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    FOUN1101 Plenary 2

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    Celine Singh
    This document provides an overview of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, known as the Neo-Indians. It discusses the objectives of the unit, defines the Caribbean region, and debunks common myths about the indigenous groups. It then summarizes key aspects of Neo-Indian civilizations, including their lifestyles, agriculture, trade practices, and spiritual beliefs. Finally, it outlines the decline of the Neo-Indian population following European contact, largely due to genocide, disease, and other factors introduced by the Spanish.

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    FOUN1101 Plenary 2

    Uploaded by

    Celine Singh
    72 views61 pages
    This document provides an overview of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, known as the Neo-Indians. It discusses the objectives of the unit, defines the Caribbean region, and debunks common myths about the indigenous groups. It then summarizes key aspects of Neo-Indian civilizations, including their lifestyles, agriculture, trade practices, and spiritual beliefs. Finally, it outlines the decline of the Neo-Indian population following European contact, largely due to genocide, disease, and other factors introduced by the Spanish.

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    Caribbean Civi

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    This document provides an overview of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, known as the Neo-Indians. It discusses the objectives of the unit, defines the Caribbean region, and debunks common myths about the indigenous groups. It then summarizes key aspects of Neo-Indian civilizations, including their lifestyles, agriculture, trade practices, and spiritual beliefs. Finally, it outlines the decline of the Neo-Indian population following European contact, largely due to genocide, disease, and other factors introduced by the Spanish.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    72 views61 pages

    FOUN1101 Plenary 2

    Uploaded by

    Celine Singh
    This document provides an overview of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, known as the Neo-Indians. It discusses the objectives of the unit, defines the Caribbean region, and debunks common myths about the indigenous groups. It then summarizes key aspects of Neo-Indian civilizations, including their lifestyles, agriculture, trade practices, and spiritual beliefs. Finally, it outlines the decline of the Neo-Indian population following European contact, largely due to genocide, disease, and other factors introduced by the Spanish.

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    FOUN 1101: CARIBBEAN CIVILISATION

    UNIT 2
    Defining a Caribbean Civilisation:
    The Indigenous Settlers

    D r. D ebbie McCollin
    The Uni versity o f The West I ndies,
    St . Augustine
    Unit Objectives
    After completing this unit you should be able to:

    1. Identify the Caribbean region in the context of the world


    2. Explain the organisation and distribution of early Neo-Indian
    civilisation in the Caribbean
    3. Discuss characteristics of Neo-Indian lifestyles.
    Defining a Caribbean Civilisation:
    The Indigenous Settlers
    Session 1: Defining the Caribbean

    Session 2: Interpreting Neo-Indian lifestyles

    Session 3: Demography of the early Neo-


    Indian peoples
    Defining the
    Caribbean
    SESSION 1
    Session 1 Objectives
    • Identify the Caribbean region within the context of the
    world
    • Identify and describe the indigenous settlers in the region
    • Discuss the migrating paths and time periods of the main
    waves of Neo-Indian movements into the region.
    THE CARIBBEAN :
    - a crescent shaped chain of islands
    - from The Bahamas and Cuba (located just off the southern tip of Florida)
    southwards to Trinidad (located just off Venezuela).
    The Caribbean: Further Divisions
    The Greater Antilles

    The Lesser Antilles


    Q?
    Can you name the islands that
    make up the Greater Antilles?
    The Greater Antilles
    Cuba, Haiti/Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Jamaica
    The Lesser Antilles
    Q?
    Can you name the two subdivisions
    of the Lesser Antilles?
    The Lesser Antilles
    THE LEEWARD ISLANDS
    the northernmost chain of
    islands
    Virgin Islands to Guadeloupe

    THE WINDWARD ISLANDS


    Dominica, Martinique,
    St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the
    Grenadines and Grenada.
    Q?
    But are there countries also considered part of
    the Caribbean in Central and South America?
    South and Central American Caribbean Territories
    Guyana and Belize- historically involved in the regional movements of
    population and in intra-Caribbean trade (both full members of CARICOM)
    Suriname and French Guiana
    The Indigenous Settlers
    First People of the Caribbean

