Factor That Influenced Family Systems in the Caribbean

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The two main initiators of arguments surrounding the origin of the present day Caribbean family structure were two American sociologists E.Franklyn Frazier and Melville Herskovits. They both agreed that black family structure was ‘maternal’ and extended, that the bond between mother and child was close and that the conjugal relations were non-marital. These men mostly focused on black families and it was appropropriate since 80-90% of the Caribbean is of African descent. They agreed that black families were characterized by matrifocality, extended kin, common-law unions and illegitimacy. These characteristics were derived by M.G Smith who thought these were a product of the plantation society. They also argued that these characteristics were failed attempts to imitate the white norms. As with the typical plantation society, today the marriage rate is low among lower class families, the number of births outside of marriage is high and there is a high number of extended family forms. Within the dominant class there are noticeably a high marriage rate, economic stability and a nuclear family structure. East Indian and Chinese cultures has remained the same since the plantation society. Though Caribbean society is changing, the culture which was present on the plantation has evidently been passed down from generation to generation through cultural retention. Cultures of Caribbean families has been influenced largely by life on the plantation. There is countless evidence that suggests that Frazier and M.G Smith were right in saying that Caribbean families today are indeed the product of the plantation.

This theory by E. Franklyn Frazier, M.G Smith and Melville Herskovits can appropriately explain the existence of family systems in the Caribbean. However Functionalists and Marxists failed in explaining their existence adequately.