able to afford a large public wedding ceremony (a large public ceremony is essential for public acknowledgment of conferred status), and must be able to completely provide for his family so that his wife can retire from working for other people.

If his wife must continue to work to supplement income, status is abated somewhat.

Complete male dominance also requires complete control in the economic sector of the community by men. This, however, is not a reality on St. Kitts. As has been seen 200 in the demographic section of Chapter V, employment is a

serious problem on the island. Few people have jobs, and most of those who are fortunate enough to have a job do not: make enough money to be the sole provider for the

family. Many of the jobs are occupied by women who must work to supplement their man's income or, as is more often the case, to be the sole source of income for the family.

This lack of jobs, and even less potential for the future creation of jobs, circumscribe the male role more severely than the socio-historical pressures already discussed.

The role expectation as sole provider continues to be a major role expectation for males with few paths for ful­ fillment.

For these reasons, the female role continues to be adaptive while the male role is adapted. Total sexual asymmetry with male dominance remains an illusion. Yet, the illusion remains, and the question must be asked— why?

This is a complex question, and though a thorough explanation would be beyond the confines of this disserta­ tion, several explanations come to mind. One involves the

"taking on" of the dominant values of the former colonial rulers which Kearne and Nettleford (1963) show to have been an imitation that penetrated deeply into all levels of the society. The second factor involves a willingness to share responsibility with the male. By maintaining the surface structure of male dominance in St. Kitts, the restrictive 201

nature of male roles compels the man to continually strive

for providership which/ if at all successful/ removes a

great deal of stress upon the woman. Women constantly

stroke the male ego through lip service to his roles for

very pragmatic reasons— the aid that may result to her and

her family. Secondly, part of the generalization of the

female role dating back to slavery is the expectation to

take the responsibility not only for her own femininity,

but also the male's masculinity. Women are, to a large

extent, the carriers of both. Speaking to this pQint

concerning the female slave role, Genovese states:

A remarkable number of women did every­ thing possible to strengthen their men's self-esteem and to defer to their leadership. What has usually been viewed as a debilitating female suprem­ acy was in fact a closer approximation to a healthy sexual equality than was possible for whites and perhaps even for many postbellum blacks. The men did not play the provider for their families in a full and direct sense, but they did everything they could to approximate it.... The strength of the women did not necessarily undermine the men; often it supported them. It took enormous strength for a woman to keep her man from avenging an insult or a beating she had suffered and to con­ vince him that the test of his mascu­ linity was self-restraint.... He needed that assurance to survive, and only she could give it to him (1976: 500-501).

This is still true today on St. Kitts. Added to this is

the fact that a part, but not all, of the expectations of

femininity involve child-bearing, while the major 202 component of masculinity involves sexual prowess and viril ity, both of which involve female cooperation. Women continue to have one child after another, in part because it 'fulfills an expectation of their role as a woman and, to a much greater extent, because it is a way of linking them to a man which can provide aid to them and their children; and, more importantly, because of the social security that children can provide.

A final possible explanation is that the surface structure is a form of ritual deference to the man which acts as a balancing of power between the males and the females. Actual male dominance in this view is a myth which operates to balance the overt power of the male and the informal power of the female. The power of both is dependent upon the persistence of the myth.

Whatever the reason, the illusion of male dominance persists on St. Kitts with its distinction between work and home. Domestic labor, in the form of taking care of children and the house and all that goes along with such tasks, are not seen as work and are somewhat depreciated.

Added to this is the idea that a Kittitian woman's place is in the home. 203 The Role of Women on St. Kitts - Specific

A Typical Day in the Life of Kittitian Women

Before discussing Kittitian women's roles in relation i to those aspects of culture outlined in Chapter VI, sev­

eral typical days in the lives of my female informants are

presented to give the reader a better understanding of the

day-to-day life of women on the island. These typical

days were culled from extensive field reports collected

from 35 female informants (20 from the village and 15 from

the city), as well as from one week of investigation which

entailed spending seven days, each day with a different woman (4 rural, 3 urban), as she went about her usual

routine, noting how her time was occupied. The following

typical days are a composite drawn from the self-reports

of the informant (all names are fictitious), and additional

information noted during the actual day I observed her

daily routine. Five composites are given (3 rural, 2 ur­

ban) which were randomly picked for inclusion here. It

should be noted that the time element expressed in these descriptions are those of this researcher. They are not exact from day to day, but rather close approximations to

the woman's basic routine. Although only one of the women owned a watch, and they all do not operate with the time constraint requirements we do in the United States, there are, however, some measures used as time markers. They 204 all have radios which periodically will give the time,

temperature and weather, and they must have the children

up and ready for school and be ready for them to return

fof lunch and after school. Also, the afternoons bring

soap operas on the radio and many like to have time to sit

and rest while listening to them. Therefore, they are to

some extent driven by time.

Helen — a 36 year old village woman with no regular job, five children— ages 16, 14, 8, 4, 1, living with her boyfriend in a typical two- room village house that they rent for $12. E.C./month.

She gets up between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. every day. Her first thoughts are about what to prepare for breakfast. She wakes her children, washes the younger ones and helps them to get dressed. The other children get ready by themselves. She then cooks breakfast which usually con­ sists of bread and tea. The bread, in the form of a roll, is spread with butter or jelly. Occasionally, salt fish and eggs or dry cereal is prepared instead of bread. The youngest children are given a corn meal porridge. The children and her boyfriend are fed, and while they are eating she packs a small lunch for her eldest who must catch a bus to Basseterre for high school. She gives him his packed lunch and some money for a Coke, and then sends her children off to school and her boyfriend leaves for work. The four year old is then taken to a small half­ day school in the village which costs 50$ per week. The youngest stays with her all day. After all this is done, she then sits down to eat her breakfast. After finishing her breakfast, she then washes clothes by hand at least three times a week, and cleans the house and yard. This involves sweeping the floors and steps with a broom, pick­ ing up things in the yard, and then sweeping the dirt yard. By the time all this is finished it is about 11:30, and she now begins to prepare lunch for the children who come home from school. Lunch usually consists of bread and a cold beverage such as soda pop, ginger beer, mawby (a cold drink made from the bark of a tree) or lemonade. Several times a week, some cheese or sausage is added to the bread. Leftovers from yesterday's supper are alternate meals. When the children finish eating, she sends them back to school. The four year old does not return to school in 205

the afternoon so she now roust carry on her chores and watch two children. While the children play in the dirt yard, she cleans the dishes from breakfast and lunch, and some­ times (not too often), she will rest for a half hour. She must now start to plan supper. If the food can be cooked ahead, she will do so at this time over a coal pot. A typical supper consists of some form of animal protein called "relish" such as fresh or salted fish or chicken backs and necks, and some kind of starch, mainly rice. Often, red beans (dried kidney beans), black beans, pigeon peas or lentils are added to the rice and a 'gravy' of tomatoes or catsup and onions is poured over it. She and the two children then go to a little gut just outside the village and she will break rock with a hammer with other women for several hours while the children play. The broken rock is sold to the government for road repair, and brings in a small income which is necessary to supplement the boyfriend's income to pay the rent on the house. She returns home, gets supper ready, and then feeds the child­ ren, her boyfriend and herself. After supper, she cleans the dishes and then listens to a soap opera on the radio for one-half hour or hour. The children are sent to a neighbor's house to watch television (she pays 10$ per day for her children to watch the only television in the vil­ lage) . Her boyfriend leaves to join his crew mates who sit around the rum shop and talk, or sometimes go to a dance or meet other women. The children come home, and they all go to the public baths. When they return, she puts the children to bed and then sits down to listen to the radio, or will read a magazine given her by the light of an oil lamp (their house has no electricity). She told me that sometimes she will color in a coloring book given to one of her children. She then goes to bed around nine or ten o'clock. On other nights she may get up and visit with a friend or a sister next door within earshot of the house, in case a child would awake. If her boyfriend returns early, she will sit and talk to him or have sex. The next day is the same except she must go to the market to get some things that she needs. She rides in the back of a village truck with many other women heading to market.

Margarette — a nineteen year old village girl with a six month old baby (an earlier child had died). She lives with her mother, her two brothers and three sisters, and works several days a week in the canefields pulling out weeds.

She gets up at 6:00 and cooks breakfast for her mother, brothers and sisters and her baby. She feeds them and then cleans them up. She then cleans the dishes and gets ready to go to work three days a week from 7:30 to 3:30 weeding 206

the cane fields in the hot sun. She is paid $6 a day in Eastern Caribbean currency (approximately $2 U.S.). She comes home from work around 4:00 and prepares supper and washes clothes. She also watches her little brothers and sisters. Sometimes she will clean the house and yard, but most of the time she makes her sisters do it. This is al4o the time that she will sit and talk to her mother. They eat supper and she then cleans the dishes and then goes to a friend's house to sit and talk, or to meet a man ifher mother is not going anywhere. If she is meet­ ing a man, it is usually kept a secret, and they go into the woods or cane fields to have sex. She then comes home, gets the children ready for bed, and then goes to bed her­ self.

Elsie — a forty-two year old married villager. She lives with her husband and their three year old child. Five other children, ages 25-18, live elsewhere, two of them on other islands. She has been married for five years, with the three year old being her only legitimate child. The other five are all children by the same man she is now married to.

She gets up at 6:00 and fixes breakfast for her baby and husband. He then leaves for work, and she cleans the dishes, sweeps the house and yard, and then spends several hours with her child. She is then ready to get lunch pre­ pared for her husband who returns home for an hour. After lunch, she washes the dishes and some clothes, and then goes to visit friends, taking her child along. She visits with the friends for several hours, and then stops to talk with some others on the street. She returns home to start supper. Supper is served, and the dishes are again washed. She then gets ready to go to church (3 evenings a week plus Sunday morning). The child usually will attend church with her. If she doesn't, a member of one of her networks will look after the child at this person's house. She returns from church around 9:00, puts the baby to bed, and then rests for awhile, waiting for her husband to return from visiting the men at the rum shop. He returns around 10:30 or 11:00. They talk for awhile about what is happen­ ing in the village, and they then retire for the evening.

Lita — a twenty-two year old city woman with three children— ages 6, 4, 18 months, living in a house very similar in construction to those in the village, in a section of the city called Irish Town. Five days a week she sits with three other children for a woman who works in a store on the bayfront. For this she is paid 207

$5 E.C. per week and several baskets of vege­ tables and fruits, twice a week.

She gets up about 5:00 and begins to cook breakfast for her children and the others who will arrive around 6:15 to 6:30. When the others arrive she feeds them all and then cleans them up. Her six year old is dressed for school and is sent there with some older children who stop by. The children are put out in the yard to play while she eats her breakfast and tries to clean up the dishes. This is usually difficult because she is constant­ ly having to go out to see why one of the children is cry­ ing. She then sweeps the house with a broom, again, con­ stantly going back and forth between what she is doing and the children. Soon it is time to prepare lunch which is similar to lunches in the village— a cold beverage and bread, sometimes with cheese. She again cleans the dishes and then puts the children down for a nap. If she is very lucky they all will do so and she will sit for an hour or so and rest, listening to the soaps on the radio and plan­ ning dinner. If they don't she will play with them or sometimes just hold them. By now it is close to 4:30 and she must prepare supper for herself and her children. The others' mother picks her children up a little after 6:00. Lita and the children then eat and then her mother stops over to watch the children so Lita can go to do the wash. After washing and some visiting she returns home and puts the children to bed. Her mother stays and they talk till around 10:00. When she leaves, Lita cleans up and goes to bed herself, only to repeat the routine the next day.

Channel — a forty-eight year old city woman. She lives with her boyfriend and their ten year old girl. She has two other children by other men, a son nineteen and another daughter twenty- eight. Off and on she has lived and worked in St. Thomas. She now works for a hardware store in town and her boyfriend works for the civil service.

She gets up at 5:30 and fixes breakfast for herself, boyfriend and daughter. The dishes are cleaned then she gets ready to go to work. She begins work at 7:00 and leaves for lunch at 11:00. She arrives home at 11:15, prepares lunch for herself and daughter who arrives short­ ly. Her boyfriend does not come home for lunch. After eating, her daughter cleans the dishes while Channel sweeps and then the girl returns to school. It is now about 1:15. She sits for awhile and listens to a soap and then returns to work by 2:00. She will come home from work by 6:15. Her daughter has already started dinner. After dinner the 208 daughter washes the dishes while Channel leaves for church. Like her counterpart in the village, this is at least three evenings a week. She returns around 9:30, waits for her man to come home from his friends. They talk awhile then go to bed around 11:30.

' Typical days for urban women in the lower class are similar to their counterparts in the village. The older woman, whether married or not, has much more free time since her children are working and send money home.- Her life appears easier. Kittitians often remarked to me that

'a woman does not really come into her own until she is in her forties and the children are grownup.1 Her life is less stressful and she can now become a doting grandmother.

Family and Social Organization

In all six of the family types found on St. Kitts, a female has the majority of the power and responsibility in the household. Be she the mother, the grandmother, the eldest daughter, or a sister, or a "friend," the responsi­ bility falls mainly into her hands to run the household and shift roles if needed. By our Western ideas about family a grandmother may have to take on the role of mother, as in the extended family, or a daughter may have to become the mother, as in the sibling family. A mother may have to take on the roles of both a mother and a father and, in some circumstances such as found in foster families, a friend or a sister may be called upon to be a mother. 209

By analyzing the structure of relationships in fami­

lies on St. Kitts, the power and responsibilities of the

women became clear. Comparing the relationships between

the man and his children and the woman and her children,

the family structure of St. Kitts appears to be similar

to the model found in the literature on black families in

the rest of the Caribbean where the father is marginal to

the dominant mother-child relationship. By asking in the

interviews: "What is a father supposed to do for his

children?" and "What is a mother supposed to do for the

children?"# the father's relationship to the children came

out as one of support and discipline, with little nurtur­

ing attitude. All other tasks were left to the mother.

The father's main role is to support his children, although

all the women interviewed complained that the men usually do not live up to this expectation. The father's other

important task is to discipline the children and teach

them manners. None of these duties require much personal

contact with the child, and seldom reflect attitudes of

nurturing or prescribe duties that demand much empathy.

This agrees with Aronoff's findings on St. Kitts in the mid-60's which he summarizes by stating:

The children are very much the responsi­ bility of the mother, and the male is useful only in providing the financial resources and the strong right arm. It may be said that his relationship with his child is most superficial, and his personal intervention is solely geared 210 to produce a child who will not embarrass him in the community (1967: 183).

The relations between the man and woman also show

this structural difference. Just as he is removed and i shows little responsibility towards his children, so too

is he in his relationship to women. Very few activities

are shared with the women. He does no housework, cleaning clothes or helping with the cooking. Often, he does not eat with her and claims to own things separately from her., especially the house. He expects the woman to cook his food, bear and take care of his children, not distract him, work hard maintaining the household, and be faithful to him. In return, he gives her some money for support which usually is not adequate, and so the woman must seek a job to bring in added income.

The woman’s adaptive role allows her to accept all this responsibility with little fear or loss of role iden­ tity due to failure to fulfill the expectations. By choos­ ing multiple paths for fulfillment of the varied expecta­ tions imposed upon her, while, at the same time, always prepared to instantly shift to a new path or switch roles as the circumstances dictate and, by carefully balancing opposing expectations or playing up one expectation at the expense of another, the women succeed in meeting their role requirements. For example, a major expectation of the woman's role is to have children. A woman who cannot bear 211

children may be able to fulfill all other expectations,

including economic support for the household. Often, she

may be able to accumulate resources and gain a great deal

of respectability with her peers. She then may be called

upon by a friend or sister to become a foster mother to

one of their children whom they cannot afford to raise.

She will take the child, provide for it and raise it as

her own; and do the job so successfully that any accusation

of failure to be a mother is forgotten. In a fictive way

she has fulfilled the expectation.

The adaptive role of the female also provides her with

access to power, both within the household and the village.

In meeting their responsibilities, the power to make deci­

sions regarding the allocation of the household resources

and much of the household income is delivered into the hands of the women. Much of the resources and income are

the direct result of her fulfillment of other responsibili­

ties and expectations. The household, in the control of

the woman, is molded into the major productive, consumptive and social unit for all women and children and, to a large extent, their men and brothers. This was found to be the case in one hundred percent of the lower class households researched (120 in the village and 35 in the city).

