An ethnographic study of a small lower-class Afro-Caribbean island community. Recent declines in wage labour opportunities in the region have forced a return to customary work activities: the household and community becoming significant fall-back systems within the local economy and social structure. The temporary and long-term shifting of children between lower class households, matrifocality (mother-centred households) and communal and precapitalist production represent flexible and adaptable responses to impoverishment and become effective survival strategies.