Een sociaal vangnet. Quasi-verwantschap, religie en sociale orde bij de Creoolse Surinamers in de Bijlmermeer

Samenvatting

In the large blocks of apartment buildings in the Bijlmermeer, one of Amsterdam's (the Netherlands) new suburbs, high density levels of a Creole Surinamese population of immigrants have created conditions favorable to the preservation of subcultural life styles. Apart from the many well-documented characteristics of Lc culture, the new residents show a marked attachment to an array of traditional institutions: kinship & both orthodox & popular religious allegiances. Apparently, this strongly contrasts with no less eager pursuit of all amenities of modern life. The rationale for this retreat in traditional & quasi-traditional cultural forms is to be found in the threat to group life posed by an involvement in lucrative but extra-legal activities. Unable to realize hopes of upward mobilty & economic betterment in accepted ways, many of the chronically unemployed turn to the opportunities opened up by, eg, the rapidly expanding traffic in drugs. Ethnic solidarity requires the in-group to stoically accept a rise in the level of violence & a concomitant weakening of norms that used to regulate group life in the home country. To cope with these threats, all conventional forces -- kinship & religion in its full variety -- are mustered to bolster the minumum requirements of social order. 11 References. HA