It might seem odd to call the household the major social unit for the man since little time is actually spent at home. Most of the time, he is either out working or socializing in the rum shops or on the streets. Yet, the household or family is a dominant fact in the man’s world.

It is still the major refuge from the strains of daily life. It is a haven for the man, a small group shut off from the world— a place of escape from the community's activities. All the men interviewed stated that "a man needs a place to go to when pressure is on," and that place is the family. Men do not live alone or with a male friend. They either live in their mother's household or their girlfriend's or wife's household because of this need for a place of refuge. The importance of this can be seen in the constant joking of Kittitians about men "leaving their mother to move in with another mother." They were quite amused when told that in America we used to joke about a woman leaving her father to live with her husband, a father substitute. It is also interesting to note that men quite often leave home to move in with a woman who is older than they are. They feel she is "trained in family affairs," and is better able to take care of their needs.

Aronoff (1967) feels this reflects the Kittitian male's constant striving for satisfaction of a very strong need for security.

This need for a place of refuge is even reflected in the physical setting of their houses. Almost every house has a high fence around it, made of board or discarded sheets of metal, that totally shut out their neighbors. 213

When questioned about it, the men all emphasized the need

for privacy and secrecy. They try their best to keep visitors away from the household for fear that they will make trouble or find out secrets which will then quickly spread through the village. Friends are seldom brought there.

This was made very clear after two of my closest in­ formants not only invited my wife and myself to their house, but actually invited us inside for refreshments.

Word quickly spread through the village that we had been inside their house. The fact that we were actually inside the house was the talk of the neighborhood, and people warned us to be suspicious of the underlying motives for such a privilege. One man, whom I did not know personally but had seen in the village, stopped me on the street and the following interaction took place:

Old Man: Bwai Myself: Yes Old Man: You be inside Charles' house, is true? Myself: Yes, yesterday my wife and I were over visiting. Old Man: Is the fos' you seein* it? Myself: Yes Old Man: Who dar? Myself: Clem, Charles and her two oldest, Lukie and Ann. Old Man: Choi Mek me laugh, mon. Soon see not ordinary. What Clem want? Mus want something. See wha* ah dey tell you, mon? You can' trus' nobody, y'know. Listen me bwai, dey want fe something, is true? You watch bwai--you see. 214

With that, he walked off. Later, other friends also ex­ pressed surprise and a warning. I was told that few people ever visit others inside their houses and, therefore, they must really want something from me to invite me inside.

Interestingly, shortly after all this transpired, several other informants invited us into their homes. I believe this was due to a belief that if they didn't, we might do things for Charles and Clem and they feared that they would be left out. If not for this, the typical day obser­ vations I spoke of earlier might not have been possible.

As a result of this need for security and intimacy, men are always connected to a household. Early in life, it is his mother's or grandmother's household, or a sis­ ter's or female cousin's household where he seeks his refuge. Later, he either forms his own household out of a common law relationship or a marriage. Both types of relationships provide advantages best outlined by Aronoff

(1967) in his study on St. Kitts. According to Aronoff, the common law relationship:

1. establishes a means of economic cooperation which is very impor­ tant in a culture where the male's ability to earn a living is severely circumscribed. 2. legitimizes the relationship of children to both parents and insures their support. 3. provides for exclusive sexual, economic and domestic rights be­ tween the partners, though with lesser demands in the case of the male. 215

4. satisfies the need for intimacy. 5. provides all the above yet does not formally establish any rights to each other's property or formally require mutual aid in times of crises, thereby leaving an out to the man (Aronoff 1967: 161-168).

Marriage provides many of the above-mentioned advan­

tages/ but also stipulates some rigorous rights and duties

for both partners. For a woman, marriage provides:

1. a link, however tenuous, with the upper class. 2. a more satisfactory arrangement materially because the law may be invoked to permit her to share and inherit her husband's possessions (in a common-law relationship she does not have these rights). 3. respectability. 4. more polite behavior by others toward her— called 'Mistress' or 'Mrs.* both of which signify higher status and respect. 5. a more proper state in the eyes of God. All the other relationships are seen as sinful by the clergy who point it out at every chance they get to the women in their con­ gregations.

For the men, marriage means:

1. taking better care of his wife and requires him to give her money for clothes, food and all household necessities. 2. protecting his wife from others and providing care if she falls ill. 3. greater insurance of long-term con­ tinuation for the relationship. Legal marriage is more difficult to dissolve (lengthy and costly procedure). 4. insured gratification of the need to be involved in stable structures. 5. the wife is responsible for her husband's burial. 216

6. the husband may prosecute the wife's boyfriend in case of adultery and receive heavy damages. This keeps other men away and helps to preserve the union (Aronoff 1967: 161-168).

In marriage# the expectations for male commitment are very great# and these expectations contribute to hesitancy on the part of the males to marry until late in life. Ninety- six percent of the marriages in the last fifteen years involved males thirty-six years old or older. Only four percent were younger with the youngest being twenty-seven.

Although marriage can bring respectability to the male# the expectations involved in the role of husband are so rigid# and the changes are so great that the male cannot live up to them# that the taking on of the role identity "husband" is postponed as long as possible. The women# with their adaptive roles# have little problem fulfilling all the expectations of the role "wife" and, therefore, are much more eager to marry. This creates tension in male/female relationships.

When my male and female informants were asked what they saw as the advantages of being married# they stated similar advantages as those cited above from Aronoff's study with the males citing stability as the major advan­ tage (92ft), while the females thought that the respect from the community was the greatest advantage (97%)# with material arrangements a close second. The women did not discuss any possible disadvantage of being married# but 217 most of the males saw increased responsibility for ade­ quate material support of their spouse as a problem. All of the males questioned stated that marriage was a very expensive step to take# and would not even consider such a move until they were financially se.cure enough to buy a house and for their spouse to no longer have to work.

Several men said, "Some ring burn finger," referring to a line from a popular song at that time called "Marriage" by the Meditations. This reference was interesting since the song's chorus stated that "Marriage is a trap that's set for a rat." One old man smiled and said, "marriage got teet and teet got toot' ache." Upon further questioning,

I found that, to many men, marriage is an approach/avoid­ ance situation— it provides stability that they want, but that stability may, in turn, become a trap closing down other options. As emphasized throughout this work, to a

Kittitian the greater the available options the more secure the feeling. Marriage brings stability which decreases other options. This may produce feelings of insecurity because as the options slip away, the possibility of ful­ filling the role expectations of "husband" become more difficult. Because of this, the institution of marriage creates tension in male/female interactions for the male.

The women of St. Kitts are involved in many different individuated networks. On St. Kitts where there is no communal economic pursuit, no village politics, and no village celebrations, the individuated networks can be

seen as a strategy for managing relationships through

tactically opening, closing and breaking dyadic contracts.

If 'one of the networks of which they are a member does not

provide the proper path or paths for fulfillment of certain

expectations, they can break that network or create a new

one that will allow the woman to live up to the role expec­

tations. By tactically maneuvering through the networks,

the women gain both spatial and social mobility; they

establish ties with many men, which acts as a form of

insurance against male failure (male disappearance or

failure of the male to fulfill his role expectations); and

increases their chances of maintaining their children and

household by tapping all available social resources and

exploiting all natural events.

Of the twenty women that I was most closely associated

with, the average number of active networks that each was

involved in was five. One woman was involved in nine, but

she is an exceptional case. She is thirty-four years old, married, her house has electricity, and she also had a

refrigerator. Everyone in the village saw her as being

extremely well-off, and a definite asset for their network.

The women, therefore, all wanted her to be involved in one

of their networks because of the potential benefits that

she could provide. She did not have to work, so she could

look after the children of those who did. There was always 219

food that could be shared and the ice made in her refrig­ erator was seen by these women as an important item to be passed through the networks.

' One important component of many of these networks is the grown children. The food and other economic networks almost always include several grown children. When the children are old enough so that the mother is no longer needed for their constant care, and some are old enough to care for the others, the mother is likely to enter the labor force. Moreover, when the children begin to find jobs and contribute to the household, the mother may then begin to look to her children for support of the household and withdraw from employment to care for her grandchildren.

At this point, the father's domination and economic mar- ginality may become tolerable. The males' unreliable use­ fulness is abated somewhat by the newly-found social security in their grown children. This point is very important. As in other societies where poverty is rampant, there is a severe problem of overpopulation. On St. Kitts people continue to have many children, even when they can­ not afford to support them adequately, despite the efforts of the government and international organizations to introduce birth control methods. These organizations fail to understand that having a lot of children is more than the result of ignorance. Continuously, my informants told me that children are a form of social security. A woman 220 does not truly become a woman until several of her children

are grown up and contribute to her support. When that

occurs she begins to refuse to pay constant ritual defer­

ence to the men. To the Kittitians, both male and female,

she is the only truly "liberated woman."

The Kittitian men are also involved in individuated

networks but, like their adapted roles, their networks are

very circumscribed and small in number. The men are

usually linked into networks through their wife, mother or girlfriend. Their power and function within these net­ works is limited. The female is the one who manipulates,

controls and moves through these networks. The one network

that is truly in the hands of the men is the lyming network or "crews" network. This network is thought of as a social

form consisting of four to seven members that are essen­

tially equal in that they are of the same generation, life

situation, and are mutually compatible. As in all net­ works, a man can be a member of more than one crew.

Most of the man's leisure time is spent with his

"crew" mates sitting around the rum shops drinking, eating, playing cards or dominoes, and talking. Parties and dances are usually attended by the entire lyming network.

This network can mobilize a great deal of psychological and social support and get information when and if neces­

sary. Since a man may be a member of more than one crew, the possibility of alliances between crews is also possible. These crews, like all the other individuated networks, have no formal status on the island; but they are, never­ theless, very important to the men. The center for men is thdir public life where their reputation can be expressed, and it is through the lyming network that most of their public life is activated. They provide the men with a great deal of existential satisfaction, and allow them to confirm their own identity with the male role through com­ mon values and sentiment. This emphasis upon public dis­ play reflects the Kittitian's dependence upon external reinforcement to be discussed in Chapter VIII. These

"crews" act as a buffer against the stress caused by loss of role identity. They allow the man, through his talk and behavior, to gain esteem in the world of men by reaf­ firming his reputation, the ultimate source of male iden­ tity. Here they can develop a group structure where gratification is much less contingent upon their perform­ ance in the wage-earner role.

Individuated networks, therefore, are important for both adapted and adaptive roles. For the women, these networks also are important in the sphere of power rela­ tions. The women's networks provide them with the symbols and social resources otherwise absent from the domestic role. The networks can be, and often are, employed to use the resources available to them to support interests often opposed to those of the men. They can influence their 222 boyfriends and sons both indirectly and directly. Indirect influence is achieved through their socializing of the children and the manipuations of the men through their roles as household stabilizers. Indirect power and influ­ ence is also achieved because of the dependence of the males upon the networks of the women to fulfill the neces­ sities of the household and some of the men's own role expectancies. Direct influence is applied through the flow of infor­ mation through the networks. The men are often dependent upon the gossiping in the networks which keep the women informed about what is happening in the village. In turn, their women will inform them about events. Through the control of information flow, the women can exert direct power over the men by selective information dissemination or the withholding of certain information. The control of information has for years been recognized as an important source of power. Seven of my female informants in the village, representing two different networks, related to me how they convinced their boyfriends to vote for a pro­ posed social security bill by discussing it in detail with them but failing to mention one important aspect— this social security would be in the form of a tax taken out of earnings. The men thought the government would just pay for it and therefore they voted yea. The bill was defeated however. Direct power and influence is also exerted by the

women’s networks in the form of an effective type of social

control. The women can limit their web of relationships

by 'regular exclusion of certain members. This creates a

breakdown in communication, shutting off the information

flow necessary for the men in their public roles. A social

distance can thus be created where physical proximity must

be maintained. Social distance directed towards the man

or his woman not only shuts off all communication, but also

breaks down all economic paths necessary for the household

to survive. This is a powerful inducement to conform.

The potential of complete isolation aimed directly at the

man or indirectly at his woman, thereby shutting off their

paths for fulfillment of their expectancies, can sway even

the most staunch Kittitian male. One informant told me

how a few years before, her network closed her out, not

because she had done anything wrong, but because of the

way her boyfriend was behaving. The reason was made clear

by all and so the man was aware of the reason. At first

he was indignant and fought back but the boycott was

effective and gossip began about the man's pride and how it was hurting his woman and children. He finally relented

and changed. The network reopened and to this day he is good.

Gossiping in the networks, as well as acting as a means of information gathering, is also a form of social 224 control and, as such, is another form of direct power and

influence by women. The major foundations of the male

role are reputation and providing for the household. The

chances of failure are great, therefore, role identity is

fragile even under the best of circumstances. Gossip by women directed at the men's reputations or their ability

to meet their role expectations, especially their ability

to provide, are inducements to conform. Gossip, or the

threat of gossip, has a controlling effect upon the men.

No male is so secure in his role and his role identity that he can ignore their gossip. The women are aware of this and use it to influence the men.

The young man referred to in an earlier chapter, the one whose reputation was hurt through lack of paternity, is a case in point. Upon the pregnancy of the girl, the gossip and the pressure stopped, however, he mistreated the expectant mother. They argued constantly and he re­ fused any support to her. There were things that she needed and wanted that he refused to provide even though he was financially capable of fulfilling these requests.

Several times he beat her. She related this to her mother and other women in her network. Suddenly, a rumor started that he was not the father of the future baby. There was another man from the next village who was truly the father.

This rumor spread through the networks until everyone in the village was acquainted with it. The men began to 225 laugh at him. Shortly thereafter, another rumor surfaced that alleged that he might be an "anti-man*' (homosexual).

Everywhere he went in the village, people would turn and whisper to each other, laugh or avoid him. Throughout all this, the pregnant woman said absolutely nothing to deny or affirm the rumor. Eventually, he went to the pregnant woman, gave her everything that he had earlier refused/ and promised to treat her better and make sure that both she and the baby would be provided for if she would admit that indeed he was the father. She said that she would think about it, and proceeded to test him for several weeks by requesting that he get her things or do something for her. When she felt that he was sincere, she started to tell people that he was the true father. • The rumors stopped, the young man conformed, and both received what they wanted. When I questioned her later about this inci­ dent, all she did was laugh and say, "Shut-mout de frog no catch fly." The exercise of this power and influence of women to achieve social control is, in itself, a part of their adaptive role, and can clearly be seen at the working level of the law. Where the established path to the law (the

State legal system of St. Kitts) is blocked, the adaptive role of women comes into play to generate another means of achieving social control and seeking redress to wrongs.

This is discussed in the next chapter under Alternative

Forms of Law. 226

Work and Relaxation

The life of a Kittitian woman is a life of work. From

an early age, women are introduced into the world of work

in ‘the private sector, the home. Girls are given the re­

sponsibility of cleaning the house, making clothes, cook­

ing, and most importantly, taking care of their younger

brothers and sisters. Pressure is put on them to find work

in the public sector to supplement the household income.

Often this money may be the sole source of income for the

woman and her family.

They know that jobs are very scarce, and they also

know that men often do not fulfill their role expectations,

especially the one concerning providing for the household.

Their entire lifestyle is, therefore, structured towards

the possibility of entering the public sector of work. The

individual becomes the primary unit of organization so that

she can respond quickly to any opportunity that develops.

The individual, as the main focal point of organization,

also acts as a constraint on social obligations beyond a

few lineal kinsmen so that her meager resources in hard

times are not strained.

This preparedness to enter the public work sector pro­

vided by the adaptive role can be used to explain and pre­

dict Kittitian women's behavior. For example, the majority

of Kittitian women prefer to feed their infants with a mixed feeding program (Gussler 1979: 59-65). They give 227

the child the breast in the morning and at night. The rest of the feedings during the day consist of bottles of a

liquified cornmeal porridge. When questioned as to their reason for this choice of infant feeding, they stated that they must always be prepared to go to work if a job oppor­ tunity becomes available. When a job comes along, the child is already familiar with the bottle so they can give the child to a friend or relative to take care of while at work. The bottle can be substituted for the breast without difficulty. A young girl's training in housework, cooking, and taking care of children also proves useful because she is prepared to take over these operations full-time if her mother gets a job.

