This paper is about the traditional Caribbean household. supplying a description of the typical household features representative of the peoples in the part. In order to understand the traditional Caribbean household. it is necessary to analyze their civilization. their household construction and their economic state of affairs. In this mode. the construct of household is placed in its proper societal context.

The Caribbean is composed of legion island states. These states underwent the same historical procedure of colonisation by the Dutch. English. Gallic and Spanish and are undergoing the same procedure of modern-day globalisation. This experience has in some grade homogenized the features of peoples in the part ( i. e. in footings of faith ) but failed to wipe out the diverseness in civilization.

Structure and Patterns of the Caribbean Family

The construct of household in the Caribbean is influenced by the interplay of factors associating to the historical experience of bondage and faith every bit good as current ethnicity. economic conditions and environmental scenes ( i. e. rural or urban ) . We see the Caribbean today as composed of the African-Caribbeans. Indian-Caribbeans. Caribbeans of European descent and others.

African-Caribbeans figure about 80 per centum of the whole population in the islands with their forbears settling chiefly in Jamaica. Barbados. Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana as slaves that the colonisers brought with them. For intents of this paper. the focal point will be on this cultural group because they are the bulk. Mentions to other groups may besides be made as necessary.

Family Structure

Surveies show that there is no individual type of household that exists in the part. The chief signifiers of households are fundamentally seen with respects to the position of brotherhood adopted ; 1 ) . married. 2 ) . common jurisprudence. 3 ) . sing brotherhoods ( concubinage ) and 4 ) . individual ( single or divorced ) ( Innerarity. 2000. p. 59 ) . It is by and large construed that households based on matrimony or adhering to the Western atomic household theoretical account is a pattern common among the minority affluent and in-between category Caribbeans.

The last three types are customary among those in the lower societal categories ( St. Bernard. 2003. p. 5 ) . Most of the African-Caribbeans remain in economically down state of affairss. Families as they near the poorness line or are below it by and large go bigger in size and may include an aged individual ( normally female ) in an drawn-out household scene ( St. Bernard. 2003. p. 7 ) .

Visiting brotherhoods and individual parent households are normally headed by females who have full duty for the place. There is minimum or a entire absence of a male parent figures in the place. Womans may raise their kids entirely or unrecorded with their parents for the added societal support system. In the 1980’s. it was estimated that bulk of African-Caribbean households ( 30-50 % ) were matrifocal ( Brown. 2002 and Caribbean Families. 2008 ) . It is perceived that females maintain sing brotherhood relationships due to economic consideration.

Common jurisprudence households are 2 parent families where both cultural factors ( societal credence ) and economic restraints deter them from formalising their brotherhood ( Innerarity. 2000. p. 61 ) . Families based on matrimony. on the other manus. besides tend to hold 2-parent families and dominated by males as they are the primary economic earners. though adult females besides participate in the labour force presents.

Coming to the islands from East Asia as apprenticed labourers in post-slavery Caribean. the Indian-Caribbeans and Chinese-Caribbeans. in contrast. still by and large see the marriage-based atomic household as the acceptable signifier of household ( Innerarity. 2000. p. 62 ) . Divorce is discouraged and near. durable household ties set up coherence. Non-formal and temporary relationships are non socially accepted.

Family Forms

Forms of household in Afro-Caribbean households include male parents who are perennially absent and common jurisprudence brotherhoods that normally end in separations ( Caribbean Families. 2008 ) . Families dominated by grandmas are besides common because their individual parent female girls have to travel and work within their venues. The migration of parents or their entrance into relationships with other spouses. besides gave rise to kids populating with other relations. where reunion of the household is really hard.

Female aged normally live with girls and do so because of the fond regard with their kids developed over old ages of engagement in kid attention and raising. Tendencies since the 90’s decennary nevertheless. demo a lessening in multigenerational families and an addition in aged people populating entirely ( St. Bernard. 2003. p. 11 ) . The latter are normally males and go stray as a consequence of their non-involvement in domestic work sing kids.

Afro-Caribbean males are by and large characterized by their inability to keep monogamous relationships and accept duty for their atomic household which surveies show as the cultural leftovers of their African or slave heritage ( Innerarity. 2000. p. 59-60 and Barrows. 1998. pp. 3-11 ) . This behaviour is socialized in childhood as what the determiner of being a adult male.

