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Beyond sheer economic considerations, which can themselves be potentially very complex, are institutional responses that arise from migration and sojourning. Solien De Gonzalez does not go into any detailed discussion of what might be involved in such responses (i.e., characteristics of a remittance system) although she does give us some hint in this direction with the illustration of the matrilocally extended family household--the so-called matrifocal family--as one example of accommodation to absentee males.

In order to appreciate the scope of remittance systems (in terms of world distribution) and comprehend the dimensions involved in such systems, one must look further than Solien De Gonzalez. By far the most seminal work on such sociocultural systems, at least for the Caribbean, has been done by Philpott (1970, 1973). In both of the references cited, Philpott uses the example of Montserrat in the West Indies in order to illustrate his points. Primarily he wants to under-score the fact that there are some societies that are "migration oriented" (1973:2); i.e., that are institutionally adapted to the absenteeism of some of its members. This fact becomes important to analysis of Utila since the concept of preadaptation figures prominently in my discussion. In addition, he invokes a "migrant ideology" (1973:177-178) as the motivational force that takes Montserratians to Great Britain, causes them to remit monies home, and ultimately returns many of the migrants to their natal homes. Such an ideology must also be operative in Utila, a fact that I argue in connection with Utilian individualism, commercialism, and consumerism.

Insofar as remittances themselves are concerned, Philpott says that much of the remittance money sent home by overseas islanders has been used to pay passages for other Montserratians to migrate (1968:466). Migration does not constitute severing of one's ties to the people at home nor discontinuance of involvement in island society. Absentee islanders are expected to support their stay-at-home dependents, though many of the children involved are actually illegitimate (the products of extra-residential unions) (1968:467). Depopulation of the island has been induced by remittances, however, with the result that the cost of services has risen and the burden of maintaining roads, schools, etc., has fallen on outsiders (Lowenthal and Comitas 1962:206). Loss of expertise has required everyone to perform numerous different functions, and this has resulted in incompetents being kept on for the good of the community (Lowenthal and Comitas 1962:208).

Despite some of the negative results of the remittance-migration relationship, the overall impact on Montserratian society is a conserving one; i.e., there has been a tendency for the system to remain socially unchanged because, for one thing, ". . . migrants generally wish to maintain the status which accrues to them as a result of their migration . . ." (Philpott 1970:18).

As a more generalizing commentary on migration and remittances, the work of Lowenthal and Comitas (1962) is clearly one of the most important in this subject area. In the particular reference cited, the two authors discuss emigration and depopulation in several European countries. In the case of Ithaca, Greece, for example, a remittance economy developed that was characterized by cyclical migration of sailors who would sometimes be absent several years at a time. Return of absentee males to Ithaca was the cherished goal and long separations did not alienate seamen from their families (1962:203). Yet, despite the desire to return, many individuals permanently left the island, causing a depleted labor force at home, later and fewer marriages, a blurring of the patrifocal pattern, decline in agricultural production, a higher standard of living for those who remained (from remittances), and the exhibition ". . . for overseas consumption [of] an image of the past, a false sociocultural orthodoxy" (1962:204).

Although many of the specifics related to remittances and migration just outlined do not apply directly to Utila, they form part of a remittance economy profile that bears on the discussion of dependency and the larger problems of this study. The relevance of the profile becomes evident as analysis unfolds, but there is considerable additional information that needs to be introduced.

Watson, speaking of the remittance system in San Tin village, Hong Kong New Territories, says that many of the young men visiting home after working in Britain ". . . antagonize the village elders by wearing modish clothes and by listening to Western pop music. They also comment at length about London's amenities as opposed to what they now consider the physical hardships . . . of life in San Tin" (1974:219). Nevertheless, ". . . upon marriage, many of the emigrants became enthusiastic supporters of traditional values" (1974:202). Watson also notes that regularity in the flow of remittances sent by the men while overseas is crucial and that "even a brief disruption would cause immediate hardship to almost every household in the village" (1974:219).

Several other points made by Watson fill out--though by no means exhaust--profile material on remittance economies:

For most absentee workers the village continues to be a primary reference point regardless of how long they have lived abroad. The workers ordinarily return to San Tin once every three to five years for an extended holiday of up to six months. . . . The emigrants make up for the years of deferred gratification abroad by spending their hard-earned savings at a furious pace when they return to the village (1974:220).

Plotnikov, discussing migration and remittances in Nigeria, echoes Watson's point about migrants supporting traditional values. The returning migrant, in order to avoid suspicion from being absent among strangers, is more or less forced to join the conservative elite himself and defend the old ways (1970:172).