The adaptive role also increases the woman's capabil­ ity to migrate if the opportunity arises. To migrate to the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or Great

Britain is the Kittitians' dream, and they want to be pre­ pared to leave the instant the chance arises. Jobs are important to Kittitian women, and they want nothing to prevent them from missing the chance to get one or to even miss a day of work if they already have one.

The woman's life, centered as it is upon work in both the public and private sector of Kittitian life, leaves little time for relaxation. As can be seen in the typical days in the life of Kittitian women presented earlier in this chapter, even those women who only work in the private 228 sector have little free time to themselves. Those who work in both sectors have even less timer for they are expected to perform all their private duties, as well as their public job.

Relaxation comes in the form of talk, listening to the radio and church activities. Many women attend church three or four nights a week, as well as the traditional

Sunday services. Dances also provide a form of recreation for women, however, with age, attendance at dances drops off rapidly. Once a child is born, the woman finds she has little time for dances unless she is still living with her mother. Even then, with age, her dancing days decrease.

Many of the forms of relaxation, upon further scru­ tiny, reveal that they provide far more than a simple means to relax for Kittitian women. Talk and listening to the radio provide women with information about jobs, the "how­ to" to get working visas for the U.S. or Great Britain, and what is happening in their village, city, country and the world. This information can then be applied to their adap­ tive roles to fulfill expectations and/or gain or use power in both the private and public sectors through selec­ tive dissemination of this news to the men. Church atten­ dance and participation in church activities provide rec­ reation but, as mentioned in Chapter VI in the section on religion, it also is a means of gaining respectability which enhances the woman's social status. It is a form of 229 work, not for money, but for social status paid in a social currency called respectability.

Religion i

A great deal has already been said about the role of religion in the lives of women from the point of view of respectability and relaxation, so little more need be said except to point out several major activities that involve women and the church. One is marriage, another activity is the christening of their children, and a third is in a leadership position. These are important social events linked with respectability.

Marriage is the ultimate goal for all women inter­ viewed. Legally, the registrar-general, all district magis­ trates, and every minister of the Christian religion or­ dained or otherwise can act as marriage officers. (Revised

Laws of St. Christopher, Nevis and Anguilla, Vol. 5: 2845-

2846.) Only the ministers, however, really play a role because of the respectability linked with the church. Both parties must be twenty-one years old to marry without their parents' permission, and they must post banns before getting a license, except under special permission of the administrator. The marriage bann states as follows:

I publish the banns of marriage between ______, of (here state parish, dis- trict or place), bachelor or widower (as the case may be) , and ______, of (here state parish, district or 230

place), spinster or widow (as the case may be).

If any of you know cause or just impedi­ ment why these two persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony ye are to declare it.

This is the first (or second, or third, as the case may be) time of asking.

Just cause is usually given as a degree of related­ ness, as defined by the Kittitian laws concerning incest which states as follows:

Intermarriage between the persons herein­ after mentioned is hereby prohibited, namely:

(1) In the case of persons related by blood between—

(a) ascendants and descendants namely, parents and children upwards and downward in infin­ itum. (b) brothers and sisters, or step­ brothers and step-sisters.* (c) uncles and their nieces, that is, their brothers' or sisters' children or grandchildren and descendants or aunts and their nephews, that is, their brothers' or sisters' sons or grandsons or their descendants in both classes of case in infinitum.

(2) In the case of persons related by affinity between—

(a) a husband and any kinswoman or kindred of his deceased wife or the wife and any kinswoman or kindred of her deceased

*Under the revised laws of St. Christopher, Nevis and Anguilla "step" is equivalent to our concept of "half." 231

husband related to such husband or wife in the hereafter stated degrees. (1) any person and his daughter- in-law, that is, his son's widow or his son's or daughter's son's widow and so downward any widow of any of his descendants. (2) any wife and her son-in-law, that is, the husband of her deceased daughter, or the husband of her son's or daughter's daughter and so downward the husband of any of her descendants. (b) any man and his step-daughter or any woman and her step-son. (c) any man and his wife's niece or the widow of his nephew or any woman and her husband's nephew or the widower of her niece.

(3) provided always that any man may here­ after marry the sister of his deceased wife (Revised Laws of St. Christopher, Nevis, Anguilla: Vol. 5: 2845-2846).

If there are no objections to the marriage, the couple

then must obtain a license which costs $25 E.C. and ar­ range the wedding. Almost everyone who knows the couple is invited to both the service and the reception. Usually

the entire village turns out to watch, the uninvited peer­ ing through the windows and doors. This large visual social event ensures the establishment of respectability and enhanced status for the couple.

The second event linked to respectability is the chris­ tening. Whether married or not, all parents want their children christened in a service that will link the child with the Church and respectability, both for the child and 232

its parents. It also acts as a social recognition, often

the only formal recognition, of paternity— the father is

always present and signs the christening certificate. If

the' parents are not married, this opportunity is taken by

the minister to harangue the parents for their sin of bear­

ing children out of wedlock, thereby perpetuating the con­ cept of the respectability of marriage. It must be noted, however, that although the lecture is for all who are there

(parents, friends, etc.), most is directed at the mother, not the father. Often this time of joy is marred by anguish on the part of the mother who feels guilty and ashamed. One final aspect of formal religion must be mentioned.

For women, most of religion takes place in the private sector of life except for in the "sideways" or pentecostal churches. Here women can enter the public sphere through the ministry. Many of the ministers of the "sideways" churches are women with little or no ministerial training other than that obtained through church services and work.

The services are informal, with any member of the congrega­ tion so inclined allowed to get up and preach, as the spirit fills them. These services involve trance states interpreted as possession by the "holy spirit," and testi­ fying. A woman who stands out as exceptionally holy can, when an opening is created, move up to fill the position of minister who acts as a guide for the congregation. On 233 St. Kitts, this is one path for women to public roles.

Obeah must also be mentioned when discussing women.

Obeah is a form of magic carried over from Africa, but many Kittitians talk about it as a religion, associated with Satan. Both men and women can practice obeah, although it is believed that men are the more powerful practitioners.

Few people admit to practicing obeah themselves because it identifies them with the "old ways," and because it is against the legal code; yet they all are quick to name everyone else as persons with obeah knowledge.

Women and obeah are associated with two concerns— social control and love potions. Female obeah practition­ ers are associated with bush medicines for illness and love potions. With marriage as a major goal of women, and the importance of men to women for money and help, it is under­ standable why love potions are popular. It is said that for a small fee, either in the form of money or food, a young girl or woman can get a potion to mix with a man's food that will cause him to fall madly in love with her or make him want to marry her. There are even said to be potions to ensure the man's fidelity or to control him.

The more important role of obeah associated with women— social control— is discussed in detail in the next chapter. There it is shown to provide an alternative for the legal system, some of which is discussed next. 234

Law

The law, as officially recognized by the government

of St. Kitts, is the law of Great Britain. This section t will summarize the law of St. Kitts as it pertains to

women, looking at both criminal and civil law.

Criminal Law

The criminal law is the same for all Kittitians.

Since what constitutes a crime is similar to that in the

United States, no listing of specific laws will be men­

tioned except those that appear as important for the pur­

pose of this discussion.

Women appear not to be involved in many criminal acts

as the perpetrators of the act. Rather, they are more

often the victims of crimes. Of all the criminal offenses,

the ones that women are the most actively involved in are

fighting and indecent language. Most of the fighting, which often involves knives or broken bottles, are over a man. Either two women fight over a man or they fight the man because he has been running around with other women.

Kittitian men are seen as important to women because they give them money, food, presents, and sometimes even buy

them dresses. When another women 'tiefs' the man,

suddenly he stops giving money and presents to the first

woman— which she really needs and wants— and a fight results.

A typical example is a twenty year old woman, eight months 235 pregnant who was given a three month jail term for wounding

her boyfriend and another woman at a rum shop. She saw

her boyfriend with the other woman at the rum shop and

instigated a fight with her which involved a broken Coke

bottle. The rival woman was cut on the neck, and when the

boyfriend began to escort the wounded woman to the hospital,

the defendant attacked him and her, cutting both on the

hands. The defendant had five previous convictions for

fighting and indecent language since she was sixteen.

Eighty-seven percent of the forty cases I recorded

involved fights and/or indecent language. The rest of the crimes women were involved in as perpetrators involved

theft, possession of Hammond (illegal rum) or marijuana, abortions, and one case of prostitution. Abortion is a very serious offense on St. Kitts. The

law makes some of the women very angry. They do not want

to have another child, especially if they have a job, and feel their rights are being violated when they abort and are subsequently charged with a crime. The thought is that they want children but not at this time. The law, known as the Infant Life Preservation Act, passed in 1937, states as follows: 1. ...any person who, with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, by any willful act causes a child to die before it has an existence independent of its mother, shall be guilty of a felony, to wit, of child destruction, 236

and shall be liable on convic­ tion... to imprisonment for life with or without hard labor? provided that no person shall be found guilty of an offense under this section unless it is proved that the act which caused the death of the child was not done in good faith for the purpose only of preserving the life of the mother.

2. Every woman, being with child, who, with the intent to produce her own miscarriage, unlawfully administers to herself any poison...or unlaw­ fully uses any instrument...and whosoever with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman...is guilty of a felony and...shall be liable to be imprisoned for any term not to exceed ten years, with or without hard labor. (The Revised Laws of St. Christopher-Nevis- Anguilla: Vol. I.)

The women I interviewed feel this is a repressive law, and forty percent of them have ignored it. They also named many others who they knew had illegally aborted.

Older women often will help younger ones by giving them folk remedies to ingest to cause uterine contractions, thereby producing a miscarriage. The fruit, leaves and flowers of maiden apple ingested in large quantities, I was told, is the best thing to take to induce a miscarriage.

The illegal possession and distilling of Hammond is also seen as a repressive law. Many women told me that it was their only way to get a little money to support their family and, during the winter months, it was the only thing they could give their children for lunch because they 237 had no food to give them at noon.

The one case of prostitution is also very interesting.

Prom all the information I could gather, there appear to be 'only four professional prostitutes on St. Kitts. They operate at the Royal St. Kitts where most of the tourists can be found. My informants told me that to stay around the Royal St. Kitts costs money, and most Kittitians cannot afford it, so only a woman who is somewhat well-off can afford to become a prostitute. The role of prostitute is seen by the Kittitians as a role only of well-off women.

All other women are too poor to be prostitutes.

Whatever the offense a woman is charged with, the court imposes control over female sexual behavior. The topic of sexual promiscuity is almost always introduced, and the women offenders are treated differentially, accord­ ing to their past sexual activity or their potential to become sexually active. More concern is directed towards the moral welfare of female offenders than that of male offenders. As mentioned earlier, more women are victims of crime rather than perpetrators. The major crimes reported of which they were the victims were theft, beating and rape.

I was told, however, by the magistrates, solicitors and the people themselves, that very few of these offenses were reported so they seldom came to trial. Most theft is handled through an alternate, informal, legal system at 238 the individual level. Wife or girlfriend beating is not seen as a crime in the eyes of the people, and therefore, not reported by the victim unless it is so serious that it requires medical attention. And rape involves a serious social stigma for the victim and, as such, is also not often reported.

Civil Law

Family Law

By and large, the general principles of family law are the same in the West Indies as in England; yet the forms which the family often take in the Caribbean are not common in England. The semi-permanent liaison so mislead­ ingly called common-law marriage* by many in England; the legal marriage contracted at quite a late age, perhaps after a period of de facto marriage; the large number of illegitimate children in a family; the consanguineal family group from which the adult male is often absent are phenomena which indicate that significantly different social conditions in the West Indies. It is not surprising that difficulties in the application of the laws arise.

In many countries of the Eastern Caribbean, except St.

Lucia, the common law is in force, and to this have been

*To be a common-law marriage, the couple must present themselves to others as being married, which Kittitians generally do not do. 239

added statutes usually based upon English patterns or

English doctrines. None of the countries have adopted all or even most of recent English developments. For example,

the' improved status of illegitimate children in the United

Kingdom has not yet been granted to Kittitian children.

The laws relating to divorce are one concern of the women of St. Kitts. Although the number of marriages on

St. Kitts is quite small (an average of 138.25/year over a twelve year period), marriage is still an ideal and most women hope someday to be married. Yet, despite this strong wish to be married, the women realize that a marriage may not last and, therefore, a concern with the divorce laws arises. Under British law, divorce is becoming quite easy with no-fault divorce and marriage disolutions that have been introduced over the last fifteen years in response to the changing circumstances of women in Great Britain.

Such liberal divorce laws, however, have not found their way into St. Kitts as of yet. The divorce laws of St.

Kitts are those of Great Britain in the year 1948. These laws state:

No petition for divorce shall be presented to the supreme court unless at the date of the presentation of the petition three years have passed since the date of the marriage...provided that a judge...may... allow a petition to be presented before three years...on the ground that the case is one of exceptional hardship suffered by the petitioner or of exceptional depravity on the part of the respondent.... 240 (The Revised Laws of St. Christopher, Nevis and Anguilla, Vol. I, Chapt. 50: 505-519).

Discussion with several judges and solicitors revealed that this exception is rarely used. Most could not recall any cases where less than three years were involved.

Grounds for divorce for either spouse are four:

1. adultery 2. cruelty 3. desertion for more than three years 4. mental illness "incurably of unsound mind"

The woman may also petition for divorce from her husband if he has been found guilty of rape, sodomy or bestiality.

Of these grounds, adultery and desertion are the most fre­ quently used, with the charge of adultery primarily leveled against the women and desertion against the men. Of all divorces that have occurred on the island in the last twen­ ty years, 97 percent (27 cases) have involved the white minority on the island, with the majority of these involv­ ing the wife suing the husband for desertion.

If the divorce is granted, the decree is not made absolute until the expiration of six months from the time of the pronouncement, thereby providing the couple with time to reconcile. Legal separations are also recognized whereby, upon the decree, the wife is considered as "feme sole" with respect to any acquisition of property or for the purpose of contract and wrongs or injuries. 241 Another problem which may face the Kittitian woman

seeking a divorce is the place of domicile. Although there

is no statutory law of domicile in St. Kitts, it is the

accepted practice that the woman acquires her husband's

domicile upon marriage, and a person can only get a divorce

in the country in which he or she is domiciled. In St.

Kitts, the courts have no jurisdiction in divorce unless

the parties are domiciled there. Therefore, if the man

leaves St. Kitts and sets up a domicile in another country

and the wife remains in St. Kitts, she cannot sue him for

divorce no matter what the grounds. Some men have used

this as a way of preventing divorce.

This close adherence to British concepts gives rise

to several other legal difficulties such as the problems

surrounding the guardianship of infants. A Judicial Com­

mittee in England in 1879 held that any interpretation put

upon a piece of legislation by an English court of appeal must be followed in any territory which had adopted that

legislation verbatim. Thus, the courts in the West Indies

were obliged to accept such interpretation whatever alter­

natives their own experience suggested. St. Kitts adopted

without alteration the Guardianship of Infants Acts of 1886

and 1925 which provide for the mother being named the

guardian of all children under age when a divorce occurs.

In an interpretation of these statutes, a judge sitting on

appeal in England held that neither the mother nor the 242

putative father of an illegitimate child could invoke the

provisions of the Guardianship of Infants Act. St. Kitts,

therefore, had no power to use these statutes to settle

disputes relating to the custody of illegitimate children.

After the granting of internal independence, the laws were

not changed and so the decision still stands, leading to

severe hardship in such cases.

Women and children also suffer in St. Kitts because

of the inadequate maintenance awards which are given in

the Magistrate's Court. The Magistrate, under Kittitian

law, may make an order in appropriate cases, upon the

application of a married woman, that the spouse shall pay

the other party such weekly sum, not exceeding $30 E.C.

($10 U.S.), for the maintenance of each child of the mar­

riage until that child attains the age of 16 years. In

the Supreme Court, the amount of alimony that may be ordered to be paid to a wife depends on the means of the parties and, generally speaking, does not exceed one-third of the joint income of the parties.

