When the hands are many : community organization and social change in rural Haiti /

When the hands are many : community organization and social change in rural Haiti /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Smith, Jennie Marcelle.
Imprint:Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2001.
Description:1 online resource (xii, 229 pages) : illustrations, maps.
Language:English
Subject:
Peasants -- Political activity -- Haiti -- Grand'Anse (Department)
Peasants -- Haiti -- Grand'Anse (Department) -- Societies, etc.
Community organization -- Haiti -- Grand'Anse (Department)
Social values -- Haiti -- Grand'Anse (Department)
Folk songs, French Creole -- Social aspects -- Haiti -- Grand'Anse (Department)
Community organization.
Peasants -- Political activity.
Peasants -- Societies, etc.
Social values.
Haiti -- Grand'Anse (Department)
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11678128
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781501717970
1501717979
0801437970
9780801437977
0801486734
9780801486739
Digital file characteristics:data file
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-223) and index.
Print version record.
Summary:In an ethnography that challenges standard approaches to understanding the poor and disempowered, Jennie M. Smith's descriptions of peasant activity change what constitutes a democratic society. Through their civil institutions and artistic expression, Haitian peasants, widely known as some of the world's most impoverished, politically disempowered, and illiterate citizens, debate the meanings of development, democracy, and the public good.Smith offers a historically grounded overview of how the Haitian state and certain foreign powers have sought to develop rural Haiti and relates how Haitian peasants have responded to such efforts through words and deeds. The author argues that songs called chante pwen serve as "melodic machetes," a tool with which the peasants make their voices heard in many social circumstances.When the Hands Are Many illustrates the philosophies, styles, and structures typical of social organization in rural Haiti with narrative portraits of peasant organizations engaged in agricultural work parties, business meetings, religious ceremonies, social service projects, song sessions, and other activities. Smith integrates these organizations' strengths into a new vision for social change and asks what must happen in Haiti and elsewhere to facilitate positive transformation in the world today.
Other form:Print version: Smith, Jennie Marcelle. When the hands are many. Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2001 0801437970
Table of Contents:
  • 1. Introduction. "Americans Don't Have Democracy!" Background and Approach. The Haitian "Peasantry" Bamon and Tisous. Linguistic Issues
  • 2. Persistent Legacies. Predatory Parasitism. Interventions from "Across the Water" Risking Hope. New Legacies. Persistent Dissidence
  • 3. Melodic Machetes. Rural Footpaths. Sociopolitical Poetics. Agricultural Work Parties. Mardi Gras and Rara Festivities. Gwoupman Peyizan Meetings. A Refugee Camp. Recording Studios. Reflections on the Chante Pwen-s
  • 4. Hoes Striking in Unison: Cooperative Labor and Community Spirit. Taking Up the Hoe. Yonn Ede Lot. Sharing Labor and Resources as a Way of Life. Collective Agricultural Labor. "The Strike of a Solitary Hoe Makes No Music" The Konbit and the Kove.

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