7.

The realities of West Indian rural life include acute short-ages of arable land and severely limited opportunities foremployment. The following article describes a Jamaicanmilieu in which sheer survival obliges those on the lowesteconomic levels to pursue several occupations at one time.A comparative study of fishing communities shows thatthe great majority of fishermen combine fishing with farm-ing and wage employment. People in rural Jamaica keepup multiple and often intertwined pursuits as a necessaryadaptation to a meager environment.

LAMBROS COMITAS has a doctorate in anthropology fromColumbia University. An American, he has carried out fieldresearch in Barbados, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic,and Bolivia. At present he is Professor of Anthropologyand Education at Teachers College, Columbia University,and Associate Director of the Research Institute for theStudy of Man.

Occupational Multiplicity in RuralJamaicaLambros Comitas

,Although it has not been completely neglected, an entiresocio-economic stratum of rural Jamaican society is noteasily accounted for in any of the taxonomic formula-tions presently available for the Caribbean area. Charac-teristic of this population segment is occupational multi-plicity or plurality, wherein the modal adult is systematicallyengaged in a number of gainful activities, which for himform an integrated economic complex. This occupationalmultiplicity is the nexus of a socio-economic type signifi-cantly different from that of either the peasant, farmer, orplantation types in the West Indies.Anthropology in the Caribbean during the past three

decades has developed with at least five major concerns:a) ethnohistory and Afro-American studies, b) cultureand personality, c) social anthropology, d) cultural ecol-ogy, and e) the community study. These have not beenmutually exclusive categories, but they do delineate theprincipal theoretical and methodological orientations.However, for the description of the non-localized socio-economic type which follows, only the research of thecultural ecological school is generally applicable and com-parable.The work of this school is represented by Julian Steward

and his associates, in an analysis of contemporary Puerto

Adapted from a paper givenat the 1963Annual SpringMeet-ing of the American Ethnological Society and printed in theProceedingsof the meeting, Symposium on Community Studiesin Anthropology, Edited by Viola E. Garfield and ErnestineFriedl, 1964, pp. 41-50. Copyright © 1973 by LambrosComitas.

158 Occupational Multiplicity in Rural Jamaica

Ricol which concentrated on several of the main variantsof the island's culture.

. . . Each rural region has a distinctive environmentand therefore particular crop potentials. In each regionthe productive arrangement-the kind of crop, mechani-zation in field production or in processing, land tenure,capitalization and credit, and the nature of labor and ofowner-worker relations-has created distinctive subcul-tures among the people involved.2

Initial field research in Puerto Rico yielded descriptions andanalyses; later study, by several in the group, led to broaderstatements which were based more on structural arrange-ments than on cultural content and which were not limitedto a particular island. For the Caribbean as a whole, Pa-dilla isolated three such contemporary social-rural types:

. . . In terms of a typology of rural subcultures, themost important groups in the Caribbean today, from anumerical and sociological point of view, are peasants,farmers, and plantation workers involved within thecorporate system.3

Wolf has written extensively on the peasant and Mintz hascontributed to our knowledge of both plantation and peas-ant organizations. Each of these types can be defined asfollows: the term plantation worker is applied to a land-less wage employee who is attached to a large-scale agri-cultural organization geared to the production and market-ing of an export crop for profit;4 that of farmer is appliedto an agricultural entrepreneur who owns land, hires wagelabor or depends on sharecroppers or tenants for the cul-

l Julian H. Steward, et aI., The People of Puerto Rico (Ur-bana: University of Illinois Press, 1956).2 Julian H. Steward, Theory of Culture Change (Urbana:

University of Illinois Press, 1955), p. 212.3 Elena Padilla, "Contemporary Social-Rural Types in the

Caribbean Region," in Vera Rubin, ed., Caribbean Studies:A Symposium (2nd ed.; Seattle: University of WashingtonPress, 1960), p. 28.4Ibid., pp. 23-24.

