The morphological dental traits were able to detect two major migrations in the Caribbean area before the conquest. A more ancient one introduced groups of hunter- gatherers and a more recent one the agriculturalists. The present... more
The morphological dental traits were able to detect two major migrations in the Caribbean area before the conquest. A more ancient one introduced groups of hunter- gatherers and a more recent one the agriculturalists. The present anthropological data do not seem to support the hypothesis that different migrations brought the agriculturalists into the area, since the ancient Saladoids from Puerto Rico do not substantially differentiate from the more recent Ostionoids, Chicoids, and Troumassoids respectively from the Greater and the Lesser Antilles. We can only infer that the second migration likely headed to the northwest from the southeast, while not much can be said on the first migration. Unfortunately, the lack of archaic dental samples from Belize and the Yucatán peninsula hampers the possibility to test the Mesoamerican hypothesis of an early migration from this part of the continent.
