MODULE ONE LOCATION AND DEFINITION OF THE CARIBBEAN REGION Definition of the Caribbean Region Geographical This describes the area washed by the Caribbean Sea and is often described as the Caribbean Basin. It would therefore include most of the islands of the Lesser Antilles, Greater Antilles as well as the mainland territories in Central America (Costa Rica, Belize, Panama, Honduras) and Northern South America such as Columbia and Venezuela. The common link here is the Caribbean Sea. Geological There are deep seated structural features of Caribbean geology which also identifies commonalities. It is the area that is defined by the Caribbean Plate and which experiences similar tectonic, seismic and volcanic features and processes. Historical It describes the area that saw the impact of European colonization, slavery, indentureship and the plantation system. this refers to all the territories so that one way of defining the Caribbean is to identify those countries that experienced the rule of specific European countries. Thus the Caribbean may be defined as being broken up into the English, French, Dutch and Spanish speaking countries and territories. 1 | Page
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MODULE ONE
LOCATION AND DEFINITION OF THE CARIBBEAN REGION
Definition of the Caribbean Region
Geographical
This describes the area washed by the Caribbean Sea and is often described as the Caribbean Basin. It
would therefore include most of the islands of the Lesser Antilles, Greater Antilles as well as the
mainland territories in Central America (Costa Rica, Belize, Panama, Honduras) and Northern South
America such as Columbia and Venezuela. The common link here is the Caribbean Sea.
Geological
There are deep seated structural features of Caribbean geology which also identifies commonalities. It is
the area that is defined by the Caribbean Plate and which experiences similar tectonic, seismic and
volcanic features and processes.
Historical
It describes the area that saw the impact of European colonization, slavery, indentureship and the
plantation system. this refers to all the territories so that one way of defining the Caribbean is to identify
those countries that experienced the rule of specific European countries. Thus the Caribbean may be
defined as being broken up into the English, French, Dutch and Spanish speaking countries and
territories.
Political
In the Caribbean at least three types of governmental systems are found. They include Independent States,
Associated States and Colonial Dependencies.
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CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIETY
Society
Society is a collection of people occupying a defined geographical area over a long period of time.
Society in the Caribbean is often considered the boundaries of a nation state.
The sociological understanding of the term society stresses the interaction amongst its members.
Culture
Culture is widely regarded as the way of life for a people.
It is often defined as the learned behavior of a people. Culture is sub divided into material and non-
material culture.
Material culture includes the products of people such as their styles of architecture, types of food
preparation, economic organizations and their forms of technology.
Non-material culture refers to the cherished values, ideas, beliefs and ideas.
Cultural values refer to a set of rankings people in a society confer on to a myriad of social behaviors.
Norms are standards of behavior that are culturally accepted and emanate from the realm of cultural
values that we share.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CARIBBEAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE
Cultural Diversity
Cultural Diversity is the existence of sub-cultures within a main culture or different cultures in a larger
area such as the Caribbean and the US.
Social Stratification
This is the social arrangement of society based on criteria such as race, wealth and education.
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Social Mobility
This is the movement, usually of individuals or groups, from one social position to another within the
socially stratified system in any society.
Hybridization
This is the admixture of cultural traits and exchange of values from other cultures.
Cultural Erasure
This is where traits or practices of a culture are no longer practiced over time.
Cultural Retention
This may occur as a result of the deliberate desire to keep traditions alive and help some groups to
preserve their sense of identity. It is also defined as the process where past cultural practices are practiced
presently.
Cultural Renewal
This is where cultural practices that were once done are being revived or the fashioning of new practices
based on those of the past.
IMPACT OF HISTORICAL PROCESSES
Migratory Movements
The ancestors of the pre-Colombian Amerindians may have come out of North Eastern Asia across the
frozen Bering Straits to Alaska during the fourth Ice Age some fifteen to twenty thousand years ago. The
nomads wandered southwards through North, Central and South America evolving distinct physical and
cultural characteristics.
Over hundreds of years the Amerindians moved and some settled. Some of the familiar names are Aztec,
Maya and Inca.
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The Orinoco Basin and the Guianas in South America were the original homeland of the Caribs and
Arawaks who migrated northwards through the Lesser Antilles to the Greater Antilles. By 1492, the main
Arawak groups which inhabited the West Indies were the Lucayans in the Bahamas and Tainos in Cuba,
Jamaica, Haiti and Puerto Rico. The greatest Amerindian civilization flourished on the mainland of
Mesoamericas and South America.