Van Velsen writes about the Tonga of Nyasaland, who support their economy by remittances from the Rhodesias and Union of South Africa, and the fact that absentee males do not disrupt regular day-to-day activities. Rather, the migrant workers maintain an active stake in political and social structures of their native villages through remittances and in turn are sustained through communications with Tongaland and a continued flow of migrants from the rural countryside (1960:265-278). In the absence of many job opportunities in the towns to which they migrate, the natal areas attract migrants back home where they may in turn be supported by remittances.

Inishbofin, one of Ireland's west coast islands, has benefitted a great deal from migration and remittances, according to Freeman (1958:202-209). Remittance monies have made it possible to make farms ". . . which can give basic sustenance [and] as more and more farms are united, some men will prosper, especially those who fish as well as farm" (1958:209).

Gallin and Gallin (1974) report the maintenance of ties between rural migrants to Taipei (Taiwan) and their home villages by means of remittances and the importance of these monies to landholding in rural areas.
Remittances constitute an important--if not critical--input to the local economies of British Honduras (Jones 1952), Barbados (Ruck 1960), Puerto Rico (Lewis 1963), and even the Peoples' Republic of China (Wu 1967). Still other studies show the importance of migration (hence of remittances) to Nevis (Frucht 1967), pre-Revolutionary Russia (Dunn & Dunn 1963), and again, Nigeria (Adepoju 1974). In this last case several additional attributes of remittance economies are brought out. According to Adepoju (1974:388), a few high-income earners among Nigerian migrants to urban areas remit money home due to the fact that they usually support more dependents, and rising costs of living in the towns cut into the amount that could be remitted. He also notes that wage earners, unlike the self-employed migrants, can plan what proportion of their income can be remitted which makes them potentially more reliable as remitters (1974:388). The remittance funds themselves are utilized in building or repairing houses, starting small businesses, educating younger family members, and for general family support (1974:393-394). Adepoju claims (1974:394) that owning a house in one's natal village is evidence of continued connection with the home area and that visits intensify identification with home (1974:387). Overall, however, since visits are costly (one has to bring presents to show success) they become infrequent over time, and the more important link between migrant and stay-at-home family members is remittance money and the aid a migrant can provide for still others to migrate (1974:387).

A number of very specific studies, although not ostensibly concerning migration and remittance economics, are nevertheless relevant to this area of investigation. Wilson (1971), following from Solien De Gonzalez's comments on matrifocality (cited above), has investigated male status-role in Providencia Island. Based on his findings, he postulates a male social structure complementary to females (1971:18). Males and females live in a marked dualistic society where females tend to be heads of household, have major importance in economic matters, and so on. Rather than males being marginal figures, however, they simply have a different social structure which is characterized by the male peer group (that he terms a "crew") wherein male activities--especially recreation and drinking--and male status-role are reinforced (1971:18-20). The importance of this to analysis of Utila will become apparent when male behavior in general is discussed, but is more significant when the relative absence of matrifocality in Utila is analyzed.

In a similar vein to Wilson's study is the work of Rodgers and Long (1968) which deals with male sexual identification in the Out Island Bahamas. Among the Out Island Bahamas there is a prevalence of mother/child (matrifocal) households due to the absence of men on fishing boats (1968:326-327). Adult males, in order to impress maleness upon their adolescent sons--and dilute the influence females may have had on sons' sexual identification--take the boys at about age fourteen to work on the fishing boats. For more than a year the young males are put through a very rigorous apprenticeship kind of training that has the effect of stamping them with appropriate adult male characteristics (1968:327). Although matrifocality is rare in Utila, the absence of males is uncontestable, and the fact is that induction of eighteen-year-olds into the merchant marine may do for Utilians¹ what Rodgers and Long claim the fishing boat experience does for Bahamians.

Finally, there are studies relating to social (community) atomism in Caribbean societies. Wagley (1957) observes that throughout Plantation-America (which includes the Caribbean islands and the Caribbean littoral of Central America) there is a weak sense of community cohesion and communities are only loosely organized (1957:8). This observation leads to a discussion in which the characteristics of atomistic societies are summarized and explanations for the phenomenon are offered (Honigmann 1968:220-226). Essentially, atomism derives either from psychological factors related to early life experiences or to situations to which adults must adapt. This material becomes important when considering Utilian individualism and atomism, both of which figure so prominently in explaining the continued functioning of the remittance system. Utilians, operating on self interest, do not enjoy a very cooperative society, but this lack of interdependence allows large numbers of people at a time to be absent from the island without hampering social and political activities. Likewise, self interest motivates people (through consumerism and pursuit of the good life) to continue going to sea.

