Tribale samenleving en nationale staat: over rechtspleging bij hedendaagse Caraiben in Suriname

Samenvatting

Primitive societies, brought under western administration, lose their legal independence. Some parts of the original legal system may remain intact, but capital punishment and the handling of serious offences (murder) are usually shifted to foreign legislation. In many primitive societies law has 2 faces: the native system and the imposed colonial or postcolonial system. Anthropologists have often failed to pay enough attention to the imposed system, bound as they still too often are by their conception of the primitive isolate. Jurisdiction among the Maroni river Caribs in Surinam, who have accepted foreign jurisdiction, is described. Their conflicts are mostly aggressive conflicts, taking place under the influence of alcohol. Serious quarrels are brought to police notice by the victims or by the village leaders. The Caribs generally cooperate in the interrogation. In serious cases, (homicide) much attention is paid to Carib custom. The main effect of the new legal situation is that aggression is curbed. Although many conflicts do occur during the alcoholic sprees, really serious injuries have become rare. The new situation also affects the position of the chief but in a differentiated manner: a strong chief is able to increase his power, a weak one tends to become unimportant. The modern legal process is illustrated with several cases, collected during fieldwork in 1966-68, augmented by data from the archives. Aa.