Lambros Comitas 159

tivation of commercial crops;5 a peasant is designated asan agricultural producer, distinct from fishermen, stripminers, rubber gatherers and livestock keepers, who retainseffective control of land and who aims at subsistence notat reinvestment. 6 Each of these three economic types isaccompanied by different social structural arrangements.7The issue raised here is-to what extent do these typescover the socio-economic realities of rural Jamaica?Approximately a quarter of the island's population of

about 1,600,000 live in the rapidly growing urban areassuch as Kingston and Montego Bay; another quarter eitherreside in the sugar belt parishes of Westmoreland, Claren-don or St. Catherine or depend economically on theseareas; and almost all of the remaining half eke out an exist-ence in the mountainous interior or in circumscribed pock-ets of land along the coastlines. All are. significantly differ-ent ecological areas.8 It is not very difficult to perceivestructural homologies between plantation workers and sys-tems in rural Jamaica and those in Puerto Rico, and inother parts of the West Indies. The 25 per cent of theJamaican population which lives in areas dominated byplantations exhibits social characteristics markedly similarto those found among parallel groups throughout the Ca-ribbean region. Moreover, the historical and synchronicinfluence of the plantation on the total Jamaican societyis of major significance, as it is in much of the generalarea. Difficulties arise, however, when the concepts offarmer and peasant, as defined are used to categorize

5Ibid., pp. 25-26.6 Eric R. Wolf, "Types of Latin American Peasantry: A

Preliminary Discussion," American Anthropologist, Vol. 57, No.3, Part 1 (June, 1955), pp. 453-54.

7 Padilla (op. cit., p. 25), specifying the three types, putsit this way: "Thus, with particular reference to the Caribbean,the folIowing types of local subcultures can be formulated atthis moment. These types represent structural arrangements,not cultural content-they are likely to be modified in the lightof further conceptual refinements and more empirical knowl-edge."8 M. G. Smith, "The Plural Framework of Jamaican Society,"

British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 12, No.3 (1961), p. 249.

160 Occupational Multiplicity in Rural Jamaica

that half of the Jamaican population which is rural, butnot directly involved in a plantation economy. Most mem-bers of this rural population segment fit into neither thefarmer nor the peasant category.To begin with, they do not own or control sufficient land

to earn a living solely through agriculture. For example,21.5 per cent of all farms in Jamaica are less than one acre;48.2 per cent are between 1 and 5 acres; 17.5 per cent are5 to 10 acres in size; and 9.3 per cent are between 10 and25 acres. Only 3.5 per cent are over 25 acres, and thesefew farms and estates control 60.7 per cent of all produc-tive acreage.9 We can conservatively estimate that over halfthe farms in Jamaica average less than three acres, are com-posed of several fragmented pieces of marginal land,loand comprise somewhat less than one-tenth of the totalavailable acreage. Often, the various fragments of a farmare held under different forms of land tenure thus compli-cating both the legal position and the efficient utilizationof land,1lIt is the rare landholder, therefore, who can depend only

on cultivation, either for subsistence or for profit, withoutexerting additional economic effort in other directions. Inan extensive survey of labor supply in the country districtsof the island, M. G. Smith had this to say:

9 David Edwards, An Economic Study of Small Farming inJamaica (Kingston, Jamaica: University College of the WestIndies, 1961), p. 30.10 Jamaican small farms are very often composed of more

than one land fragment: "... only one third of the smallfarms each consist of one piece of land, just over one thirdconsist of two pieces and the remainder consist of more thantwo pieces" (D. Edwards, op. cit., pp. 29-30). As for the qualityof land utilized by small farmers: "Typically, the large farmis situated on fairly fiat naturally fertile land which is littleeroded; but most of the small farms are to be found on hillsideland where the soils of moderate natural fertility have beenbadly eroded" (ibid., p. 27).11For a discussion of land tenure and land use, see Edith

Clarke, "Land Tenure and the Family in Four Communitiesin Jamaica," Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 1, No.4 (Au-gust, 1953); My Mother Who Fathered Me (London: GeorgeAllen and Unwin, 1957).