Having looked at some of the economically oriented study areas that need further investigation, at the concept of a remittance economy and some of the attendant features that go with migration, remitting, and so on, the purpose of this study can be outlined as follows:

First, I will be examining four of the hypotheses noted by Brown and Brewster above through a general application of data from Utila.

Second, I will be examining the interrelationship between economy, society, and polity in Utila by means of a model that emphasizes Utilian individualism, commercial and consumer orientations, and a "Limited Good" outlook deriving from limited economic opportunities in the island. The model will serve as a heuristic device to integrate succeeding chapters, leading to an analysis of remittance systems that will have predictive value beyond the limits of Utila. Third, again via the model noted above, I will be looking for support of the contention that Utila was "preadapted" for ready involvement in a remittance economy and that alterations needed to accommodate a remittance economy were primarily amplifications of traditional sociocultural elements. In this analysis the concept of preadaptation will be employed in the same sense as it is used in biological sciences. A concise statement of this usage is found in Brace and Montagu (1965:53) who say that

evolution, being opportunistic as well as cumulative, frequently takes advantage of structures developed under certain circumstances, and uses them as the base for adaptation to changed environmental circumstances. Such a condition is referred to as preadaptation. Preadaptation, the reapplication of structures originally developed for other purposes, has accounted for some of the otherwise remarkable developments in evolution, although this should not be taken to indicate that there was any such preordained plan.
The essential point, in sum, is that Utila has prospered in toto through its assumption of a remittance system.

Chapters II and III will give background material necessary to understand Utila's preadaptations that culminate in successful transition to a remittance economy and all that this entails. Chapters IV, V, and VI constitute the data to support the areas outlined just above. Each of these is a contribution to the ultimate summary and conclusion of this study that is brought out in Chapter VII.

economy, however, implies the absence, for varying amounts of time, of some of a society's personnel. Absenteeism and other results of a remittance system must be accommodated in order for social and political functioning to continue smoothly, and some sociocultural systems make such accommodation more easily than others. A corollary of the preceding thesis, then, is that economic, social, and political preadaptations in some sociocultural systems enable a given population to readily implement a remittance economy when that choice appears to be the most rewarding.

This chapter will be a preliminary demonstration of the fact that Utila's traditions of individual economic striving, a commercial orientation toward one another in economic dealings, males being absent on trading or fishing ventures, and community non-cooperation were well suited for its people to develop a remittance system. Utila's historical background is divided into three sections that reflect important developments leading to contemporary times: the presettlement period, the agricultural phase, and the subsequent remittance phase. Comparison and contrast between the latter two phases, discussed much more fully in Chapter IV, allows us to see how older patterns were amplified or otherwise reworked in order to meet demands of the contemporary society and culture.

Presettlement

Few published materials deal with Utila's history, but recollections of "old heads" and two anecdotal histories (one published, one simply in manuscript form) provide a rough sketch of the island's background (see Table 1).

Valladares (1939:1) starts his history of the Bay Islands with their "discovery" by Columbus on his fourth voyage. Accordingly, Utila and its companion islands come into history on the 30th of July 1520, when Columbus approached Guanaja's northern shore, possibly at what is today called Pine Rich Bight. The greater navigator was apparently impressed with the thick timber stands and dubbed the island Isla de Pinos. He was also impressed with the friendliness of the "Indian" inhabitants of the island, but no attempt was made to establish any kind of settlement or fortification. After the discovery of Guanaja the conquistadores Juan Diaz Solis and Vicente Yañez Pinzon founded an establishment there, but ". . . sin duda fue enfumero [sic], puesto que no existen vestigos de ellos ni ruinas antiguas. . ." (Cevallos 1919:13).

Don Diego de Porras, a clerk among the early Spanish explorers, reported (Valladares 1939:24) that Bay Islands residents spoke the same language, were handsome and of martial stature (this comment is not explained), and concluded that they formed a tribe that was related to (unidentified) aboriginals encountered at Punta de Castilla. Other than this foregoing observation, however, there was apparently no attempt to delve into the society and culture of these original island settlers, and it served the purposes of Cuban-based conquistadores to report that the indigenous population was hostile, opposed to Christianity, and were cannibals. There is no evidence whatsoever to support the contention that Bay Islands aboriginals were cannibalistic although it is true that the Spanish had encountered anthropophagy among the Carib

TABLE 1

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IMPORTANT IN UTILA'S HISTORY

July 30, 1502 Columbus' fourth voyage resulted in the discovery of Guanaja, the Isle of Pines

