KITH AND KIN: A STUDY OF CREOLE SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN MARBIAL, HAITI

364 Pages·023.971 MB·English

by  METRAUX, RHODA BUBENDEY

Copyright by
Ehoda Metraux
1951
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KITH AND KIN
A Study of Creole Social Structure
in
Marblai, Haiti
Rhoda Mstraux
1951
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the
Faculty of Political Science, Columbia University,
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La fariiro.ll * socible, 0 Criol1 o nous la
La fanmill1 semble
0 nan point Guinea encore
La famill' eerable.
(Quoted from Harold Courlandor: Haiti Singing.)
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Foreword
This monograph is a partial report on field research in the region
of Marbial, Department de 1’Quest, Haiti, during a period of some
eighteen months between April 1 948 and April 1950* The field work, carried
out under the direction of Dr. Alfred Metraux, was planned and executed in
preparation for s. pilot project in fundamental education under the joint
auspices of the Government of Haiti and the United Nations Educational,
1
Scientific and Cultural Organisation. I jiyself was not a member o.t the
fsLd team working in Marbial and, in fact, have never been in Marbial.
My participation in the study was limited to the v/ork I did with Dr. Metraux
in drawing up the original program; later, when I was in Haiti from
December 1948 to May 1949, I took part in discussions of field problems and
coilab02*ated in the writing of interim field reports.
For approximately six months in 1943 Dr. Metraux had working with him
a student team, supported by a grant from the Viking Fund. This group
included Mr. Remi Bastien, a graduate student of the Escuela Nacional de
Anihropologia, Mexico, D.F, , and several other young Haitian anthropologists
in training. To them I am indebted for many of the excellent Creole notes.
In addition, Dr. Metraux had as collaborators during most of the period of
the survey Miss Jeanne Sylvain, a trained social worker, and Mr. Edouard
Berrouet, an agronomist. Other collaborators were Miss Yvonne Oddon of
the Musee de 1'homme, Paris, and Dr. Susanne Comhaire-Sylvain and Dr.
Jean Comhaire-Sylvain. Dr. Robert A. Hall, Jr., of Cornell University,
1. For a brief description of the original working plan, cf. Alfred
Metraux: "Anthropology and the UNESCO Filot Project of Marbial (Haiti)."
America Indigana, Vol. IX, No. 3, July 1949, pp. 133-194*
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iv
came to Port-au-Prince in the spring of 1949 to gather materials for a
linguistic analysis of Creole. Dr. Hall had access to folklore and other
materials collected by the team, upon which I have also drawn here.
For this monograph Dr. Metraux made fully available to me the main
body of his notes and those of his team, including Mr. Bastion1 e brief
report to the Viking Fund. Dr. Suaanne Comhairs-Sylvain generously per­
mitted me to use her statistical data on a sample of 147 Marbial house­
holds. In the spring of 1959, when this manuscript was in preparation,
Dr. Metraux did some special interviewing at my specific request to check
a number of doubtful details. In the chapter on kinship usage (X), I
have incorporated data from my own work in Port-au-Prince and from my
interviews with one woman informant with whom I checked various points.
I have also referred occasionally — usually in footnotes — to analogous
material on religion (Vodou) from my observations in Port-au-Prince.
Finally, I have made use of two preliminary published reports by Dr.
2 /
Metraux, on agriculture, and by Miss Sylvain, on child care. /
My own field experience in Haiti, although brief, has stretched out
over several years. In 1941, Dr. Metraux and I worked for about two and
one-half months in the environs of Port-au-Prince and in the north on the
lie de la Tortus. In another short trip in the winter of 1946-47, we
2. Alfred Metraux, "Etude sur 1'Agriculture paysanne dans une Vafl.ee
Haitienne." Acta Americana. Vol. VI, Nos. 3-4, 1948, pp. 173-191. Dr.
Metraux* s full report covering this subject is now complete, but has not
been available to me.
Jeanne Sylvain, "La Infancia Campesina en el Valle de Marbial (Haiti).
America Indigena, Vol. IX, No. 4, October 1949, pp. 299-332.
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V
undertook a study of Vodou in Port-au-Prince. It was after this trip
that I cade my first plan for a study of Haitian culture with the late
Dr. Ruth Benedict, whose suggestions then have been of the greatest value
in working out the ideas presented in tais monograph. I continued my
work on Vodou in the winter and spring of 1948-49, but none of the material
on this subject has as yet been published.
In the past nine years, I have discussed Haitian problems with many
Haitians, and it would be almost impossible to trace my many obligations
to them. In particular, I am indebted for advice and assistance to
Dr. Pries Pars, to Dr. Sujsanne Comhaire-Sylvain and Dr. Jean Comhaire-Sylvsin
to Madeleine and Max Buchereaux, to Miss Joanne Sylvain, to Mrs. Odette
Rigaud, and to the late Jacques Roumain. I owe thanks to the patience and
persistence of my informants in the ohfo of Port-au-Prince, especially to
my self-appointed teacher and ’’baptismal relative” Cicero St. Aude. All
those of us who have done fieldwork in Haiti owe gratitude to Dr. and
Mrs. Melville Herskovits, who laid the groundwork for further studies not
only in Dr. Herskovits' book but also in their personal relations with so
many Haitians, Finally, I have to thank Dr. Alfred Metraux, the best of
