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Emphasizing individualism in the image of limited good, at the level of family/household and status-roles still further important conclusions emerge from this study. The "normal" type of household structure in Utila (unlike that which might have been anticipated from Solien De Gonzalez [1961:1278]) is the nuclear family household. This is both the usual ideal and the most common numerically. Other household configurations also exist in Utila as the result of or in response to special situations that must be met, but the household as such is not economically an important unit: it is not a unit of production nor, necessarily, consumption, but tends to have more social and psychological significance in providing companionship and amicable surroundings.

The functioning of the nuclear family household is individualistic, rather than collectivist, with each unit striving to attain the good life symbolized by ownership of land, other consumer goods, and activities that demonstrate one's wealth and social position. Nuclear family striving dates to the founding of the island settlement--when individual farming was initiated--and helps to inhibit effectively the growth of corporate kin groups, such as an extended family household, and--as already noted--intracommunity cooperation. Limited good operates at this level through the land-individual cultivation relationship already discussed in connection with stratification: good plantations are the result of individual effort certainly (which is limited by the size of the family work force) and the quality of the land being worked (prime pieces being limited).

In the absence of a tradition of collective work effort, or any rationale on the contemporary scene for generating corporate groups, the nuclear family household persists to reinforce individualism reflected at the level of the solitary person. Each nuclear family household has the potential, and the array of complementary status-roles, to be a self-sustained--and self-serving--unit. Thus, there is no impetus to move from well established social and economic structure and function to some new configuration, such as the matrifocal family. Even in a community characterized by a great deal of intermarriage, as Utila demonstrably is, there is little sense of solidarity beyond the nuclear family household--no lineages, no clans. Each unit is essentially responsible to itself, and either rises, falls, or remains at the same level relative to all others (in social, economic or political position) on the basis of its own achievements. There is no record in my field data of one branch of a family (e.g., the Coopers) helping another because of kin relationship; financial aid, or other kinds of assistance, would be extended--or withheld--equally to any Utilian.

Status-roles in Utila reflect individualism and a limited good image in several ways. Males, following from their farming and fishing activities in earlier years, continue to work independently of one another in the sale of their individual labor and subsequent individual expenditure of earnings. Allocation of merchant marine derived earnings is the prerogative of a man--who is ultimately responsible for his family's welfare--and this allocation is typically divided (though not in even shares) between consumer goods that will benefit himself and family, and recreation. A source of pride is the single individual's hard work that demonstrates one's ability to endure the regimen of sea duty, willingness to assume familial responsibility and success in achieving the good life while thwarting poverty and want. The tendency to consume entirely one's income, neglecting savings or capital investment, is evidence of an image of limited good: islanders, in order to get as much as possible of the good life denied to them for several generations, channel their physical energies and monetary resources solely toward consumerism. Unlike Foster's peasants, Utilians desire an audience to witness their success in achieving the good life at both the individual person level and at the level of the family household. Envy and jealousy of others success in peasant societies may lead, for example, to accusations of witchcraft or to enforced participation in ritual activities of the community, which would siphon off one's excess wealth. Consequently, peasants are secretive about their wealth and attempt to present a facade, of sameness with other members of the community; to be outstanding is dangerous. The reverse situation obtains in Utila, where affirmation of one's achievements requires an audience of friends and non-family members of the community. The fulfillment of hard work lies, in large part, in being able to show it off and receive recognition. Recognition itself is not necessarily verbal, and in many cases probably derives from being copied--the island version of "keeping up with the Joneses." Sprees also provide a place to, again, demonstrate one's individual ability to endure, and to work hard (in this case to work hard at having a good time). Drinking activity is a way of asserting the fiction of male independence of females: a man will come and go at drinking sessions ostensibly as he pleases, and this is done in front of the other men of the island. The drinking session provides an opportunity to trade banter between males, and provides the ultimate forum for proving individual capacities since it is here that fights are most likely to occur--fights from which one should not back down.

