SECTION II

 CHAPTER II

THE HOUSEHOLD

HE household, consisting of a house and the group of people who live in it, is one of the most important functional units of the social system, and the locus of practically all the joint action of members of the domestic group.  It is within the framework of some household group that each individual finds food and shelter, and the household group is a child-rearing unit.  In a small building some twelve feet by twenty feet, one often finds upwards of ten people, and of that number the majority are invariably children.  Households come into being through the association of men and women in some kind of conjugal relationship, though there are certain exceptions to this when a woman establishes a household without the co-operation of a male partner.  Each household group normally ‘cooks one pot’ and all members are fed from it, none of the food being allocated to anyone who does not live in the house.  There are exceptions to this rule, but they are not of frequent occurrence.  To grow up in a particular household gives an individual certain customary rights, duties and obligations, which are often quite irrespective of exact ‘blood’ relationship, and this helps to emphasize the importance of ‘growing’ with someone, no matter what the legal considerations involved may be.  The complete absence of corporate kin groups or even of hereditary offices or social positions, results in a lack of continuity between the household as a kin group and other social groupings.  However, kinship does create ties and affective bonds between the members of different households, and the fact that in August Town particularly, the whole village is sometimes referred to as ‘all one family’ illustrates the importance of the generalized extension of the sentiments of solidarity which arise within the household group, and which find expression in a local setting.

The term often employed to describe the members of a household group, especially in August Town, is ‘house people’ and this designation is extended to include the spirits of the dead, as well as particularly intimate friends who can visit the house freely and make themselves at home in it.  When a new bottle of rum is opened, a little is always thrown out on to the floor of the house or on to the ground in the yard if the drinking is taking place outside.  It is characteristic of the system that these libations are for the dead ‘house people’, but at the same time the spirits of the dead are not personalized, and the same offering would be made in a new house in which no one had ever died as in an old house that had been the scene of many deaths.  A non-member of the household will throw the rum as readily as a member.

In this chapter we shall describe the material aspects of the household before going on to a consideration of the composition of the household group and the internal relations of its members.

Houses

The design of houses is fairly uniform throughout the villages studied, but there are variations in size and construction which it is important to note, for there is some correlation with other factors.  For example, it is usually the smaller houses that contain the largest number of persons.

The cheapest type of house to build is what is known locally as a ‘mud-trash’ house, and this is built almost entirely from locally procured materials.  (See Plate IIIb.) Raised on low wooden blocks, about two to three feet from the ground, its framework is built from roughly trimmed poles cut from trees, or from the courida bush (Avicennia nitida (Jacq.) or Black mangrove). The walls are wattled and filled in with mud, perhaps mixed with cow-dung to bind it, and then smoothed over with liquid mud both inside and outside.  Roofing material varies according to locality, and whilst villagers in August Town use bundles of long grass, in Perseverance it is usual to use the leaves of the Troolie palm which grows in abundance in the river areas of the Essequibo Coast, and which are actually sold in the markets by persons who collect them in the more inaccessible reaches of the rivers.  Mud-trash houses rarely exceed about twenty by ten feet in ground dimensions, and the most expensive item in the whole building will be the floorboards which are purchased from a saw-mill, or from a dealer in town.  An internal partition divides the house into two rooms.  Doors and shutters are made from wood and are usually put together by a carpenter, unless old ones can be procured ready made.  Cooking may be done inside the house on a coal-pot which burns charcoal, but usually a kitchen is either built as a separate shelter outside, or as a lean-to attachment to the main building.  A house such as the one described would be worth anything from fifteen to forty dollars in August Town, its value consisting mainly in the materials used and not in the house itself, for few people would trouble to buy a mud-trash house, except for the boards it contained.  Unless regular repairs and maintenance are carried out deterioration is fairly rapid.  A well kept mud-house is not unpleasant to live in, the thatch affording considerable protection from the sun and absorbing much less heat than corrugated iron. The mud will have to be replaced at least every year and as the frame becomes rotten sections will be replaced.  A good thatch will last anything from five to seven years.

 Average number of persons per mud-thatch house

August Town 5.57; Perseverance 6.00; Better Hope 0.