Insofar as illegitimate children are concerned, the

right of these children to be supported by the putative

father is governed by the Illegitimates Act which was passed in 1932 to provide for the maintenance of illegiti­ mate children in certain circumstances. Upon application

to a Magistrate by a single woman who has a child, the

Magistrate may summon the putative father to appear before 243 him and hear the evidence of the mother and the putative father. If the putative father denies paternity and the

Magistrate is satisfied by the evidence of the mother, corroborated in some material particular by two or more witnesses or by a witness and other material and indepen­ dent circumstances, the Magistrate may adjudge the man to be the father and order him to pay the mother or person having the custody of the child a weekly sum not exceeding

$15 E.C. ($5 U.S.) until the child attains the age of 14 r - , years or dies before attaining that age.

Three things should be noted; (1) the wife forfeits the right of maintenance for herself if, in the opinion of the Magistrate, she has been guilty of misconduct (miscon­ duct is most often construed as sexual liaisons), (2) the disparity in age limits between legitimate and illegiti­ mate children as it concerns the end of maintenance sup­ port, and (3) the limit on the sum to be awarded by the court; $15 E.C. per child. My investigation showed that only four women receive the maximum maintenance for their children. The average is $2-$4 per child per week. As one of my informants so aptly put it, "Tis1 not enuff to pay for me soap, monl"

A common feature of West Indian society is the de facto union or concubinage, sometimes misleadingly called a common-law marriage. This union is without any legal recognition. Neither the man nor the woman in such a 244

union has any rights in the eyes of the law. There are

no legal formalities for the creation of such a union or

for its dissolution. All children born to the parties

during the relationship are illegitimate and remain so unless legitimated at a later time by a petition for legi­

timation after the marriage of their parents. The prob­

lems of "legitimated" children is discussed below.

Although provision is made for the father of an ille­ gitimate child to acknowledge his parenthood on the child's birth certificate or christening certificate, this does not render the child legitimate, and thereby entitled to

succeed to the father's estate. The most this recognition will achieve is to facilitate the enforcement of the

father's liability to maintain. In consequence, if a child is to succeed to his father's property, the succes­

sion must be as the consequence of testamentary provision.

In most countries in the West Indies, an illegitimate child is considered "filius nullus" and cannot succeed to his father's property on an intestacy. Even where there is a will, the usual presumption in favor of legitimate issue must be applied.

The man may often recognize his role expectations to support the woman with whom he is living, but in law the woman has no claim against him if he leaves her unable to look after herself. She cannot seek a maintenance order from the courts nor, as a rule, is she entitled to pledge 245

his credit for necessaries if he neglects her. If there

are children from the relationship, she may petition for

maintenance for them under the maintenance laws governing

illegitimate children. She cannot seek anything for her­

self.

As far as can be seen from the law reports of the

court and discussions with legal officials, no use has been made of the common law presumption that where parties are

living together the woman has authority to order neces­

saries or to pledge the male's credit. This rule, of

little importance in England, might easily become useful

in the West Indian context.

From the preceding discussion, it should be quite

clear that under Kittitian law the man may be made liable

for the maintenance of his illegitimate children, but

practical difficulties are experienced in enforcing these

duties. The constant movement and migration of labor and

the consequent difficulty of tracing the man, financial

inability to pay when found, and the reluctance of the woman to take the matter to court are but a few examples.

It is apparent from the brief description of family law

in St. Kitts specifically, and the West Indies in general,

that the reliance upon English solutions to West Indian problems is unsatisfactory. 246

Law of Property

Land law, equity and succession in the West Indies

raise problems similar to those posed by family law. The

law is often based upon a system, now replaced in Great

Btitain, complete with its legal complexities and techni­

calities. Difficulties arise, however, not only from the

administration of outdated law, but also from the growth

of customary practices which are not recognized in law and

with which the law is not equipped to deal.

The customary practice of de facto unions is a case in

point. According to the Legitimacy Act of 1929, on St.

Kitts illegitimate issue can succeed only to the estate of

the mother on her intestacy, provided that she left no

legitimate child or grandchild surviving her. When an

illegitimate child dies intestate, the mother is entitled

to take an interest to the same extent as the mother of a

legitimate child. By definition, an illegitimate child

is "filius nullus" and the intestacy cannot inherit from

his putative father, nor can his putative father inherit

from him. In practice, I found that when there is no testament­ ary disposition, and there rarely is because to make a will

costs money which few can afford, the principle of joint

inheritance (of land or houses) by all the children is practiced. Also, there was no apparent discrimination

against illegitimate children. Children of a deceased 247

woman, whether legitimate or illegitimate, whether legi­

timate issue survive or not, succeed to her estate. This

is the customary, not the legal principle.

A perusal of the laws of inheritance on the books in

St. Kitts also shows that the laws of inheritance favor the male, especially the oldest son of any marriage. The wife

receives one-half, and if there are children she gets one-

third. The oldest son inherits subject to the wife's por­

tion. There is even one section of the inheritance act

that states that the entire male line of the deceased must be.exhausted before the female line is considered. Upon investigation, I found that for all practical purposes this is a "dead" law. It has not been enforced in years, partly because of the inherent inequity, and mainly because the customary practices do not involve the established legal system and its courts.

Problems of inheritance are further increased by a special group of individuals called "legitimated persons."

On St. Kitts, a person is either illegitimate, legitimate, or legitimated. Upon marriage, even if the couple is in their forties, their first goal is to have a child that, by definition, will be legitimate. After that they may, upon petition to the Supreme Court pursuant to the Legiti­ macy Act of 1929, have all their issue declared legiti­ mated. This allows those who become legitimated and their spouses and children to take an interest: (1) in the 248 estate of an intestate dying after the date of legitima­

tion/ (2) in any disposition coming into operation after

the date of legitimation/ and (3) by descent created after

the* date of legitimation. In other words, legitimated people have rights to inheritance denied to the illegiti­ mate.

The legitimated person, however, is just that— legi­

timated. They are not legitimate in the true legal sense of the word. Where the right to any property, real or personal, depends upon the relative seniority of the children, and those children include both legitimate and

legitimated persons, the legitimated person or persons shall rank as if he or they had been born on the day and year he or they became legitimated. Thus, although bio­ logically they may be the senior in rank, legally they more often are the junior because of their date of legi­ timation. A thirty year old woman or man may legally be considered, for purposes of seniority, to be three or five years old, for example. Their problem may lead to tension in families, for the illegitimate children who could become legitimated may pressure the parents not to get married or if they do, not to have any legitimate children. If they fail in this, the legitimated children and their legitimate brothers and sisters quite often have strained interactions with the strain increasing as the parents age. The law determines the order of inheritance 249 for legitimates but to the parents all the children are

equal— all are loved and should share.

Several other issues must be mentioned. One is the

question of the matrimonial home. If the husband goes out

to work and provides the money with which to purchase the matrimonial home while the wife stays at home looking after

the children, but provided no direct financial contribu­

tion, all interest in the home is in the hands of the male. The woman, although contributing to the well-being of the family, would not receive from the court any inter­

est in the home if they separated or divorced. If the

husband purchased the matrimonial home and he deserts his wife and children, she does not have a legal right to con­

tinue to occupy the house. He can throw her out. She may, however, be entitled to maintenance. The woman of a de facto union has no rights to the house or maintenance.

The majority of my female informants told me this was their major fear. Often their boyfriends would threaten to kick

them and their children out. They said it is safer if

they could own or rent the house instead of the men, but most of the male landlords and owners would not rent or

sell to a woman. The males insisted on renting or selling

to other males, stating that women, "were not very respon­

sible." Added to this is the fact that there are very few female landlords, and even those few prefer to deal with

the males. 250 Savings from the housekeeping money provides an even more dramatic expression of what some call "male legal chauvinism." It has been held consistently by Kittitian courts that any savings made from housekeeping money by a wife or any property bought with such savings belongs to the husband. This rule works undoubted injustice, since it ignores the fact that the savings may be due as much to the thriftiness of the woman as to the fact that the man has earned the money. The Married Woman's Property Act of

1964 has alleviated the plight of the English woman in this regard; the Kittitian woman is not yet so fortunate.

St. Kitts operates under the Married Woman's Property Act t of 1882, which does not view the legal rights of the woman as generously.

The above has been a brief overview of the established legal system as it pertains to women on St. Kitts. These legal practices often are counter to the customary prac­ tices of the people, and are definitely biased in favor of the men. As pointed out, however, there is an alternative legal system operating at the informal level that permeates both the public and private sectors of most Kittitian lives. Their other legal system more accurately reflects the cultural patterns of the people and provides a wide array of paths for fulfillment of the role expectancies of the female adaptive roles. 251

Summary

This chapter has presented the Kittitian women's roles as adaptive, generalized roles, compared to the specialized, adapted roles of men. Kittitian culture was discussed, focusing upon the woman's adaptive role in the area of family and social organization, work and relaxa­ tion, religion and law. Women more often are seen as occupying the private sector and men the public sector, despite the fact that many women hold public sector jobs.

It was pointed out that, despite this dichotomy of role sectors, the power and influence lies with women in the private sector. The public sector, mainly occupied by the male roles, lends little power to the men. Male-female interactions on the surface, upon analysis, prove to be a form of ritual deference by the women which acts as a balancing of power between the sexes. CHAPTER VIII

' THE SELECTIVE UTILIZATION OF THE LAW BY WOMEN ON THE ISLAND OF ST. KITTS

This chapter discusses the selective utilization of

legal avenues of assistance by women on the island of St.

Kitts. It begins with a delineation of the concept of selective utilization of the law. This is followed by a discussion of the factors involved in the selective utili­

zation processes that were found through the research con­ ducted. After the evidence has been presented showing that there is indeed selective utilization of the law operating on St. Kitts, and after the major factors involved have been discussed, the remainder of this chapter focuses on the practices that are being employed by women in place of the official legal procedure to seek and receive assistance and bring about social control.

Selective Utilization on St. Kitts

The selective utilization of any form of assistance, be it medical, legal or whatever, can be studied in two different ways. One way is to focus upon a particular group of individuals to see if some members of the group are taking advantage of the assistance available while others are not. If this is found to be the case, then one can

252 253 state that a selective utilization is indeed occurring and the research should then proceed to isolate the factors involved in the process. The second way in which to state thal: selective utilization is taking place is to discover that the group as a whole is taking advantage of certain aspects of an assistance program that is available, but neglecting or completely ignoring other aspects of the same, program.

Is selective utilization of legal avenues of assis­ tance operating among women on St. Kitts and if so, which type of utilization? If it is occurring, why is this the case and what alternatives, if any, are there?

Observation of actual cases and review of available records (520 cases in- total), discussions with legal officials (Magistrates, court clerks), and interviews with solicitors, informants, government officials and a survey of the newspapers reveals that both types of selective utilization are occurring on the island. The majority of interactions between Kittitians and the official legal system involve criminal cases where the initiative of legal utilization is in the hands of the state and its official representatives. Such cases do not fall under the purview of this research. Only cases where a specific individual goes to the official representatives and issues a complaint or formal charge against another which is then acted upon by the officials are included. 254

Despite the fact that over 70% of all legal interac­ tions that 1 investigated fell into this category, it is important to note two things: {1) these cases represent approximately 2.14%/1000 population per year; and (2) these cases involved a marked predominance of the male sex, only

11% involving females. This means that only a very small segment of the Kittitian population in any one year had an interaction with the official legal system under the above- mentioned circumstances. Females had even less contact.

The other 30% of the cases investigated did fall within the criteria of interactions where selective utilization was possible. These cases involved criminal law where a complaint was or could have been filed by an individual, and civil law involving such areas as wills, estates, in­ heritance, child maintenance or support, divorce and so forth. In these cases selective utilization of the legal avenue in both its forms was observed.

Analysis of these cases revealed that only a very small portion of the total female population of the island made use of the available avenues of legal aid. Assuming that the age of a female to initiate a legal interaction would begin around 14 or 15 (the age when the first preg­ nancy often occurs}, my sample of 80 cases reveals that only

.72% of the eligible population used any legal avenue of assistance. Of those that used legal assistance, 72% could be characterized as upper-middle or upper class Kittitian 255 women based upon criteria of education, family income, occu­ pation and color. This group consisted of the wives and daughters of government ministers, former white sugar i estate owners, merchants, insurance people and solicitors.

The major avenues utilized in descending order of use con­ sisted of the making of wills, property laws, inheritance, divorce and child maintenance. Child maintenance was the least used by the upper-middle to upper class group. Ac­ cording to government officials, married women are eligible for more child maintenance than unmarried women. Most of the women in this category are married. According to the department of social welfare in 1978, 900 women were divorced and eligible for child maintenance, yet only 10 women received child support. These ten women, who usually came from at least a middle class family, either returned home to their parents or their parents found them a house and are taking care of both the woman and her child. Quite often ex-husbands, who were usually men of high socio­ economic status, would leave the island, and, if ordered to pay, would refuse and the women could do nothing about it.

The other 28% of those who had used a legal avenue con­ sisted of lower class black women many of whom lived in

Basseterre. The avenues used by them in descending order were child maintenance for unmarried women, and certain criminal charges with theft being the major charge. 256 In the case of the second form of selective utiliza­

tion, it was found that those who actually used a legal

avenue, or who might in the future have call to initiate a

legal action, did or would use only certain avenues and not

others. For example, in the area of criminal law women

would and did make use of the laws concerning theft of

property and, at times, the law concerning rape; but they

would not use a law concerning assault and battery when

their boyfriend or husband beat them— even when it was seri­

ous enough to require hospitalization.

Between the years 1968-1978 there were 3000 cases

where a complaint was filed by a citizen. Twelve percent

of those complaints (360 cases) were filed by women. Of

those female complaints, 259 cases involved criminal

charges. Theft accounted for eighty percent of those

charges (203 cases) and rape for a little more than two

percent (6 cases). Only two cases of beating were reported

and in neither case were the charges filed by the women

themselves. In one case the complaint was signed by the

woman's parents. In the other case the police were called

by neighbors and arrived on the scene to actually witness

the beating and they filed the complaint. Both of these

cases involved middle-class women, one black, the other

Middle Eastern

Of the thirty-five women I worked with, all but three

admitted that either their present man or a former man had . 257

beat them at least once. None of them, however, reported

it to officials. Even the hypothetical cases using situa­

tions in other villages, revealed that this was not some­

thing to report. From hypothetical situations, ranging from

the woman arguing and hitting the man first to the woman

asleep when the man returns drunk and he begins to beat her

without provocation, at no time did the women feel that it

was a crime to do this. Even in the one situation where

the woman was presented to the informants as a white woman,

daughter of a former sugar estate owner, their response

followed the same line of reasoning. In this case, however,

they did feel that the woman probably would report the man

to the authorities although they all agreed she should not.

Life as a woman is tough and beatings are an expected part

of that hard life.

In the civil area, some women avail themselves of wills,

divorce and laws of property, yet the inheritance laws are

often skirted, especially when illegitimate children are

concerned. This is true in both groups, the lower class

and upper-middle. Little hard data in the form of statis­

tics is available in this area. The Magistrate and solici­

tors estimate that in the area of civil law less than one percent involve a woman, despite the fact that property is

being passed on to children. Based upon these discoveries, the selective utiliza­

tion of legal avenues of assistance by women on St. Kitts 258 was confirmed. The same holds true when looking at the

Kittitian male population, but to a lesser extent than with females.

i

Reasons for Selective Use of the Law

After receiving confirmation that selective utiliza­ tion was operating on St, Kitts among females, two problems were delineated. One was to find out why, and the other was to investigate what, if anything, was being used in place of these official avenues. Four factors were found to be operating in the selective usage of law. For some women all four factors were involved, for others only one; for most it was a combination of several factors. This section will discuss these factors.

I Didn't Know it was There— -the Awareness Factor

Lack of awareness of the available avenue of assis­ tance is one of the least important, but nonetheless an operating factor in why some Kittitian women do not use the law. I found only several women for whom this factor was a major force. Two were teenage mothers, ages fifteen and sixteen; and three were mothers in their twenties, out of a total population interviewed, either formally or in­ formally, of 236 women. All five women were rural, living in the poorest village on the island. They were truly unaware that the law could be engaged to relieve their sit­ uations. Their only knowledge of the law was that it was 259

something that would be used against them in a criminal

sense, i.e. they knew some of the criminal code concerning

rape, murder and theft.