Lambros Comitas 161

· . . the occupational classifications of the population ofthe various districts studied over the past 12 months· . . show quite clearly that except among the seniormale age groups, farming is an occupation which israrely carried out independently of other pursuits. Purewage work is also relatively rare. The typical employ-ment status and occupational combination for Jamaicansmall-farming populations involve own-account farmingand ad hoc wage work,12

An agricultural economist, in an intensive study ofeighty-seven farms in eight areas of Jamaica, makes thefollowing observations about the non-farm activities of theindividuals in his sample:

· .. Work outside the farm was responsible for depriv-ing the farm of labour by the older as well as theyounger adults living in the household. In some fewcases the farmers' wives engaged in off-farm employ-ment so that the income earned would encourage thefarmers to retain them, or if they were ejected theywould be able to live without support for at least a shorttime. But much of the work off the farms by the wivesand all such work by the farmers was prompted by dif-ferent motives. The farm people worked off their farmsto supplement their farm incomes; usually they workedto meet their day to day living and farm expenses butoccasionally the income was reserved for unusual ex-penditures such as buying a bed or a piece of land. Someof the off-farm work was undertaken in slack periodsand so did not compete with farm work, but there wereexceptional instances when the pressing need for cashforced the people to neglect their farms at criticaltimes. Under those circumstances outside work was donebecause the people 'can't do better.' There were alsosituations intermediate between those where no farmwork was required on the home farm and those wherethe need for immediate cash income was so great thatthe tasks on the home farms had to be left undone.These were situations where, although there was workto be done at home, the outside work (which appeared12M. G. Smith, A Report on Labour Supply in Rural Ja-

maica (Kingston, Jamaica: Government Printer, 1956), p. 5.

162 Occupational Multiplicity in Rural Jamaica

more remunerative) was undertaken; either labour washired to replace the farmer's own or the farm was sim-ply given that much less labour,13

We can deduce from the previous statistics and descrip-tions that own-account agriculture is rarely the sole eco-nomic activity of poor, rural Jamaicans. Since these peoplecannot hope to maintain a subsistence level through agri-cultural production even with effective control of theirlimited land, they do not easily fit into the peasant defini-tion. Also, since they constitute the largest single elementin the island's population, those who can be classified aspeasants are few, if not altogether non-existent. It follows,then, that no viable peasant subculture exists in Jamaica.Nevertheless, in their general formulations on workingpeople in the Caribbean, Wolf, Padilla, and Mintz haveapplied the term peasant to Jamaica, but in so doing havehad to force or drastically adapt the concept. Wolf,14 forinstance, in discussing adaptations to life on "new-styleplantations,"15 presumes the existence of a peasantry andthen hypothesizes the forms and directions of peasantchange .

. . . The first kind of double adaptation-involves thepossession of at least two sets of cultural forms andthus two fields of manoeuver for a better balance ofchances and risks: this is discernible in areas wherepeasants work on plantations, and step with one footinto the plantation way of life, while keeping the otherfoot on the peasant holding. Jamaica seems to be anexample of an area where this occurs.13Edwards, op. cit., p. 75.14 Eric R. Wolf, "Specific Aspects of Plantation Systems in

the New World: Community Sub-cultures and Social Classes,"in Plantation Systems of the New World, Pan American Union,So/cial Science Monographs VII (Washington, D.C.: 1959),p. 143.15"... Increasingly in the New World, systems using ex-

ternal coercion to exact performance have tended to give wayto systems utilizing the worker's own drive for subsistence. Itis thus possible to refer to plantations using bound labor asold-style plantations, to plantations using free labor as new-styleplantations" (ibid., p. 137).

