When the Hands Are Many: Community Organization and Social Change in Rural Haiti

Description

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.  Read more... Cover Contents Acknowledgments List of Acronyms 1. Introduction Americans Don't Have Democracy! Background and Approach The Haitian ""Peasantry Bamòn 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 SpiritTaking Up the Hoe Yonn Ede Lòt 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 Kòve Rural Community Groups 5. The Atribisyon One and the Same We"": Group Membership and Structure An Anatomy of Atribisyon Labor Feasting on History: The Rachòt Reflections on the Atribisyon 6. The Sosyete Structure and Leadership Case Studies of Bamòn Sosyete-s Reflections on the Sosyete 7. The Gwoupman Peyizan. The "Shoulder-to-Shoulder" GP of LakayHistorical Precedents of the Gwoupman Peyizan Consolidating a Movement In the Grand'Anse The Project for Social Change Gwoupman Fanm Vanyan-s Reflections on the Gwoupman Peyizan 8. Beyond ""Democracy"" and ""Development Reconsidering Democracy and Development Visualizing the Future Elements of a Good Society A Movement toward the Future A Call for Undoing Ourselves Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z.