Book
Women and the ancestors: Black Carib kinship and ritual
University of Illinois Press • Urbana • Published In 1983 • Pages:
By: Kerns, Virginia.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This work is a study of the position of women (i.e., 'mature' women) in Garifuna society in particular reference to their central role in households, extended families, and in the management and preservation of the ceremonial components of their culture despite rapid changes in the society. This central theme dominates this source. The first two chapters provide introductory material on the author's aims and goals, and on the historical background of the Garifunas. Chapter 3 provides a summary description of Belize (formerly British Honduras) as the national setting of this study and identifies some of the salient differences in employment opportunities for men and women, a topic which is continued throughout chapter 4. The next three chapters (5-7) deal with various aspects of social life, as for example property ownership and exchange, interpersonal conflict, age and gender, and kinship. Chapter 8 is primarily concerned with the subject of Garifuna households and extended families. Chapter 9 outlines the sequence of rituals for the dead, while chapter 10 identifies the various participants in these rituals. The final chapter (11) summarizes the author's conclusions, and presents some 'informed speculations' about the part women have played '...in perpetuating ritual and other conventions of kinship...' (p. 8).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Property system
- Inheritance
- Gender status
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Household
- Extended families
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Garifuna
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2005
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Middle America and the Caribbean
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Central America
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1989-1991
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1973-1976
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1974-1976
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- 'La Playa' [pseudonym], southern Belize
- NotesAdditional notes
- [by] Virginia Kerns
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-220) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 82002601
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Garifuna (Caribbean people)