The Caribbean has been described as highly heterogeneous in its composition.

Question

The Caribbean has been described as highly heterogeneous in its composition. Discuss whether this makes social stratification more complex for Caribbean sociologists to explore and explain.

Answer 1

Hi Karis from New York, NY...hope you had a great day at school today.

Great topic for discussion....so...I'm going to give you some talking/bullet points for you to evaluate...do some further research so you can do a bit more of discussion on you side.

So here goes...The original statement...The Caribbean has been described as highly heterogeneous in its composition...which is now...so let's begin at the beginning...

Originally, the Caribbean was not completely homogeneous as per its original inhabitants...there were several different indigenous groups, living and trading in the Caribbean...the Taino and the Arawak peoples

• Prior to 1492 there were more than these two indigenous groups
• Native groups from the northern part of South America also traded
• After 1492 the Spanish invasion occurred, with the edict to advance the Spanish crown, look for gold, spices, a passage to the Far East and convert indigenous peoples
• Force labor and disease decimated the Native population but workers were still needed, Portugal privateers brought slaves from different countries of Africa to mine for gold, plant and harvest sugar cane 
• Other European influences, France and Italians also jump on the expanding rape of the Americas
• All these nations along with the remnants of the indigenous people make up the population of the 16th and 17 Century Caribbean.
• All the while human nature, falling in love as well as raping of women resulted in furthering the heterogeneous genetic pool

A good resource a book  1493 by Charles C. Mann
Good luck with your discussion