Proportion of mud-thatch to total number of houses

August Town 22.1 per cent; Perseverance 9.25 per cent; Better Hope 0

 The standard house in the rural areas of British Guiana is a wooden building, raised anything from three to eight feet on wooden piles set on concrete or wooden blocks.  (See Plate Ia.)  Constructed from local woods prepared in saw mills and sold by the foot as dressed boards, or from softer imported woods, it is usually about twenty feet by fourteen feet in ground plan and is roofed with corrugated iron sheets or shingles made from local wood.  Divided internally into two rooms it may have a kitchen built on as an attachment, or cooking may be done in a separate small kitchen on the ground outside.  Access to the house is by permanent wooden steps.  The quality of this kind of house can vary considerably, not only according to the state of repair, but according to the general finish and whether glass windows or shutters are used.  In August Town the value of such a house could vary between 100 and 1,000 dollars depending on the state of repair etc., but the cost of building a simple two-roomed house, with an attached kitchen was in the region of 750 to 800 dollars at the time of the study, and costs were rising daily.  Owing to the difficulty of finding enough capital to pay the total sum involved in building a house all at once, most houses are built in stages, often covering a period of years.  Materials are first purchased as money is available, and then a start will be made on the actual building.  As soon as cash runs out, work stops and the frame of the house may be left for months before any further work can be done.  (See Plate II.)

Once the main body of the house is complete it is habitable, but an ambitious owner can easily extend the size of the house by adding a front and a back gallery as he is financially able.  A house with both these additions will have two or three bedrooms, a dining recess, and a front lounge as well as the main living-room.  This represents the ultimate development in size of the normal rural house, but there are one or two larger houses to be found in most villages, usually incorporating a shop of some kind.  Various modifications such as building a lower room or a kitchen underneath the house are possible, and this is sometimes done when the danger of flooding is not too great.  In Better Hope one finds a number of tenements, which are long buildings, divided into not more than three separate dwellings, inhabited by three separate domestic groups, with at least two of them paying rent.  This type of dwelling is very common in Georgetown of course, but is not found in either Perseverance or August Town.  In August Town there are a couple of cases of persons renting a section of a house (a lower flat in both cases), but this is hardly a permanent arrangement.

 Average number of persons per two-roomed board house

August Town 5.13; Perseverance 6.33; Better Hope 3.63  |

Proportion of two-roomed board houses to total number of houses

August Town 52.7 per cent; Perseverance 61.1 per cent; Better Hope 49.4 per cent.

Average number of persons per house with more than two rooms

August Town 4.28; Perseverance 6.66; Better Hope 4.71

Proportion of houses with more than two rooms to total number of houses

August Town 25.2 per cent; Perseverance 21.3 per cent; Better Hope 40.0 per cent.

 In Perseverance a considerable number of wooden houses are roofed with Troolie Palm and although these have been included with the other two-roomed board houses it should be noted that they are less valuable.  Also in Perseverance one finds a few houses with split manicole (Euterpe oleracea) wooden walls rather than wattle and mud, but they are of the same general pattern as the mud-walled houses and certainly no more valuable.  Both Perseverance and Better Hope have a number of one-roomed dwellings, and we have already referred to the tenements in Better Hope which usually consist of one room only.  In Perseverance 8.35 per cent of the total number of houses are very poor one-roomed dwellings containing as many as nine individuals in one case, and 38 per cent of all houses in Perseverance are thatched with Troolie Palm rather than having the more valuable corrugated-iron roof.

Each house stands on a precisely defined lot, or piece of ground, and the owner of the house is usually also the owner of the lot on which it stands, though this is not always the case as we shall see presently.  Houses can be, and often are, moved from one lot to another without dismantling them, and such a move is quite a communal affair, usually being carried out on a moonlit night with the cooperation of a large number of men who slide the house on skids from one spot to another.  The whole proceeding is supervised by a carpenter who ‘ties’ the house by nailing strengthening supports inside it.  Traditional house-moving songs and ‘boasts’ are sung during the actual pulling of the house.  At least this is the case in August Town, though a house-moving was never observed in the other villages.  One house-moving witnessed in August Town was carried out because the owner’s daughter was being troubled by a spirit, and he had been advised by an Obeah-man to move the house to another spot.  Reluctant at first, he was finally persuaded by friends, and the house was moved about 250 yards to the opposite side of the public road.

