Jump to content

Arawak

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Arawak (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Sarawak.

Arawak
Arawak woman, by John Gabriel Stedman
Regions with significant populations
South America, Caribbean
Languages
Arawak, Arawakan languages, Taino, Caribbean English, Caribbean Spanish, Creole languages
Religion
Native American religion, Christianity

The Arawak are a group of Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South America to the Taíno, who lived in the Greater Antilles and northern Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. All these groups spoke related Arawakan languages.[1]

Name

[edit]
Arawak village (1860).

Early Spanish explorers and administrators used the terms Arawak and Caribs to distinguish the peoples of the Caribbean, with Carib reserved for indigenous groups that they considered hostile and Arawak for groups that they considered friendly.[2]: 121 

In 1871, ethnologist Daniel Garrison Brinton proposed calling the Caribbean populace "Island Arawak" because of their cultural and linguistic similarities with the mainland Arawak. Subsequent scholars shortened this convention to "Arawak", creating confusion between the island and mainland groups. In the 20th century, scholars such as Irving Rouse resumed using "Taíno" for the Caribbean group to emphasize their distinct culture and language.[1]

History

[edit]
Arawakan languages in South America. The northern Arawakan languages are colored in light blue, southern Arawakan languages in dark blue.

The Arawakan languages may have emerged in the Orinoco River valley in present-day Venezuela. They subsequently spread widely, becoming by far the most extensive language family in South America at the time of European contact, with speakers located in various areas along the Orinoco and Amazonian rivers and their tributaries.[3] The group that self-identified as the Arawak, also known as the Lokono, settled the coastal areas of what is now Guyana, Suriname, Grenada, Bahamas, Jamaica[4] and parts of the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.[1][5]

Michael Heckenberger, an anthropologist at the University of Florida who helped found the Central Amazon Project, and his team found elaborate pottery, ringed villages, raised fields, large mounds, and evidence for regional trade networks that are all indicators of a complex culture. There is also evidence that they modified the soil using various techniques such as adding charcoal to transform it into black earth, which even today is famed for its agricultural productivity. Maize and sweet potatoes were their main crops, though they also grew cassava and yautia. The Arawaks fished using nets made of fibers, bones, hooks, and harpoons. According to Heckenberger, pottery and other cultural traits show these people belonged to the Arawakan language family, a group that included the Tainos, the first Native Americans Columbus encountered. It was the largest language group that ever existed in the pre-Columbian Americas.[6]

At some point, the Arawakan-speaking Taíno culture emerged in the Caribbean. Two major models have been presented to account for the arrival of Taíno ancestors in the islands; the "Circum-Caribbean" model suggests an origin in the Colombian Andes connected to the Arhuaco people, while the Amazonian model supports an origin in the Amazon basin, where the Arawakan languages developed.[7] The Taíno were among the first American people to encounter Europeans. Christopher Columbus visited multiple islands and chiefdoms on his first voyage in 1492, which was followed by the establishment of La Navidad[8] that same year on the northeast coast of Hispaniola, the first Spanish settlement in the Americas. Relationships between the Spaniards and the Taíno would ultimately sour. Some of the lower-level chiefs of the Taíno appeared to have assigned a supernatural origin to the explorers. When Columbus returned to La Navidad on his second voyage, he found the settlement burned down and the 39 men he had left there killed.[9]

With the establishment of a second settlement, La Isabella, and the discovery of gold deposits on the island, the Spanish settler population on Hispaniola started to grow substantially, while disease and conflict with the Spanish began to kill tens of thousands of Taíno every year. By 1504, the Spanish had overthrown the last of the Taíno cacique chiefdoms on Hispaniola, and firmly established the supreme authority of the Spanish colonists over the now-subjugated Taíno. Over the next decade, the Spanish colonists presided over a genocide of the remaining Taíno on Hispaniola, who suffered enslavement, massacres, or exposure to diseases.[8] The population of Hispaniola at the point of first European contact is estimated at between several hundred thousand to over a million people,[8] but by 1514, it had dropped to a mere 35,000.[8] By 1509, the Spanish had successfully conquered Puerto Rico and subjugated the approximately 30,000 Taíno inhabitants. By 1530, there were 1,148 Taíno left alive in Puerto Rico.[10]

