CARIBBEAN DEPENDENCYTHEORIES

PLANTATION SOCIETY MODEL

WEAK VARIANT OF THE MODEL STRONG VARIANT OF THE MODEL

Type of theory
Conflict theory- capitalist society is inherent theory with conflict

Society as a Plantation
R T Smith in 1967 presented models; R.T. models ; which he says oversimplify and exaggerate But which suggest meaningful and conceptual relationships (having no explanatory power). R.T.Smith contends that in Guyana each plantation was an effective unit of society as well as being a unit of production.
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Plantation Society Today

Plantation per se is compatible with both conflict and cohesion in the community life (Craig, 1974)

WEAK VARIANT OF THE MODEL

E G Charles Wagley, Orlando Patterson E.G. Wagley Wagley (social anthropologist) divides the world into 3 dominant culture spheres: Euro America, Indo-America and Plantation America.

Plantation America (Wagley, 1957)

Monocrop cultivation under the plantation system` rigid class lines, multi-racial societies, weak communities, small peasant proprietors involved in subsistence and cash-crop production and a matrifocal type of family form(quoted in Beckford, 1972 p.18)

STRONG VARIANT OF THE MODEL

Beckford (1972) (Persistent Poverty) Best and Levitt (1969)

Best and Levitt, (1969)

The central concern of contemporary The economic thought in the Caribbean has been how to get the economy to grow fast enough (Best and Levitt, 1969 p. 1)

Best & Levitt, 1969 p. 8

Our major argument is that it is the study of the character of the plantation sector and its relation both with the outside world and with the domestic economy which will provide the richest insight into the working C y W yp of the Caribbean economy. We hypothesize that although there has been structural change in the economy over time, it has been limited.
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Best & Levitt, 1969

Three models of the Plantation Society Models a. Pure Plantation Societies b. Plantation Economies Modified in the century after emancipation b. Plantation Economy further modified after 1940 with the strategy of industrialization by invitation
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George Beckford (Persistent Poverty, 1972)

Plantation social system in the territory in which it is located (the internal dimension) and The Plantation as an economic system both in the territory of its location and the wider world community (the external dimension) Plantation is a total system
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Beckford, 1972 p.55

The plantation is a total economic institution. It binds every one in its embrace to the one task of executing the will of the owner or owners. And because it is omnipotent and omnipresent in the lives of those living within its confines, it is also a total institution. (Beckford, 1972, p.55)

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Features of the Plantation Society (Beckford) in Craig, 1982 p.148)

o Culturally Plural different races brought Pluraltogether for economic activity o Rigid Patterns of stratification Political power is exercised on behalf of the p planter class despite the existence of black p political parties

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SOME FEATURES OF THE PLANTATION SOCIETY (Craig, 1982)

o Local Government is loose and not encouraged o Brittle social order maintained through three integrative mechanisms: Energies of the constituent races are harnessed towards the needs of the plantation Middl class b Middle l become role models l d l Nationalism against the metropole

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References
Beckford George (1972) Persistent Poverty. Poverty Oxford University Press. Reprinted 1999. Best Lloyd & Kari Levitt (1969) Essays on Externally Propelled Growth in the Caribbean. Craig, Susan (ed.) (1981). Contemporary Caribbean, A Sociological Reader. Vol. 2.
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