Lambros Comitas 163

While Woif conceptualizes these individuals as peasantswho do plantation work in order to broaden their economicbase, Padilla includes in her taxonomy of social-rural typesin the Caribbean a variant form of peasantry which de-pends on cash and wage employment and not necessarilywithin a plantation context. Pushing any standard defini-tion of peasant to the extreme she characterizes this varietyas,

. . landholders who cultivate special food crops forlocal markets or plantations, who depend on cash tosupplement their own food and other needs, and whoalso may sell their labour. . . . They are likely to mi-grate for casual employment, or they may be tenantsor sharecroppers. Examples can be found in St. Vincent,Jamaica, Puerto Rico.16

Mintz, specifying Jamaica among other cases, comesclosest to reaching beyond the confines of the peasant-plantation worker-farmer triad by speculating that

. . . the plantation worker who is also a peasant appearsto be straddling two kinds of socio-cultural adaptationsand may represent a cultural type which is not neces-sarily transitional but in a kind of flux equilibrium,17

All three writers utilize the peasant and plantation con-structs as the taxonomic point of departure for definingrural social types in the Caribbean. In categorizing Ja-maica, their undue emphasis on the peasant concept, basedperhaps on insufficient data, appears to be misleading andpossibly counterproductive for research.· As already indi-cated, a functioning peasantry, in any rigorous sense of theterm, does not exist in contemporary Jamaica and perhapsnever existed in the past. Over the years, following Eman-cipation, large numbers of poor, rural Jamaicans found itnecessary to combine several economic activities in orderto subsist. Affected by the insecurities of own-account cul-

16 Padilla, op. cit., p. 25.17 Sidney W. Mintz, "The Plantation as a Socio-cultural

Type," in Plantation Systems of the New World, p. 43.

164 Occupational Multiplicity in Rural Jamaica

tivation on minuscule, sub-standard fields, by the labordemands of plantations and large farms, and by the ir-regularity of other wage employment, these people de-veloped a way of life based on a system of occupationalmultiplicity which maximizes as well as protects their lim-ited economic opportunities and which in turn influencesthe nature of their social alignments and organization.They constitute a type qualitatively different from that ofthe peasant and plantation worker, which is characterizedby its own set of structural arrangements and 'its own cul-tural distinctiveness, and as such, requires separate classi-fication and analysis. What follows is an attempt to exem-plify some limited dimensions of these occupationalpluralists.In 1958, the writer completed a study of five coastal set-

tlements in rural Jamaica whose inhabitants were ostensi-bly fishermen.18 At least they were so considered by thosebranches or agencies of the Jamaican government most con-cerned with the fishing industry.19 The objectives of thestudy were to determine the effects of a government spon-sored action program for the introduction of fishing co-operatives and to isolate the factors contributing to theirsuccess or failure in specific localities. Methodologically,the study took the form of a survey in depth20 which,aside from the stipulated objectives, established the fol-lowing: that the groups did not warrant blanket categoriza-

18 Lambros Comitas, Fishermen and Cooperation in RuralJamaica (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, N.Y., 1962).This studywas made possibleby a fellowshipfrom the ResearchInstitute for the Study of Man and by a Fulbright Grant fromthe United States Government.19 The Jamaica Social Welfare Commission; Fisheries Di-

vision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands; the BeachControl Authority; etc.20 A two-pronged approach, quantitative and qualitative, was

employed in each of five settlements studied. Utilizing the first,I collected data on kinship, marital status, internal migration,schooling, literacy, house types, land tenure, cultivation, live-stock, occupations, type of fishing, etc. Employing the secondapproach, I gathered material on fishing,agricultural and handi-craft technology, conducted depth interviews and studied thecooperatives in detail, etc.