It is perhaps the constant movement of people into and out of the Caribbean that led Richardson to refer
to a regional migration tradition. This propensity to migrate, he argued, took off immediately after
emancipation in the 1830’s when thousands of men and women most notably from smaller islands,
migrated to Trinidad and British Guiana in search of higher wages and better conditions. By 1845, more
than 10 000 migrants from small West Indian Islands had travelled to Trinidad and over 8000 others had
gone to British Guiana. Many of these emigrants eventually returned home displaying the fruits of their
labour. This movement continued from a long time as a feature of Caribbean people, that is, to move from
small islands of the Eastern Caribbean to larger ones in a complex inter-island migration.
Encomienda System (System of Unfree Labor)
Hispaniola was the first test ground for Spain’s Indian Policy.
Amerindians had to present Columbus with a certain amount of gold each week which were measured in
ingots (a calabash full of gold dust)
He made them dive for pearls. Amerindians drowned because they were not accustomed to diving so
deep.
Chiefs were hunted and killed by Spanish dogs if they did not adhere to the rules.
Nicholas De Ovando, a Spanish Governor was appointed by the crown to oversee the encomienda system.
The rich Spanish (encomendero) gained jurisdiction over land and they had Amerindians working for
them.
Nicholas De Ovando had to protect the Amerindians but he did not do so.
Many Amerindians died of starvation.
In 1510, in Hispaniola, the first Dominican friar arrived to help the Amerindians.
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Father Antonio Montesinos on Advent Sunday in 1511 addressed Spanish telling them they were
“hypocritical and warped.”
The Law of Burgos (1512-1513) sought to alienate the tension between Spanish and Amerindians.
Bartolome de Las Casas was a former encomendero who had a religious epiphany and freed the
Amerindians. He went to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to look to Africa for labor since it was
cheap and easily accessible.
The audienca moderated the amount of tribute the slaves had to pay and they functioned like a High
Court. (1531-1532)
The New Laws of the Indies (1542) dealt with the prohibition of enslavement of Indians and prevention
of doing personal services for encomenderos.
By 1560, encomienda system was partially banned as some encomenderos still practiced the system.
By the second half of the 16th Century, there was a virtual genocide of the Amerindians.
Repartimiento and Yanconaje
Repartimiento was primarily practiced in Central Mexico and Andean Highlands.
Adult males had to do rotation work.
In New Spain, the Repartimiento was called Mita.
There was an encomendero who had to oversee the work usually a rich Spanish.
Yanaconaje was practiced in Peru and Bolivia.
African Slaves
African slaves were accessible, stronger, healthier, less prone to diseases and had knowledge of
cultivation.
The journey of slave ships from Africa to the West Indies (Middle Passage) was wrought with horror,
waste of human life and was characterized by high mortality rate.
Chattel- African slaves were treated as commodities.
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Asiento- a contract between a company and the Spanish Crown.
All forms of colonial labor depended on servitude/ coercion
Economics was the start and end of slavery.
Plantation Society
Race, color, status, occupation, ethnicity affected the social pyramid of the plantation society.
The plantation society is a capitalist type of enterprise in which land is treated like a commodity.
Indentureship
Indentured laborers were assigned contracts in which they were paid wages to work for a specified period
of time.
After the contracts expired they were given the option to return to their homelands or to receive a plot of
land. Many chose to stay.
Indentureship was supposed to differ from slavery, however, the servants were treated as harshly as the
slaves.
Caribbean Reponse to Oppression
Encomienda
Amerindians used bows and arrows with poisoned tips.
Infanticide and Group or Individual Suicide
If caught, they were burnt to the stake
Slavery
They were intentionally idle on the plantation (Go Slow)
They destroyed valuable machinery
Marronage – Maroons were the runaway slaves who established communities in the hilly terrain of many
areas of the Americas. Marronage was not always an option in island communities but existed in large
territories where the hilly terrain was ideal for settlements. The most famous Maroons in the Caribbean
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are found in Suriname, in the Blue Mountains and Cockpit Country of Jamaica and in Las Villas in Cuba.
They were successful at defending their liberty and in 1739 the British were forced to sign a treaty of
peace.
Movement towards Independence
Foster Commission (1935) in Trinidad and Moyne Commission (1938) looked at the economic situation
in each country.
Universal Adult Suffrage –the right to vote
In the 1930s political parties were formed.
Entrepreneurial activities- shop-keeping and saving society (sou-sou)
IMPACT OF GEOGRAPHIC PHENOMENA
Plate Tectonics
Plate tectonics is the study of the movement of plates and their resultant landforms. The crust is made up
of two plates, the Continental or Oceanic and they move or float on molten rock.
