ABSTRACT
The family stories presented here span most of the twentieth century, offering an insight into the social history of the British Caribbean during periods of emigration, social unrest, and political change. One of the prevailing themes in the Caribbean was the assumption that, because families failed to meet the prescribed norms of European behavior. One of the pulses driving social organization was the extensiveness and inclusiveness of African-Caribbean families, in which children were second only to mothers as carriers of lineage. Indo-Caribbean families have taken a markedly different course, but have no less emerged into forms that are equally unique to the Caribbean. In the Caribbean, although there is concern about boys' low educational achievements, and about male unemployment, single-mother parenting is not so easily implicated, for such parenting was equally present with the general rise in the standard of living.