Lambros Comitas 165

tion as fishermen; nor, in spite of the fact that they cul-tivated some land, could these rural Jamaicans be classifiedas peasants, farmers, or plantation workers.Detailed occupational statistics collected indicate that, ex-

cept for one specialized settlement,2l from 63 to 79 percent of all males gainfully occupied are engaged in morethan one economic activity. For the most part, these in-dividuals do not specialize in fishing but combine it withown-account work such as cultivation, or various formsof wage employment, or some combination of the three.Concentration on fishing varies primarily with the avail-ability of land and sea resources, the possibilities for wageemployment, the regional demand for skills, and such fac-tors as age and familial responsibilities. Although eachsettlement exists within its own micro-ecological niche, thethree settlements to be discussed share in common eco-nomic possibilities or alternatives which are extremelylimited. In most cases, no one alternative is sufficientlylucrative for individual full-time specialization, and there-fore occupational multiplicity can become a necessity.Because the available alternatives in each area are not

the same, a somewhat distinctive modal form of vocationalcombination exists at each settlement. For example, in LongHill the typical pattern is mixed cash and subsistence agri-culture, night fishing, and occasional wage employment. InWhitehouse, the emphasis is on intensive day fishing, sub-sistence agriculture, and occasional wage employment. InDuncans, wage-employment, the primary economic activity,is interlocked with a particular form of early hour fishingand with little dependence on agriculture. For all three set-tlements, despite the dominance of one alternative, it isthe obtained occupational balance which maximizes thepossibility of individual and household security and from

21 Only one settlement in the study had a male populationmost of whom practiced only a single occupation.Special con-ditions account for this situation: contiguity to large marketsrelated to one of the most extensive sugar areas of the islandtogether with excellent fishingresources attract large numbersof migrants who come to fish. Since there is no available agri-cultural land they are limited to this pursuit, even if their fi-nancial situation should improve.

166 Occupational Multiplicity in Rural Jamaica

which significant structural relationships develop. Unlikethe variations of "peasantry" in Jamaica, suggested byWolf and Padilla, agriculture in this vocational complexneed not be the principal element.Long Hill is a small open country district on the south-

western coast of the island. The entire surrounding regionis a zone of low labor demand. Large agricultural prop-erties in the vicinity are committed to cattle rearing or tothe cultivation of pimento, neither of which requires alarge, steady labor force. Other lands nearby, in particular,one property of over 2000 acres, are not put to any eco-nomic use by their absentee landlords. Frome and similargreat corporate sugar estates which require large laborforces during crop time are over 20 miles away and there-fore of limited availability to the people of Long Hill.This low level of labor demand is offset in part by the

relatively large size of the average "fishing" householdfarm, which is three and a half acres, the highest figurefor all settlements included in the study.22 Legal landtenure forms predominate here so that each householdowns its house and house plot, each keeps a quantity oflivestock, cultivates subsistence crops such as cassava,yams, and corn and produces cash crops of bananas, limes,pimento and coconuts. The economic advantage of suchagricultural diversification is substantiaP3 Nevertheless,two-thirds of all males gainfully occupied are engaged inmore than one occupation. Modally, the Long Hill land-owner combines cultivation with a particular form of nightfishing24 which requires little capital investment and a

22Since the study was concerned with fishing cooperatives,all households included in the five settlement samples and cen-suses contained at least one male or femalemember who eitherpracticed fishing of some sort or was a fish vendor. Conse-quently, the study dealt only with a segment of any given lo-cality. The size of this segment varied with the extent andnumber of alternative economic activities.23Sidney W. Mintz, "The Role of the Middleman in the

Internal DistributionSystemof a CaribbeanPeasant Economy,"Human Organization, Vol. 15, No.2 (Summer, 1956), pp. 18-19.24This takes the form of hook and ]ine fishing in small

canoes during the very dark hours of the night. Fish are at-

Lambros Comitas 167

minimal consumption of valuable daylight time necessaryfor agricultural and wagework pursuits. Furthermore, sinceonly two men are required for this type of fishing, thedemands of an established crew relationship are not con-fining. Though night fishing might be secondary at LongHill, it provides protein for the household's diet and a cashprofit when a part of the catch is sold.Agricultural and fishing activities are combined with

