Contributions of Amerindians to Caribbean Society

Objective 1:  Migratory movements and the establishment of patterns of settlement by different groups within the Caribbean from pre-Columbian times to 1838.

Migrations

The history of the Caribean is the history of migration. Many groups of people came into the region for centuries for various purposes. The movement of people from place to place also means the movements of society and culture, as well as their meeting and mixing with other societies and cultures. Therefore this migration has impacted on social life, even to this day. It should be noted that some of the migrants were voluntary and some was forced.

Introduction

Migration in the Caribbean was ongoing before and after the rediscovery of the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus (pre-Columbian and post-Columbian), therefore some argue there was no indigenous population in the region.

The first group of migrants and settlers were the Amerindians. This group of people is often treated as the natives by historians as they were the first group the Europeans encountered.

By 1542 however they were almost totally wiped out and other migrant groups have etched their character on the social landscape of the Caribbean (Europeans, Africans, Indians).

Earliest Caribbean migrants (Amerindians)

(5000BC to 1492)

From as early as 10,000 years Before Present (BP), early civilizations from North America and Central America were entering the region from the north. These primitive people (Archaic/pre-ceremic) inhabited the Islands of the Greater Antilles as well as the Lesser Antilles. These people were in the Caribbean for at least 5000 years before other groups such as the Amerindians and long before Columbus. Some suggest the ancestors of these people migrated from Central East Asia 35,000yrs ago. The ancestors of these people crossed the Berring Strait and entered North-America where they settled for a while.  This movement from North America (Florida) into the Caribbean as evident by the oldest fossilized humans found in Cuba.

At about 2400 years (BP) groups from the South American continent (Arawaks from the Orinoco) began to migrate northwards and inhabit the Lesser Antilles in no particular order as some islands were left out.

As the TWO groups met, the Archaic people experienced acculturation (process in which members of one cultural group adopt the beliefs and behaviors of another group) into the Saladoid, Barrancoid and Ostionoid cultures. These groups existed in Western Cuba and remote parts of Hispaniola (Ciboneys) in 1492. This proves that hybridization has been ongoing in the Caribbean for thousands of years.

The last group to enter the Caribbean from South America, just before the Spaniards arrived are the Island Caribs. They were found in Eastern Puerto Rico, parts of Hispaniola and Cuba.

Today the most significant numbers of indigenous peoples are to be found in Guyana (Arawak, Caribs, WaiWai, Warau), Belize (Garifuna), Dominica (Caribs) and Surinam! This is so because Guyana, Belize, Suriname were too large for colonial masters to establish full control over the entire territory. This meant that Amerindians could retreat into the interior and live. On the other hand Dominica was not greatly populated by Europeans (too mountainous to cultivate; lacked mineral wealth) so Amerindians could therefore survive in such an environment.