2011 Theses Doctoral

The Jamaican Marronage, a Social Pseudomorph: The Case of the Accompong Maroons

Baldwin-Jones, Alice Elizabeth

Based on ethnography, oral history and archival research, this study examines the culture of the Accompong Maroons by focusing on the political, economic, social, religious and kinship institutions, foodways, and land history. This research demonstrates that like the South American Maroons, the Accompong Maroons differ in their ideology and symbolisms from the larger New World population. However, the Accompong Maroons have assimilated, accommodated and integrated into the state in every other aspect. As a consequence, the Accompong Maroons can only be considered maroons in name only. Today's Accompong Maroons resemble any other rural peasant community in Jamaica. Grounded in historical analysis, the study also demonstrate that social stratification in Accompong Town results from unequal access to land and other resources, lack of economic infrastructure, and constraints on food marketeers and migration. This finding does not support the concept of communalism presented in previous studies.