Ethnic Families

The Caribbean is characterised by a multiplicity of cultures, which translates into various kinship patterns. History have dictated the course of cultural mixing – colonialism, slavery, indentureship – have all contributed to the variety of family forms that currently exist in the Caribbean.

Ethnic groups include:
Africans
East Indians
Europeans
Chinese

Afro-Caribbean family systems/kinship patterns bear the following characteristics:
• Matrifocality (Clarke 1957, Frazier 1939 & Herskovits, 1964)
• Common-Law or Visiting Conjugal relations (Clarke 1957)
• Male Marginality (Herskovits, 1964)
• Extended (Frazier 1939 & Herskovits, 1964)

East Indian Caribbean family systems/kinship patterns bear the following characteristics:
• Patriarchal
• Endogamic
• Marital Conjugal relations
• Extended (Klass 1961)

European family systems/kinship patterns bear the following characteristics:
• Patriarchal
• Nuclear/Extended
• Marital Conjugal relations
• Endogamic

Chinese family systems/kinship patterns bear the following characteristics:

• Patriarchal
• Nuclear/Extended
• Marital Conjugal relations
• Endogamic