other part-time wage work such as carpentry, occasionalwage labor on adjoining properties and shopkeeping. Thismixed vocational pattern is clearly accepted by the localfolk. An individual must "look lines all about," as oneLong Hill male put it to mean that a person cannot dependon one occupation to make a living.Occupational multiplicity and age have a high correla-

tion for all three settlements. The older the male, thegreater the probability that he will have multiple occupa-tions. In Long Hill, for example, only 33 per cent of menbetween the ages of 15 and 24 have more than one occu-pation; for those between 25 and 39 the percentage is 78;while for those over 40, it is 88 per cent. This progressionis even more pronounced for the other two settlements.Some knowledge of Jamaican culture helps to understandthese statistics. Young men in rural Jamaica ordinarily donot maintain separate households. Consequently, their re-sponsibilities are few and their financial requirements low.These factors-combined with generally unrealistic voca-tional aspirations,25 inspired by the mass communicationmedia, the schools and even the parents-keep the youngin hope of high paying and prestigious wage employment.Compounding the situation are ambivalent-to-negative at-titudes towards the land itself and towards manual labor,both heritages from slavery.

tracted by use of a strong light thrown by a lantern. Returnto the beach is usually by dawn. On moonlit nights there isno fishing at all. Consequently, only about half the month isutilized for maritime activity.25 M. G. Smith, "Education and Occupational Choice in

Rural Jamaica," Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3(September, 1960).

168 Occupational Multiplicity in Rural Jamaica

Young adults, then, often find themselves unemployed orunderemployed. When they are employed, it is in a singleoccupation, and in these three settlements, that occupationis most likely to be fishing. Given the low technologicallevel of fishing in Jamaica, this pursuit calls for little formalcommitment or capital investment on the part of the casualpractitioner. However, when the young adult begins grad-ually to perceive the socio-economic realities around him,and he begins to assume the responsibility for supportinga new household, he finds he must tum to cultivationon his own, rented or "family" land.26 If he has no accessto land, he must seek additional wage labor in order tomeet the new demands upon him. As his years, responsi-bilities and commitments increase, his involvement in anddependence on multiple activities become complete.Contiguous to Long Hill is the small market town of

Whitehouse. Its physical environment is almost identicalwith'that of Long Hill, its sea resources are the same, so-cial interaction between the two settlements is extensive,and the cultural inventories of both are quite similar. Landholdings, however, are severely limited for the majority ofWhitehouse residents. Most of these people can only rentor squat on half-acre parcels of government land of mar-ginal quality; the relatively more affluent may rent an addi-tional quarter or half -acre plot for subsistence cultivationat some distance from Whitehouse.With the agricultural sector of the local economy thus

restricted, Whitehouse males have developed fishing pat-terns of intensity and specialization in marked contrast tothose of their neighbors at Long Hill. Long established,three- and four-man crews operate large, well constructedcottonwood dugout canoes and employ a variety of gearand techniques. More significantly, their fishing scheduleis radically different from that of Long Hill. Fishing ispursued from the early morning hours until the afternoon.Allocation of daylight hours to agricultural pursuits ismuch less necessary here than it is a mere two miles away.However, Whitehouse men also combine fishing with

other activities wherever possible. Almost all are involved,26 Clarke, My Mother Who Fathered Me, pp. 33-72.

Lambros Comitas 169

to some degree, with subsistence or kitchen garden cul-tivation. Many actively seek wage employment at distancesfarther from home than do their Long Hill neighbors.Others, with less commitment to the land and with littleinvestment in fishing equipment, travel to the sugar beltsat harvest time or apply for contract labor overseas. Thefewer the occupational commitments, the greater the in-dividual mobility.The general vocational pattern of Whitehouse can be