The rest of the sample was very much aware that the

law could be a tool used to improve their situation. They

were very thoroughly versed in the statement of law, and

included it in their repertoire of possibilities; but often

would still not make use of it. Vet even with an extensive

knowledge of the statement of the law, there was an unaware­

ness concerning the subtle use that could be made of it.

Perhaps the most striking and serious example of this is

found in the area of child maintenance. These women were

all aware that as unmarried mothers they were entitled to

support from the father of the child. They knew that they

could go before the Magistrate's Court with a request for

aid for their child or children. The Magistrate could

summon the putative father to appear before him and hear

the evidence of the mother and the putative father, and if

satisfactory proof was received, could adjudge the man to

be the father and order him to pay maintenance. Vet, these women never initiated this action. The major reason they

gave was that they felt that they had no satisfactory proof

that the man was indeed the child's father. They knew that he was, but how to prove it? Here, their inadequate aware­

ness of the subtlety of the law was operating. As mentioned earlier, Kittitian males' identity as men hinges upon their ability to be a father. Therefore, when a child is born

the father is more than willing to come forward and claim

paternity at the child's christening. What the women are

unaware of is that the christening certificate is consid­

ered, in the eyes of the law, as a legal document and,

therefore, assigns legal paternity to the male who signs it.

The women, however, see this document only as a religious

certificate and, therefore, do not know that this paper can

be used before a Magistrate as proof of paternity. In discussions with legal officials, I pointed out this un­

awareness which made thousands of women available for main­

tenance aid, and told them that announcement of the above

information to the women of the island might be beneficial

to the women. I was told that it would be better if the women were to remain ignorant of this subtle fact. The officials said that since this case involves poor unwed mothers, and the fathers are usually not able to pay, it would cause undue hardship on the men, and also potentially network the women into the social welfare department which has some funds to dole out in such cases but not nearly enough to cover all potential cases that would arise from

such an announcement. This, I was told, would be an embar­ rassment to the government. 261

Legal Assistance, An Avenue for the Wealthy— The Economic Factor

Probably the most pervasive of all the factors in­

volved in selective usage of a legal avenue on St. Kitts

is the economic factor. In almost all cases investigated,

the cost of engaging the legal system was found to be play­

ing a role. In many, it was the most important factor; but

in all cases it was there, at least under the surface.

On St. Kitts there is no form of legal aid for those

who cannot afford it. No public defender program or other

form of state aid is available. Without a solicitor the

individual would fumble around in the dark and either feel

humiliated, incompetent and angry; or become so afraid that

they would disengage the system swearing never to attempt

to use it again.

Kittitian women refuse to use legal assistance on their

own. Only if a solicitor can be obtained would the legal

avenues be seriously considered. Since the majority of the

people on the island are very poor, having little to no

steady income from which to hire a solicitor, legal avenues

are seen as beyond the realm of possibility.

This economic factor is also operating among those who

are employed. Even when working, money is a concern. Not

only will it cost money to engage a solicitor but it will

also cost money when the case is heard. All court cases are heard on working days; therefore, if one goes to court one 262 must take time off from work. Most work situations on St.

Kitts do not provide for leave time, or sick time for that matter. This factor weighs heavily in any decision to use

a 16gal avenue, since money is desperately needed elsewhere.

Therefore, most people will opt for some other method to

achieve their ends. Only if all else fails then one may decide to risk the money for legal assistance. As one Kit­ titian woman so aptly stated: "Hungry hae no massa! Food on de table, dat come first. Law no fe poor folk, only de rich who no hungry."

"But that doesn't fit the family system found here"— The Social/Cultural Conflict Factor

This factor involves all cases where there is a con­ flict of values, institutional definitions or interpreta­ tions of roles between the majority of Kittitians and the established legal system. The important thing here is to remember that the legal system as an institution is a trans­ planted system from another culture. Its values, morals, definitions and interpretation of social roles and inter­ actions often reflect English culture, not the culture of

St. Kitts. The datedness of the Kittitian version, and the conflicts produced by interpretations and definitions that do not parallel those of the majority of the people on the island, operate to discourage the use of this system. In­ stead, it encourages the development and use of an 263

alternative system more consistent with the values and beliefs of the people— a system that more accurately re­

flects their present-day culture and beliefs about how to achieve the desired end result.

This factor was made eminently clear very early in the research. During the investigation concerning the role of women on St. Kitts, a number of informants said that their boyfriends and/or husbands beat them quite often, sometimes seriously enough to cause hospitalization for several days.

Research of the legal system had already informed me that there were definite laws preventing this type of abuse, yet no women over the last five years had brought the law to bear on this problem. No man had been charged with this crime, despite the fact that it occurred frequently. When questioned about this, my female informants said that they did not perceive this as a crime even though they were aware that the law saw it as such. The women stated that this behavior was expected and accepted as a normal part of a woman's life. It was part of the woman's role to be cor­ rected or punished physically by their man, as it was the man's role to do so when necessary. It was constantly stated that this behavior was a normal part of being a woman. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, Kittitian women believe that a woman's life is a tough life, and being a woman means being beaten at times. Their view of their own role and that of the roan, and what is expected from both, precludes 264

physical abuse being seen as a crime. Therefore, criminal

laws are selectively utilized. If they see an action as a

crime they may consider taking it before the law; but when

the*law's definition of a crime conflicts with the people's

definition, they will operate with the people's view. I

was told that this is also true for those who are sworn to

uphold the law, such as the police. They selectively en­

force the system they uphold. In the case of beatings, the

police often look the other way. After all, they operate

within the same culture as everyone else.

The above example shows selective utilization as a

factor of conflict over the definition of what constitutes

a crime, which in turn is embedded within Kittitian defi­

nitions of their own role behavior. Another example of

selective utilization motivated by definitional conflict

involves the definition of family and the concept of leg-

timacy. St. Kitts' civil law generates conflicts of values and definitions concerning divorce, domicile, custody of ille­ gitimate children, inadequate maintenance and inheritance.

These conflicts and difficulties often confirm for the people that the law is alien to their way of life. They therefore ignore the legal system and select an alternative approach. For example, the law concerning inheritance by

illegitimate children conflicts with the parents' values and

feelings towards all of their children. When there is no 265

testamentary disposition, the illegitimate child is by law

denied any part of the father's estate. Therefore, the law

is ignored and a principle of joint inheritance by all the

offspring is recognized, with no discrimination practiced

against those considered illegitimate in the eyes of the

law. When the possibility of a problem was perceived, many

fathers equally distributed all their possessions prior to their deaths, thereby eliminating the problem of inheritance as an intestacy. All of my informants were illegitimate, yet all of those whose fathers had died had inherited some­ thing from them. When questioned about inheritance most stated that they received their share prior to the actual death. The idea that one could not inherit from the father was seen as ridiculous.

The Political Arm of the Law— The Perception Factor

How one perceives an object, concept or institution and makes an interpretation based upon that perception will determine how one will react to what is perceived. On St.

Kitts the law is not perceived in a legalistic fashion as a neutral entity. Rather, it is seen as a political in­ strument in the hands of a select few who wield it as a weapon against the majority. It was the tool of the white colonialists and today is the tool of the wealthy, both black and white, to keep the poor people down. Most Kitti- tians interviewed perceive only one direction for the law 266 and this is downward. This instills mistrust and fear towards the law. The law is something to avoid, or better yet, something to circumvent. There were other ways, ways of the people, trusted ways, to do things.

The perception of the people of the law as a political, non-neutral entity often produces subsequent behavior that reveals distrust and fear which lead to avoidance and cir­ cumvention. This behavior pattern is not new to legal scholars interested in the social aspect of the law. Pod- gorecki (1974) showed that there were certain attitudinal factors highly correlated with a political view of the law.

Conversations with Kittitians indicated to me that they saw the law in a political manner. Therefore, with the aid of a questionnaire, I set out to discover if the. same factors

Podgorecki found were also operating on this tiny island.

If they were, it would add confirmation to my conclusions formed from conversations with informants concerning this factor as a force in selective utilization of legal assis­ tance. Also, these attitudinal factors might explain other aspects of Kittitian behavior and world view. (See Appen­ dix C for a discussion of questionnaire development and administration.)

The results of the questionnaire were analyzed. Three questions were posed. The first question concerned the attitudes displayed by my sample population. Were they principled or instrumental in their attitudes? Did they 267 show an individual or social orientation to ethics? Were

they high in feelings of security or were they very inse­

cure? Was their dependence upon reinforcement internally

or externally derived? Podgorecki’s sample showed a high

correlation between a political view of the law and an in­

strumental attitude, individual orientation to ethics,

insecurity, and external dependence upon reinforcement.

My sample ethnographically showed a political view of the

law; did it also display these attitudes? Simple frequency

counts with conversion to percentage of sample population

was used here.

The second question concerned possible relationships

between the attitude and the variables by which the sample

was stratified. Was there any correlation between a par­

ticular attitude such as an instrumental attitude and the

age, sex or residence of the respondents? The Chi-square

statistic was used and then converted to the index of asso­

ciation (C2).

The third and final question concerned the represen­

tativeness of my results. Could I extrapolate with some

security from my results to the larger population for which my sample was derived? Using a a hypothesis testing sta­ tistic B = p(actual %) - P(assumed %) the result obtained

- vJ p (I-P) N N(# of sample)

from my sample for a particular attitudinal factor (actual %) 268 was compared to a null hypothesis which stated that the general population will not be the same as my sample at the assumed percentage of randomness (.333%) or at .6%. If the absolute fr score obtained was greater than +1.96 or less than -1.96 (.05 level of significance), the null hypothesis could be rejected.

Each attitudinal factor was cross-tabulated with the three variables age, sex and residence. The results are here indicated in Tables 8 through 11. For an individual to be placed in an attitudinal category he or she had to have answered at least seven of the ten questions for that category with the appropriate response for that attitude.

Tables 8-11 show each attitudinal factor cross-tabu­ lated with each variable. Raw numbers are given with the percentage of the total population in parentheses directly underneath. The Chi-square correlation coefficient and the 3 score for that attitudinal factor are found at the bottom of the table.

In Table 8 the attitudinal factor, social versus indi­ vidual orientation to ethics, is tabulated with the varia­ bles sex, residence and age. Individual oriented ethics involves prescribing behavior 'toward others based upon face-to-face evaluations while socially oriented ethics involves prescribing behavior by a reference to social roles. Personal qualities are not evaluated in the social orientation. Sixty-seven percent of the total sample TABLE 8

Social/Individual Orientation to Ethics by Sex, Residence and Age

Sex Total Residence Total Age Total Male Female Rural Urban 18-25 26-35 36-45 Social Orientation 10 11 21 9 12 21 15 4 2 21 to Ethics (8) (9) (9) (7) (10) (9) (19) (5) (2) (9)

Neutral 32 25 57 24 33 57 28 22 7 57 (27) (21) (21) (20) (27) (24) (35) (27) (9) (24)

Individual Orientation 78 84 162 87 75 162 37 54 71 162 to Ethics (65) (70) (67) (71) (63) (67) (46) (69) (89) (67)

Total 120 120 240 120 120 240 80 80 80 240

X2 1.12 2.68 36.53 (.5 significance) (.25 significance) (.001 significance)

& = 11.13 at P (assumed %) .333 random both ^ than 1.96 fo 2.19 at P (assumed %) .6 O'. VC scored high in the individual orientation to ethics cate­ gory, while only nine percent were placed in the social orientation to ethics group. Cross-tabulations of the variables sex, residence and age by orientation to ethics produced only one significant Chi-sguare. This was for the age variable, which proved to be significant to the

.001 level. Age is definitely related to a Kittitian's orientation to ethics: regardless of sex or residence a

Kittitian becomes more individually oriented in his ethics as he grows older. High scores much greater than 1.96 at assigned randomness and assumed 60% expected frequency in­ dicate that the null hypothesis, which stated that the general population would score differently from this sam­ ple, could be rejected. Therefore, the majority of the

Kittitian population, which falls within the controlled parameters of my sample would score the same or higher on this variable, thereby indicating that the majority of all

Kittitians are individually oriented in their ethics and their orientation will increase with age.

Table 9 compares the attitudinal factor principled versus instrumental attitude to the variables sex, age and residence from my sample population. The principled atti­ tude involves a spontaneous acceptance or rejection of a rule relative to projected or actual behavior. The in­ strumental attitude involves accepting or rejecting a rule after calculating the alternatives and evaluating their TABLE 9

Principled/Instrumental Attitude by Sex, Residence and Age

Sex Total Residence Total Age Total Male Female Rural Urban 18-25 26-35 36-45

Principled 9 10 19 8 11 19 12 5 2 19 Attitude (8) (8) (8) (7) (9) (3) (15) (6) (3) (3)

Neutral 22 17 39 19 20 39 25 9 5 39 (18) (14) (16) (16) (17) (16) (31) (11) (6) (16)

Instrumental 89 93 182 93 89 182 43 66 73 182 Attitude (74) (78) (76) (77) (74) (76) (54) (83) (91) (76)

Total 120 120 240 120 120 240 80 80 80 240

X2 .78 .58 25.33 (.75 significance) (.75 significance) (.001 significance)

* = 14.23 at P (assumed %) .333 random 5 at P (assumed %) .6 "]>both >than 1.96 272 effects, and then going with what is best for that person in that situation. In this case 76% of my sample scored high in instrumental attitude while only 8% were found to be principled. Like the social/individual orientation to ethics factor, this factor also was found to be highly sig­ nificant only with the age variable and 2 scores confirm that the general population would score in a similar or greater fashion than my sample population. As Kittitians are more individually oriented in their ethics, so too are they instrumental in their attitude, and both increase with age.

Tables 10 and 11 present similar information for two other attitudinal factors cross-tabulated with the varia­ bles sex, residence and age. Security is defined as feel­ ing free from apprehension characterized by trust and open­ ness in interactions. Insecurity is the opposite. Exter­ nal dependence upon reinforcement is defined as a way of perceiving events as controlled by external forces such as fate, luck, or destiny. Internal dependence is when an event is seen as being contingent upon one's own behavior.

For the factors security/insecurity, 75% of the sample scored high on insecurity, while only 4% scored secure.

Seventy-two percent of the sample scored high on external dependence upon reinforcement, 10% high for internal depen­ dence. Both factors showed no significance with the varia­ bles sex and residence. Like the factors displayed in TABLE 10

Security/Insecurity by Sex, Residence and Age

Sex Total Residence Total Age Total Male Female Rural Urban 18t 25 26-35 36-45 3 7 10 4 Secure 6 10 1 3 6 10 (2) (6) (4) (3) (5) (4) (1) (4) (8) (4)

26 24 50 27 Neutral 23 50 8 17 25 50 (22) (20) (21) (19) (23) (21) (10) (21) (31) (21)

91 89 180 95 Insecure 85 180 78 62 40 180 (76) (74) (75) (78) (72) (75) (89) (75) (61) (75)

Total 120 120 240 120 120 240 80 80 80 240

X2 1.7 1.28 24.66 (.75 significance) (.75 significance) (.001 significance)

= 13.66 at P (assumed %) .333 random \ y both ythan 1.96 4.69 at P (assumed %) .6 to u>- j TABLE 11

Internal/External Dependence Upon Reinforcement by Sex, Residence and Age

Sex Total Residence Total Age Total Male Female Rural Urban 18-25 26-35 36-45 Internal Dependence 9 14 23 9 14 23 1 8 14 23 Upon (81) (12) (10) (8) (12) (10) (1) (10) (18) (10) Reinforcement

19 24 43 21 Neutral 22 43 3 12 28 43 (16) (20) (18) (18) (18) (18) (4) (15) (35) (18) External Dependence 92 82 174 90 84 174 76 60 38 174 Upon (76) (68) (72) (74) (70) (72) (95) (75) (47) (72) Reinforcement t Total 120 120 240 120 120 240 80 80 80 240

x2 2.24 1.3 45.98 (.25 significance) (.5 significance) (.001 significance)

Z = 13.23 at P (assumed %) .333 random \ \ both > than 1.96 4.06 at P (assumed %) .6 275 Tables 8 and 9, the factors in Tables 10 and 11 showed a great degree of significance with the variable age but in the opposite direction. The insecurity factor and the ex­ ternal dependence factor rather than increase with age, de­ creased significantly. The a- score for both factors allow extrapolation of results to the general population.

