The people of Puerto Rico: a study in social anthropology

University of Illinois Press • Urbana • Published In 1956 • Pages: x, 540

By: Steward, Julian Haynes, Manners, Robert A. (Robert Alan), Wolf, Eric R., Padilla, Elena, Mintz, Sidney Wilfred, Scheele, Raymond L..

Abstract

The objective of the series of monographs in this ethnographic survey is to analyze sociocultural variation in rural Puerto Rico, its historical modification and general processes of historical development. To clarify and refine the concepts and methods of Steward's theory of cultural ecology, the authors here limit their scope of investigation to the major forms of agricultural production of the rural population. Selecting communities that exemplify the principle types of Puerto Rican farm production (corporate sugarcane plantations, government owned sugarcane plantations, small cash-subsistence mixed crop farms, and the modified haciendas and small farms producing coffee), they undertake to determine how sociocultural institutions and processes co-vary with economic type. They also apply Steward's ideas of local and class subcultures and levels of sociocultural integration to their data by examining how these rural subcultures function within the larger context of national Puerto Rican culture. This source also analyzes the developmental factors and processes generating these rural subcultures by discussing what features of the local environment differentiate forms of land use and the adaptation of social and political features to the productive processes. In integrating their findings, the various authors develop a set of theoretical propositions about recurrent features of cultural structure, function, and history in all these contrasting Puerto Rican rural cultures, which had diverse regional and local origins and traditions. Accordingly, in the concluding chapters, the authors use historical and ecological evidence to construct a developmental or diachronic typology to determine the structural-functional origins and sequences of the existing synchronic variation in these rural agrarian ecosystems and sociopolitical systems. This field research on rural Puerto Rico was undertaken by the several authors as doctoral dissertation requirements at Columbia University under Julian Steward's direction. This volume represents a later compilation of their research findings and interpretations, again under Steward's editorship.

HRAF PubDate

2012

Region

Middle America and the Caribbean

Sub Region

Caribbean

Evaluation

Creator Types

Ethnologist

Indigenous Person

Document Rating

4: Excellent Secondary Data

5: Excellent Primary Data

Analyst

Gilbert Winer; 1967-1968 ; John Beierle; 2011

Field Date

1948-1949

Coverage Date

1700-1949

Coverage Place

Puerto Rico

Notes

[by] Julian H. Steward [et al.]

Notes: "A Social Science Research Center study, College of Social Sciences, University of Puerto Rico."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 516-526) and index

LCCN

56005682

LCSH

Puerto Rico--Social life and customs

Puerto Rico--Rural conditions