THE FAMILY SYSTEM OF THE PARAMARIBO CREOLES TG ELLEN VERHANDELINGEN VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE 71 WILLEM F. L. BUSCHKENS THE FAMIL Y SYSTEM OF THE PARAMARIBO CREOLES 'S-GRAVENHAGE - MARTINUS NIJHOFF 1974 The fieldwork for this study was carried out under a grant from WOSUNA, the former Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Research in Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles (at present WOTRO, the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research). The publication and translation were made possible by grants from ZWO, the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research, and from STICUSA, the Netherlands Foundation for Cul- tural Cooperation with Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles. The original title was Het Familiesysteem der Volkscreolen van Paramaribo. The English translation was prepared by MARIA J. L. VAN YPEREN I.S.B.N. 90.247.1716.7 1. 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.3.1. 1.3.2. 1.3.3. 1.3.3.1. 1.4. 2. 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 2.3.1. 2.3.2. 2.4. 2.5. 2.5.1. 2.6. 2.6.1. 3. 3.1. 3.2. 3.2.1. 3.2.2. 3.2.3. 3.2.4. 4. 4.1. 4.2. CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 General 1 Social Research in Surinam 1 The West Indian Family System 3 Alternative Unions between Men and Women 3 Female-headed Households and Matrifocality 6 Theories of the Origin of the West Indian Family System. 10 Poverty and the "West Indian" Family System . 18 The Situation in Surinam 20 SURINAM 24 Geography 24 Political Development 25 History of Agriculture 28 Plantation Agriculture 28 Small-scale Agriculture 32 Other Sectors of the Economy 33 The Demographic Situation 35 Religious distribution of the population 37 The Creoles. 38 The Lower-Class Creoles 40 THE RESEARCH 42 The Place of Research 42 The Method of Research 42 Observation and the Interview 43 The Survey. 44 The Investigation into the Desired Number of Children 47 The Investigation of the Archives 48 THE INITIAL PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT OF THE PLANTATION COLONY UP TO THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE IN 1808 4:9 Population 49 The Organization of Slavery. 51 VI 4.3. 4.3.1. 4.3.2. 4.3.3. 4.4. 4.5. 5. 5.1. 5.2. 5.2.1. 5.2.2. 5.3. 5.3.1. 5.3.2. 5.3.2.1. 5.3.2.1.1. 5.3.2.2. 5.3.3. 5.4. 5.5. 5.5.1. 5.5.2. 6. 6.1. 6.2. 6.2.1. 6.2.2. 6.3. 6.3.1. 6.3.2. 6.4. 6.4.1. 6.4.2. 6.4.3. 6.4.4. THE FAMILY SYSTEM OF THE FARAMARIBO CREOLES The Family Life of the Slaves Alternative unions between men and women The Instability of Relationships. The Slave Household Government, Private and Church Interference in the Family Life of Slaves The Family Life of the Masters and the free Mulattoes and free Negroes THE PERIOD FROM 1808 UP TO EMANCIPA- TION IN 1863 General The Dwindling Slave Force The Unequal Sex Ratio Malnutrition, Disease and Poor Housing among the Slave Population Measures for the Improvement of the Slaves' Family Life and Reproductive Capacity. Private Measures The Activities of the Missions of the Various Churches The Moravian Mission and the Slaves' Family Life The Institution of the "Verbond" or "Alliance" The Roman Catholic Mission and the Slaves' Family Life. State Interference in Respect of the Family Life of the Slaves Man-Woman Relationships among the Slaves The Family Life of the Free Population The Family Life of the Europeans The Family Life of the Free Mulattoes and Free Negroes THE POST-EMANCIPATION PERIOD General The Rural Exodus of the Creole Population The State Supervision of Ex-Slaves (1863-1873) The Period af ter State Supervision The Creole as Gold Digger and Balata Bleeder The Gold Industry The Balata Industry. Other Creole Occupations . The Crafts Bauxite The Timber Industry Other Occupations Page 55 55 56 63 65 67 74 74 74 75 77 80 81 82 83 85 86 88 96 101 102 102 108 108 108 108 110 113 113 115 118 118 118 120 120 6.4.4.1. 6.5. 6.5.1. 6.6. 6.6.1. 6.6.2. 6.6.2.1. 6.6.2.2. 7. 7.1. 7.2. 7.2.1. 7.3. 7.3.1. 7.3.1.1. 7.3.2. 7.3.2.1. 7.3.2.2. 7.3.3. 7.3.4. 7.3.4.1. 7.3.4.2. 7.3.4.3. 7.3.4.4. 7.3.4.5. 7.3.5. 8. 8.1. 8.2. 8.2.1. 8.2.1.1. 8.2.1.2. 8.2.1.3. 8.2.1.4. 8.2.2. 8.2.2.1. 8.2.2.2. 8.2.3. 