ABSTRACT
BRITISH GUIANA lie. s on the north-eastern shoulder of South America, but its lines of communication run north and east, over the sea to the West Indian islands, to Britain and to the
United States of America. Approximately 94 per cent of its ethnically diverse population lives on a narrow coastal strip separated from its continental neighbours by tracts of tropical forest and wide rivers. Whatever new links may be forged with Brazil, Venezuela, Dutch and French Guiana now that air transport is rapidly becoming a practical proposition, it is certain that at the present time British Guiana's main interests are bound up with those of the British West Indian islands, with which it shares a common language and culture. Despite its vast hinterland, and the possibility of the discovery of valuable mineral deposits and so on, it is at present 'under-developed' and the majority of its 436.43 I inhabitants share the low standards of living and poverty which are so characteristic of the circum-Caribbean territories. But these factors are complicated by the existence ·of an intricate system of social distinctions based upon race and status. The process of welding six 'nations', East Indian, Negro, Portuguese, Amerindian, Chinese and European, into a unit where ethnic identity is not the basis of distribution of social rewards is not an easy one, and although British Guiana has gone a long way towards developing a sense of common purpose in its diverse population, it would be both unrealistic and inaccurate to ignore the marked cleavages which exist at the present time; cleavages which are based both upon ethnic and cultural foundations, and are inherent in the present structure and functioning of Guianese society.
