One facet of this with a certain cultural element to it is the use of self-deprecating remarks or jokes. They respect people who are modest and humble. Being self-deprecating, especially if it is done in a humorous manner, displays their down to earth sensibilities.
As well as making fun of themselves they excellent at teasing others. Poking fun at each other is seen as harmless, good-natures banter. Relatively speaking Bahamians take religion seriously. Most are devout Christians. It is not uncommon for everyday speech to the peppered with verses from the Bible and government programs or events and opened with short prayers.
Sunday is a day for church going and prayer. People dress up in their best clothes to attend religious services. The week after Christmas is one long party in the Bahamas. Goombay, the indigenous form of music, is derived from the African slaves who used songs as a form of social commentary and way to hand down traditions.
To the beat of goatskin drums, people sway to the music and loose themselves in the haunting melodies. Middle-class people live in "respectable" Nassau neighborhoods or out-island settlements. Many regularly fly to Florida for shopping and entertainment.
The Commonwealth is a constitutional, parliamentary democracy with universal suffrage for citizens age eighteen and older. The British monarch is recognized as the head of state and is represented by the governor-general, but executive power is vested in the prime minister. Primary legislative authority resides with an elected Produce stalls at a market in Nassau. Fruits and vegetables are a staple of typical Bahamian meals. House of Assembly and an appointed Senate. The judicial system includes magistrates' courts, the Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeals.
Local government is an extension of the federal government with administration in the hands of appointed district commissioners.
Leadership and Political Officials. The personalities of politicians and their relationships with constituents are more important than political philosophy. House members need not reside in their districts but normally visit frequently.
Political officials are expected to be accessible to their constituents through office visits and the mail. Social Control and Problems. Bahamian law is based on English common law and statute law.
The law is enforced via the paramilitary Royal Bahamas Police Force and federally appointed constables. Legal prosecution is carried out by the attorney general's office. Informal social control occurs through peer pressure, gossip, and fear of harmful magic known as obeah. The archipelago is the final staging area for thousands of annual shipments of illegal drugs from South America and the Caribbean to North America.
Although illegal and viewed as a social problem by many people, the drug trade is tolerated because it provides income. Money laundering and related international crimes are widely viewed as beneficial and are not criminalized.
Crimes such as assault, robbery, and homicide are dealt with routinely. Vigilante groups exist but are not an important aspect of social control.
Military Activity. No military exists and Bahamians rely on the protection of the United Kingdom. The government has a program of moderate social welfare and change initiatives. The s witnessed education reforms stressing vocational and technical training to combat unemployment and reliance on foreign workers. The low level of taxation and the cultural value attached to independence preclude more elaborate programs. Nongovernmental organizations such as churches and labor unions have modest programs of local reform ranging from refugee relief to antidrug initiatives.
Regional ad hoc committees lobby for government projects and environmental protection. Division of Labor by Gender. Legally, women have equal status under the law, but men tend to dominate the higher-income and higher status positions in the public and private sectors. Men dominate fishing and other maritime endeavors, the building trades, and the transportation industry.
The Relative Status of Women and Men. Urban women have many career opportunities and are not discriminated against in obvious ways. Women dominate fields such as nursing, elementary school teaching, and office work. Out-island women tend to be farmers, shopkeepers, craft specialists, and domestics when they are employed. Many self-identify as "housekeepers.
Marriages are monogamous. In many out-island settlements, the options are marriage and extraresidential unions. In larger towns and cities, consensual unions exist. People are free to select their spouses. Church weddings follow brief engagements. In principle, one should not marry a blood relative, but in small communities marriages between kin more distantly related than first cousins are common. In white-dominated out-island settlements, interracial marriages are stigmatized.
Both partners are expected to contribute financially to a marriage. Divorces are available, although many couples simply drift apart and never legally terminate the union. There is no stigma attached to remarriage. A sexual double standard exists in which women are supposed to be chaste until marriage and faithful during marriage whereas men are expected to have premarital and extramarital affairs.
Men are widely seen as inherently promiscuous. Domestic Unit. The ideal is the nuclear family household. In cases of extramarital unions, consensual unions, divorce, death, and abandonment, matrifocal households are common. In poorer out-island settlements, parents may move to urban areas to work, leaving their children in the care of A float in a Junkanoo parade, Nassau.
Parades are common for most secular holidays. In nuclear family households, authority tends to be evenly divided between the husband and the wife. Sons and daughters inherit from both parents. Inherited property includes land, houses, boats, and household goods.
Wills may favor one heir over another, but this is uncommon, especially in the out islands. Kin Groups. No formal kin groups larger than the family exist. Adult siblings tend to look after each other's interests and frequently operate shops or fishing vessels together. Infant Care. Infants are cared for by their mothers. Both bottle feeding and breast-feeding are accepted. Infants sleep in the parents' bedroom except among the more affluent, where a separate room is available.
