History

• Amerindians


  Indigenous peoples of the Americas
• Migration and Settlement patterns

  1. Ancestors of pre-Columbian Amerindians came from Northeastern Asia (Siberia or Mongolia) across the Bering Strait to Alaska

  2. Nomads wandered southward through North, Central and South America

  3. Evolved distinct physical and cultural characteristics
• Arawaks and Caribs


  Indigenous groups that migrated northward through the Lesser Antilles to the Greater Antilles from about 300 BC
• Main Arawak groups in the West Indies by 1492

  • Lucayans in the Bahamas
  • Tainos in Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and Puerto Rico
  • Ignerian Arawaks of Barbados and Trinidad
• Amerindian civilizations on the mainland

  • Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico
  • Maya in the highlands of Guatemala, Honduras and Belize
  • Inca in the Andes Mountains of Peru
• Taino and Kalinago


  Some of the earliest settlers in the Caribbean, coming from South America
• Groups that came to the Caribbean after the Amerindians

  • Spanish
  • English
  • French
  • Dutch
  • Indentured Europeans
  • Enslaved Africans
  • Indentured Africans, Portuguese, Chinese and East Indians
• Early indigenous groups


  • Mixed farming, fishing, hunting and gathering
  • Believed in animism and spirits
• Taino


  Evolved from another indigenous group, had a well developed farming system based on cassava (manioc) cultivation, leadership was hereditary, advanced culture and society
• Kalinago


  Migrated from the Amazonian basin, cassava was important in their diet, leadership was based on war prowess, not cannibals but consumed blood of slain warriors
• Resources provided by the South American and Caribbean tropical rainforests

  • Food
  • Clothing
  • Shelter
  • Construction materials
  • Industrial materials
  • Medicinal materials
• Indigenous crops cultivated


  • Cassava
  • Maize
  • Potatoes
  • Guava
  • Pawpaw
  • Soursop
  • Sapodilla
• Indigenous tools and weapons made from

  • Bones
  • Wood
  • Stones
  • Shells
• Maya


  Oldest of the three great empires in Central and South America, flourished during the Classical Period between 250 and 900 CE
• Mayan city states


  • Political, religious and trading centres
  • Comprised temples, palaces, plazas, religious pyramids and ball courts
  • Connected by roads, runners carried news
• Mayan social classes


  • Ahaw and halach uinic (leaders)
  • Ah kinob (priests)
  • Batabs (nobles)
  • Polms (political officials and military)
  • Labourers and skilled artisans
  • War captives (slaves and servants)
• Mayan society


  • Patriarchal, man was dominant in the family
  • Babies had foreheads flattened for beauty and intelligence
  • Men wore loincloth and larger cotton shirts, women wore jewellery and elaborate headdress
• Mayan religious beliefs


  • Believed in many good and evil gods that controlled daily life
  • Ruler was semi-divine and intermediary between men and gods
  • Only those sacrificed went to heaven
• Mayan religious activities


  • Science
  • Astrology
  • Mathematics
  • Divination
  • Calendars
  • Dancing
  • Ball games
• Mayan political organisation


  • City-states run by nobles, several dynasties rose and fell
  • Halach uinic governed the city-state for the ahaw, helped by a council of chiefs and priests
  • Batabobs were lesser chiefs responsible for day-to-day running of villages
  • Nacoms were war chiefs elected for proving themselves in war
• Mayan agriculture


  Drained swamps, built irrigation canals and terraces, cleared forests, used crop rotation, stored food and grain in chultuns
• Mayan traded items


  • Fish
  • Squash
  • Potatoes
  • Corn
  • Honey
  • Beans
  • Fruits
  • Limestone
  • Marble
  • Jade
  • Wood
  • Copper
  • Gold
• Mayan technology and architecture

  • Developed hieroglyphic writing, codexes, mathematics and calendrics
  • Built pyramids, corbel-vaulted temples, ball courts, roads, reservoirs
  • Produced beautifully designed glazed pottery
• Reasons for Mayan decline


  Drought, environmental disaster, deforestation
• Taino


  Settled in the Greater Antilles between 250 CE and 1500 CE, largest populations in the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico
• Taino society


  • Divided into provinces ruled by caciques, villages ruled by headmen, had plazas and ball courts
  • Both patrilineal and matrilineal descent, men did agriculture, hunting and fishing, women did planting, weeding, harvesting, food preparation and pottery making
  • Monogamy practiced, chief was polygamous
• Role of Taino cacique


  Organised farming, hunting and food storage, absolute leader, negotiated with other villages
• Taino art forms


  • Homes
  • Canoes
  • Pottery
  • Weaving
  • Body painting
  • Ornaments
  • Ceramic items
  • Decorative belts and scepters
  • Duhos (ceremonial chairs)
• Taino technology


  Good potters and weavers, created stone tools, sophisticated cotton cloth, hammocks, stone works, canoes, gold ornaments
• Taino music, dance and storytelling

  • Shell or wooden musical instruments including drums, gongs, reed pipes
  • Celebrations with food, music, singing and dancing
  • Oral stories of religious nature
• Taino agriculture


  Subsistence farmers, grew cassava, maize, sweet potatoes, yam, cotton, tobacco, pineapple, tania, peanuts, peppers, used crop rotation
• Kalinago


  Last group to enter the Caribbean around the 13th century from the Orinoco region, settled the Lesser Antilles
• Kalinago society


  • Villages built around a central plaza with a fire, land owned communally, houses small and oval
  • Ubutu was the chief chosen for war prowess, assisted by lieutenants
  • Women and men lived separately, women did agriculture and pottery, men were polygamous
• Kalinago art forms

  • Pottery
  • Hammocks
  • Stools (matoutou)
• The Kalinago preserved meat by drying
• Tiubutuil


  Initiation rite that tested warriors' power to endure pain
• Kalinago society


  • Women and men lived separately but men were polygamous
  • Women obtained from raids on Taino villages, so similarity in language and culture
  • Women worked in the field, wove cotton, cooked food, made pottery
  • Patriarchal society
• Kalinago clothing and body decoration

  • Loin cloths
  • Plant dyes to colour clothing
  • Painting and tattooing bodies with dye
• Kalinago ceremonies


  1. Birth of a child

  2. Boys initiated in art of war at puberty

  3. Itehwenne religious festival in the carbet
• Kalinago pottery


  • Used many different layers of clay, added rims for strength
  • Painted in different colours