Besson, Jean. 2018. Sidney W Mintz’s ‘peasantry’ as a critique of capitalism: New evidence from Jamaica. Critique of Anthropology, 38(4), pp. 443-460. ISSN 0308-275X [Article]

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Abstract or Description

A major theme in Sidney W Mintz’s pioneering work on Caribbean societies has been the significance of peasantries in the transformation of this region. After outlining Mintz’s perspective on Caribbean peasantries as a ‘resistant response’ to colonialism, plantations, slavery and indenture, this article highlights on-going peasantization in Jamaica, which was highly developed as a slave-plantation colony and where the post-colonial legacies of this history persist. Drawing on the author’s long-term fieldwork in the island, the article explores maroons, free villages and ‘squatters’ as modes of peasantization and discusses common land, family land and ‘captured’ land as forms of peasant landholding in the face of capitalist land monopolization by the agricultural, bauxite and tourist industries. In conclusion, the article explores how this new evidence from Jamaica reinforces, revises and extends Mintz’s work on Caribbean peasantries as a critique of capitalism.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X18807544
Keywords:	Caribbean peasantries, Jamaica, maroons, free villages, squatters, common land, family land, captured land
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Anthropology
Dates:	Date Event 24 October 2018 Published Online 1 December 2018 Published
Item ID:	30245
Date Deposited:	01 Jul 2021 11:54
Last Modified:	01 Jul 2021 11:55
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/30245

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