8.2.3.1. CONTENTS Women's Occupations Unemployment. Emigration to the Antilles and the Netherlands The post-Emancipation Family System The Period of State Supervision The Period following State Supervision The Issue of the Abolition of the Alliance Discrimination in Civil Marriages THE SITUATION AFTER WORLD WAR II General Characteristic Features of the Sample Population . West Indian Traits of the Households included in the Sample The Present Socio-Economic Conditions Housing Ownership of Houses Economic Aspects of the Household Unemployment, Unemployment Relief and Poor Relief The Occupational Structure The Family Income The Pattern of Spending of the Household . Expenditure on Food and Drinks Expenditure on Rent, Electricity, Gas and Water. Expenditure on Clothing and Shoes Costs of Illness and Funerals . Other Expenses. The Degree of Poverty . THE NATURE OF UNI ONS AND THE HOUSE- HOLD STRUCTURE General Alternative Unions between Men and Women The Choice of one or other of the Alternative Unions Age of the Partners and Nature of the U nion Socio-economic Status of Married Persons and of Persons living in Concubinage The Way in which Unions are Realized Views on Marriage The Stability of Unions The Duration of the dissolved Marriages and Con- cubinages. Reasons for tenninating Unions Illegitimacy of Births The Marriage Act for Asians and the Creoles VII Page 120 121 123 124 125 125 127 129 132 132 133 135 136 137 143 144 144 146 150 153 154 155 157 157 162 162 164 164 164 165 165 166 167 173 175 177 178 185 187 VIn THE FAMILY SYSTEM OF THE FARAMARIBO CREOLES 8.2.3.2. 8.3. 8.3.1. 8.3.1.1. 8.3.1.2. 8.3.1.3. 8.3.1.4. 8.3.1.5. 8.3.1.6. 8.3.1.7. 8.3.1.8. 8.3.2. 8.3.2.1. 8.3.2.2. 8.3.2.3. 8.4. Page Aspects of Illegitimacy among the Lower-dass Creoles 189 The Structure of Households. 194 The Prevalent Types of Household 195 Type A: Male Head with Legal Wife 196 Type B: Male Head with Common Law Wife 197 Type C: Male Head without Legal or Common Law Wife .. 198 Type D: the Single Man 199 Type E: the Female Head with Legal Husband 199 Type F: F emale Head with Common Law Husband 199 Type G: Female Head without Legal or Common Law Husband. 200 Type H: the Single Woman 202 The Inter-connectedness of the Different Household Types 202 Smith's Cyde Theory 203 The First Phase of the Household . 205 The Second Phase of the Household 209 Unmarried Women and Women not Living in Con- cubinage and their Children 217 9. THE FUNCTIONING OF THE FAMILY SYSTEM 219 9.1. 9.2. 9.3. 9.4. 9.5. 9.5.1. 9.5.1.1. 9.5.1.2. 9.5.1.3. 9.6. 9.6.1. 9.6.2. 9.6.3. 9.7. 9.8. 9.8.1. 9.8.2. 10. General 219 The Desire for Children. 219 Birth Con trol 227 Traditional Practices in Connection with Pregnancy and Childbirth. 232 Childhood 237 Social Relations During Childhood . 243 With the Parents 243 With Brothers and Sisters . 244 With Other Persons 244 Adulthood 246 Man-Woman Relationships 246 Homosexual Relations between Women 247 Contacts with Other Persons 251 Old Age 252 Death 252 Description of the Customs observed in Connection with Death 254 The Memorial Gathering on the Eighth Day 260 FINAL REMARKS 263 10.1. General .. ...... 263 10.2. The West Indian Family System of Paramaribo as an Adaptation Model. 265 CONTENTS IX Page APPENDIX 1. Letter of Introduction eXplaining the Nature of the Research 271 APPENDIX 2. The Questionnaire 272 APPENDIX 3. Tables A-R not inserted in the text 283 APPENDIX 4. Interview Scheme B.O.G. Sample . 305 BIBLOGRAPHY INDEX LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Household Type A or B, the latently matrifocal house- 307 317 hold 207 Figure 2. The household in the period of transition from types A or B to type G 208 Figure 3. Household type F, female head with common law husband 212 Figure 4. Household type G, female head without legal or com- mon law husband . 213 variant 1: without visiting male variant 2: with visiting male PHOTOGRAPHS 1. Manifest matrifocal household. Female head, her daughter and five grandchildren . af ter page 144 2. An example of the poorest yards . after page 144 3. Lower-Iower class house. af ter page 144 4. Upper-Iower class houses after page 160 5. A very simple funeral af ter page 160 6. In the kitchen . af ter page 160 x THE FAMILY SYSTEM OF THE FARAMARIBO CREOLES LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Share in the total agrarian output of large-scale and small-scale agriculture respectively, expressed in per- Page centages 33 Table 2. Composition of the population of Surinam at the end of 11arch, 1964 36 Table 3. Distribution of the population in percentages, excluding those living in tribes . 