Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0156/01566.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 31KB | 509 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01566}
$Pretitle{364}
$Title{Haiti
Chapter 4A.   Social System}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Thomas E. Weil}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{class
social
elite
rural
status
urban
middle
upper
french
haitian}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
Country:     Haiti
Book:        Haiti, a Country Study
Author:      Thomas E. Weil
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 4A.   Social System

     Throughout its history the social system of Haiti has been marked by a
dual heritage-that of the French colonial and that of the African slave. The
social and racial configuration was introduced during the colonial period when
a small minority of wealthy whites held sway over the lives of their black
slaves. A rigid, color-based stratification system evolved that enhanced
initial cultural differences. As independence was ushered in, the white elites
were ushered out, giving Haiti the opportunity to develop new values and
institutions. The new mulatto elite opted for the social model of their
predecessors, however, and kept Roman Catholicism, the French language and
culture, and light skin color as criteria of high social position.

     The slave masses that fought alongside the mulattoes gained little more
than emancipation and subsistence plots after independence. The lifestyles
that had evolved during slavery were adapted to their new peasant status with
only minimal changes. They maintained their own religion (voodoo) and their
own language (Creole) and continued to center their lives on African and
slave-based family and market patterns. Little has changed in the peasants'
isolated, rural existence since slave days; they remain outside the national
economy and political life and are virtually untouched by modern technology or
social change.

     The twentieth century has seen the initial erosion of the traditionally
dichotomous society and the emergence of a nebulous middle class. The rise in
black consciousness and nationalism has brought an increased awareness of the
African heritage by Haitian intellectuals-as witnessed by the liberalizing of
official attitudes towards voodoo and the sporadic attempts to bring greater
prestige to Creole. Expanding economic opportunities have caused
differentiation within social strata, and political awareness has given
impetus to the incipient middle sector. Geographic isolation and regionalism
are breaking down as rural inhabitants become more mobile and seek
opportunities outside their ancestral villages. Although members of the elite
retain their exalted position as the last bastion of prestigious French
culture, the group has opened its ranks to wealthy, educated nonelites,
forming a broader based upper class.

     In spite of these signals of change, the overall social structure has not
been deeply affected. At the base of the social pyramid the peasants' life is
unchanged. Observations of rural life made in the nineteenth century were only
slightly updated by the social scientists of the 1930s and 1940s; in general,
these commentaries are still a fairly accurate picture of the peasant in 1972.
Power and wealth have not been diffused throughout the society. New groups are
developing, but the balance of power has remained with the 5 to 10 percent of
the population possessing wealth, education, and social prestige. Finally,
there has been no effective amalgamation or adoption of lower class norms.
Creole and voodoo, despite their pervasiveness, have never been officially
acknowledged by the upper class, who remain culturally segregated. Traditional
class criteria are still employed to designate status. The middle class is
ambivalent about its double heritage and has developed little class
solidarity.

Color and Class

Racial and Ethnic Heritage

     The evolution of Haitian class structure and ethnic configuration may be
seen in terms of three periods: the colonial and early independence period;
the period of the American occupation (1951-34); and the revolution of 1946.
The racial composition was established during the first of these periods, and
subsequent history served to reinforce rather than to change the early
colonial configuration. Although the colonial period technically began in 1492
with the Spanish conquest of the Taino Indians on Hispaniola, little of
lasting cultural importance was to take place on the western half of the
island until the arrival of the first French planters and their African slaves
in the middle of the seventeenth century (see ch. 3).

     The French presence in Haiti was of shorter duration than that of any
other colonial power in the New World, yet the cultural transmission was
extensive and especially affected the elite. The values of wealth, light skin
color, Roman Catholicism, education, and cultural refinement were introduced
by the French. Haitian society has never successfully shaken the legacy left
by the early planters. Although the outlines of social values and institutions
were drawn by the French, the details of daily life were often supplied by the
black slaves. The blacks developed lifestyles that incorporated their African
background and their experience as slaves, and they passed on this legacy to
their offspring. The differences between the French and African cultural
backgrounds have never been fully reconciled nor amalgamated, however; and the
result has been the development of parallel institutions, values, and
lifestyles of the mulatto elite and the peasant masses.

     The French imposed a stratification system composed of three classes and
based on color and French-derived class criteria. At the top of the social
ladder were the white elite, who were further subdivided between those born in
France and those born on the island and between government officials,
planters, and the poor whites. The bottom rung was occupied by the black slave
masses who had been taken from more than 100 African tribes. They, too, were
differentiated between those born in Africa and those born on the island and
between house servants and field hands. Finally, due to the extensive
miscegenation between the slaves and their masters, a third group arose to
occupy the middle stratum. Referred to as freedmen, people of color, or
mulattoes, many of these individuals held a relatively advantageous position
in the society. Some prospered financially, owning slaves and land; others
attained a high level of education in France. This group effectively
reinforced the French culture throughout the colony by emphasizing the
positive values of wealth, education, and light skin color.

     The issues of race and ancestry were an integral part of the
white-oriented class system, further fragmenting the colonial society.
Numerous terms were employed to categorize mulattoes according to their
parentage. Even the courts of Saint-Domingue came to recognize as many as ten
major, and 200 minor, blood combinations. Racial prejudice increased as whites
began to fear the power, wealth, and rising numbers of the free, colored
people. Not a solidified class under any other circumstances, the white
population united in their efforts to draw and maintain the color line.
Mulattoes were deprived of their civil rights as stated in the Code Noir of
1685 and were barred from positions in the court and the militia. Every effort
was made to keep mulattoes from gaining authority over white men. Mulattoes
were eventually barred from the more profitable occupations as well as from
the professions and public service. Finally, in an effort to maintain social
distance, the whites enforced segregation in churches and theaters and
ostracized any white who married a person of color (see ch. 3).

     By the end of the eighteenth century, racial and class strife affected
all classes of Haitian society. Virtually no group felt secure in its status.
Hatred, fear, and envy dominated social relations and eventually erupted into
a slave revolt that led to the expulsion of the whites and to the independence
of the Haitian republic in 1804.

     T