substantially modified by individuals should their basic eco-nomic resources shift, although this is a rare occurrencein rural Jamaica. A Whitehouse fisherman, for example,who acquires additional cultivatable land through inheri-tance, purchase or affinal connection, will turn from inten-sive daylight fishing to night fishing similar to that practicedby neighbors in Long Hill.27 Such a person, gener-ally, has insufficient capital to hire laborers to assist him;consequently, he must adjust his own work pattern to meetthe new situation. Very rarely does he accumulate enoughland to be able to concentrate completely on agriculture.Since fishing is more flexible than agriculture with regardto time and labor allocation, the changes necessary for anew economic equilibrium are made in that occupation.In Duncans, a market town on the north coast of the is-

land, wage employment is the dominant form of gainfullabor for a group of occupational pluralists, for severalreasons. Land is expensive and, given the narrowness ofthe coastal shelf in this region, fishing is not as productiveas on the south coast. The town, however, has a key geo-graphical position on the main coastal road, which is heav-ily plied by both tourist and commercial traffic. This hasmeant the development of facilities for repair work andancillary services. Besides a relatively wide range of gen-eral and specialty stores, a market area and governmentoffices, all of which provide opportunities for employment,Duncans is a regional administrative hub for parochial aswell as national roadwork. In addition, the plateau aboveDuncans is partially occupied by two medium-size sugarestates. So, while the labor demand in Duncans is not27Comitas, op. cit., p. 67.

170 Occupational Multiplicity in Rural Jamaica

unmet, there is a wider range of possibilities for theaverage workman than at any of the other settlementsstudied.Over a third of the heads of "fishing" households in

Duncans come from different parts of Jamaica. This isindirectly reflected in the fact that over half of these house-holds rent both their houses and their house plots. Con-sequently, this migrant group does almost no agriculture.Some agriculture is carried on by the non-migrant group,usually among older men who are more likely to controlsmall portions of land. Fishing at Duncans, usually of amixed cash and subsistence variety, is conducted in a higWyindividualistic manner, with almost no development of part-nerships or crews. Fishermen utilize small, crude canoesand rudimentary gear, depending almost entirely on theirown efforts. The schedule of fishing is significantly similarfor all these men. Most put out along the coast just beforedaybreak and return by early morning in time to fulfilltheir other obligations. Several fishermen are employedby the island or parochial governments as Public Workspersonnel-one road headman must keep his fishing activi-ties secret from his superiors. Some combine fishing withsuch semi-skilled work as shoe-repairing, masonry and car-pentry, while others are employed as estate laborers orservice station attendants. Several men combine fishingwith two specific wage activities, such as tinsmithing andmasonry. While fishing and cultivation are necessary pur-suits, they must be practiced so as to cause the least inter-ference with wage employment.The social organizational implications of occupational

multiplicity have intrinsic significance. Complexity of indi-vidual economic activity leads to complexity of orderedrelationships. A worker in one of these settlements,theoretically, can be involved in as many as six differenteconomic statuses: subsistence cultivator, commercial ag-riculturalist, wage laborer, own-account artisan or trades-man, subsistence fisherman and commercial fisherman. Ineach status, he is interlocked with a distinct set of indi-viduals who perform requisite roles in production, distribu-

Lambros Comitas 171

tion and consumption. If, for example, a man is occupiedwith mixed farming and mixed fishing, he may well bestructurally linked with neighbors for the exchange of freelabor in the fields28 and with a finite number of "hig-glers"29 who distribute any surplus subsistence cropswithin the Jamaican market; and he will most likely beorganizationally tied to the local branches of the all-islandcrop association which markets his cash produce. For hisfishing operation, he requires a clearly defined relationshipwith one or more members of a fishing crew, as well aswith one or more fish vendors who, in tum, will be linkedto a complex market system. In many cases, more than onerole is performed by a single individual. This requires de-cisions as to work priorities and work schedules and tiesindividuals to a convoluted set of social obligations. Suchstructural links or patterned relationships, established foreconomic gain, are essentially lateral ones connectingmembers of the same stratum into horizontal socio-economic segments. Partially for this reason, interactionbetween these segments and the superordinate strata ofthe total Jamaican society tends to remain minimal andfragmentary. This contrasts with Wolf's description of the"open" peasant community in other parts of the world inwhich peasants maintain vertical ties or "informal alli-ances" with urban elements.3oThe internal rationality of such a confined system is self-

