Part three: “Disorganization,” adaptation, and arterial blood pressure¹

Research in St. Lucia was supported in part by a grant from the Connecticut Research Foundation, and by a predoctoral fellowship from the University of Connecticut Health Center. I would like to thank Pertti J. Pelto, Kenneth Hadden, and John L. Cutler for their comments on previous drafts of these materials. A previous version of this paper won the student paper competition at the 1978 Annual Meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society.

Abstract

The relationship between sociological factors and arterial blood pressure in St. Lucia, in the West Indies, is examined in this paper. Some epidemiological research has suggested that “social disorganization” contributes to poor health status. Furthermore, it has been argued that the Afro‐American family is a “disorganized social unit,” a social pathology resulting from slavery and oppression and contributing to poor health. An alternative view is that the distinctive Afro‐American family patterns found in the West Indies are adaptations to economic marginality and, as such, should contribute to better health status. Quantitative and qualitative data are used to select the more credible of these opposed predictions. The implications of the results are discussed.

Notes

Research in St. Lucia was supported in part by a grant from the Connecticut Research Foundation, and by a predoctoral fellowship from the University of Connecticut Health Center. I would like to thank Pertti J. Pelto, Kenneth Hadden, and John L. Cutler for their comments on previous drafts of these materials. A previous version of this paper won the student paper competition at the 1978 Annual Meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society.