Female Utilians demonstrate their individualism primarily through successful operation of their households, especially in the absence of men. Running their respective households, women fulfill the traditional role of domestic managers, but reap the rewards of greater freedom from male interference (since men are gone most of the year) and additional conveniences (a part of the good life) that make domestic work less onerous. Women are well served by the remittance system since they can secure greater amounts of leisure and less burdensome tasks by appealing to male self-image as good providers; a sign of being self-sufficient--a good provider--is in the comforts a man can supply his family. The trade-off for greater freedom from male interference and added amenities is the increased share of immediate responsibility for family welfare that must be assumed by the woman. Here again, however, is opportunity for the woman to show her capabilities, her own hardness, by handling affairs on the home front until the return of her husband.

Rewards provided to males and females by the remittance system reinforce their commitment to that system. Self esteem, peer group approval, and social position all work to the end that individual striving for the good life can be satisfied by the remittance system. Material rewards for females tend to be more immediate, i.e., received soon after there is means to afford them; likewise, they are incremental since they are periodically augmented as time goes along. Male rewards, because of the absenteeism factor, are set in the future to be received and enjoyed after serving one's term in the merchant marine. Both men and women have a deeply vested interest in continuing the remittance economy; with it they can aspire to a life style far beyond subsistence level, and markedly superior to the poverty and economic crisis of a generation ago. Yet, while they seem to voluntarily involve themselves in the remittance economy, the reality is that islanders have made themselves dependents of that system. Once they committed themselves to the merchant marine, etc., there was no turning back from it; and now they are captivated by the United States and the larger powers that operate merchant shipping. This dependence is largely self-imposed by the islander conception of the good life, but an alternate to that image is both inconceivable and--supposing that it centers on an in-island economy--unrealizable.

The "rest and recreation mentality" that was one of the special features of Utilian culture to be examined, fits in with discussion of rewards accruing to those active in the remittance economy. As noted, males tend to be future-oriented in terms of rewards for their shipping out, remitting, and so on. The "rest and recreation mentality" represents a kind of intermittent reward (variable reward schedule in psychological parlance) to keep them active in the system until they can truly enjoy the fruits of their labors at retirement. Each return to Utila on leave, with the accompanying drinking sprees, raucous behavior, pampering by females, and so on is a positive occasion, one that inclines a male not only to continue going on the ships, but also to continue sending money home and later to return himself. Anthropologically speaking, the "rest and recreation mentality" reflects a rite of intensification attendant upon each return of a sailor: good feelings toward family, friends, the community in general, are regularly rekindled by the reception afforded a sailor. The full significance of sailors leave periods and the rest and recreation mentality can only be appreciated however when the other end of the remittance economy is considered, namely, the shipboard context where men work. Quoting Aubert, Gaffney (1975:7) says that roles on shipboard are highly formalized, as is the assignment of duties. Likewise,

the formalization makes it possible for a new man to come on board a ship and find his cabin and his place at the dining table practically without guidance. The structure probably has developed as an answer to the demand that a ship must be able to emerge as a cooperative unit in an instant and without precious preparation.

Another important aspect of the structured shipboard life is that entrance into it constitutes an unqualified rite of passage for Utilian young men. Similar to the Out Island Bahamas situation studied by Rodgers and Long (1968), cited in Chapter I, going to sea for the first time represents a sharp break from the kind and amount of influence that a young man has previously enjoyed. In other words, novice sailors are subjected to a concentrated dosage of male contact and tutoring that makes up for any lack of male images a young boy may have had due to an absentee father. The rigors of life at sea, the alien structure and cooperation, all work to impress young men with their maleness, and--as with their elders--reinforces the fact that it is a Utilian maleness.

The trade-off between life on shipboard and the rest and recreation atmosphere in Utila is more than it at first seems. Men are not simply "blowing off steam" (my phrase), nor are they just giving themselves intermittent rewards, nor are they just engaging in conspicuous consumption when they go on leave. By their actions they are genuinely underwriting and rejuvenating the remittance system.

