Pre-reading Blog #2

Orlando Patterson was born on June 5, 1940, in Westmoreland, Jamaica. He was the son of a local police detective and a dressmaker. He was raised during the time when the national decolonization movement was happening. Jamaica became independent from England in 1962; therefore Patterson’s early years were always exposed to the subjugation and imperialism that Jamaica was suffering from. Even though slavery had been abolished already, the plantation system made Patterson study and understand the alternate faces of economic helotry shown by slavery in the educated world.

After attending Kingston College, Patterson was awarded a scholarship to go to the University of West Indies, where he earned his B.S. degree in economics in 1962. After this achievement he became politically active and engaged with a political freedom. He debated the improvements the constitution of a country that was about to grow independently from England should adopt. He also brought up an increasing interest in cultural decolonization. Patterson began to have a strong introspection over England and this helped him shape the views he had about the connection between slavery and freedom and made him especially interested in the ways that cultural processes relate to poverty and other social outcomes

His academic interests include the culture and practice of freedom; the comparative study of slavery and ethno-racial relations; the sociology of underdevelopment with special reference to the Caribbean; and the problems of gender and familial relations in the black societies of the Americas. He was a founding member of Cultural Survival, one of the leading advocacy groups for the rights of indigenous peoples, and was for several years a board member of Freedom House, a major civic organization for the promotion of freedom and democracy around the world.

Professor Patterson is the author of numerous academic papers and 5 major academic books including, Slavery and Social Death (1982); Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (1991); and The Ordeal of Integration (1997) where he explains the process by which institutions such as slavery shape societal values and belief systems.

According to Patterson, “Using a musical metaphor, Patterson argues that freedom can be seen as a chord with three elemental notes: personal freedom, the ability to act as one wants without interfering with the personal freedom of another; civic freedom, the capacity to participate in government and determine the nature of societal institutions; and sovereign freedom, the perceived right or privilege to dominate others.”

Currently, Professor Patterson is a historical and cultural sociologist, is John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University known for his work regarding issues of race in America, as well as the sociology of development.

Sources:

http://www.answers.com/topic/orlando-patterson
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc/faculty/patterson/
http://en.wikipedia.org