Caribbean Transformations

by Sidney W. Mintz

Overview

Contact and clash, amalgamation and accommodation, resistance and change have marked the history of the Caribbean islands. It is a unique region where people under the stress of slavery had to improvise, invent and literally create forms of human association through which their pasts and the symbolic interpretation of their present could be structured.Caribbean Transformations is divided into three major parts, each preceded by a brief introductory chapter. Part One begins with a look at the African antecedents of the Caribbean, then discusses slavery and the plantation system. Two chapters deal with slavery and forced labor in Puerto Rico and the history of a Puerto Rican plantation. Part Two is concerned with the rise of a Caribbean peasantry—the erstwhile slaves who separated themselves from the plantation system on small plots of land. This creative adaptation led to the growth of a class of rural landowners producing a large part of their own subsistence but also selling to and buying from wider markets. Mintz first discusses the origins of reconstructed peasantries, and then proceeds to the specifics of the origins and history of the peasantry in Jamaica. Part Three turns to Caribbean nationhood—the political and economic forces that affected its shaping and the social structure of its component societies. A separate chapter details the case of Haiti. The book ends with a critique of the implications of Caribbean nationhood from an anthropological perspective, stressing the ways that class, color and other social dimensions continue to play important parts in the organization of Caribbean societies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231071147
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	12/01/1989
Pages:	355
Product dimensions:	1.00(w) x 6.00(h) x 9.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Preface
Slavery, Forced Labor and the Plantation System
Acknowledgments
Caribbean Peasantries
Foreword to the Morningside Edition
Caribbean Nationhood
Afro-Caribbeana: An Introduction
Slavery and the Afro-American World
Slavery and Forced Labor in Puerto Rico
The History of a Puerto Rican Plantation
The Origins of Reconstituted Peasantries
The Historical Sociology of Jamaican Villages
The Origins of the Jamaican Market System
The Contemporary Jamaican Market System
Houses and Yards among Caribbean Peasantries
The Case of Haiti
Caribbean Nationhood: An Anthropological Perspective
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

The paperback republication of these essays, first brought out in book form in 1974, is most welcome…. [T]his well-selected collection achieves a remarkable organization and unity…. A stimulating and important book.” —Erika Bourguignon, Man “The author provides stimulating introductions to each of the main sections of the book and succeeds in welding the studies into a meaningful whole.” —Bruce Young, Geographical Review “This is both a collection of many of Sidney Mintz’s most important articles on Caribbean societies…. Always writing with care and elegance, and basing his arguments always on an unparalleled range of fieldwork in the area (Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica) and superb social and cultural reconstructions, this may be Mintz’s most important book to date.” —Roger D. Abrahams, American Anthropologist “The book is rich in information, ideas, suggestions and speculations. It deals judiciously with the complexities of the area, resisting the temptation to simplify, to provide neat solutions or pat or dogmatic answers to complex issues.” —Erika Bourguignon, The Hispanic American Historical Review “Sidney W. Mintz is one of the very few North American social scientists who have dedicated long careers exclusively to the Caribbean area, and he is probably the most gifted among them…. Mintz’s work, in my opinion, belongs to the special class of excellent, mature, and finely balanced scholarship.” —H. Hoetink, American Journal of Sociology

From the Publisher