37 Table 4. Population growth, excluding those living in tribes 37 Table 5. Religious distribution of the population of Surinam in 1964 38 Table 6. The Composition of the population of Surinam (not including Amerindians and Bush Negroes) 1651-1811 50 Table 7. The population of Surinam, excluding those living in tribes (in percentages) 53 Table 8. The slave population of Surinam (1830-1863) 76 Table 9. The slave population of Paramaribo in 1863, classified according to sex and age 76 Table 10. Slave population (4,321) of Paramaribo in 1863, clas- sified according to relationship to the senior member (male or female) of the household (in percentages) 99 Table 11. Households set out according to the number of gener- ations 100 Table 12. Slave households in Paramaribo in 1863, classified according to the sex of the senior member and the number of members 100 CONTENTS XI Page Table 13. Family groups of the slave population of Paramaribo and the Lower Suriname and Lower Commewijne Divisions, classified according to the number of members 10 1 Table 14. Number of contract workers in the gold-mining in- dustry 115 Table 15. Registered unemployment in Paramaribo and environs 122 Table 16. Place of birth of members of the sample population (in percentages) 133 Table 17. Number of females to every male of the sample popu- lation according to age-group . 134 Table 18. Religious distribution of the sample population (in percentages) 134 Table 19. The composition of the sample population according to ethnic group 135 Table 20. Views of the heads of households of the sample on the state of their homes (in percentages) 139 Table 21. Number of beds per households (both male- and female-headed) (in percentages) . 140 Table 22. The age of houses (in percentages) 141 Table 23. Water supply (in percentages) 142 Table 24. Working population of Paramaribo, classified accord- ing to employment sector and sex (not including those seeking employment 145 Table 25. The occupations of the heads of households of the sample. 146 XII THE FAMILY SYSTEM OF THE FARAMARIBO CREOLES Page Table 26. Table showing the status within the household of the members handing over part of their income to the head of the household 150 Table 27. Table showing non-members of households giving part of their wages to the head of the household . 151 Table 28. N umber of members and total amount of income of households 153 Table 29. Cost of living for Creoles living in Paramaribo for the year 1952 . 153 Table 30. Monthly rent (in percentages) 155 Table 31. EIectricity rates for households connected to the power net (in percentages) 156 Table 32. The costs of fuel (in percentages) 156 Table 33. Monthly water rates (in percentages) 157 Table 34. Period of time for which married male heads of house- holds lived in concubinage with their present partners prior to marriage . 166 Table 35. Motives of male respondents for converting their con- cubinages into marriages 169 Table 36. Duration of the dissolved marriages and concubinages of the heads and their partners (in percentages) 179 Table 37. Baptisms in the Reformed Church of Paramaribo from 1845-1855 186 Table 38. Births in Paramaribo in 1961-1962 187 Table 39. Births in Paramaribo for 1962 189 CONTENTS XIII Page Table 40. Table showing the nature of births among the sample population 193 Table 41. Marital status of heads of households of type C . 198 Table 42. Female heads of househaIds grouped according to age 209 Table 43. O(;cupations of wamen from the B.O.G. sample 220 Table 44. Religious distribution of the wamen of the B.O.G. sample. ..... 220 Table 45. Age at birth of first child of women of the B.O.G. sample. 221 Table 46. Desired number of children of the wamen of the B.O.G. sample . 221 Table 47. Average number of children desired by the wamen of the B.O.G. sample. 