ECONOMY AND FAMILY STRUCTURE, PORT HOWE, CAT ISLAND, BRITISH WEST INDIES

The village of Port Howe on Cat Island (Bahamas, BWI), is a
small community which earns most of its living by slash-bum horticulture.
The economy is not self-contained, and horticulture does not
produce surplus sufficient to pay for the imports. A few government
salaries and relief payments make up the difference, together with
the help sent by citizens who go to work in Nassau or the mainland.
The economic activities of Port Howe are inefficient in many
respects, the most important being:
1. The people do little fishing. They buy canned fish from
Nassau.
2. They raise no poultry for eggs or meat, but do without
or buy eggs and chickens.
3. They have horses, but use them little, preferring expensive
motor transportation.
4. They raise goats and sheep, but waste the wool, hides and
milk, valuing only the meat.
5. They keep no dairy cattle, no beef cattle.
6. They have no kitchen garden the year round, but a few
vegetables for two months of the year.
7. They do no canning, preserving, smoking of hams and bacon.
8. They do not sew, although they have a severe problem
of getting clothing.
Inefficiency in the face of extreme poverty poses the question:
why? It is the thesis of this paper that this aspect of the economic
activities of Port Howe can be explained as the interplay of three
factors: the geological structure of the islands, the history of the
Bahamas, and the African heritage of the people. It is shown that the
skills acquired under slavery tend to be dropped or retained under
emancipation, according to whether they were rooted in the African
heritage. It is further shown that skills thus rooted tend more strongly
to be retained if they are backed up by favorable traits of the geological
structure and/or the historical background.
Thus, goat herding, although it is manifestly uneconomic, is
universally practiced. It is rooted in African tradition, compatible
with the geologically dictated practice of horticulture, and has also
the sanction of having been carried on throughout the period of slavery.
Salt-water fishing and the use of horses, on the other hand,
are not practiced today, although they were a part of the plantation
economy. But they have no African roots, are rendered difficult by
the structure of the islands, and were not emphasized during the
plantation era as part of the life of the slaves.
Cattle culture also is rendered difficult by the nature of the
island, and is probably not rooted in African economy. Although it
was an important part of plantation life, it has been abandoned.
Some other practices associated with the plantation culture
are of late origin, having only developed after the abandonment of the
island plantations by their owners. Canning and home sewing by machine
were patently no part of life in Africa, and the isolation of island
life obviously tends to retard the assimilation of new inventions.
The family structure is also shown to be African in its origins,
somewhat influenced by the economics and traditions of our culture, but
this influence is softened by the nature of the island and the economics
of horticulture which it requires. The formation of the matrifocal
family, which often takes place in West Africa, was given added impetus
by the slavery institution, which stripped the male of his status-giving
religious functions, while also down-grading his economic importance. The island structure intensified this trend, by requiring horticulture
which can be carried on by women and children, and by making it necessary
for him to leave the family home to make much of a cash contribution.
Thus the institution of the matrifocal family flourishes,
even though it originally rooted in African polygyny, which is illegal
in the Bahamas.