September 15, 1821 Central America proclaimed independence from Spain
1834-1836 Utila was permanently settled
July 4, 1850 The United States ratified the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Great Britain; colonization, occupation, fortification, or protectorateship in Central America was forbidden
July 11, 1852 The Superintendent of Belize declared the Bay Islands a colony of Great Britain
1852-1862 Utila's settlers removed from the Cays to populate and farm the main island
November 28, 1859 The Wyke-Cruz Treaty settled the Bay Island controversy
April 22, 1861 Honduran authorities took possession of the Bay Islands
May 14, 1872 The Department of the Bay Islands was created; Islanders were brought under Honduran law
July 18, 1902 Captain Cooper-Key made final disclaimer of British citizenship assumed by many Bay Islanders
1939-1945 The Second World War brought economic prosperity after Depression years; Utilian males established a tradition of serving in the merchant marine
July 23, 1961 Winds from hurricane Anna destroyed many of the remaining plantations in Utila
Indians (cf. Rouse 1951; Sauer 1966:6, 137, 162, 171, 194-195). While the ethnicity of the Bay Islanders is still uncertain (Sauer 1966:130 suggests that they may have been Maya, related to the Maya of mainland Honduras but this is not an assertion), there is no hint that they were even remotely akin to the Caribs. More to the point is Sauer's comment (1966:194) that ". . . Isabela's original command that only cannibal Indians (i.e., Caribs) should be enslaved was taken as lightly as her declaration that inoffensive natives were Spanish subjects with the rights of such. It was necessary only to declare an island as Carib to legitimize slave raids." Apparently Isabella might tolerate hostility but not opposition to Christianity, and "the Queen had been indoctrinated by stories of horrid cannibals" who to the soldiers and administrators in the field were any and all who were either hostile, cannibalistic, Carib, or any combination of the three (Sauer 1966:162).

Subsequently, in the year 1516, Queen Isabella gave Diego Velasquez, Governor of Cuba, leave to enslave the Bay Islanders and transport them to Cuba where they could take the place of the already exterminated--or fast dwindling--aboriginals there. Valladares (1939:25) gives an account of the first slaver expedition to the Bay Islands wherein the unsuspecting native people of Guanaja were rewarded for their hospitality by being thrown in chains into a brig's hold and carried to Havana. An almost legendary event then ensued: the skeleton crew of eight men was overpowered by the Indians and the latter proceeded to sail the 250 leagues back to their home. The Spaniards, undaunted, returned to the Bay Islands, captured some 500 islanders, again imprisoned them, and again were overpowered when the Indians broke out of the holds. A bloody hand-to-hand battle followed, and this time the Spaniards not only vanquished the Indians, but successfully captured 400 men, women and children and took them to Cuba. With this second expedition, according to Sauer (1966:213), the name Utila appears for the first time.

The value of the anecdote related by Valladares is that it serves to point up two simple facts: the Bay Islanders were obviously familiar with boating and must have been excellent navigators. This datum is one more evidence that pre-Columbian navigation was far more developed than Europeans had ever acknowledged and is only now coming to be appreciated (cf. Edwards 1969). The other fact is that Indians in the Bay Islands fared no better than any other aboriginals in their encounters with Europeans, despite an image of island fastness, and in fact were altogether liquidated from the islands when De Avila removed the last Indians to Guatemala in 1650 (Strong 1935:15).

From the early seventeenth century until the early nineteenth century, the history of the Bay Islands is a seesaw account of sometimes Spanish, sometimes British control of one or more links in the chain; neither of the parties comported itself with any distinction, militarily or otherwise. The Spanish exercised a weak and ineffectual control of the area, more tied up with their own perpetual internal political problems in centers such as Lima, Guatemala City, and Mexico City. Britain, through the efforts of freebooters, privateers, and buccaneers, did its rapacious best to hold the territory in order to have a sea base from which it would be easy to intercept Spain's homeward bound treasure ships and also to protect any British activities on terra firma (i.e., on mainland Central America).

The first British incursion into the Bay Islands was in 1638 when William Claiborne, a planter from Virginia and Maryland, attempted to found a colony in Roatan under his Providence Company patent. Claiborne brought several hundred colonists from North America and issued grants of land to them under the company's authority (Floyd 1967:18), but the colony was short lived and (according to Evans 1966:13) was abandoned by 1642.

Between 1639 and 1642, the first British-Spanish confrontation in the Bay Islands took place. According to Cevallos (1919:15), British and Dutch pirates burned a Spanish establishment in 1639 whereupon a base of operations was founded by the Spanish in Puerto Real (near the present-day community of Oak Ridge in Roatan) to clean the sea of pirates. Lutchen-Lehn (n.d.:10) claims that in that same year, 1639, the Bay Islands had been investigated per order of Governor Avilay Lugo; and it was reported that Guanaja, Roatan, and Utila, with the Cays, had 400 inhabitants. No source, unfortunately, for this datum is given.

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