From these results one can say that my sample popula­ tion, and by extrapolation the larger general population which falls within the same controls on my sample, can be characterized as insecure, instrumental in their attitude, individual in their orientation to ethics and externally dependent upon reinforcement. As individuals in the popu­ lation age, their instrumental attitude and their individ­ ual orientation to ethics increase, while their insecurity and external dependence upon reinforcement decrease. In other words, Kittitians view and approach the world and all its forms of interaction and institutions with a high degree of nervousness and distrust. To interact with this world they approach with caution (insecurity), attempt to put each interaction into the confines of a face-to-face inter­ action (individual orientation to ethics), weigh all pos­ sible options available within their repertoire of behavior, responding with the one considered best for them (instru­ mental attitude), and depend upon outside approval and acknowledgment for their choice (external dependence upon reinforcement). The world is harsh, tough, dangerous and 276 insecure, and Kittitians continually reach for power by adopting situation-dependent strategies that are most bene­ ficial for them. As they grow older their behavioral repertoire increases and they become more adept at choosing what is best for them in varied situations, as well as more adept at making most interactions into a form of face-to- face interaction. In a sense, they experience a sense of power over the situation— they begin to feel they are more in control. This feeling of control decreases insecurity and enhances self-esteem. As they become more secure, reliance upon external reinforcement decreases. They still accept chance, fate and the influence of powerful others so their insec.urity and external dependence never completely dissipates. They constantly try to defeat it by finding new ways of increasing their probability of success. They develop new strategies of interaction. If successful, the insecurity and external dependence further decrease as the other two factors increase. If not successful, they are never devastated by the results and do not blame themselves, rather they direct the blame outside to others— after all if one operates with some degree of external dependence upon reinforcement the situation was out of one's hands from the beginning.

These results confirm the data about Kittitian atti­ tudes and behavior gathered from my ethnographic investi­ gation. They also parallel Podgorecki's results about 277

peasants in Eastern Europe. He found that these same atti­

tudes, individual orientation to ethics, instrumental

attitude, insecurity and external dependence upon reinforce­

ment were all highly correlated with populations character­

ized by high job insecurity, poverty, and little education.

He also found that there was a strong positive correlation

between possession of these attitudes and the perception

of the law as a political entity rather than a legal one.

Such a perception decreases one's trust in the law and in­

creases effortB to skirt the law whenever possible or leads

to selective utilization. My ethnographic data find this

to be true also. Kittitians mostly view the law in a political fashion and, therefore, distrust it. In formal

interviews with my informants, and in casual conversations with hundreds of Kittitians representing both the Labor

Party and the Opposition Party, only ten spoke with confi­ dence and trust in the law. All ten had high positions in

the government or were solicitors and, therefore, had vested interests in such a view. All others viewed the law with suspicion as an instrument of the government that could be used against them. It is an option they have for bringing about social control, but it is selectively utilized.

In the context of St. Kitts, how could the four atti­ tudinal factors found during this research contribute to the perception of the established legal system as a politi­ cal tool directed by a few against the masses, rather than an aid for the use and benefit of them? Perhaps we can understand this view if we could put the St. Kitts legal system into the perspective of the above-discussed attitudi­ nal ‘factors. If we do this, we can say that the legal sys­ tem is characterized by a principled attitude, a social orientation to ethics, a great deal of security and is pri­ marily internally dependent upon reinforcement. This imported institution is a stabilized system reflecting order in the social structure where everyone is allotted their own position, part and role, and where these are well fixed within the existing status quo, a status quo based not on

St. Kitts but rather upon Great Britain. The position and roles are fixed, and when one comes before this law, one is not capable of establishing an interactional context based upon face-to-face interactions. One's power to control the situation is surrendered to the law and its official repre­ sentatives. To those Kittitians for whom behavior reflects diametrically opposed attitudinal factors, as found in the survey discussed above, this system would appear formal, impersonal, dehumanizing, and completely out of one's manip­ ulative control. All sense of power and control over the situation is replaced by a high degree of insecurity and foreignness. It is an alien form of interaction demanding direct confrontation and formal active control found only in those trained to deal with this type of legal system. The attitudinal behavior of Kittitians implies passive

manipulation of emotional factors, such as shame and guilt

through indirect confrontation, to bring about social con­

trol and personal satisfaction. In this way they can en­

hance their own feelings of control, power, security and,

as a result, gradually shift towards internal dependence

upon reinforcement. They, therefore, would feel more com­

fortable with various forms of informal social control that

are' in the hands of all to use. The truth of this state­

ment will become clear in the last section of this chapter

where what Kittitians are actually doing to bring about

social control is discussed.

An Alternate System of Social Control

As a result of the factors mentioned in the preceding

section of this chapter, a selective utilization of legal

avenues of assistance is operating on St. Kitts. This does

not mean that Kittitians are not using the legal system.

It is always considered as an alternative, however, due to

the factors discussed, it is considered as a low priority option. It is to be used if the situation dictates the use. That situation is almost always in the category of a

"last ditch effort," When all other options to bring about

social control or achieve satisfactory results have been engaged, with little to no success, then the established

legal system is utilized. That situation seldom occurs because of the effectiveness of the alternative system. This alternative system is one of informal social con­

trol which works because people have access to each other’s

lives and it is consistent with Kittitian cultural beliefs

and'attitudes. It is a system consisting of five stages

with each stage being activated in a definite order. Stage

I is engaged, and if the desired results are not obtained,

then Stage II is activated. If this fails then Stage III

is initiated, and so forth, until the fifth and final stage

is utilized. If all informal attempts fail, then the situa­

tion becomes one of "a last ditch effort" which brings the

established legal system into play. A move from the infor­

mal to the formal system will occur. It should be noted

that although the shift to the formal system usually occurs

after all five informal stages have been engaged to no

avail, Kittitians based upon their individual orientation

to ethics and instrumental attitude, could opt for the formal

system at any time if they saw such a switch as being the

most beneficial route to follow for justice.

Stage I involves manipulation of the social networks

of which the individual with whom one is having the dis­

pute is a member. Most disputes involve members of the

same network. In such a case the other members of the net­ work are aware of the situation from the beginning, and

have already made a decision as to which of the disputing

parties to support. Since all members are in agreement as

to which party to support, manipulation of the network is relatively easy. In most disputes, the manipulation involves isolating the individual that the network feels is in the wrong for a short amount of time. This isolation involves shutting down both physical and social support to that per­ son. Supplies of food, clothing/ aid with work and so forth dry up. At the same time, all social interaction is cur­ tailed. Since most people are members of more than one net­ work/ the other networks are contacted, the situation is explained to them and their aid is enlisted. They are asked to do the same thing as the network that houses the disput­ ing parties. Seldom do these other networks refuse since, more often than not, the requesting network had at some earlier time performed a similar service to the network whose aid is enlisted. If that is not the case, the network will still usually agree to help because then the requesting network owes them a favor. In the end it always balances out. This isolation is quite effective in bringing about social control since survival is highly dependent upon the networking.

A dispute between two of my informants clearly illus­ trates this stage of the informal system. They were friends and shared one major network. One of these women, Mavis

(pseudonym), did not have the money necessary to pay the rent on her house and approached her friend Charmel (pseu­ donym) who she knew had saved some money that she had re­ ceived from her daughter who was in Canada. Charmel lent 282 her the money and received a promise in return that as soon as Mavis sold some of her peanut crop she would be paid back in full. Several weeks later Mavis sells her crop but does not'send any money to Charmel. Several days later Mavis receives a money order from her son on St. Thomas but still does not offer Charmel any money. Charmel goes to Mavis' house and tells her that she is aware of all the money that

Mavis has received lately and wanted what was owed her.

Mavis makes several excuses and the two begin to shout at 1 each other. Charmel leaves and goes straight to another friend's house, then another, then another. Each of these friends are members of the network that both Charmel and

Mavis belong to. They know about the loan and agree that

Mavis is wrong and agree to not pass anything along to her through the network. The closing of the network creates hardships for Mavis but she still refuses to return the money. Like most Kittitians she is a member of more than one network and so goods and services still flow. After several weeks the boycotting network approached others in the village who were members of other networks that had

Mavis as a member and one by one these networks began to close Mavis out. Finally, the pressure was too much and

Mavis agreed to pay Charmel back. The boycott however con­ tinued even after Charmel had announced that she had re­ ceived her money. It continued for several weeks as an object lesson both to Mavis and others who might do as Mavis 283

had done.

In rare cases the isolation is permanent. The individ­

ual is dropped from the network and all interaction ceases

with that person and his family for all time. Such cases

are rare. Only a fool or a madman would live without net­

works. If Stage I fails to resolve the dispute, Stage II is

engaged and operates simultaneously with Stage I. This

second stage involves the spreading of rumor and gossip

throughout the village and the neighboring area about the

individual who will not conform. At this stage, the sex

of the individual at whom the rumor and gossip is directed

becomes important. The sex determines the nature of the

gossip. If it is a woman the gossip is very personal. It

attacks her as an individual, citing personality flaws, per­

sonal habits, cleanliness, appearance and so forth. If the

target is a man, the gossip focuses on his male role, or more clearly his failure to fulfill the role expectations.

Specifically, the gossip rumors center upon his failure, or

worse yet, his refusal to act as provider for his woman and

children, or his masculinity as expressed through paternity.

As mentioned in a previous chapter, these two items are

essential in the Kittitian definition of a man, especially

the ability to father children. For example, the most com­ mon rumor that starts is that a child that he believes is

his is in reality a child of another man. He has been 284 cuckholded. If that child is his only child the rumor is especially effective. The man almost always gives in and the dispute is settled and the rumors stop. If the man has a number of children by several women* a rumor such as the above is still potent because all the other men will laugh at him. At the same time Stage I is still operating, so between the isolation and the ridicule, most disputes are resolved at this level.

A man in the village named Daniel who worked at the sugar factory threw out the woman he had been living with.

She and the children went to stay with her sister. Two of these children were by Daniel. Weeks went by and the sister cannot afford to take care of the extra people and so the woman went back to Daniel and asked for some money for his children. He, in the meantime, had moved in with another woman and her children and so refused to give his former girlfriend money. At this point, the ex-girlfriend and her sister went to several networks which had the new girlfriend as a member and asked for help. They agreed that Daniel should support "his blood" and they felt that the new girl­ friend had been too quick to move in. The networks began to shrink, closing out the new girlfriend which directly affected Daniel since these networks brought in food and aid from which he benefited. He still refused support so the ex-girlfriend and her sister activated Stage II. They began to spread the rumor that for years the ex-girlfriend had 285 had a lover and that Daniel's two children were really not

his. As that rumor spread, his mates began to laugh at him and talk about how stupid he must have been to not have knoWn about the lover. Daniel went to his former girlfriend and pleaded with her, he agreed to support his children and give her some money also, if she would stop the rumors.

With support, the rumors stopped and the networks opened up to the new girlfriend. All parties benefited and agreed that the dispute was indeed settled.

After all this, if the individual still refuses to give in, the third stage is activated. This involves a public crystallization of the rumor and gossip, along with an almost ritualized series of put-downs by the other party to the dispute. This stage always requires an audience, thus at least one of the participants is on the road or alley directing abuse at someone in or near a house. It is a form of public shaming that involves teasing and abuse.

Often private behavior that the individual in the house wished to remain hidden is unveiled, as well as things talked about, but never to their face, are for the first time hurled directly at the individual. Besides the abuse directed at one of the individuals, this stage is also often used to boast, inform the village about how good the person hurling the abuse is, and to put others in their place be­ sides the person with whom one is disputing. Several ex­ amples illustrate this stage. 286 A pretty black woman from the village who worked as a

maid for a white family in the city had a sister who was

living with a man who mistreated her. This man was a cane

cutter who drank a great deal and would often beat her

sister. This man also kept trying to go to bed with the

sister who was the maid. She would have nothing to do with

him, but the more she repulsed him the more ardent he be­ came.

The two sisters had gotten several networks that con­

tained the girlfriends of this cane cutters' mates to agree

to put pressure on their boyfriends to talk to this man about the mistreatment. Stage X however did not work. The mistreatment not only continued but got worse and so Stage

II was engaged. Rumors and gossip about the evil of this man began and spread throughout the village and even into other neighboring villages. The hope was to prevent all other women from being with him. Even though this began to show some effect, it was not fast enough. Then an oppor­ tunity arose to engage Stage III. One day the cane cutter was sitting with some friends and myself when the sister of the mistreated woman walked by. As she passed the group, the man, wanting to impress the other men, called out,

"What's happening, Leta mi love?" The woman stopped, put her hands on her hips, curled her lips scornfully and sur­ veyed the man slowly from head to toe. 287 Since when me and you frien? Me is you love? What I would want wid all like you? What you have dat I want? You have money? You have looks? You have color? You have education? Mo! You doan have nothing in you favor. You ugly, you poor, you ignorant and you black. When you see me a street don't talk to me, y'hear?

As she began to walk away she yelled over her shoulder,

After you is nothing but a damn cane cutter! You think cane cutter bwai money get me?

In that short interaction (Stage III) the woman was able to publicly humiliate the man and at the same time, by adding that last remark plus the earlier part about being poor and black, cast scorn on his friends who were support­ ing him. She elevated her status by letting all who could hear know that she was light-complected and was economically and socially better off. This was very effective. His friends were embarrassed publicly and began to give in to the pressure of their girlfriends to withdraw their support.

The cane cutter stopped trying to make moves on this woman and eased up on his girlfriend. With village support and now agreement that these women were better off than he, the girlfriend left him.

In another example the children of the brother of a woman stole some clothing and money from the woman for their own children. The woman found out about it and tried to get the clothes and money back by asking for them. They denied having stolen anything, so the woman tried 288

manipulating the network to no avail (Stage I). She then

started rumors (Stage II) about them, but this also failed

to bring about the desired results. Then one morning as people began moving about in the village, she appeared be­

fore their door and began yelling and cursing for several

hours as crowds began to gather (Stage III). She dragged

every skeleton out of the closet and even accused them of

sleeping with others besides the ones they were living with.

At the same time, she pointed out over and over again that

for the past year she had been providing them with food, clothing and other things, not only for them but their children as well. In this manner the woman crystallized the problem for all to hear, as well as informed the village of her own good deeds. This showed her to be a very good person at the same time that it let others know that she was success­ ful since she had food and clothing to give to others. The young women admitted the theft and offered to return the items. The woman rejected the offer by stating that they really needed it more than she, and that all they had to do was ask for things and she would try to help them.

If the public humiliation of Stage III is ineffective then Stage IV is engaged. This stage centers upon the threat of the possible use of obeah. Obeah, as earlier mentioned, is a form of magic found on St. Kitts. Although

Kittitians deny using obeah or even believing in it, most 289

Kittitians have seen the effects of obeah, or what they

interpret as the effects of obeah, or know those who have.

To them leprosy, called "cocobey," is the result of obeah

as Well as lameness, clubfeet, barenness, and other physical maladies. Children are told these things, and obeah is

dangled over their heads for misbehavior, similar to Ameri­

can threats of a boogeyman. It is seen as evil and danger­

ous, yet at the same time, is a source of power to people who feel they have little power. The people believe that

the world is dangerous and so all should have power to pro­

tect themselves and obeah is such a protection. With this

state of mind, a threat of obeah is more than sufficient to

resolve even the greatest of conflicts.