Taíno influence has survived even until today, though, as can be seen in the religions, languages, and music of Caribbean cultures.[11] The Lokono and other South American groups resisted colonization for a longer period, and the Spanish remained unable to subdue them throughout the 16th century. In the early 17th century, they allied with the Spanish against the neighbouring Kalina (Caribs), who allied with the English and Dutch.[12] The Lokono benefited from trade with European powers into the early 19th century, but suffered thereafter from economic and social changes in their region, including the end of the plantation economy. Their population declined until the 20th century, when it began to increase again.[13]

Most of the Arawak of the Antilles died out or intermarried after the Spanish conquest. In South America, Arawakan-speaking groups are widespread, from southwest Brazil to the Guianas in the north, representing a wide range of cultures. They are found mostly in the tropical forest areas north of the Amazon. As with all Amazonian native peoples, contact with European settlement has led to culture change and depopulation among these groups.[14]

Modern population and descendants

[edit]
Arawak people gathered for an audience with the Dutch Governor in Paramaribo, Suriname, 1880

Kalinago

[edit]

During the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Island Carib population in St. Vincent was greater than that in Dominica. Both the Island Caribs (Yellow Caribs) and the Black Caribs (Garifuna) fought against the British during the Second Carib War. After the end of the war, the British deported the Garifuna (a population of 4,338) to Roatan Island, while the Island Caribs (whose population consisted of 80 people) were allowed to stay on St. Vincent.[15] The 1812 eruption of La Soufrière destroyed the Carib territory, killing a majority of the Yellow Caribs. After the eruption, 130 Yellow Caribs and 59 Black Caribs survived on St. Vincent. Unable to recover from the damage caused by the eruption, 120 of the Yellow Caribs, under Captain Baptiste, emigrated to Trinidad. In 1830, the Carib population numbered less than 100. The population made a remarkable recovery after that, although almost the entire tribe died out during the 1902 eruption of La Soufrière.[16][17]

As of 2008, a small population of around 3,400 Kalinago survived in the Kalinago Territory in northeast Dominica.[18] The Kalinago of Dominica maintained their independence for many years by taking advantage of the island's rugged terrain. The island's east coast includes a 3,700-acre (15 km2) territory formerly known as the Carib Territory that was granted to the people by the British government in 1903. The Dominican Kalinago elect their own chief. In July 2003, the Kalinago observed 100 Years of Territory, and in July 2014, Charles Williams was elected Kalinago Chief, succeeding Chief Garnette Joseph.[19]

Lokono

[edit]

In the 21st century, about 10,000 Lokono live primarily in Guyana, with smaller numbers present in Venezuela, Suriname, and French Guiana.[20] Despite colonization, the Lokono population is growing.[21]

Taíno

[edit]

The Spaniards who arrived in the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and the Virgin Islands in 1492, and later in Puerto Rico in 1493, first met the Indigenous peoples known as the Taíno, and then the Kalinago and other groups. Some of these groups—most notably the Kalinago—were able to survive despite warfare, disease and slavery brought by the Europeans.[22] Others survived in isolated communities with escaped and free Black people, called Maroons.[23] Many of the explorers and early colonists also raped Indigenous women they came across, resulting in children who were considered mestizo. Some of these mestizo groups retained Indigenous culture and customs over many generations, especially among rural communities such as the jíbaro.[24][25]

The Spanish Crown issued the Laws of Burgos in 1512, which forbade slavery of Native peoples in the Spanish New World and encouraged their conversion to Catholicism. These laws were created in response to the ongoing enslavement of the Taíno populations, and originally applied only to the island of Hispaniola before being expanded to include other islands in the West Indies. While the decrees of Burgos had made slavery of native populations nominally illegal, the encomienda system still trapped many Taínos in forced labor. Additionally, many slave owning Spaniards on these islands were reluctant to release their enslaved Taínos.

In time, the number of recorded Taíno was greatly diminished through forced labor, disease and warfare, but also through changes to how Indio groups were recorded in the Spanish Caribbean. For example, the 1787 census in Puerto Rico lists 2,300 "pure" Indios in the population, but on the next census, in 1802, not a single Indio is listed. This created the enduring belief that the Taíno people went extinct, also known as the "paper genocide".