Infants are carried in the arms, and baby carriages are used. Caregivers try to calm crying or otherwise agitated infants. Child Rearing and Education. Children are socialized in traditional adult roles. Girls care for younger siblings, play with dolls, and help with A town on Man of War Cay.
Most buildings and houses are small in height due to hurricane safety measures. Boys may work with their fathers but are often free to play. Boys are taught to be fun-loving and independent, while girls are expected to be responsible and to remain under close family scrutiny.
Corporal punishment and threats are common. The literacy rate is about 90 percent, and public education is available through local elementary schools and regional secondary schools.
Private schools in Nassau are available to wealthier families. In public schools, rote learning is common. Higher Education. Since independence, higher education has been stressed. The College of the Bahamas in Nassau and numerous technical schools provide higher education, although foreign universities are popular among the more affluent.
Religious Beliefs. Most residents are churchgoing Christians. About 80 percent are Protestant, and 20 percent are Roman Catholic. The largest Protestant denominations are Baptist and Anglican. Obeah is an African system of belief in spirits that often is superimposed on Christianity.
Religious Practitioners. Large congregations are led by ordained ministers and priests, while small congregations are led by unordained preachers.
Obeah men are part-time specialists whose activities include placing and removing curses, communicating with spirits, and giving spiritual advice. Rituals and Holy Places. Most rituals are Christian services and are held in churches.
Immersion baptisms and revival meetings are held outdoors. Some Christian services include glossolalia, spirit possession, and faith healing.
Obeah rituals tend to be small and private. Death and the Afterlife. The dead are placed in simple pine coffins, and wakes are held at home.
The wealthy buy more expensive coffins and use funeral parlors. Funerals are held in churches, and burials are in churchyards or public cemeteries. It is believed that souls go to heaven or hell, but some believe that ghosts wander before reaching their ultimate destination. There is one large hospital in Nassau, and over a hundred government clinics are scattered elsewhere. An air ambulance service transports out islanders to the hospital in emergencies.
There are about twelve-hundred people per physician, but nurses and paramedics often serve as primary care professionals, especially in remote settlements. Secular holidays tend to be celebrated with parades, speeches, and concerts. Support for the Arts. Artists tend to be self-supporting, although government grants occasionally are given for works of special public significance. Oral literature, the telling of "old stories," is a revered art form.
Written works include historical novels and poetry. Graphic Arts. Graphic arts, especially painting, tend toward landscapes and seascapes and historical events. There are many private gallaries in Nassau. In fact the sheltered harbor of Nassau became a hiding place for the pirates from where they intercepted the merchant ships passing by, attacked them and looted then of the precious cargo.
Finally in Governor Woodes Rogers arrived from Britain with his seven battleship and put an end to wide-scale piracy in Bahamas, and the British Crown Colony was established in Bahamas. But the real people of Bahamas who were instrumental for the culture and tradition that developed in the islands over the years were yet to arrive. British Government gave them lands in Bahamas to initiate British settlement.
Those days slavery was legal and rampant in both British occupied lands as well as in the USA. So the British Loyalists brought in large number of slaves mostly from West Africa to cultivate cotton plantations in the various islands of Bahamas. However due to thin and poor soil conditions, cotton plantations failed and so did commercialization of pineapple and sisal plantations, as well as ocean sponge fishing.
In the slavery was eventually abolished in the entire British empire and the freed slaves were given lands for farming. Over the years the blacks easily outnumbered the British whites. Other than the British loyalists, the settlers and the African slaves, there were large influx of people in Bahamas from two other sources But they too continue to influence the social behaviors, although negatively as most Bahamians so believe.
In , Bahamas became an independent nation with parliamentary democracy while keeping the British monarch as the Head of State represented by the Governor General. However the executive power lies with the elected Prime Minister. Bahamas joined the Commonwealth in the same year. So as you can see An obvious example of African influence is 'Junkanoo' Junkanoo in Bahamas is performed on public holidays and made into a spectacular event that draws thousands of visitors.
Nassau in New Providence Island is the capital of Bahamas and the most developed city along with its satellite Paradise Island. Freeport in Grand Bahama is the next most important city and rest are all settlements, villages and small townships that are scattered across various islands of Bahamas.
There are some Asian mix in the population as well. So you can easily imagine that a sector like tourism won't flourish just on beautiful beaches and landscapes Combined with it you get delicious local cuisine of seafood like conch fritters and salads by the way conch and rice and peas are the two national dishes here , lobsters and more.
Bahamians love to eat seafood, meat, rice, bread, fresh fruits and vegetables.
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