Historical Evolution of Social Differentiation and Stratification

This chapter seeks to highlight the historical process through which the social structures, social institutions and ideologies have evolved and been transformed in terms of their ethnic profile. The three historical phases or periods of concern are the pure plantation period (slavery), the plantation period modified (indentureship and wage labour) and the plantation period further modified. These periods were selected particularly because of the significant institutional changes which they represent. They all were ushered in by what historical institutionalists refer to as critical junctures. While periodisation as a strategy in historical sociology has its weaknesses, it provides the opportunity to both abstract from the identified periods the essential variables in a manner characteristic of eidetic reduction in phenomenological research and to compare, contrast and account for the changes or persistence over time of those variables of interest. Periodisation also makes it easy to manage what is historically an extended period inundated with a rich and substantial amount of variegated historical data.