ABSTRACT
Reference to economic and political exploitation is used to challenge the class structure whilst ideas of socialization and education act to legitimize it. Most residents believe that class is based on wealth. The issue is the legitimacy or illegitimacy of inequalities in wealth. Those who challenge the inequalities do so in terms of inherited wealth and illegitimate power. Those who legitimize the inequalities maintain that they are based on differentials of education and socialization. The Selton Town worker may suggest that his domestic and neighborhood life are due to the exploitation of his manual role. Both idiomatic usage and general conversation support the view that residents have two fundamental paradigms of class culture in mind. Illegitimacy as a legal status has now been abolished in Jamaica and commonlaw marriages are recognized in law for purposes of inheritance, maintenance and the like.