222 Table 48. Average number of children desired by wamen of the B.O.G. sample according to marital status 222 Table 49. Table showing the number of women of the B.O.G. sample who would have liked more or fewer children than they actually possessed or were satisfied with the number they had . 223 Table 50. Marital status of women of the B.O.G. sample who would like fewer children than they actually possess 224 Table 51. Conversancy of women of the B.O.G. sample with contraceptive devices and techniques 230 Table 52. Table showing the number of women of the B.O.G. sample who had at same time used contraceptive devices and techniques and those who had no past or present Experience with these, set out according to age 230 XIV THE FAMILY SYSTEM OF THE FARAMARIBO CREOLES Table 53. Tab Ie setting out according to age the women from the B.O.G. sample who had used one or more contra- Page ceptive devices or techniques . 231 Table 54. Reasons against using contraceptive devices or tech- niques stated by women of the B.O.G. sample, listed according to age 232 Table A. Distribution of the total sample population according to sex and age . 283 Table B. Types of household found in the sample 284 Table C. Males over the age of 16 according to marital status 284 Table D. Women over 16 years of age according to marital status 285 Table E. Age at time of first marriage of the Creole population of Paramaribo for the year 1962 . 286 Table F. Income from work or old age benefits and total income of the heads of households in Surinam guilders (in percentages) 287 Table G. Material possessions of households (in percentages) 288 Table H. Number of marriages, concubinages and dissolved unions of the household heads and their partners, as weIl as the number of persons in this group who have never entered into marriage or concubinage . 289 Table 1. The composition of households comprising more than one person Table J. Distribution of the different household types according 290 to the number of generations . . 294 CONTENTS xv Page Table K. Legitimacy or otherwise of birth of members of house- holds 295 Table L. Households of the sample according to type and num- ber of members 296 Table M. Heads of households according to age . 297 Table N. Number of rooms per household, male- or female- headed . 298 Table O. Head of household's right of tenure to dweIIing 299 Table P. Table setting out the weekly expenditure of six house- wives (in S. fI.) 300 Table Q. I. Duration of existing marriages of coresiding part- ners per age-group of the total sample population 11. Duration of existing common law marriages per age-group of the tatal sample population 303 Table R. Status within the household of males over 16 years of age Status within the household of females over 16 years of age. 304 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. General In this book the family life of the lower-class Creole population of Paramaribo will be discussed. 1 This group, which will henceforward he referred to as "the lower-class Creoles", possesses a "West lndian" family system, implying that the latter display all the main characteristics of the Caribbean Afro-American family. The Creoles constitute a numerically important ethnic segment of the society of Surinam. This society is composed of different ethnic groups, comprising, besides a handful of Amerindians, an "immigrant population" including people from many different parts of the world. I t is made up of Creoles, lndians (or Hindustanis, as they are called in Surinam), lndonesians (J avanese), Chinese, Europeans, Lebanese and Bush Negroes, the latter of whom still live predominantly in tribes. The Creoles are the descendants of those Negro slaves brought to Surinam from Africa who did not escape from bondage by running away from the plantations into the Bush, as their brothers the Bush Negroes did. The circumstances under which the bulk of the slaves lived were appalling. Nor were they - or are they still in part at present - much hetter for their descendants the lower-class Creoles. Both the slaves and the lower-class Creoles were compelled for the sake of bare survival to adjust their way of life, and more particularly their family system, to these circumstances. We shall trace below the course of this process of adaptation, as weIl as the way in which the resultant family system functioned in the past and still functions today. 