    FACT OR FICTION?
    Q?
    How many indigenous groups
    inhabited the Caribbean?
    MYTH 1:
    Only two main groups in the Caribbean ‘Arawaks’ and
    ‘Caribs’

    TRUTH:
    - Numerous groups of indigenous people inhabited these
    islands
    - originated from North, Central and South America
    PALEO-INDIANS
    - 5,000 B.C.
    - South and Central America
    - Established small seaside communities
    - No real knowledge of pottery
    - Diet: wild berries, fish and small game (hunted)
    - basic tools made from stones and shells
    MESO-INDIANS
    - 500 B.C.
    - better developed pottery and tools
    - settlement patterns were not confined to the seashore
    - origins- South America
    - main settlements in Trinidad, Cuba and Hispaniola (now Haiti and
    Dominican Republic)
    - numbers were never large
    - completely disappeared at the time of the arrival of the Spanish
    NEO-INDIANS
    Diet- varied
    Hunted and gathered
    Also developed agricultural methods to cultivate their own
    crops.

    - known collectively as the Saladoid people


    - styles of pottery that were characteristic of these people

    - divided into two main groups


    Saladoid Pottery, St. Vincent
    Q?
    What are the well known names of the
    two Neo-Indian groups Columbus met
    in the West Indies?
    MYTH 2: NAMES
    The two Saladoid groups the Spanish met were called
    Arawaks and Caribs.

    TRUTH:
    They did not call themselves Arawaks or Caribs. The
    Spaniards gave them this name.
    Today known by the names they gave to themselves:
    TAINOS
    KALINA OR KALINAGO
    SALADOID- TAINOS
    arrived c.300 B.C.
    • spoke a language called Arawakan
    • found in the Greater and Lesser Antilles and The Bahamas
    (Lucayos)
    • principally on the islands of the Greater Antilles

    • mistakenly identified as Arawaks (word invented by


    Europeans)
    • referred to themselves as Tainos
    SALADOID- KALINAGO/KALINA
    • spoke a language called Cariban
    • largely in the Lesser Antilles
    • at the time of the Spanish arrival, in aggressive, expansionist
    phase
    • engaged in conflict with the Tainos

    • mistakenly identified as ‘Caribs’ (word invented by Europeans)


    • called themselves Kalinas or Kalinago
    Myth 3: Carib Cannibalism
    ◦ Arawaks were ‘peaceful and non-cannibalistic’

    ◦ The Caribs were ‘warlike and cannibalistic’


    (flesh eating savages with no culture)
    TRUTH: No evidence to support
    Cannibalistic assertions
    No evidence to support this idea found in middens (areas of
    garbage and waste disposal-archaeological sites)

    Histories about the Kalinago were based on biased


    stereotypes of the first European explorers
    Motivation for Myth:
    Allowed Spanish explorers to justify
    their inhumane slaughter of the
    Kalinago inhabitants.
    Summary- Session 1
    - Defined the Caribbean
    - Outlined the movement of populations of the earliest
    settlers from South and Central America throughout the
    region.
    - Debunked myths about
    Diversity of Indigenous Groups
    Names associated with Neo-Indian groups
    ‘Carib’ Cannibalism
    Session 2:
    Interpreting Neo-Indian lifestyles
    • Describe the lifestyles of the Neo-Indians.
    Sources of information
    about indigenous people
    - have not originated from the Neo-Indians
    - have come from Spaniards

    Why is this problematic?


    - feared and hated Spanish
    - Spanish considered them and their culture as peripheral
    and meaningless
    Spanish Opinion of Indigenous
    ETHNOCENTRIC
    Judge other societies thorough the value systems of one’s
    own culture and way of seeing the world

    Judged the Neo-Indian through the perspective of European


    culture
    Q? What did the Spanish think of Neo-Indian dress?

