ABSTRACT
I N the remaining section of this study we shall attempt to place the . family system in a much wider setting and try to show its relation to certain factors which are not at all apparent if we restrict our
field of vision to the village alone. To this end we shall be particularly concerned with examining the position of the village in the total system of social stratification in the colony. It is beyond the scope of this study to enter into a detailed discussion of the sociology of the whole of Guianese society, but from a methodological point of view it is unprofitable to attempt to isolate the village from the rest of the society. The principal reason for this is that the village as such does not form anything like a self-contained system, and the family system must be viewed in its relations to other structures which are not clearly discernible within the village context. We are fortunate in being able to draw upon a recent study of social stratification in Trinidad which gives us considerable insight into the general features of the Guianese system, since the two colonies are very similar in many respects, and we shall supplement this with our own observations (I).