The law stipulates that each house must have a pit-latrine, and in fact most houses do have one on the same lot, though some households share a latrine, or use the bush on the outskirts of the village.  It is not considered improper to micturate anywhere outside the house, provided one is not seen, and few people would trouble to go to a latrine for this purpose after dark.  Once the house has been closed up for the night (and it really is closed up with all the windows shut tight), it is unusual for anyone to go outside, and practically every house has a chamber pot.  One informant said that this is the first thing a woman will acquire when she sets up house, and she will always make sure that it is kept scrupulously clean: cleaner in fact than her cooking pots.

Most villagers take great care over personal cleanliness, and it is usual for everyone to bathe at least once every day.  Some house-lots carry a small shelter which is used as a bathroom, where one bathes from a bucket using a calabash to pour the water.  Alternatively persons will bathe when it is dark, early in the morning or late at night, whenever they can kind sufficient privacy.  Children bathe openly in the yard, or in one of the drainage trenches.

Small kitchen gardens, animal and fowl pens are also found on many house lots, though the presence of pigs, goats and sheep wandering uncontrolled in the dwelling area makes it difficult to maintain a kitchen garden unless constant attention is paid to the fencing.  A fence is erected around the whole lot if the owner can afford it, but the majority of lots remain unfenced.  In Better Hope the movements of animals in the dwelling area are much more effectively controlled, more lots are fenced, and the cultivation of kitchen gardens is more feasible.  Some households have a rice storeroom built on the lot, and here padi for household consumption will be stored.  Such rooms are kept locked and are guarded at night by the dogs which are to be found in every village.  Even the poorest household will keep a dog, which is usually terribly emaciated, since dogs are fed very little and there is practically nothing for them to prey upon.

Furnishings inside the house vary from practically nothing, except a few empty rice bags to sleep upon, to quite a considerable number of chairs, tables, cabinets, beds, wardrobes, etc., and the houses of many of the school-teachers and village upper-class group are quite expensively furnished.  The majority of houses will have at least one bed, even if it has a board bottom and a home-made mattress filled with grass or leaves.  Apart from this the bedroom is usually bare, except for a chest or box in which clothes can be stored, and occasionally one finds a wash-stand with a basin and water jug.  This latter is very rare in Perseverance and August Town except in the homes of the more wealthy villagers.  In the living-room it is very common to find an old settee or settle, with or without upholstery, which can be used as a bed at night.  Most houses have at least one table, a number of chairs, and a few boxes which can be used as seats.  The centre piece of all except the very poorest homes is a cabinet on top of which glasses and dishes are displayed.  It would seem that these are quite definitely for display, and a good housewife will keep them clean and shining.  In one house with six inhabitants the total furnishings and household effects were as follows:­–

1 table                      2 flat irons                      3 knives

2 chairs                    3 iron cooking pots       5 enamel cups

1 couch                    1 frying pan                    8 enamel plates

2 beds                      1 cutlass                          1 stew pot

1 small water tub   4 spoons                          3½ dozen glasses         .

 The total value of the whole lot was estimated by the wife of the head of the household at $45.00.  In this particular case there was no cabinet in the house, but the glasses were stacked on a shelf in the living-room.

It was noticeable that in Perseverance much less care was taken over the cleanliness of houses than in either of the other two villages.  Whereas in August Town and Better Hope it is customary to scrub out the house at least once every week, in Perseverance it was clear that many houses had not been scrubbed for much longer than this.  The majority of houses in all three villages remain unpainted, and quite often the inside walls are papered with old newspapers and magazines which help to keep out draughts and cover up cracks as well as being decorative.

Wood collected from the bush is the normal fuel for cooking and it is burned on an open hearth set on a shelf at convenient working height in the kitchen.  This shelf is in a little recess, the hearth is surrounded by bricks covered with mud and cow-dung, and the pots are supported on iron bars.  (See Plate Va.) Occasionally a more elaborate stove is built with an enclosed fire space and a series of holes in the top over which the pots are placed.  One rarely finds cupboards in the kitchen though some houses will be equipped with a mesh-covered meat safe.  Generally there is little cause for storing food since it is consumed soon after it is obtained.  A bunch of plantains may be hung from the roof, or a supply of cassava may be stored in one corner, but it will not be kept very long.  The only food which is stored in any quantity is rice, and the few households that keep a store of rice have a special room under, or outside, the house in which the unmilled padi is kept.