The Spanish also implemented a caste system as a colonial tool to divide and oppress Indigenous groups called "Sistema de Castas" (or Society of Castes), otherwise known as the "blood quantum". In Indigenous culture, the European social construct of race did not exist. So if a Taíno woman birthed a child with a man from a different tribe, or a non-Indigenous man, if that child was raised within the culture and the teachings of the Taíno people, they were not considered mestizos but a full Taíno.[citation needed]

The "paper genocide" and the myth of extinction spread throughout colonial empires, Taíno people still continued to practice their culture and teachings passing it down from generation to generation. Much of this was done in secret or disguised through Catholicism in fear for their survival and of discrimination.[23][26][27]

With the modern invention of DNA testing, many Caribbean people have discovered they have Indigenous heritage. This has supported the claims of individuals and communities with Taíno heritage living today, particularly in rural areas such as "campos" (meaning small villages/towns in the country side). Though many communities and individuals across the Caribbean have some amount of Taíno DNA, not all of them identify as such. Those who do identify as Indigenous Caribbean may also use other terms to describe themselves as well as or in addition to Taíno. [28][29][30]

There has been increasing scholarly attention paid to Taíno practices and culture, including communities with full or partial Taíno identities. Because of this, Taíno people started to become more open about sharing their identities, passed down indigenous culture, and beliefs. Even before the DNA conformation in the scientific community, Taíno peoples within the Caribbean and its diasporas had started a movement around the late 1980s and early 1990s calling for the protection, revival or restoration of Taíno culture.[26][27][29]

By coming together and sharing individual knowledge passed down by either oral history or maintained practice, these groups were able to use that knowledge and cross-reference the journals of Spaniards to fill in parts of Taíno culture and religion long thought to be lost due to colonization. This movement led to some Yukayekes (Taíno Tribes) being reformed.[26][27][31]

Today there are Yukayekes in Cuba,[32][33] Jamaica,[31] and Puerto Rico,[34] such as "Higuayagua" and "Yukayeke Taíno Borikén".[25][35][36] There have also been attempts to revive the Taíno language, using words that have survived into local Spanish dialects and extrapolation from other Arawakan languages in South America to fill in lost words.[35]