Family Size and Number of Siblings

The absence of current studies refering to household size covering the whole part makes it hard to determine the mean household size in the Caribbean and so the information in this subdivision is based on what is available. In the 1990’s. birthrate degrees in the Caribbean was an norm of 3-4 unrecorded births per adult female ( St. Bernard. 2003. p. 7 ) . Exceptions are made for Haiti and Grenada where the birthrate rate is more than 4 births per adult female.

In 2001. a study in Jamaica. an Afro-Caribbean populated state. revealed that the richest households had an mean size of 2. 26 while the poorest had a average size of 5. 23 ( St. Bernard. 2003. p. 10 ) . This puts the national norm to 3. 4. a important lessening from 3. 9 in 1992.

Family Roles and the Extended Family

In two-parent atomic households ( married or common jurisprudence ) . the female parent and male parent by and large adhere to the traditional male-female functions. although the former is a more stable construction as an establishment. The male parent is the breadwinner while the female parent accomplishes kid attention and other domestic work. Local women’s motions have contributed to a tendency of shared domestic work between hubbies and married womans. particularly with the latter besides holding callings of their ain.

Afro-Caribbean. lower income and single-parent families are a instance of household instability at work. Womans who mother and besides father their kids struggle to run into the basic endurance degrees so that equal attending is non given to the kids in footings of physical attention. attending. counsel and nurturing. Hence. kids from these households have greater opportunities to be involved in juvenile delinquency ( Innerarity. 2003. pp. 65-66 ) . This atomic individual parent household is particularly marked in urban countries where affinity systems are absent.

In economic state of affairss such as this. the drawn-out household can play a important function towards set uping a sense of stableness and this is a most noteworthy pattern in rural communities ( Innerarity. 2001. p. 65 ) . Grandparents act as a safety cyberspace for adult females who are individual parents. Sometimes. they carry the whole load of raising the kids when the female parents migrate to other states in hunt for more moneymaking economic chances.

Culture in the Caribbean

Education and faith influence household life in the Caribbean. These establishments in portion determine one’s position of the ideal household. They besides factor in kid raising patterns. values-formation and the constitution of criterions for mundane life.

Education

In a survey of third instruction establishments in Trinidad and Tobago. St. Lucia. Jamaica. Barbados and the Bahamas by Chipman-Johnson and Vanderpool ( 2004 ) . female registration has increased significantly within the past 25 old ages ( p. 16 ) . Some colleges present a female to male enrolment ratio of 2:1 to every bit high as 4:1 ( p. 16 ) .

Aside from engagement in the labour marker. women’s instruction is besides seen as the cause for the worsening birthrate and hence household size in the part ( St. Bernard. 2003. p. 9 ) . With respects to household formation. adult females who hold a secondary and third degree instruction tend to bear kids at a subsequently age than those who have no instruction.

This is because they tend to see kids in footings of costs and so restrict their figure of births. Womans who are educated besides tend to force their kids to endeavor academically and to follow higher criterions of kid attention. The socialisation of kids concerns the acquisition of higher degree accomplishments and attitudes for future professional employment.

On the contrary. this points to us the issue of male underperformance and male marginalisation in the economic system and household. Because matrimony and fathering functions require a certain grade of economic stableness. unsubstantial educational accomplishments by work forces render them unable to carry through the economic duties of paternity. As such they are denied other household functions.

Reddock ( 2004 ) attributes this phenomenon to the socialisation of males as the privileged gender ( pp. 137-166 ) . Young misss are kept inside the house. taught to make housework with less clip for drama and disciplined more frequently. Boys. on the other manus. are allowed longer hours for themselves out of the house. less supervised. make non prosecute much in domestic work but in developing physical art. This does non fix them for the confined. stringent and intellectually competitory school environment.

Religion

There are diverse faiths in the Caribbean laterality is still claimed by Roman Catholicism followed by Protestantism and Hinduism. Afro-Caribbeans are largely Catholics while Indian-Caribbeans mostly pattern Hinduism. The preponderance of common jurisprudence brotherhoods and the being of sing brotherhoods every bit good. hold caused much argument among the Roman Catholic clergy on how to near it in an effectual and appropriate mode.