The kitchen is the province of the women, and the head female of the house usually owns all its contents and has complete jurisdiction over its running and management.  It is here that the main work of the household takes place, and it is here that women sit to talk when they visit each other during the day-time.  Small children crawl over the floor whilst their mother or grandmother is busy preparing food or cooking it.  Apart from cooking, one of the other main duties of the woman is washing clothes, and this is usually done in a tub in the yard using rain water, though in Perseverance most women wash clothes in the drainage trenches, beating them with wooden beaters to get out the dirt.

The living-room is the place where the household group congregates in the evening to sit and talk over the day’s happenings, or listen to ‘old-time story’, or ‘Nancy stories’ from one of the older members. [1]   When the male head of the household comes in the children are expected to be quiet and well behaved, and if by any chance he is entertaining his friends, the children will be pushed off into the kitchen or the bedroom.  This is also the place where the food is served to the male head of the house, for whilst the other members of the household will eat anywhere around the kitchen or on the steps outside, he is served alone at the table.  An interesting modification occurs when the head of the household is an old man, for then he is much more likely to eat in the company of one of his young grandsons if there are any living with him.  Whenever friends are entertained with any kind of formality it is the living-room which is the centre of activity, but at any formal gathering in a house one always finds a definite tendency for all the women guests to gravitate towards the kitchen, leaving the men to their conversation and their rum.

Sleeping arrangements vary a great deal, but it can be assumed that the male head of the household always sleeps on the bed, and whether the wife regularly shares his bed or not depends on how they are getting along together.  In the majority of cases she does, and all except the younger children sleep on rice bags and old clothes, called ‘beddings’, which are spread on the floor of the living-room.  The children dispose themselves in small clusters depending on their age and sex.  Sleeping arrangements vary according to the age of the head and his wife or common-law wife, and according to the composition of the household group.  It is usual for everyone to change their clothes when they go to sleep and even very poor people possess night-dresses and pyjamas.  Sometimes of course, an old shirt or dress has to suffice.  Every attempt is made to preserve complete privacy for sexual intercourse but as can be imagined this is somewhat difficult under such crowded circumstances, and it is not unusual for couples to make the most of opportunities which arise during the daytime when the younger people are out of the house.

OWNERSHIP OF HOUSES AND HOUSE LOTS

Before considering this question it is as well to note that within the household group each individual can own things in his own right, and each individual with the exception of young adolescents also has a definite right to dispose of his income as he wishes.  The fact that each individual is expected to contribute to household expenses and the cost of food, giving the contributions to the mother, or to the woman in charge of the household affairs, does not vitiate this right.  Even small children are given a fowl or a goat, which they consider to be their very own, though of course they cannot dispose of it as they wish.  Children are also given money to put in the church savings group or in the Post Savings Bank, and when this money is withdrawn it will normally be used to buy clothes for that particular child.  Under these circumstances it can be seen that a woman can hold quite a considerable amount of property in her own right, including land and houses.  There is also a very definite feeling that a married woman has a right to half of all her husband’s property, though it is not common for this claim to be made explicit.  A married man who owns the house he lives in has a positive obligation towards his wife, and cannot easily put her out of the house.  Even though he has to be consulted on all matters concerning the household, his spouse has the major voice in its actual running, and more often than not her husband will merely endorse her decisions.  In the case of a couple living in a common-law union the situation is not so very different, especially when the union has been established for some time and there are several children.  However, a woman in this position is conscious of the fact that she has no legal claim on her mate, but the existence of a number of children does modify her position even in regard to the law, for if her common-law husband does put her out, she can take him to court and he will be forced to maintain the children.  The fact that this situation rarely arises is a good indication of the strength of the woman’s position in this type of union.

In a sample embracing all but a few households in the Troy and St. Paul’s sections of August Town, it is found that of 154 households with a male head, the household head owns the house in 82 per cent of cases, whilst out of ninety-seven households with a female head the household head owns the house in 65 per cent of cases.  These percentages would be much higher if we were to exclude rented houses which account for 10.4 per cent of male-head households, and 11.4 per cent of female-head households.  So far as the households with a male head are concerned, ownership of the remaining 7.6 per cent is by the head’s wife, his brothers or sisters, and in one case jointly by the man’s wife and her siblings.  It is clear that in the great majority of cases a man who is head of a household owns the house in which he lives.  This is equally true for households with a female head, for if we exclude the rented houses and also 10.3 per cent of houses which are owned by men working away from the village and temporarily headed by their wives, then we find that only 4.1 per cent of houses are owned by the head’s sons, sisters, or jointly by the head’s siblings because they have been inherited as ‘children’s property’, and therefore other persons retain a nominal claim.  No house in the sample is owned by the brother of the female head.  It is clear then that headship of the household is closely correlated with ownership of the house, though it must not be thought that this is an explicitly stated criterion of headship, and few people in August Town would put headship in terms of house ownership.