    European Dress 15th century Neo Indian Dress 15th century


    ANDROCENTRIC
    a viewpoint grounded in a male perspective

    Eg. Spaniards declared often that Neo-Indian women were


    highly sexualised
    - how they dressed, ‘lack of covering’ = promiscuous
    VILLAGE LIFE
    - sites with easy access to reliable fresh water
    - area of flat fertile ground for cassava (manioc) cultivation
    - laid out around a central village square
    - individual houses with thatched roofs and timber walls
    - villages housed between three and five hundred people.
    Reconstruction of Taino Village
    DIVISION OF LABOUR
    MEN
    - cleared the fields
    - hunting, fishing
    - defence of the village
    - house construction
    - canoe making
    Women
    - crop cultivation
    - spinning and weaving of
    cotton
    - making handicrafts (baskets,
    hammocks)
    - child rearing
    - preparation of food
    Patriarchal Societies
    Head – Village Chief or
    Cacique
    in charge of political,
    religious and judicial
    functions
    Females held subordinate positions to men
    - traded and taken in raids
    - polygamy was practiced amongst the noble classes
    Eg. cacique had many wives.

    But a few women held positions of power


    We know of one female cacique- Queen Anacaona
    BEAUTY PRACTICES
    Flattened their foreheads (from newborn)

    Ornaments:
    bracelets on arms and legs made of beads,
    shells and gold pieces
    Gold rings in their ears and noses
    RECREATION- Taino ball game
    SPIRITUAL BELIEFS
    - concept of an after-life and a supreme being existed

    Polytheism:
    - a trinity of gods which had a male figure associated with
    cassava and volcanoes
    - a female fertility god
    - a dog-like deity to look after the recently dead.

    - miniature representations
    called Zemis
    Agriculture and Diet
    Farming- Conucos - small agricultural plots
    - cultivated for 3 to 5 years the left fallow
    - potato, cassava and maize
    - tobacco, recreational and religious purposes

    Fishing- seafood, shellfish

    Hunting- birds and small animals like the agouti and


    the iguana
    Q?
    Do you know where the name barbeque originated?
    TRADE AND COMMERCE
    Traded with South and North America
    - huge canoes from tree trunks c. 25 metres with the
    capacity for 50 people.
    - textile goods and ceramics
    - well crafted stone tools – knives, scrapers, axes
    Q?
    How accurate is it to describe the
    earliest inhabitants of the Caribbean as
    primitive?
    Summary- Session 2
    Ethnocentric and Androcentric Views of Spanish
    Civilisation of the Indigenous
    Village Life
    Division of Labour
    Concepts of Beauty
    Religion
    Diet
    Economy
    Demography of the
    Early Amerindian
    peoples
    SESSION 3
    Objective
    After studying this session you should be able to:

    Account for the decline of the early Neo-Indian population.


    Population at Span Contact-
    1492
    At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards in 1492 possibly
    six million Neo-Indians.
    Genocide of Neo-Indians
    THE ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM
    Indigenous were enslaved and forced to work for Spanish
    - mine for gold
    - work provision grounds

    - had no time to work their own plots


    - so malnourishment and starvation
    The Hunger Games of
    The Neo-Indians
    - Spaniards
    hunted them
    as sport
    - hunted with
    dogs and
    maimed,
    tortured and
    killed
    DISEASES
    - Spanish brought diseases and pathogens to which the
    Neo-Indians were not immune.
    - diseases that had not existed in the region
    Eg. Types of Influenza, smallpox, measles
    ORIGIN OF SYPHILIS
    Sexually transmitted disease

    Arguments that the Neo-Indians ‘gave’ the Spaniards


    syphilis

    In fact, dangerous forms of syphilis existed in Europe long


    before contact with the Neo-Indians
    MISCEGENATION
    (mixing of the races)
    - the deliberate Spanish policy
    - encouraging male Spanish settlers and soldiers to mate with
    Neo-Indian women (especially the daughters of caciques)
    -Span raped and forced women into unions

    Goal - separate the offspring of these unions from the culture of


    the Neo-Indian villages and to bring them up as Spaniards.

    By 1514, about 40 percent of Spanish men in Hispaniola had


    officially recognised Taino wives.
    DEATH SENTENCE
    Rapid Demise:
    Tainos were largely exterminated between 1493 and 1540
    Kalinagos survived longer until about the beginning of the
    eighteenth century.
    COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE = A LOSS OF SIX MILLION PEOPLE
    Summary- Session 3
    - Noted the size of the Neo-Indian
    populations

    - Reasons for decimation of Neo-Indians


    in Caribbean
    war, disease, dislocation, overwork,
    starvation and miscegenation.

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