Are the Models of Society present in the Society of St. Ann
Welcome
back to our final blog post for this blog on a travel blog for a better
understanding of the parish of St. Ann on a sociological level. I hope your
journey on this blog was exciting, interesting, and educational because I
indeed enjoyed doing this travel blog. For our last blog, I will be discussing
the models of society, which are the plantation, plural, Creole society models,
and if they are evident in the parish of Saint Ann, you can go down below to
see the first blog post that started with the history of Saint Ann, so you can
have a better understanding of what was being discussed throughout this journey
on this blog if you clicked on this blog post first.
What
is the Plantation Society?
This
society was established in the late 1960s. Mustapha's (2009) account of this
society is that it played a significant part in the Caribbean's monetary,
social, political, and social life. George Beckford (1972) saw the plantation
society as an all-out financial and economic organization, where "the
inward and outside components of the plantation society rule the nations'
monetary, social, and political construction and their connection with the
remainder of the world" (p. 102). Ins the plantation model, the social
design is intelligent because of the tyrant structure that oversees financial
association (Acasestudy, 2018). This society is highly dependent on
agricultural products for survival.
The
Characteristics of the Plantation Society
- This society is dependent on agricultural products in terms of exporting crops.
- Educational opportunities are at their lowest.
- Nonskilled workers
- The population is not self-sufficient.
- Decision making is not centralized.
The period of slavery was over many years ago. There is still evidence of this society in the Caribbean, but is it in St. Ann? In a previous blog, I stated that the parish of St. Ann is highly dependent on agriculture and there was an instance where the parish had a decrease in agriculture and poverty had increased. Furthermore, based on the cultural sites that were displayed in the previous blogs, there were plantations in St. Ann where slaves had worked. In society, there are two classes, which are the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and this relates to Karl Marx's Social Conflict Theory, which states that society is made up of two classes, as mentioned previously, and the poor, or proletariat, are always being exploited by the ruling class, or the rich. In my blog titled "The Social Issues that are Evident in St. Ann," I stated that data also revealed that over 30 percent of the individuals living in St. Ann are living in poverty. So, with this increase in poverty in the parish, the poor will be exploited, but they will not know it because they have no sociological knowledge. It is indeed evident this is happening in St. Ann.
What is a Plural Society?
video by: The audiopedia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LnC8mti8Wk
What is a Plural Society? Plural society is the incorporation of various individuals who practice different cultures, languages, and beliefs. In a plural society, people from various ethnic groups meet exclusively in the marketplace to trade or exchange goods and services with each other. Numerous sociologists recommended plural society as a harmony between the economy and nature, yet R.T. Smith in 1958 reprimanded this framework in light of the fact that, as per him, it featured distinctions and did not add to solidarity in society. In 1967, Dahl introduced his idea of plural society, where he referenced that it could more readily be perceived as a division of force reasonably. The significant benefit of plural society was that everyone's viewpoint was heard and there was no imbalance, not at all, like one more arrangement of separations (sociologygroup, 2018).
Is this model of society evident in St. Ann?
The Plural Society model
is evident in St. Ann, for when I visit the market, I see a variety of
different individuals who are from different cultures. There are Rastafarians,
Indians, Blacks, Whites, Chinese etc. Moreover, in St. Ann’s Bay, there is a
high level of Chinese nationals that own stores, supermarkets, etc. and this is
where we, as citizens, buy our goods and services, in most instances, there are
often conflicts between the citizens and the Chinese. I witnessed an incident
in St. Ann’s Bay where a black woman went to purchase some goods from this
supermarket owned by a Chinese lady, and upon entering the supermarket, the
black woman started arguing with the Chinese lady, stating that they are the
ones that brought the COVID-19 pandemic to the country of Jamaica, and they
argued for a good while until they stopped. So as R.T Smith stated that this model
does not add to solidarity and it is evident in the example I gave.
The Creole Society
First before we get in to
discussing what the creole society is, we are going to define the term
Creolization which is a phrase that refers to the method through which the
numerous groups in society assimilate cultural norms from one another.
Acculturation and Interculturation are two aspects of creolization.
Interculturation is described as the mutual, symbolic interchange of cultural
features, whereas acculturation is defined as the process through which
encounters between various cultural groups lead to the acquisition of new
cultural patterns by subordinate groups. What is the Creole Society? This
society focuses on the Caribbean's cultural identity, where the many
groups within society adapts to the various cultures to which they are
exposed to. In other words, this society asserts that we, as citizens, adapt to
the numerous cultures to which we are exposed to (Acasestudy, 2018).
Generally, in every
society this model is evident because we as individuals adapt to various
cultures when we get too much exposure of it, so it will be evident in the
parish of St. Ann for when individuals are expose to various cultures, they
often adapt to it without forgetting about it.
So, this is where we come
to an end in our travel blog of St. Ann. I hoped that each and every one had
learned new aspects of the parish of St. Ann on a sociological level, and I
trust and hope you will share this information. personally, doing this travel
blog was a very fascinating and enjoyable experience. Farewell everyone until I
post more blogs on different subject matters.
References
Acasestudy. (2018, April 20). Plantation Society and Creole Society. Acasestudy.Com. https://acasestudy.com/plantation-society-and-creole-society/?msclkid=bb691e8bc31b11ecbc80b6e3bf3a5bd0
sociologygroup. (2018, April 28). Plural Society definition and Meaning. Sociology Group: Sociology and Other Social Sciences Blog. https://www.sociologygroup.com/plural-society-meaning/?msclkid=7ecf8348c32811ecaa0e981b486f87d9
On my part. I had a great time reading your blogs, but like with all good things, it had to come to an end. I learnt a lot about St. Ann from the videos in these blog post, as well as the examples you used to explain the concept. Based on the examples you provided, these are very obvious in St Ann. Thank you again Shania I await more interesting blogs of which subject matters as you stated to be more educated on things in Jamaica. Farewell
ReplyDeleteWonderful blog. I had a great time reading this blog. And it blew my mind. Now when i go to school i can show my teacher about this blog.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I had no clue there were models for describing society, let alone if they were present in St. Ann, but this overall blog was so unique and instructive that I had never seen someone post stuff like this before. I hope that future students will benefit from this blog on St.Ann. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your knowledge with us. Best wishes!!!
ReplyDeleteThis blog was very informative, I respect the fact that you outlined the models of society in-depth which includes the plantation, plural, Creole society models, and thumps up for showing that they are present in the parish of St Ann
ReplyDelete