When we come to examine the ownership of title to the land on which the house stands, the picture is much more complicated owing to the fact that land is much more frequently inherited jointly than are houses, and consequently many people may retain a claim to a share in a house lot, even though it is clear that the owner of the house is really the de facto owner of rights to the land, and he or she will probably be paying the rates on it.  In any case a majority of both male and female house owners also hold title for the land on which the house stands, and the complications of the claims of kin have been considered elsewhere (see Smith 1955).  Suffice it to say here that only one case has been noted in this sample, of a house owner paying rent for the land on which the house is built, and even where the land is not held by the owner of the house, it is occupied by consent of the title holder or holders, who are almost invariably kin of some kind who would not expect rent.  It is sufficient that the occupier pays the rates on the land.  Few house lots are valued at more than $75.00 so that even with a rate of 10 per cent, the total amount to be paid in any one year only amounts to $7.50 for the larger house lots.

HEADSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD

Heads of households have no precisely defined functions nor is there any very clear social concept of household headship.  The household as such has practically no corporate functions such as working land in common or owning things as a group.  The role of household head is much less important than the person’s role as husband, father, mother or grandmother.  Nevertheless, every household does have one person whom we can define as the head and this device gives us a starting point for analysis.  The limitations of the definition will become clear as we proceed. 

Male heads

By far the greater number of male household heads are married with their wives living with them, or in common-law relationships with women which involve co-residence.  A man in this position is clearly recognized to be the head of the household and he is expected to keep the house building in order and to provide food and clothing for his partner and her children.  It is his duty to maintain his property and to pay the rates on the land even if it belongs to his wife.  In many cases where a wife holds legal title to the land on which her husband’s house stands, it is only because the land has been put in her name so that it cannot be seized if her husband defaults on the payment of a debt.  It is the male head’s right to be consulted on all matters concerning the household and he has the right to expect the deference and respect of the other members of the household.  The fact that he may get this only in a very modified form is another matter.  In point of fact, it is usually his spouse who is the most knowledgeable person in family affairs, and who makes the majority of decisions affecting the whole household.  The male head of the household does not lead the whole group in any cooperative activities though he may recruit the help of his sons at rice planting or harvest time, and his small sons will have duties such as driving his animals to the pasture.  This is not a very well developed pattern though, and as soon as the sons are old enough to work on their own account they will no longer help their father in his farming.  Sometimes at harvest time his wife or daughters may help with the rice cutting but they will expect payment with which to buy new clothes, unless it is a very poor family and all the rice is retained for domestic consumption.  On social occasions outside the home the head does not appear in company with other members of his family.  This is true for all three of the villages.

The age at which men attain headship of a household group is important and it can be seen from the following tables that in all three villages the average age of male household heads is well up in the 40–50 year age group, and there are relatively few young men who are established in this position.  Perseverance has more young men in the position of household head than the other two villages, and since it is in some ways the poorest of the three villages the point is of some interest.  It is correlated with the fact that in Perseverance young people get married or set up a common-law relationship at a much earlier age than in the other two villages, and this will be considered in more detail when we deal with marriage and mating.  It is also connected with the fact that there are an almost equal numbers of males and females in the age-groups from which household heads are drawn, and this contrasts quite sharply with the other two villages where females outnumber males in practically every age group.  This is clearly shown by reference to Tables III and V.  The discrepancies between the number of males and females in August Town and Better Hope is particularly striking in the lower age groups and this is a reflection of the fact that so many young men leave the village in search of work.  In Perseverance they tend to leave only for short periods of time, to work on the sugar estates and therefore they have been included in the enumerations.  In the middle age range in August Town and Better Hope the proportions more nearly approach equality, and then females tend to predominate in the later age groups.

A comparison of Tables III and V shows that once men pass the age of 40 years they have usually become household heads, only a few being left as subsidiary members of their parents’ or siblings’ households.  It must be noted that there are twenty-five men and six women in August Town; one man and one woman in Perseverance and six men and ten women in Better Hope who live absolutely alone, and they have been listed as household heads.