evident to its participants. A socio-economic balance isachieved which offers maximum security with minimumrisk, in a basically limited environment. As the advan-tages are clear, so are the disadvantages: competition forscarce strategic resources within a finite area engenderstension and an emotionally disruptive atmosphere; socialmobility is structurally hindered; capital accumulation isdifficult; technological levels tend to remain rudimentary

28 In "A Report on Labour SuppJyin Rural Jamaica," M. G.Smith describes a variety of Jamaican exchange labor patternsand their functional interconnections.29 A Jamaican expression for itinerant food vendors, gen-

erally women.30 Wolf, "Types of Latin American Peasantry," p. 465.

172 Occupational Multiplicity in Rural Jamaica

and communication with other segments in the society isincomplete and imprecise.Certainly, from the perspective of the total society, such

a vocationally heterogeneous and inwardly turned popu-lation segment creates problems in administration and de-velopment. Action programs, aimed at the socio-economicamelioration of such people but based on uni-occupationalmodels developed in modern Western countries, start withlimited chances for success. Occupational pluralists in Ja-maica will not reject the material aid that often accom-panies such schemes but they do reject, as evidenced bytheir behavior, the objectives and the intent of these pro-grams. By their own logic, they find it impractical to de-velop fully one aspect of their economic life to the detri-ment of the others. The results of the action program,designed to improve the Jamaican fishing industry throughtechnological and organizational assistance, are significant.In settlements such as Duncans, where fishing is balancedwith or subordinated to other pursuits, newly introducedfishermen's cooperatives-one element in the developmentprogram-failed to provide economic cohesion and stimu-lus and, therefore, died stillborn. In settlements such asWhitehouse, where fishing is more important because ofland scarcity, new cooperatives when adapted to local con-ditions proved more viable and performed relatively sub-stantial services for its membership. The error made bythe central authorities was that they introduced one coop-erative model designed for full-time fishermen in otherparts of the world to all varieties of Jamaican "fishermen."Agricultural development programs on a national scalesometimes suffer similar results for a very similar reason-an incorrect assessment of the pertinent conditions of rurallife.To sum up, taxonomic classifications of socio-economic

types in the Caribbean region are not completely adequatefor Jamaica. Stressing ecological and economic factors,the writer has attempted to delineate and define an addi-tional type indicating particularly its multi-occupationalbasis and several of the structural ramifications that ensue.Clearly much more work and analysis is needed before a

Lambros Comitas 173

reasonable ·level of comprehension is reached. For pur-poses of social scientific research in the Caribbean, how-ever, the identification and understanding of such popu-lation segments in an area noted for a lack of extensivekin networks and relatively weak community organizationis especially pertinent and should prove of heuristic value.

8.

The drift from countryside to city is a fact of life in theWest Indies, as in other parts of the world, but its effectshave only begun to be systematically explored. This selec-tion focuses on aspects of life among the poor-especiallymigrant newcomers-in Kingston, capital of Jamaica andreservoir of a quarter of that nation's two million popula-tion. These excerpts from Social Structure and SocialChange in Kingston, Jamaica depict the city's high unem-ployment rates, overcrowded housing, swollen slums, andshanty towns-the most notorious of which have been bull-dozed by the Jamaican government. The poorest Kingstonresidents adapt by "catching" and "squatting" for a placeto sleep and by "scuffling" or scraping for a living throughhandicrafts, pimping and prostitution, begging, stealing, andselling the scraps gleaned from garbage dumps.

COLIN G. CLARKE, an English geographer who receivedhis doctorate at Oxford University, has done field researchin Jamaica, Trinidad, and Anguilla. He is currently Lec-turer in the Department of Geography and the Centrefor Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool.