: 
Global Law Working Papers
2006 Series
GLWP 11/06
Author
Tracy Robinson
Mauro
Cappelletti Global Fellow in Comparative Law
(2005-2006)
Title
"Taxonomies of Conjugality"
Abstract
This paper explores the role of social scientific and legal knowledge and practices in the twentieth century in fashioning a tenacious taxonomic description of Caribbean conjugality—that of marriage, common law marriage and visiting relationships. A categorization popularized by demographers seeking data on female fertility in the Caribbean is now treated as setting out pre-eminent facts about the Caribbean and providing a way of understanding the region. I explore the processes through which the categorization gained signification, what I call "taxonomic moves." I argue that the taxonomic turn can be linked to colonial and nationalist anxieties about the possibilities of nation in the Caribbean in the mid-twentieth century, in particular the worry about "missing black men" and emasculating black women. While not suggesting that we completely disregard the taxonomy, I argue that we should question its usefulness in the situations it is now routinely invoked, and that the risks, given its genealogy, of bringing it into play should be always calculated.
Contact the Author
tsrobin@caribsurf.com