These issues show the glowering contradictions between existent patterns and church instructions. The adult females are normally morally caught in a bind over the construct of “living in sin” particularly because it is the work forces who do non wish to be married in the Christian tradition.

The Economic Situation of Caribbean Families

Resources Available for the Caribbean Family

A survey of the World Bank ( 2001 ) has indicated that the Caribbean is one of the 7 parts of the universe where poorness is most rampant. In add-on. poorness is higher in rural countries than in the urban countries. Majority of lower income households live without the benefits of basic societal services such as H2O. sanitation. lodging or electricity ( Innerarity. 2000. p. 65 ) . In urban countries. households live together in cramped lodging.

Poorer households could non besides afford quality instruction for their kids. particularly for individual female parent households with 2 or more dependent kids. Health is besides another job where recent studies show high malnutrition rates among kids of the hapless. This is because Caribbean provinces do non supply the necessary support in footings of societal services.

In a part mostly undeveloped industrially and rely more on seasonal and services-oriented industries such as touristry and agricultural export. the figure of employable people far exceeds the figure of occupations available. The less skilled hapless lose to the higher skilled in the intense competition over these occupations. For individual female parents. the ternary blow of high unemployment rates. low paying occupations and the added undertakings of kid attention make household life really hard ( Innerarity. 2000. p. 65 ) .

Socio-Economics
Migration

Legal migration is an increasing phenomenon where the U. S. and Canada have forged understandings with Caribbean states allowing peoples from the latter to migrate to the former as unskilled auxiliary workers. This is referred to as the Guest Worker plan. The absence of available occupations in the domestic market to suit the skilled professionals every bit good as the desire to better their criterion life has pushed in-between category Caribbeans to besides migrate lawfully.

The poorer subdivisions of society who do non hold the capacity to migrate lawfully. make so illicitly despite the dangers associated with it. Illegal migration normally causes the decomposition of the household particularly with the long physical absence of parents. the abnormality of remittals or the trouble of communicating ( St. Bernard. 2003. p. 15 ) .

HIV/AIDS and the Family

The high incidence of HIV/AIDS infections among the lower categories is assumed to be due to poverty – adult females prosecute in non-permanent sexual relationships in order to last. Men dominate in these relationships and may coerce adult females to hold sexual intercourse without protection. St. Bernard ( 2003 ) has identified the job of lifting incidences of this disease and the figure of orphaned kids. estimation to make a 1000. due to parents deceasing of it as a great concern ( p. 7-8 ) .

Decision

The traditional household in the Caribbean is far from our construct of household in the West. Our apprehension of the curious features and state of affairss of households in the Caribbean comes from looking into the divergent economic. political and cultural conditions in which these households are located. As a consequence. we now look at the Caribbean household non in footings of the ethnocentrism but in the nonsubjective conditions that gave rise to it.

List of Mentions
Barrow. C. ( 1998 ) . Family in the Caribbean. Markus Weiner Publications
Brown. J. ( 2002 ) . Gender and household in the Caribbean. Sexual Health Exchange 2002-4. Retrieved 18 March 2008 from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. kit. nl/exchange/html/2002- 4_gender_and_family_in_th. asp.
Caribbean Families ( 2008 ) . Family construction. Retrieved 18 March 2008 from hypertext transfer protocol: //family. jrank. org/pages/204/Caribbean-Families-Extended-Family. hypertext markup language
Chipman-Johnson. R. and Vanderpool. J. ( 2003 ) Higher instruction attainment by gender. registration and employment in the Anglophone Caribbean. Retrieved 18 March 2009 from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. iesalc. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. org. ve/programas/GENERO/Educaci % C3 % B3n % 20Superior % 20y % 20G % C3 % A9nero % 20en % 20El % 20Caribe. pdf
Innerarity. F. D. ( 2001 ) Marriage and household in the Caribbean. World Family Policy Forum
2000. pp. 59-68.
Reddock. R. E. ( erectile dysfunction ) ( 2004 ) Interrogating Caribbean Malenesss: Theoretical and Empirical Analyses. Jamaica: University Press of the West Indies.
St. Bernard. G. ( 2003 ) Major tendencies impacting households in Central America and the Caribbean. The United Nations DSPD and DESA Program on the Family. Retrieved 18 March 2008 from World Wide Web. un. org/esa/socdev/family/Publications/mtstbernard. pdf.