1.2. Social Research in Surinam Descriptions of the society of Surinam containing data on the "Creole Negroes" have appeared ever since the earliest days of colonization. These works by Herlein (1718), Hartsinck (1770), Fermin (1769), 1 For a more detailed explanation of the concepts of Creole and lowerclass Creole see 2.6. and 2.6.1. 2 THE FAMILY SYSTEM OF THE PARAMARIBO CREOLES Kappier (1854) and others are extremely valuable for our knowledge of the former social relations in Surinam. The first sociological research in this country was conducted by Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits, who published severa! studies on the Bush Negroes and the Creoles of Paramaribo (Herskovits and Herskovits, 1934 and 1936). These latter contain an abundance of data in support of their hypothesis that African cultural elements have sur- vived to a surprising degree among the Negro population of the New World (cf. Van Lier, 1951, p. 294). Their work was followed af ter the Second World War by a socio- historica! analysis of the society of Surinam by Van Lier (1949, English Translation 1971). This laid the foundation for further sociological research. The principle underlying the programme for future systematic social research in Surinam subsequently drawn up by the aforesaid author is that the acquisition of a thorough sociographical knowledge of the different ethnic groups should precede further studies of the existing social and economic problems in order to make for a proper insight into the plura! society of Surinam. Studies of this kind on the various ethnic groups of Surinam have in fact appeared both in conjunction with this programme and indepen- dently of it in the past few decades. Of these, the studies on the Hindustanis by De Klerk (1951 and 1953) and Speckmann (1965), on the Tndonesians (Van Wengen, 1963; De Waal Malefijt, 1963), the Creoles (Van Renselaar, 1963 a and b; Pierce, 1971), the Bush Negroes (Thoden van Velzen, 1966; Köbben, 1967 and 1968; De Groot, 1963 and 1969), and the Amerindians (Butt, 1966; Rivière, 1966 and 1969; Kloos, 1971) deserve special mention. The present book is the result of a similar study.2 Tt is concentrated on one particular social institution, as is the case with a number of the abovementioned studies. This is an obvious expedient, as it is virtually impossible to give a complete de scrip- tion of one particular ethnic group giving the necessary attention to all of that group's social institutions after only two year's field research. The institution around which the present study is centered is that of the family, because, as we shall see below, this reflects most clearly the social role and position of the lower-class Creole both in the past and at present. The general characteristics of this institution, or its "West Tndian character", will be discussed first. 11 Other sociological studies are, for example, that by Ferrier (1950) on socio- educational problems; Kruijer's (1951) sociograph of the three Guianas; and Pronk's (1962) study containing the results of tentative research on criminaJity. INTRODUCTION 3 1.3. The West lndian Family System There exists an extensive literature on the family systems of various Negroid ethnic groups of the Caribbean 3 (cf., among others, Simey, 1947; Matthews, 1952; Henriques, 1953; Clarke, 1957; Raymond Smith, 1956; Blake, 1961; M. G. Smith, 1962). These systems display a number of common traits, which allow us to speak of "the" West Indian family system. The principal ones are: (a) The presence of institutionalized alternative unions between men and women. For besides legal marriage there are concubinage, involving the cohabitation of men and women who are not legally married, and the visiting relationship, in which there is a publicly recognized and accepted sexual relationship between a man and a woman whereby the man is a regular visitor to the woman's residential unit. (b) A high prevalence of female heads of households. A separate discussion of these characteristics follows below, as this is indispensable for a proper understanding of our further discourse. 