The Basket Weaving Tradition in the communities of the Black River Lower Morass, Jamaica

Headnote

Summary:

This paper examines the traditional skills and resource management techniques used in basket weaving, a craft which is still found in relatively isolated villages in the Black River Lower Morass in the parish of St Elizabeth. The folk craft has existed for over a century and is the primary economic activity for the women of these communities. The present status of the traditional skills and resource management techniques involved in harvesting and processing the Bull Thatch Palm and in basket weaving is assessed. A brief discussion looks at how these communities and their folk craft might be affected by their exposure to tourism.

Keywords:

TRADITIONAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ECOTOURISM JAMAICA

Folk culture and ecotourism

Folk culture is a term which refers to a culture which preserves local traditions and, according to de Blij (1982), often belongs to a relatively small, comparatively isolated, racially homogeneous, mainly rural, conservative and cohesive population group. In folk societies, indigenous knowledge systems are entrenched in the society's cultural norms and play an integral role in the early introduction of children to their folk culture and subsequent socialisation into it. Enculturation is the process by which individuals take on the norms, customs, and conventionally-approved behaviour of a society (Barrett, 1991). Folklore is a body of techniques and cultural practices acquired from, and refined by, many previous generations as products of cultural heritage.

The dissemination of folk culture within a group is implicit since learning takes place by means of unconscious imitation from one individual to the next. People will not only preserve traditional customs but later generations may also modify aspects of their culture so that it reflects the times in which they live. The tendency to conserve and defend established cultural practices is called the adaptive mode of human culture (Barrett, 1991). Customs are adhered to because they are customary and 'natural', and deviation is seen as unnatural and therefore wrong. He also refers to the adaptive dimension of human culture whereby.

'... culture is perceived to be a dynamic element...necessary for survival in a particular setting [since]....the circumstances to which a society must adjust are never entirely stable' (Barren, 1991).

Instability, he claims, may occur for various reasons and overtime individuals will realise that their acquired culture is...