Family structures in the Caribbean. In this article the literature on Caribbean family types is used as an illustration of the debate between the „historical” and the „ahistorical" (structural-functional) approach in anthropology. After briefly outlining the historical explanation of Herskovits, Henriques et.al. of the so-called matrifocal family, Raymond Smith’s „functional” explanation of this type of family is critically reviewed. An attempt is made to show that Smith, in trying to understand the matrifocal family type among rural British Guiana Negroes, actually uses a „British” model of society instead of a British Guianese one. References to the British Guiana rural Hindu group and to the Puerto Rican coffee workers (the latter as studied by Steward cs.) are made in order to show to what degree „cultural” („historical”) factors do limit the functional „necessity” of matrifocal family types. It is further stated that the influence of the extra-marital behaviour of the dominant and prestigious whites on the family patterns of the Caribbean Negro groups, is seriously being underestimated.