From the standpoint of the community and the individuals left behind, the rest and recreation mentality also serves a positive function since through it the remittance economy is ensured. Problems that arise between men on leave, or friction between a man and his family, can be ignored because men will soon be off again, taking the problems along with them. The political atomism of Utila is particularly adaptive in this regard too since the community is regularly geared to acting without a full complement of personnel and can therefore carry on day-to-day activities with or without the merchant mariner population.

In sum, the people of Utila were preadapted to engage in a remittance economy; the decision to move to this type of economy was the most reasonable choice of alternatives available to islanders, and the remittance economy continues to this day as a viable support of Utilians and their sociocultural system. Preadaptation lay in individualism and the realization of the limits to opportunity on the island, the nuclear family household suited to independent action, political atomism that allowed community functioning without cooperation on the part of men who would, in fact, be absent most of the time, the local history of shipping and fishing, and a social organization that reinforced individual striving in order to achieve merit and position as part of the good life.

The decision to move to the remittance economy was, based on the traditional life style of Utilians and the natural limitation of the island (in size, accessibility, and so on), the logical and reasonable decision that islanders could have made; its reasonability is partly demonstrated simply by the fact that the remittance economy is still strong after a generation.

The viability of the remittance economy in Utila is reflected in numerous ways, one of the most important being commitment to that system by youngsters who have yet to enter it. Socialization of boys and girls has effectively recruited the next generation of merchant mariners and their wives. Another evidence lies in the continued pattern of consumer consumption, lack of savings, little or no investment of earnings and other traditional patterns of income expenditure: Utilians have not altered the habits of thinking and behaving that preadapted them to the remittance economy--the good life today is the same as 140 years ago, and this binds Utilians to the remittance economy. Finally, social and political organization are well suited to the needs of a population such as Utila's; there is motivation on one hand to participate in the remittance system due to the challenge of the stratification system. On the other hand, the flexibility of island governance, based in traditional lack of cooperative activity, allows men to come and go without causing trauma to the community, and regularly exports any troubles it may have with the departure of the merchant mariners.

In the best of all possible worlds, the remittance economy in Utila would appear to have evolved purposefully to satisfy today the needs and wants that first brought settlers to the island. Utilians could fare much worse.

The results of research in Utila tend to confirm many of the observations about remittance societies that were outlined in Chapter I. Utila would for example support the contention that the dependency--engendering remittances are capable of becoming the major source of income in a system (cf. Frucht 1967, Philpott 1973, Van Velsen 1960, Watson 1974) or at least a very important source of income (cf. Freeman 1958, Lopreato 1962, Palmer 1974) for prolonged periods of time; i.e., a remittance economy is a viable alternative for many people vis à vis some form of internal economic development.

Utilian data do not, however, show dire results to social and political systems that are suggested in writings by Lowenthal and Comitas (1962), Arensberg and Kimball (1940:106-107 and 1968:144-145), or Freeman (1958); i.e., there is no massive change in family or community relations, no marked alteration in the system of social prestige and political power, and--most especially--no tendency for the sojourning part of the population to permanently emigrate.

What the model of Utila shows us, which has predictive value in analysis of other sociocultural systems, can be summarized in three points:

(1) A system that emphasizes individualism--in economic production, social striving, political organization--is preadapted for remittance economics.
(2) Successful accommodation to a remittance economy constitutes amplification of traditional patterns of thinking and acting. Particularly important are tendencies toward consumer spending, and male occupations that may take them away periodically.

(3) The singular attribute that is of most immediate importance to maintaining a remittance economy is the rest and recreation mentality.

Preadaptation, and amplification of traditional patterns, are factors clearly crucial in Utila for its particular success. When coupled with a mechanism for attracting sojourners back to their home community, there is a powerful combination of elements to perpetuate the remittance economy. As the gap between under-developed and over-developed countries widens, the remittance economy, reflected in the model of Utila, may be the best solution to local needs and to maintenance of world economic order.

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