1.3.1. Alternative Unions between Af en and Women Valuable data on the structure and functioning of the family in the Afro-American cultures of the United States and the Caribbean were given as early as the pre-World War II period in the qualitative studies on these ethnic groups published by Herskovits (1937 and 1964). The presence of alternative unions between men and women is also given the necessary attention in his work. However, the credit of being the first sociologist to stress the im- plications of the institution of concubinage for societies in the Caribbean is due to Simey, who carried on where Herskovits left off. In his study entitled Welfare and planning in the West lndies, which appeared in 1946, he discusses the social structure and problems of the West Indian world in the post-war period, giving special attention to the family, because " ... it is thus in the strengths and weaknesses of family life 3 Wagley (1960) pointed out that certain areas outside the West Indian archi- pelago should also be classed with the Caribbean area as a sociological unit. Apart from the West Indian islands, he takes this area, which he designates as "Plantation America", to comprise the Deep South of the U.S.A., the Atlantic coasts of Central America, Colombia and Venezuela, the Guianas, and northeastern Brazil. Hoetink (1961, p. 81) suggested the term "Negro- slavery America" or "Afro-America" for this region. 4 THE FAMILY SYSTEM OF THE PARAMARIBO CREOLES that the characteristic features of West Indian social organization are most clearly displayed" (Simey, 1947, p. 79). In this study Simey published the results of the research into the occurrence of different family types among the rural Negroid population of Jamaica conducted in that island by Lewis Davidson. Thus he gained world-wide recognition for the fact that the family types that can be distinguished in this area - which are considered as deviating from the "Western" ideal of monogamous marriage - are by no means marginal, incidental phenomena, but are on the contrary socially accepted types. Besides (a) "The Christian Family, based on marriage and a patriarchal order approximating to that of Christian families in other parts of the world", which comprised only 20 % of the families studied, Simey distinguished three other family types. These were: (b) "Faithful Con- cubinage, again based on a patriarchal order, possessing no legal status, but weIl established and enduring for at least three years", making up 29% of the family types distinguished (thus being numerically pre- dominant over marriage); (c) "The Companionate Family, in which the members live together for pleasure and convenience, and for less than three years"; and (d) "The Disintegrate Family, consisting of women and children only, in which men merely visit the women from time to time, no pattern of conduct being established". The latter two types combined made up 51 % of the total of a sample of 270 rural Jamaican families which, according to the author himself, was not very reliable. Despite this one shortcoming, Simey's publication, as weil as the subsequent research by Henriques (1953), which was similarly conducted in Jamaica (and the results of which included a more subtly different- iated classification of the family types found here), made it clear that what Herskovits and Frazier had found to be the case with the Negro family of the United States, namely that concubinage as a form of cohabitation is institutionalized here, is observabIe also among the Negroid population of the Caribbean. The same is probably also true of the visting relationship. In this type of union, a woman lives with her children in a separate residential unit and is regularly visited by a man who either supports her entirely or gives her partial economic assistance, and who is the father of all or some of her children. Much less is known about unions of this type than about concubinage, even though they are known to and accepted by the environment. The reasons for this are: (1) in connection with the secrecy of a number of these visiting relationships, namely where the