Few disputes get this far for resolution. Almost all disputes I witnessed were settled at one of the first three

stages. I never personally witnessed anyone hurl a threat of obeah use at another but my informants related events

that they had witnessed or had heard about from friends or

family. This use of a threat of obeah was also confirmed as an actual stage in the informal system (Stage IV) through

the use of hypothetical cases. In these cases, the dispute had not been successfully resolved by the use of Stage I,

II or III and I asked them what would be done next. It was pointed out to me that it was almost unheard of that people would not reach agreement based upon the first three stages being engaged. However, if such an unusual situation 290 occurred all my informants stated that they would threaten the disputant with the possible use of obeah. This is not undertaken lightly. You just do not say this unless you really mean to back it up with actual use if the threat does not succeed. They said, on more than one occasion, that this is not like Americans or Englishmen who in the heat of an argument hurl the threat, "I'll kill you,'.' at another but never really mean to back i‘t up. Obeah is seri­ ous, and one who threatens its use must be serious. It is not to be used as a casual or idle threat. Therefore, no matter how angry one is with another this threat is not uttered unless it is truly meant. And never is Stage IV engaged until all are satisfied that Stages I, II and III have been given every possible opportunity to work.

The fifth and final stage of the alternative system involves the actual use of obeah— not just a threat. During my stay on the island only one situation got to this level, and I heard of only one other case from a few years earlier.

The case that unfolded while I was there involved unusual circumstances. A young girl had been murdered, and after months of police investigation, no suspects were found.

The parents and other relatives and friends were distraught.

No one knew who committed such a heinous crime, so neither the formal legal system nor the informal system's first four stages could be utilized. As the frustration of the parents mounted, a decision was made. An obeahman must be called in— but not just any obeahman. They wanted a power­

ful man, and all Kittitians knew that the most powerful

practitioners of obeah were on French islands, like Martin­

ique or from Haiti. The family, therefore, brought a man

in from Martinique. During the day he searched the area

where the body was found and mixed a number of potions.

These potions, according to the Kittitians, enabled him to

turn into a rooster at night who walked through the village

hunting the killer. It was a strange chicken in the vil­

lage, no one had ever seen it before, and it was different

than all the others. It was large, a brilliaat red comb

and extensive tail feathers similar to the cocks used in

fighting in Trinidad. This chicken, which was pointed out

to me on several occasions, was indeed unlike any chicken

I had seen since my arrival on the island. Within days

everyone, not only in the village but from other villages,

had seen this obeahman in the form of a chicken. All of

the talk centered on this man and how close he was coming

to finding the killer. Once he was discovered he would

suffer a thousand times greater than any punishment the police could dole out. Within a week and a half, the mur­ derer turned himself in to the police and signed a full confession. Why? Because he knew he could not escape from

the obeah. It would hunt him down no matter where he went.

The other case involved the theft of money. A man

from the village of Sandy Point came to the village of Old Road to stay with relatives for awhile. While there he stole money from his sister and then left. The family knew he was the thief but could not prove it. They engaged

Stage I, then II, III and finally Stage IV. During this time the man constantly denied the theft yet was spending a great deal of money, money no one could account for. Even after the sister threatened to get an obeahman to help, the brother scoffed and continued his spending spree. When it waB apparent that all four stages were ineffective the family brought in an obeahman who through spells began to cause spontaneous fires. It seemed that everything the sus­ pected thief bought with this unexplained money would catch fire. Shirts would just catch fire, as would shoes, hats and any place that he stayed. He moved from village to village and the "jumbie fires," as they came to be called, would follow him. Finally, enough was enough, and the man admitted his guilt, gave back what was left and promised to repay the rest. The fires ceased but became immortalized through a series of calypso songs that spread through the islands.

Summary

The selective utilization of legal avenues of assis­ tance is indeed occurring on St. Kitts for the reasons stated in this chapter, not only with women but also with most of the men. When the formal legal structure is not engaged, an alternative system of five progressive stages is brought into play. At any stage the dispute can reach resolution, with the final two stages seldom needed.. At any point in this informal system the formal legal system could be engaged if it would be deemed the best option by one of the disputants. This seldom occurs because of the success of the informal system. Chapter IX

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

To assess and summarize the results of this study of the selective utilization of legal avenues of assistance by women on St. Kitts, it is necessary to briefly review the course of the investigation. The major goals of this research and dissertation, once again, are to determine

{1) if there is indeed a selective utilization of the legal aVenues of assistance by women, (2) if there is selective utilization, what factors are involved in the decision process to use or not use the established legal system, and (3) if the established legal system is not used what women are doing to resolve conflict and effectively bring about social control.

Selective Utilization on St. Kitts

The weight of the ethnographic evidence, observation of actual cases, review of available records over a ten year period, structured interviews with solicitors, infor­ mants, government officials and magistrates, as well as the hypothetical cases, prove that selective utilization of the law is occurring on St. Kitts. Only .7% of the total eligible female population on St. Kitts (assuming the

294 295 minimal age of 14 for a woman to initiate a legal interac­ tion on her own behalf) actually used an avenue of the established legal system. And, of the few who chose to engage the formal system, 72% were classified according to education, income, occupation and color as members of the upper-middle or upper class on St. Kitts. The majority of

Kittitian women never engage the formal legal system to resolve conflict or to bring about social control.

When, in those rare instances, the system is engaged, a selective utilization is still occurring because only certain avenues of assistance are initiated while others are never utilized. For example, criminal charges for theft are seen as an avenue that might be engaged while assault and battery for spouse or girlfriend-beating is not viewed as a viable avenue for redress.

Although the major focus of this research is on the women on St. Kitts, I could not help but notice that the concept of selective utilization of the formal legal system also very much applied to the males on the island as well.

This is not surprising considering the factors involved in selective utilization which certainly are not sex bound.

Factors for Selective Utilization of the Law

Four major factors were isolated during this research that have an impact on the selective utilization process.

These factors, standing alone, or, more often, in combination 296 play a direct role in the decision as to whether or not to engage the formal system. Those four factors, along with a brief explanation, are as follows:

' (1) Awareness Factor Being unaware that an avenue of assistance is available or not knowing how to access an avenue plays some role in the utilization process. This factor, however, is the least important of the four factors operating on the island.

(2) Economic Factor It Is a simple fact of life on the island that to engage the legal system is going to cost money. There is no legal aid or other government subsidy system to ease the financial burden of hiring a solicitor, or to reimburse the person for lost pay due to lost work time while pursuing the case through the court system. Kittitians simply cannot afford the formal system. This is the most pervasive of all the factors.

(3) Perception Factor Most Kittitians'perception of the law is as a political, non-neutral entity with a downward direction. They see it as directed against them— a tool in the hands of a few to be used to control the many. This type of perception often produces behavior that reveals fear and distrust which leads to circumvention and avoidance of what they fear and distrust.

(4) Social/Cultural Conflict Factor The values, morals, definitions and interpreta­ tions of social roles and interactions by the established legal system is in direct conflict with the values, morals and roles of the majority of the people on the island. The established legal system reflects English culture, quite often English culture of the past, not Kittitian culture. This conflict discourages the use of an avenue. The greater the conflict between the avenue and the individual's view, the less likely that avenue will be utilized. The greater the congruency the higher the likelihood of en­ gagement. 297

As a result of these factors, Kittitians more often

than not, do not engage the formal legal system. When they

do, it is after a great deal of thought and the belief that

out'of all possible alternatives for resolution of the

conflict the formal system is the most effective choice.

The formal legal system is always an optional path to travel

down, but a path seldom taken. The alternative is usually

seen as the more effective choice to make. The awareness, perception and social/cultural conflict factors are neutral­ ized in the alternative system and the economic factor will play little role until the final stage.

An Alternative System for Conflict Resolution and Social Control

The alternative path usually chosen for resolution of conflict and to ensure social control is an indigenous, informal system that consists of five stages with each stage activated in a definite order. At the end of each stage if the issue is not resolved, what has transpired to that point is reviewed and the options are evaluated.

Does one engage the next stage, engage the formal legal system, or let the entire issue drop or try something else?

The choice of what to do for that individual will be predi-’ cated upon the principle of what is best for that person at that particular time in that particular situation. That choice is usually to engage the next stage. Due to past experiences of self and significant others over several 298 generations, Kittitians are very much aware of the success rate of the stages and the fact that as one moves from one stage to the next the ability to reach resolution or bring about social control increases almost geometrically as one approaches the final stage.

The stages of the alternative system are the following:

(1) Stage I This stage involves the manipulation of the social networks of which the individual with whom you are having the dispute is a member. This usually involves shrinking the network in such a way as to isolate the individual by shutting down both physical and social support. As supplies of food, clothing aid with work, information and social support dry up the individual will usually give in to the pressure and settle the dispute or conform.

(2) Stage II This stage involves the spreading of rumor and gossip about the individual who will not con­ form. This stage will operate simultaneously with Stage I since the network will continue to be manipulated to the point of almost total iso­ lation. The sex of the individual towards whom the gossip and rumor is directed is important. If a woman, the focus will be on personality flaws, personal habits, cleanliness, appearance and other personal traits. If the subject is a man, the focus will be on his male role and his failure to fulfill role expectations such as support, ability to provide, or his masculinity as expressed through paternity.

(3) Stage III At this stage the rumor and gossip is crystal­ lized through a public ritual which usually in­ volves shouting, put-downs, and accusations. An audience is required for this stage. It is a form of public shaming by directing abuse at the individual for all to hear and comment upon* At the same time, this is an opportunity for the individual who is hurling the abuse to boast about how good they are and to put others besides the person who is the target of most of the 299

abuse in their place. This is done by carefully dropping remarks that on the surface appear to be directed towards the disputant but in reality are meant for members of the audience.

, (4) Stage IV This stage is seldom activated. The major point of this stage is to present a threat to the one with whom you are disputing or the one who is refusing to conform. If things are not resolved, you will activate Stage V which involves using obeah to settle the problem. At this stage one is only threatening to do something, not actually doing it. This is a very serious stage since to Kittitians obeah is a very powerful magic that can harm and is not easy to escape. It is also illegal, according to the formal established legal system, to practice obeah or have in one’s possession instruments of obeah so the one issuing the threat is serious enough to risk danger to self.

(5) Stage V This stage involves actually doing obeah or having someone perform the obeah for you to achieve satisfaction. This stage, like the one before, is seldom needed. Most disputes are resolved by Stage III if not earlier. If this stage is ac­ tivated the economic factor must be considered since it costs money to do obeah. Most Kitti­ tians, if they know much about obeah at all, know a few simple spells for love potions and the like. Few deal with the evil side of the obeah so they must pay an obeah person to do the evil deeds and this costs a great deal of money.

Kittitians, faced with the problem of a dispute with another individual, or a problem of social control have several major options. They can do nothing, they can acti­ vate the formal legal system, or they can initiate the in­ formal alternative system. The choice will be based upon their evaluation of the situation and making a decision as to what is best for them at that moment in time. At each step they will stop and reassess and decide anew. This 300 pattern, characterized by individuation and competitiveness, which Gussler established as a sociocultural fact through­ out her many works on Kittitians, is confirmed by the results of the questionnaire on attitudinal factors which not only enables one to better understand the perception factor involved in selective utilization but also how the alternative system operates.

Attitudinal Factors and Their Role in Kittitian Behavior Towards the Law

The results of the questionnaire concerning attitudi­ nal factors shows that Kittitians are individual in their orientation to ethics, characterized by a preponderance of the instrumental attitude, high in feelings of insecurity and are very much externally dependent upon reinforcement.

None of these factors show any significance with the variables sex and residence, but all do show significance with the variable age. The instrumental attitude and the individual orientation to ethics increase with age while insecurity and external dependence upon reinforcement decrease.

These factors which characterize Kittitians are the same factors Podgorecki (1974) found highly correlated with a political view of the law. This dovetails nicely with the ethnographic evidence in this research that indi­ cates that Kittitians see the law as a political, non­ neutral entity. 301

A very simplistic, generalized behavior pattern can be deduced from operating with these attitudinal factors. As mentioned earlier, a Kittitian with these factors would approach an interaction or an institution with nervousness artd distrust (insecurity), attempt to put all interactions into the confines of a face-to-face interaction (individual orientation to ethics), weigh all options that are avail­ able and respond with the one considered best at that time and in that place for them (instrumental attitude), and depend upon outside approval for their selection (external dependence upon reinforcement). The world is seen as harsh and dangerous and to survive one must constantly reach for control by adopting situation-dependent strategies that will be most beneficial for them. As they grow older they become more adept at doing this and begin to experience a sense of power over situations. This feeling of control will decrease the insecurity and will enhance self-esteem, thereby easing the need for outside approval.

Throughout the literature search of ethnographic accounts of St. Kitts culture and the actual ethnographic data gathered during this research about Kittitian culture in general and specifically concerning the role of women on

St. Kitts, this behavior could be gleaned through such terms as individuation, competitiveness and distrust. It did not crystallize until after the results of the ques­ tionnaire were analyzed. Armed with the results, Kittitian 302 cultural behavior became clear. This is especially true for the major concern of this research which is the selec­ tive utilization of legal avenues.

1 Kittitians approach a legal situation such as a need to bring about social conformity or a need to resolve a conflict by bringing into play these attitudinal factors as they do in all other situations. • The immediate situation is evaluated which includes taking into consideration the variables discussed earlier and a choice is made that is . best for them at that point. Since younger Kittitians rank very high along all four factors it is logical to expect them to opt for the more indigenous system of dispute resolution that would create less nervousness and is con­ gruent with these attitudinal factors. The mechanics of these stages operate with the concept of any individual orientation to ethics, an instrumental attitude, insecurity and external dependence upon reinforcement. As one grows older and continually maneuvers through this system, one becomes more adept at it and insecurity and external depen­ dence decrease. At this point the formal legal system becomes a more viable alternative. Despite the fact that the formal system operates through opposite factors (social orientation to ethics, principled attitude security, in­ ternal dependence upon reinforcement), one's sense of security and self-esteem and to some extent power allows one to engage it, if it feels best in that particular 303 situation. This is reflected in the data which shows that despite the fact that few Kittitians ever activate the formal avenues of assistance, those that do are always older individuals— the ones with more experience operating with these attitudinal factors.

This type of behavior, predicated upon those attitudi­ nal factors, in legal settings or in any other kind of situation, fits nicely into the more general concept of adapted, adaptive behavior discussed in the ethnographic account of women. Operating under those four attitudes can definitely be seen as an adaptive behavioral repertoire rather than adapted. This approach to behavior allows for a reevaluation of the situation at every step and therefore allows for change. To survive is to respond to the moment with what is best for you. Kittitians in general and

Kittitian women in specific have been doing just that since colonization. As Richardson, in her work Caribbean

Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and

Nevis, so ably puts it:

...individuality and flexibility are advan­ tageous characteristics...Through individual mobility, underspecialization, and above all, through an ability to respond to the continuous yet changing pressures brought to bear by both man and nature, the people of St. Kitts...have rarely prospered, but they have survived...in the future...they will probably find a way to persist and survive. Kittitians...may well be people of the future (Richardson, 1983: 181-82). APPENDIX A

Attitudinal Questionnaire

1. Age? _____ .

2. Sex? Male ______Female .

3. Are you married _____ , single , living with a

boyfriend or girlfriend? _____ .

4. If not married, do you someday want to be?

Yes _____, No ______.

5. Do you have any children? Yes _____ , No _____ .

6. How many years have you gone to school? _____ .

7. Where do you live? ______How long? __

8. Do you rent your home? Yes ____ , No .

9. Is your home owned by your or your family?

Yes _____ , No ______.

10. Do you own land other than where you live?

Yes _____, No _____ .

11. How many people live in the house you live in? ____

12. Apart from weddings, christenings and funerals, do

you attend church? Regularly , Occasionally

Rarely _____ .

304 You are not feeling well and need to see a doctor. Dr. Jones is known to be a very good doctor, however, it is also known that he is not a good father and husband and generally does not like people. Would you: A. Go to see Dr. Jones because he is a good doctor, or B. Look for another doctor who has a more pleasant personality and gets along better with people.

Which is more important to you? A. Whether a person is a good teacher concerned with whether the students learn their subject, or B. Whether the teacher is friendly and concerned about the students themselves.

Which of these two do you rate more highly as a person? A. One who is warm-hearted and on whose help people in trouble can count but who is not very good in their work and little devoted to their obliga­ tions, or B. One who is a highly skilled and perfect worker and completely indifferent to the cares and affairs of others.

Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Your friends can always be counted on to give help when you need it. A. Agree B. Disagree

Do you more strongly believe: A. Becoming a success is a matter of hard work, luck has little or nothing to do with it, or B. Getting a good job depends mainly on being in the right place at the right time.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? It is not what you know or how you act that really counts in this world, it is who you know. A. Agree B. Disagree If there were a choice between the two following candi­ dates for a position of boss which of the two would you prefer to work under? A. One who shows concern for those under him, is sympathetic and friendly, but at the same time weak professionally and unable to cope with re­ sponsibilities, or B. A good specialist and organizer but not concerned with people, ill-natured and disagreeable in his relations with others. 306

8. Assuming that a factory has to lay off an employee and the choice is between the two persons described below, which of the two should be laid off? A. A poor and not quite suitable worker, but who has very difficult financial and family conditions, or . B. A capable and suitable worker in a favorable financial situation and with some family support.

9. Which of the following two statements do you more strongly believe? A. In my case getting what I want has little or nothing to do with luck, or B. Many times we might just as well decide what to do by flipping a coin.

10. Which of the following two statements do you more strongly believe? A. When I make plans I am almost certain that I can make them work, or B. It's not always wise to plan too far ahead because many things turn out to be a matter of good or bad fortune anyhow.

11. Which of the two following people do you believe has committed the worse crime? A. Someone who has stolen money from your neighbor, etc., or B. Any employee who has stolen money from where he/ she works.

12. Do you have more respect for: A. People who have obtained high position in society such as doctors and lawyers, or B. People who behave well towards others regardless of their position in society.

13. A community like yours is to send a representative to a meeting away from here (this can be any sort of meeting). Which of the following ways of choosing the representative is usually best in cases like this? A. It is best to choose an important leader who has a great deal of experience in such matters even though he is not well liked in the community and does not get along well with people, or B. It is best to choose someone who is well liked by everyone in the community, gets along well with others, but has not had a great deal of experi­ ence in such matters. 307

14. Do you agree or disagree with the following state­ ment? The results of your actions are more important than the actions themselves. A. Agree B. Disagree

15. Which of the two following statements do you more strongly believe? A. How many friends you have depends upon how nice a person you are, or B. It is hard to know whether or not a person really likes you.

16. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? If it is possible that something can go wrong, you can be sure that it will go wrong. A. Agree B. Disagree

17. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Most people are fair and judge you by your actions not by what others say about you. A. Agree B. Disagree

18. Do you more strongly believe: A. Children get into trouble because their parents punish them too much, or B. The trouble with most children today is that their parents are too easy with them.

19. Do you more strongly believe: A. As far as world affairs are concerned, most of us are the victims of forces, or B. By taking an active part in political and social affairs, the people can control world events.

20. If you were getting a team together to play a game and one more player was needed and the choice was between the following two persons, which one would you choose to be on the team? A. One who is very friendly and fun to be with but who is not very good at playing the game, or B. One who is an excellent player but is ill-tempered and does not get along with the other players.

21. No matter what the rules say, your first responsibility is to look after yourself. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? A. Agree B. Disagree 308

22. Is owning land very important to you? A. Yes B. No

23. There are more dishonest people in the world than . there are honest people. Do you agree or disagree? A. Agree B. Disagree

24. In all circumstances, someone who does something wrong should not be allowed to profit from it. Do you agree or disagree? A. Agree B. Disagree

25. Which of the following two statements do you more strongly believe: A. I do not believe that chance or luck play an impor­ tant role in my life, or B. Many times I feel that I have little influence over the things that happen to me.

26. The future always looks brighter than the past. Do you agree or disagree? A. Agree B. Disagree

27. Do you tend to make: A. Immediate decisions, or B. Decisions only after a lot of careful thought about the possible effects of your decisions.

28. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. A. Agree B. Disagree

29. Two people are arguing about how a job should be done. Person X argues that the job should be done as it always has been done in the past no matter what. Person Y argues that they should try to find out if there is a better way to do the job. Which of the two people would you agree with? A. Person X B. Person Y 309

30. Do you more strongly believe: A. Who gets to be the boss often depends on who was lucky enough to be in the right place first, or B. Getting people to do the right thing depends upon ability, luck has little or nothing to do with it.

i 31. Of the two following statements which of the two do you more strongly believe to be the case? A. There is really no such thing as luck, or B. Most people don't realize the extent to which their lives are controlled by accidental happen­ ings.

32. I want my children to: A. Obey me at all times, or B. To make decisions on their own even when they know I don't agree with them.

33. Which of the following statements do you most agree with? A. There may be times when telling the truth is not the best idea, or B. One should always tell the truth no matter who may be hurt by it.

34. Which of the following statements do you most agree with? A. One should always be true to one's principles (beliefs) regardless of the result, or B. One should behave so as to obtain the desired result despite one's principles.

35. One of the worst things to happen is for a person to be ungrateful and disrespectful to his parents. Do you agree or disagree? A. Agree B. Disagree

36. One should consider all alternatives before making a decision to follow or not follow a rule, whatever that rule might be. Do you agree or disagree? A. Agree B. Disagree

37. In all decisions it is always best to consider all alternatives and choose the one which benefits you the most, despite the fact that many others would disagree with your choice. Do you agree or disagree? A. Agree B. Disagree 310

38. Are you a person that: A. Generally feels secure about everything, or B. Generally feels insecure about most things.

39. If your employer orders you to do something that you feel might not be completely fair, do you: A. Immediately do what he says, or refuse, or B. Weigh the consequences and decide what is best for you to do.

40. Do you think that people should be trusted? A. Yes B. No

41. Do you strongly believe that: A. Without the right chances one cannot be an effec­ tive leader, or B. Capable people that fail to become leaders have not taken advantage of their opportunities.

42. Apart from your relatives, do you know many people whose friendship and warm feelings you do not doubt? A. Yes B. No

43. Do you think that people that own land are more inde­ pendent than those who do not own land? A. Yes B. No

44. Obedience and respect for authority are the most im­ portant principles children should learn. Do you agree or disagree? A. Agree B. Disagree

45. Do you feel that people would take advantage of you if they could? A. Yes B. No

46. Do you more strongly believe: A. Many of the unhappy things in people's lives are partly due to bad luck, or B. People's misfortunes result from the mistakes they make. APPENDIX B

Definitions of Invisible Factors Tested for in Field Questionnaire (Podgorecki 1974)

PRINCIPLED ATTITUDE A direct, spontaneous acceptance or rejection of some rule relative to projected or actual behavior.

INSTRUMENTAL ATTITUDE The acceptance or rejection of projected or actual behavior is dependent upon specific calcula­ tions of different possible alter­ natives of behavior and the eval­ uation of their effects. The focus is upon which alternative would be most profitable under the prevail­ ing circumstances.

INDIVIDUALLY ORIENTED A set of norms regulating social ETHICS behavior, of which the predominat­ ing ones are those which prescribe behavior toward other members of small, more or less informal groups. Evaluations tend to be based upon "face-to-face" relationships.

SOCIALLY ORIENTED Behavior is prescribed by referring ETHICS to the social roles and positions which are, or can be, occupied by an individual. Personal qualities of an individual are not evaluated nor are the ways one conducts one­ self, but rather the effects caused by their occupying a certain posi­ tion in the social structure.

SECURE To feel free from apprehension and fear such that one's feelings about self can be reflected through trust, openness, and worth. To perceive self and others as being

311 312

basically good and free of danger during interactions.

INSECURE To operate with apprehension and fear. To distrust others and interact with them as if threatened and not to be open about self.

EXTERNAL DEPENDENCE The perception that an event is UPON REINFORCEMENT controlled by external forces such as chance, fate, luck, or destiny or that events are under the con­ trol of powerful others. Rein­ forcement or approval are outside of one's control.

INTERNAL DEPENDENCE The perception that an event and UPON REINFORCEMENT its consequences are contingent upon one's own behavior or character since reinforcement and/or approval are directly related to one's own actions. APPENDIX C

' Questionnaire Development and Administration

The design of questionnaires is important for obtain­ ing accurate information, so over one month was spent on item construction. Design efforts were focused upon the expressed purpose of and objectives pertaining to the sur­ vey with careful attention paid to writing appropriate and carefully formulated questions for the instrument. Each item was analyzed against the following criteria:

1. Parsimony - The questionnaire was designed to ask for only that information that could not be obtained elsewhere directly. Careful attention was paid not to lengthen the questionnaire so that it might threaten its credibility by taxing those interviewed.

2. Specificity - Efforts were made to stay away from too general a question--this could only lead to overly generalized con­ clusions. Only one aspect of a topic was addressed in a single question to avoid ambiguity.

3. Respondent's question - This was anticipated in the survey design by making all items culture-specific in example and word­ ing.

4. Interest - Some items were designed specifically for each identified subgroup. For example, some items specifically re­ ferred to sugar factory or garment workers.

313 314

5. Single variable items - Only one variable, trait or event was specified per individual item. The questionnaire avoided, at all costs, two or more mutually ex­ clusive items combined in one question.

1 6. Simplicity - Can the question be understood? I avoided the use of all complex termi­ nology and words unfamiliar in St. Kitts culture.

7. Semantics of construction - Personal wording of the questionnaire was used to avoid the possibility of the respondent answering with another's opinions— personal opinions were sought. By putting the questions in a personal style, respondents would be able to identify more closely with each item. All reference points were drawn up from an individual perspective. The use of impersonal wording would have reduced the individual responsibility and would have allowed the respondent to be involved in the situation but not personally identifying with it.

8. Manageability - Attempts were made to make the completing of the instrument efficient and manageable for the participants. Government officials who had adminis­ tered surveys on St. Kitts informed me that I must be careful not to run over fifty items, or I would lose the interest of my respondents who would become tired or bored. Also, every effort was made not to overwhelm the respondents with organizational com­ plexities.

9. Avoiding bias - There were two sides to observing this criterion. One involved a con­ scious effort not to "load" the questionnaire by favoring certain variables based upon my own precon­ ceived conclusions or assumptions pertaining to the topic. The second side involved the avoidance of a non­ representative sample during the actual administration. 315 10. Positive wording - The use of double-negative constructions and the future condi­ tional tense was avoided.

A forced-choice mode of response was decided upon.

Each respondent was required to mark one category only for

each of 46 questions. Four variables (principled vs. in­

strumental attitude, social vs. individual orientation to

ethics, feelings of security vs. feelings of insecurity,

internal vs. external dependence upon reinforcement) tested by ten questions on each variable plus six filler questions made up the major part of the test. list of normative data about each respondent was also attached. The questions

testing each variable were randomized and within each ques­ tion oriented towards a specific variable the forced- choice response was also randomized using a table of random numbers. The normative data, consisting of the easy, non­ threatening questions was placed at the beginning of the questionnaire, followed by the variable tests. (See Appen­ dix A for a copy of the questionnaire.)

Each variable tested was also clearly defined in my

field notes. The definitions were based upon the work of

Podgorecki (1971, 1973, 1974) and J.B. Potter (1966). These definitions are included in Appendix B.

After the questionnaire was completed in the above- mentioned manner, several pre-tests were scheduled prior to the actual administration. The first pre-test was adminis­ tered to several psychologists who were also on the island 316 doing research. After they had filled out the question­

naire, I discussed it with them explaining the variables

I wanted to test, defining for them each variable, and then

showing them the questions specifically testing each vari­

able. Amgibuous questions were reworded with their aid to

remove all ambiguity.

The second pre-test was then administered to twenty

Kittitians from a village with which I was acquainted from my ethnographic data gathering stage. The complete ques­

tionnaire was administered to each person to check the • amount of time it took to administer, the difficulty level of the material, and their understanding of the questions.

I read each item out loud slowly three times while they read along, and then asked them to mark the answer they most strongly agreed with. After they had completed the questionnaire, I then went back over it with them one ques­ tion at a time, asking what each question meant to them.

This was to test to see if what X thought each question meant was the same as the meaning they assigned to each item. I had earlier learned the hard way that what certain words meant to me, based upon my cultural background, was often different from what they meant to a Kittitian. Di­ vergent differences in meaning would render the question useless and would thereby produce a questionnaire measuring something different than what I would interpret it as meaning, thereby distorting my data. Based on the 317

information received I then rewrote several questions to

align the meanings.

With all pre-testing completed and a finished question­

naire readied, the next task was to draw my sample popula­

tion for actual administration. I decided upon a stratified

sample population for actual administration because I felt

that I could obtain a greater degree of representation by

such a sample than if I just randomly sampled the entire population. The sample was to be stratified by age, sex and residence (rural/urban).

This stratified sample was to be as representative as possible of the majority of Kittitians, and yet conform to certain limits such as time and expense involved in the administration of the questionnaire. Perusal of all avail­ able statistics about the island, coupled with the data gathered in the active phase of the fieldwork from partici­ pant observation, suggested that at least 80-90% of the population of the island could be placed in the lower socio­ economic class as defined by such criteria as house type, income ($1000 Eastern Caribbean Currency per year or less—

$600 U.S.), and amount of education (some secondary educa­ tion or less). This lower class was characterized by spo­ radic employment. Therefore, if one sampled those that were working or those unemployed at that time, there would be little difference since those unemployed would later be employed and vice-versa. Income and education could also 318 be held constant in this class by definition, and these factors had to be controlled for in the sampling process because of their effects upon the variables to be tested

(se6 discussion of Podgorecki in Chapter II).

Finding a sample population of lower class Kittitians who were not working was difficult since there were no records, addresses, telephone books and such. Sampling a lower class working population is basically the same as sampling a non-working population because of the nature of sporadic work. I therefore decided to draw the sample from a working population. Research showed that the majority of people who work are involved in four major work areas— manufacturing (sugar or garment), services, commerce, and agriculture. Each employs approximately 2220 people and these employees conform to the above criteria for the lower class (house type, income, education). Education and in­ come could therefore be controlled, and the ability to extrapolate from one work area to another and from any one of the work areas to the non-working population allowed me to sample only one major work area— the manufacturing in­ dustry. A statistically significant sample size from the manufacturing industry would allow me to extrapolate my results to the other industries and the non-working popula­ tion, thus, making it possible to make statements, with some caution, about the majority of Kittitians (the lower class) as concerning the variables tested, without the expense and 319 time required to directly test a much larger sample of the

lower class.

Once the decision was reached to draw a stratified

sample based on age, sex, and residence from the manufac­

turing industry, the next step was to determine the size

of the sample needed in order for it to be statistically 2 significant. Using the formula N = (e Z/t) where N = s s the required sample size, e = preliminary estimate of the

standard deviation of the universe, Z = number of standard

error units equal to a desired probability (in this case

99 to 1), and t « permissible tolerance of variation in the

sample mean, I calculated the sample size I needed which was 200 individuals. That number was increased to 240 in­ dividuals, thereby making each cell in the sample an even

Table 12

Sample Population

Male R U_ 60 60

Age 15-25 26-35 36-45 15-25 26-35 36-45 20 20 20 20 20 20

Female R U 60 60

Age 15-25 26-35 36-45 15-25 26-35 36-45 “ 50 20 20 20 20 20

Total - 120 males 120 females 320

number. The final sample consisted of the following cells:

120 males, 60 of whom had a rural residence and 60 of whom

had lived in an urban area. The rural males were divided

equally among three age categories: 15-25, 26-35, 36-45.

The urban males were also divided equally among the above

age groups. The 120 females in the sample were divided

similarly into a rural and urban group, each category rep­ resented equally by individuals in the three age groups.

The maie cells were filled by a random selection of men from the Sugar Factory population. After permission was obtained to test the Sugar Factory population, employee records were reviewed placing all the men into the differ­ ent cells based on age and residence. These lists were

then randomly sampled from a table of random numbers to get the needed population of each cell. A similar process was utilized at the Martin Garment Factory (fictitious name)

to get the necessary population of women.

It was at this time that I decided to read the ques­ tionnaire to the sample population because of a problem with literacy on St. Kitts. Many Kittitians cannot read at all and many who can read do so very slowly. I would not have access to all of them for a sufficiently long enough period of time to allow them to prod through the question­ naire. I had had useful experience as an instructor reading exams for blind students so I was very much aware that care must be taken to avoid emphasizing a particular answer over 321 others. With this in mind, the decision was therefore made to read the questionnaire to them.

The instrument was then administered over a period of one’month during the lunch hour of all workers. After each respondent had completed the questionnaire, they were in­ terviewed concerning knowledge and attitudes towards the law. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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