Types of Plates Margins
Convergent Plate Margin
At these margins two plates move towards each other and it is called a destructive plate margin. At a
convergent plate margin, either a collision zone or a subduction zone may be formed. A collision zone
occurs where two continental plates collide forming fold mountains. E.g. Eurasian and Indian plates
collide to form the Himalayan Mountains. A subduction zone occurs when an oceanic plate collide with a
continental plate and the denser oceanic plate is forced under.
At a convergent plate margin volcanoes and earthquakes occur. E.g. the eastern end of the Caribbean
Plate along the line of the Lesser Antilles and the North American plate and the Caribbean plate.
Divergent Plate Margin
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At this plate margin, the plates move away from each other and is called a constructive plate margin as
new crust is formed. This results in gentle volcanis and earthquake activity. Magma is forced upwards
and new crust is created. E.g. the Caribbean and North American plates move away from each other to
form the Cayman Island Ridge.
Transform Plate Margin
At this plate margin, the plates slide past each other with converging or diverging. It is also called a fault.
Volcanic activity does not occur here, instead only seismic activity is experienced. E.g. the Cayman
Island Trench.
Volcanoes
A volcano is an opening in the earth’s crust through which molten rock, ash, steam etc are ejected.
In the Caribbean:
Mt. Pelee-Martinque
Erupted in 1902, and killed 30 000 people.
A nueeardente (glowing cloud filled with super heated ash and gases) descended on the village and thus
suffocated the residents.
Earthquakes
Earthquakes are sudden earth movements or vibrations in the earth’s crust. They are caused by the
development of faults in the crust which result from collision of plates or from the movement of molten
rocks below or within the crust or the sudden release of stress that has slowly built up along the fault
plane at a transform plate margin. The focus is the point at which the earthquake originated. The
epicenter is the point on the surface of the earth directly above the focus.
Risks involved with Earthquakes
Tremors
The ground vibrates during an earthquake. Waves travel outwards from side to side. Walls may crack and
windows may break. Utility poles fall and buildings collapse.
Ground Fissures
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The ground splits and cracks.
Liquefaction
Liquefaction is the process whereby reclaimed land or loose sediments behave like a liquid during an
earthquake.
Floods
Fires
Port Royal- Jamaica (1692)
The entire city of Port Royal slumped into the sea as a result of liquefaction.
Over 3000 people died as a result.
Kingston Jamaica (1907)
Registered a 6-6.5 on the Richter scale
Caused fires
800 deaths
85% buildings destroyed
Ground fissures over 15cm apart
Jamaica (1993)
5.4 on the Richter scale
2 deaths
Triggered landslides
More than 500 homes destroyed
Dominica (2004)
6.3 earthquake
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3 historic churches destroyed
Hospital damaged
Landslides
Wall collapsed
Indonesian Earthquake and Tsunami (2004)
Occurred off the island of Sumatra
Upward displacement of 10m
Tsunami travelled at speed of 800km/h
Hurricanes
A hurricane is a low pressure system formed in warm waters. All hurricanes develop over the sea. They
do not develop close to the equator as they require a surface temperature of 27 degrees.
Before a hurricane
Calm weather, high humidity and strong swells
As hurricane approaches, cloud cover builds up and winds intensify
During a hurricane
Wind strongest near the eye of the storm
Eye: calm, down draught of warm air
Wind drops suddenly after eye passes and starts again
After a hurricane
Wind speeds gradually drop
Heavy rain may continue
Wind damage
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40% increase in wind speed doubles the destructive power
Wave damage
Waves may reach 8m high
May be severe beach erosion
Marine life damaged or killed
Corals damaged
Coastal structures damaged
Ships and boats at risk
Storm surge
Near eye of major hurricane sea levels are several metres above normal
Strengthened as approaches shore
Flooding
Flooding by slowly rising waters (Caroni, Barrackpore)
Landslide
Triggered where steep hills are sodden with rain
Hurricane Ivan in Grenada ( September 2004)
80-90% houses damaged or destroyed
5000-6000 slept in shelters
Power lines brought down
Water supply contaminated
Recently built national stadium destroyed
Most schools damaged
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90% nutmeg trees destroyed
90% trees fell
Roads blocked and airport closed
Landline phone and radio transmitters down
1700 hotel rooms, 300 available
Prison roof blown off
Soils
Soil is the uppermost layer of loose material on top of the orck which makes up the surface of the earth. It
consists of tiny oarticles derived from the broken down fragment of rock together with humus.
