To some extent, it is believed that the Caribbean in the present day is characterized by a serious of unwillingness to accept the views, beliefs or behaviour that may differ from one’s own and having a lack of trust at all levels. This statement will explore our history, society and the concept of identity using well informed perspectives to discuss the issues in religion, justice system, and family. These are categorize under the societal institution where it is used to refer to the complex social forms, structures and mechanisms associated with the making and enforcing of rules of cooperative behaviour within a society where they manifest themselves in forms such as the government, education, family and languages. In this blog, the issues of grave intolerance and mistrust in the Caribbean will be discussed with well informed perspectives for the following: religion, justice system and family.

Firstly, family is one of the issues of grave intolerance and mistrust in the Caribbean. Family is one of the societal institution which is common to all societies and cultures that represents different ideas and beliefs that people of a certain community have about rearing children and socialising them into the norms of that particular society. According to the feminist perspectives, the family is based on patriarchal where women are expected to be domesticated; not only taking care of the household but also raising and caring for children. For example: The men will deal with the finances of the household and provide necessities for the family; they are also allowed to have careers and proper education while the women were not allowed to have a career or pursue a job to make extra monetary for the family. The women were restricted to only keeping house and raising of the children.

Additionally feminist have accused the nuclear family of exploiting women by portraying a false image of how the women of the family should act and behave. This is commonly called the “cereal box family”. The ceral box family is a concept which argues that the idealised version of the family is the nuclear family consisting of a mother, a father and two children, where the father is the breadwinner and the mother attends to the children and the household. This idea was based on the 1950’s version of a family and what the household should be portrayed as; it ignores that the structure and diversity of a family have changed. For example: The cereal box family does not refer to same sex relationships as they do not fit the sterotypical mold of this family structure.

Family can also be seen in the fuctionalist perspective, where the family carries out four fuctions: socialization function, reproductive function, emotional support function, and the economic function. The socialization function is where the family passes on norms and values from one generation to the next. The family provides the earliest set of concepts, values, knowledges, and skills; they also help to socialize children from an early age or even since birth. The reproductive function is that the family tries to promote the idea that children should be born with in marriage, so they will have both parents; unlike in slavery days, where one parent was present in the children’s lives.

The emotional support function is that the family provides its members with love and comfort which helps with emotional distress; this is important to the mental, intellectual and social well-being of its members. For example: Children require alot of love, affection, care and attention inorder to develop a healthy stable personality. The economic function is that the family ensure their members are taken care of financially and they provide the basic needs for their members such as food, shelter, and clothing.

Additionally, religion is one of the issues of grave intolerance and mistrust in the Caribbean. Religion is also one of societal institution based on the systems of beliefs, rituals ad practices that give people’s lives meaning. Religion affects lives as a conservative force linked largely with positive values. For example: As Christian worship in the region has historically been associated with perserving social life in keeping with accepting norms and values. According to the conflict theory, religion reinforces and promotes social inequality and social conflict. This helps convince the proletariats to accept their fate in life and it can lead to hostility and violence which is motivated by the religious difference; it also justifies oppression amongst the proletariats. The conflict theory viewed religion as a tool of social control used by the bourgeoisie or the elites to maintain the status quo in a certain society. This indicates that there is an unequal status quo between the bourgeoisie and the proletariats where the bourgeoisie uses religion to keep things in it’s current state while opposing to the state things that could’ve been such as changes in social structure and values.

Conflict theorists sees religion as a smokescreen imposed and controlled by the bourgeoisie as a mean to blind the proletariats to an oppressed state. For example: Many people who lives in lower classes and living in poverty tend to view their ill-fate in religious terms. They believe that it’s God’s will that they are poor and living in poverty and he is testing their fate in “HIM”. Hence they endure the suffering hoping they are rewarded if not this life but in the afterlife.

It is argued by the functionalist that religion itself serves as a function of teaching the people what is right and what is wrong. For example: Many law systems are made up of the religious morals where religion promotes value. According to the sociologist Talcott Parsons, who argued that religion is used to maintain social order in times of social changes and help an individual to make sense of the inevitable situations. For example: A person who is undergoing a life crisis such as a death in the family or death of a loved one, a funeral service is held which will bring peope together to comfort one another. Functionalist also argues that religion is used to past on norms and values of society from one generation to the next. Sociologist have argued that religion is functional in guiding behaviour since it outlines the rewards and punishments. For example: The church teaches that a person who commits sins are most likely to go to hell after they die as punishment for their bad deeds and an act against ‘GOD’ while a person who does acts of kindness will be rewarded for their good deeds and will most likely go to heaven in the afterlife.

Furthermore, justice system is another issue of grave intolerance and mistrust in the Caribbean. The justice system is the interaction of societal institutions that are identified with social control and regulation; laws are set and enforced and punishments are administered by state institutions. It is concerned with maintaining a society which citizens are treated justly and fairly. According to the marxist perspective, the justice system is oppressive and exploitative to the lower class. This indicates that it props up the status of the upper class, also called elites or bourgeoisie, through the legislation and enforcement system such as the police, that will serve their interests to harm or hinder the lower classes or proletariats who tend to be on the receiving end of the law.

The justice system does not extend any sort of fairness to members of the lower class, who are generally targeted as being criminals. This indicates that when a upper class member of society commits white-collar crimes, they are hardly pursued by the police or even convicted in the court. While the lower class members of society are labelled as criminals which makes it appear that crime is mainly found in lower class communities. Hence that may not be the case. For example: An individual who is an owner of a company that commits a white-collar crime such as tax evasion where they avoid paying their taxes and putting false information on tax forms but no legal action will be taken to ensure justice due to their high status in society. While an individual who is an employee of a company who commits a white-collar crime such as embezzelment, where they take money from their employer for their own personal purpose can be charged and even trialed in court for this crime due to their lack of status in society.

The justice system can also be illustrated from a functionalist perspective, where the justice system is a means to safe guard social stability and shared values by creating just ways to deal with law breaking. This indicates that the law protects citizens and keeps the society stable or well-balanced when dealing with crime, and the similar values are shared amongst different cultures to creating ways to deal with law breaking in their society. For example: Different cultural leaders will come together to create laws for citizens to follow and punishments to be inflicted on the law breakers or criminals who did not abide by the rules or laws of society. Additionally, funtionalist believed that the justice system has been shaped to take care of law breakers by punishment, instilling doubt or fear of the consequences, or restoring their former privileges or reputation after a period of disfavour, through the police, the court and methods of correction.

In conclusion, it is believed to some extent that the Caribbean in the present day is characterized by a serious of unwillingness to accept the views, beliefs or behaviour that may differ from one’s own and having a lack of trust at all levels. In this blog, the issues of grave intolerance and mistrust in the Caribbean was discussed for the following: religion, family and justice system, by using the following perspectives: conflict, functionalist and feminist. The fuctionalist perspective of family is where the family carries out four functions: emotional support, socialization, economic and reproductive, while the feminist perspective of family is where women are expected to raise the children along with looking after the household. The functionalist perspective of religion is where religion serves as a function of teaching the people what is right and what is wrong. Along with religion being important for someone who is undergoing a life crisis. While the conflict perspective believes that religion promotes social inequality and social conflict among the people which may cause violence with different religions. The functionalist perspective of the justice system is where the justice system provides protection for the citizens and allows laws to be created in ways to deal with those law breakers or criminals in society by sharing of values from different cultures. The conflict perspective is when the justice system is used to oppress and exploit the lower class; while the upper class takes advantage of the justice system.

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https://sociologytwynham.com/2008/06/11/cereal-packet-family/

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