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Class Parameters in Haitian Society
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
Extract
In attempting to define the parameters of Haitian society, three basic status pyramids will be employed, economic, social-occupational, and political. In each case, an effort will be made to distinguish between caste (inherited) and class (personally-achieved distinction) elements which seem to be present. These criteria will then be placed in comparison or opposition to the acid test of individual recognition of status and solidarity toward the class with which Haitians identify themselves.
The absolute upper and lower limits of class in Haiti are not difficult to distinguish by economic or socio-occupational standards, and with a few notable exceptions there is a high degree of political correlation in that both the upper and lower groups participate very little in the political mechanism. Thus whereas these two groups are at opposite poles in the first two pyramids, they are essentially undistinguishable in the third.
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- Copyright © University of Miami 1959
References
1 The rentier group by Department is as follows:
It is important to note that this grouping does not include persons whose principal source oí income is pensions. Such individuals are covered by another census classification, retraites. From République d'Haiti, Department de L'Economie Nationale, Instituí Haiten de Statistique, Recensement General, Aóut, 1950, Vol. I, p. 123; Vol. II, tome 1, p. 19, 229; Vol. Ill, p. 160, 161; Vol. IV, p. 240, 241.
2 Griggs and Prator, (Earl L. Griggs and Clifford H. Prator, Henri Christophe and Thomas Clarkson, 1952), p. 46, remark on the presence of this system as found in the Code Henri. It is also found in the Code Boyer, p. 9. The earliest printed decree concerning this system is the Arrete of General T. Hedouville signed at Cap Haiten the sixth of Thermidor, Tan sixiéme of the French Republic, when Haiti was under the dominance of Toussaint L'Ouverture. From Rochambeau Collection, University of Florida Libraries, Gainesville.
3 These Caco bands numbering up to a few thousand men each were virtually eliminated by the end of 1919, the fifth year of the United States’ occupation of Haiti by the Marine Corps. James H. McCrocklin, Garde d'Haiti, 1956, p. 120.
4 The major portion of the public domain acquired from fleeing French colonists was largely distributed within the first twenty years following effective independence. Maurice de Young, Man and Land in the Haitian Economy, [Gainesville, Fla. 1958] p. 30.
5 m-moom-Aquin may be literally translated as, I am a man of Aquin. Aquin ce pays palm is a simple declaration that the Aquin is his country.
6 James G. Leyburn, The Haitian People, 1941. It might be well to cite John Lobb, as his work immediately preceded that of Leyburn and the latter's work is largely a more elaborate treatment of Lobb's theory of the Haitian social structure. See Lobb, John, “Caste and Class in Haiti,”' American Journal of Sociology, XLVI, (July, 1940) 30ffGoogle Scholar.
7 The rich black man is a mulatto; the poor mulatto is a black man.
8 For the four Departments where information was available, the total of women living in concubinage was approximately 338,000. Recensement Aóut 1950, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 13; Vol. II, tome 1, p. 16; Vol. Ill, p. 349; Vol. IV, p. 9.
9 For an excellent discussion of the disorganization of the Roman Catholie Church in Haiti during this period see Pére Cabon, Histoire des Religeuses en Haiti, 1789-1860.
10 The road network in Haiti is largely organized so as to permit communication between the capital and the major cities of the republic which for the most part lie along the litoral. Areas which do not contain major cities have been neglected, and, except for small sailing vessels, have virtually no contact with the national community. This figure was arrived at through investigation by the author of rural areas and an examination of the nature of the access and services available in the different regions.
11 A speculator is a licensed purchaser of coffee and other principal export crops: of Haiti. Usually, they are agents of th« major export houses, in fact if not in name. There is little to indicate that this role implies speculation in the common usage of the word in the United States.
12 This action taken under the ministry of Dantés Bellegarde during the U. S. Occupation of Haiti was later revoked. Henock Trouillot, M. Dantés Bellegarde, t/n Ecrivain d'Autre Fots, Collection “Haitiana”', [Port-au-Prince, 1957], p. 46, 47, 48.
13 Millspaugh, Arthur C., Haiti Under American Control, 1915-1930, p. 163 Google Scholar.
14 An example of this attitude and its results is John R. P. Friedman's critique of the U. N. report on Haiti. Although Dr. Friedman specifically states that, “by and large,” rather than that an emerging middle class is, “absolutely absent,” his conclusion is that the interest of the elite is dominant. John R. P. Friedman, “Development Planning in Haiti, A Critique of the U. N. Report,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. IV, number 1, (November, 1955), p. 43. Any economic plans based on this assumption would certainly be at cross purposes under current political conditions.