field companions, at whose request this study of Marbial was undertaken.
Rhoda Metraux
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Foreword iii
I* Introduction
1* Background: Haiti, The People and their History 3
2. Statement of the Problem? Authority in Greolo
Culture 22
Part 1. The Neighborhood
II. Martial: The Setting 41
III. The Neighborhood 54
X?. Affiliations through Work SI
V. The Lines of Authority 11?
VI. Leta: The State 140
Part II. The Family
FIX. The Family: Tradition and tho Living Reality 169
VIII. Marriage* Husband - Wife and Children 1SS
IX. Inheritance and Ownership: Parents and Children,
Siblings 221
X. Kinshio and its Extensions 2S1
XI* Conclusions: The Image of Authority 298
Appendices'
A A Note on Creole Orthography 330
B Agricultural Calendar 33S
C A Note on Polygyny and the Rights of Natural
Children 337
D Four Martial Families 33S
Bibliography S53
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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
I. Introduction
1. Background; Haiti* The People and their History
Modern Haiti :1s a republic, the second oldest independent nation
in the Hew World-, It is a small country* whose people share a cables
cultural heritage of Ettrcpe and Africa* Haiti oecrapies the western
third of the island discovered by Columbus ca his first voyage and Turned
by him Espsanola; it is the second largest of the greater Antilles.
Neighbors to the Haitians on the island are tho Spanish-speaking people
of the Dominican Republic*
1
There are today some 3,500*000 Haitians, moot of them the
descendants of French colonials and the myriad men and women brought
from Africa to work as slaves on plantations in the eighteenth century*
Haitians look to .Francs for their European antecedents- end* even while
sturdily maintaining their hard-won freedom* 3herish above all the
2
contributions of French civilisation to their culture. There are two
languages in Haiti*, French* the official language* is used meticulously
by the educated upper class; to loam French is the heart’s desire of
all who long to improve their economic condition and climb the difficult
ladder of political and social success* Oracle is everyone’s language*
(l) This is an unofficial estimate of the population. An official
census is now (in 1950} in progress*
(g) James G* Leybura in The Haitian People* Itfew Haven* Yale'University
Press* 1941, p. £89, sugg^stT^M'ifltai^T’T"relati onship to France is sn
isolating one* since the European ties* culturally* of Haiti’s neighbors
are rather with Spain (and Portugal)* However, it may be remarked that
Haiti is, like her neighbors* a Catholic country* whore Protestantism,
has taken only a small hold* Furthermore* although Haiti’s links to
France are more direct, one should not overlook tho proselyting influence
of France among educated groups in other Latin American countries, whose
second language is likely to be French*
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-4~
3
the only language spoken by the peasantry and urban lcwer class. ^ Yet
each constantly enriches the other. Everyday spoken French is given
zest and idiosyncratic turns by the concise and apt idioms of Creole;
French supplies net? vocabulary for Creole, especially among urban speakers.
On this island, the earlier indigenous people — the Arewak whom
CaLumbu3 so disarmingly described an the day of his landing^ — left small
mark. Some of the foods they grow are still basic in the diet. But for
5 6
the rest, a vague romantic tradition, ruins long buried, a skeleton
stretched undisturbed in a cave, a carved image, a modelled sherd dug up
in a field and cherished by its finder as the repository of a god, are
reminders of this past; all has suffered a sea change. It was rather in
their catastrophic disappearance that the Arawak played a part in the
7
future of the island. For they survived only as a handful in 1510,
(3) The mo3t recent study of Creole is that now in preparation by
Or. Robert Hall. This is based in part upon materials collected by
the UNESCO team in Marbial. See Appendix A, A Note on Creole
Orthography.
(4) Samuel Eliot Uorison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea-, a Life of Chrla~
topher Columbus. Two Vols. Boston, Little firown "and Company, 1942o
(5) The tradition of the Indian inhabitants of the island plays a
larger rfil© in the elementary histories of Haiti than does the
background history of the Negro peoples who came to replace the
Indians. Cf. Manuel d'Histoire d'Haiti by Dr. J.*C. Doraainvil with
the collaboration of Freres de l'instruction Chretienne, Port-au~Prince,
Procure des Freres de l'instruction Chretienne, 1949, a textbook for
use in the upper division of primary schools and in secondary schools.
"Indians” in rich, fantastic costumes are traditional figures in the
carnival processions in Port-au-Prince.
(6) Cf. Irving Rouse; Culture of the Fort Lfberte Region. Haiti.
Hew Haven, Yale University Press, 1941, (together with a study by F. Rainey)
for a description of the largest systematic archaeological excavation
in Haiti.
(7) It is estimated that 200,000 Indians in Espanola died of a smallpox
epidemic in 1500 alone, cf. Leyburn, op. cit. p. 273. Many fought and
were killed, others died in the Spanish mines, and still others, no
doubt, fled. The Spaniards had little success in their attempts to
bring other Indians to the island. Consequently they were forced to
look elsewhere for labor. The passionate espousal of the native peoples
by a fen man like las Casas, who sought to serve and convert the Indians,
t»flH8^rt£8*i§5VfuK ^rin6inS Negroes to the Hew TCerld, to Mexico os
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