Soil erosion
Soil may be eroded by:
1. Soil compaction by grazing animals and machinery
2. Deforestation
3. Over grazing
4. Over use of artificial fertilizer
5. Monoculture
6. Slash and burn cultivation
7. Forest fires
8. Bad agricultural practices
Soil conservation
Soil may be conserved by:
1. Terracing
2. Mulching
3. Wind breaks
4. Contour ploughing/drainage
5. Crop rotation
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6. Canopy cover
7. Cover cropping
8. Intercropping
9. Reforestation
Coral Reefs
How are coral reefs formed?
1. The main frame of the reef is built up by coral polyps whish are small soft bodied creatures which
use calcium carbonate dissolved in water to build up a hard casing of limestone to protect
themselves.
2. These tiny polyps live in colonies or large groups.
3. Layer after layer of limestone is added to the colony as new polyps build on top of the structure.
4. Other organisms also live on the reef and these creatures produce hard skeletons which help to
build up the structure of the reef around the framework of the coral.
5. Only the surface layer of the reef is made up of live coral.
6. Between the reef and the shore, there is usually a shallow lagoon. The floor of this is made up of
sand, dead coral and rubble.
7. On the seaward side, the reef slopes down more steeply. At the base of this slope there will also
be an accumulation of sand and rubble.
Conditions in which coral reefs grow
1. The temperature of the water should be between 21 and 30 degrees Celsius. Thus is why there are
few coral reefs outside the tropics or in places where there are cold sea currents.
2. Corals mat be killed where the water is too hot.
3. Sunlight must be able to penetrate where the coral is growing. Corals grow only in fairly shallow
water. The exact depth depends on the clarity of the water.
4. Coral grow where the water has the right amount of salt. Few reefs are near the mouth of rivers.
5. Corals need to grow in clean water. Muddy water damages coral because it shuts out sunlight and
because silt particles choke the coral polyps. Organic growth of other organisms are promoted.
Organic pollution damage coral. Corals may be starved from lack of oxygen or smothered in
algae. When the growth of the coral is held back, it often becomes diseased and may die.
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1. Fringing Reefs- This type of reef consists of a platform of coral which is connected to and which
is built out from the coast. The surface of the platform is usually flat or slightly concave and its
outer edge drops away steeply to the surrounding seafloor. A shallow lagoon usually occurs
between the coast and the outer edge of the reef. Buccoo Reef is an example of a fringing reef.
2. Barrier Reef- A barrier reef is similar to a fringing reef except that it is situated several
kilometers off the coast and is separated from it by a deep, water lagoon. The coral of a barrier
reef is often joined to the coast although the lagoon may be too deep for coral to grow on its bed.
In some cases, fringing reefs develop on the inner side of lagoons which lie between a barrier reef
and the coast of the island.
3. Atolls- Atolls tend to form horseshoe shapes or rings. The reef surrounds a deep lagoon. Atolls
occur off the coast of Belize.
Importance of coral reefs to the Caribbean
1. They protect the coastline from wave erosion and they dissipate wave energy.
2. A rich source of marine flora and fauna-a marine ecosystem
3. Promotes tourism. E.g. scuba diving and snorkeling therefore provides income and earns foreign
revenue
4. Source of sand for beach when reefs break down.
Droughts
Droughts are caused by a lack of rain over a long period of time. If rain does occur, it usually isn’t enough
for the ground to absorb therefore it is evaporated again.
IMPACT OF SCIETAL INSTITUTIONS ON CARIBBEAN PEOPLE
Family
The family is the most fundamental universal social institution and has several functions. These include
reproduction, socialization, economic unit to supply basic needs and emotional and psychological
support. The family ought to be the first to instill in a child attitudes, norms and values so that his or her
own behavior can be developed.
Education
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The primary function of the education system is to promote socialization of young people. Schools
transmit a society’s values, attitudes, beliefs, norms, specific skills and system of knowledge to young
people. It also recruits young people for specific occupational and social roles in society. They also help
to keep people out of the labor market and it promotes technological change in society by providing the
basis of knowledge and skills that enable technological innovation to occur.
Religion
Religious institutions meet any basic human needs that are not met by the other institutions. They deal
with the ultimate human concerns of life and death. It provides a set of beliefs that explains and interprets
occurrences in the social and physical environment that cannot be explained by other means. They also
serve as a basic human need for providing people with ethical principles, morality and a set of guidelines
for appropriate behavior. They also provide a set of beliefs for interpreting the causes and consequences
of a person’s past, present and future conducts. Religious institutions provide people with an identity as
members of a specific group and a sense of connectedness with the past and future/ it provides emotional
support and consolation in the face of uncertainty, anxiety, defeat, alienation and disappointment.
The Justice System
The justice system has three main features:
1. The use of prisons and policing
2. The informal system which involves diversion and rehabilitation