Notable Arawak

[edit]
  • Damon Gerard Corrie, Barbados Lokono of Guyana Lokono descent, radical international indigenous rights activist, and creator of the militant Indigenous Democracy Defence Organization (IDDO), the only such global pan-tribal and multi-racial indigenous NGO in existence.[37] He is also the creator of the only Phonetic English to Arawak dictionary (2021),[38] and the only comprehensive books about Lokono-Arawak Culture called 'Lokono Arawaks' (2020),[39] and on traditional Lokono-Arawak spirituality in 'Amazonia's Mythical and Legendary Creatures in the Eagle Clan Lokono-Arawak Oral Tradition of Guyana',[40] and another work that challenges the 'No natives were here when European settlement occurred colonial version of the history of Barbados in the book 'Last Arawak Girl Born in Barbados – a 17th Century Tale' (2021)[41]
  • John P. Bennett (Lokono), first Amerindian ordained as an Anglican priest in Guyana, linguist, and author of An Arawak-English Dictionary (1989).[42]
  • Foster Simon, Artist,[43]
  • Oswald Hussein, Artist
  • Jean La Rose, Arawak environmentalist and indigenous rights activist in Guyana.
  • Lenox Shuman, Guyanese politician
  • George Simon (Lokono), artist and archaeologist from Guyana.[44]
  • Tituba, one of the first women to be accused of practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials.[45]
  • Dominic King, the first Olympian of Arawakian heritage.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Rouse, Irving (1992). The Tainos. Yale University Press. p. 5. ISBN 0300051816. Retrieved 16 June 2015. Island Carib.
  2. ^ Kim, Julie Chun (2013). "The Caribs of St. Vincent and Indigenous Resistance during the Age of Revolutions". Early American Studies. 11 (1): 117–132. doi:10.1353/eam.2013.0007. JSTOR 23546705. S2CID 144195511.
  3. ^ Hill, Jonathan David; Santos-Granero, Fernando (2002). Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area in Amazonia. University of Illinois Press. pp. 1–4. ISBN 0252073843. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  4. ^ "The History of Jamaica". Government of Jamaica.
  5. ^ Olson, James Stewart (1991). The Indians of Central and South America: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood. p. 29. ISBN 0313263876. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  6. ^ Tennesen, M. (September–October 2010). "Uncovering the Arawacks". Archaeology. 63 (5): 51–52, 54, 56. JSTOR 41780608.
  7. ^ Rouse, Irving (1992). The Tainos. Yale University Press. pp. 30–48. ISBN 0300051816. Retrieved 16 June 2014. Island Carib.
  8. ^ a b c d "Hispaniola | Genocide Studies Program". gsp.yale.edu. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  9. ^ Keegan, William F. (1992). Destruction of the Taino. pp. 51–56.
  10. ^ "Puerto Rico | Genocide Studies Program". gsp.yale.edu. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  11. ^ "Exploring the Early Americas". Library of Congress. 12 December 2007.
  12. ^ Hill, Jonathan David; Santos-Granero, Fernando (2002). Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area in Amazonia. University of Illinois Press. pp. 39–42. ISBN 0252073843. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  13. ^ Olson, James Stewart (1991). The Indians of Central and South America: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood. pp. 30, 211. ISBN 0313263876. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  14. ^ Lagasse, P. "Arawak".
  15. ^ Gargallo, Francesca (2002). Garífuna, Garínagu, Caribe: historia de una nación libertaria (in Spanish). Siglo XXI. ISBN 978-968-23-2365-2.
  16. ^ Stanton, William (2003). The Rapid Growth of Human Populations, 1750-2000: Histories, Consequences, Issues, Nation by Nation. multi-science publishing. ISBN 978-0-906522-21-9.
  17. ^ Taylor, Chris (2012). The Black Carib wars: freedom, survival, and the making of the Garifuna. Caribbean studies series. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-61703-310-0.
  18. ^ "World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Dominica : Caribs". Refworld. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  19. ^ "Kalinago People | a virtual Dominica". Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  20. ^ "Lokono" (PDF). DICE Missouri. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  21. ^ Olson, James Stewart (1991). The Indians of Central and South America: An Ethno-historical Dictionary. Greenwood. p. 211. ISBN 0313263876. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  22. ^ Kim, Julie Chun (2013). "The Caribs of St. Vincent and Indigenous Resistance during the Age of Revolutions". Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 11 (1): 117–132. doi:10.1353/eam.2013.0007. ISSN 1559-0895.
  23. ^ a b Woodaman, Ranald (2017). "Taíno Survival: Back into History". American Indian Magazine. 18 (4).
  24. ^ Vilar, Miguel G.; Melendez, Carlalynne; Sanders, Akiva B.; Walia, Akshay; Gaieski, Jill B.; Owings, Amanda C.; Schurr, Theodore G.; The Genographic Consortium (2014). "Genetic diversity in Puerto Rico and its implications for the peopling of the Island and the West Indies". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 155 (3): 352–368. doi:10.1002/ajpa.22569. ISSN 0002-9483.
  25. ^ a b Curet, Antonio L. (Spring 2015). "Indigenous Revival, Indigeneity, and the Jíbaro in Borikén". Centro Journal. 27: 206–247.
  26. ^ a b c Baracutei Estevez, Jorge (14 October 2019). "On Indigenous Peoples' Day, meet the survivors of a 'paper genocide'". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 17 October 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  27. ^ a b c Magazine, Smithsonian; Poole, Robert M. "Who Were the Taíno, the Original Inhabitants of Columbus' Island Colonies?". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  28. ^ Schroeder, Hannes; Sikora, Martin; Gopalakrishnan, Shyam; Cassidy, Lara M.; Maisano Delser, Pierpaolo; Sandoval Velasco, Marcela; Schraiber, Joshua G.; Rasmussen, Simon; Homburger, Julian R.; Ávila-Arcos, María C.; Allentoft, Morten E.; Moreno-Mayar, J. Víctor; Renaud, Gabriel; Gómez-Carballa, Alberto; Laffoon, Jason E. (6 March 2018). "Origins and genetic legacies of the Caribbean Taino". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (10): 2341–2346. doi:10.1073/pnas.1716839115. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5877975. PMID 29463742.
  29. ^ a b "Genes of 'extinct' Caribbean islanders found in living people". www.science.org. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  30. ^ "Study identifies traces of indigenous 'Taíno' in present-day Caribbean populations". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  31. ^ a b Neeganagwedgin, Erica (December 2015). "Rooted in the Land: Taíno identity, oral history and stories of reclamation in contemporary contexts". AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples. 11 (4): 376–388. doi:10.1177/117718011501100405. ISSN 1177-1801.
  32. ^ "Cuba's Taíno people: A flourishing culture, believed extinct". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  33. ^ "Indigenous Cuba: Hidden in Plain Sight". NMAI Magazine. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  34. ^ "American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2010 (CPH-T-6)". Census.gov. Census bureau. 2010. Archived from the original on 4 October 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  35. ^ a b Feliciano-Santos, Sherina (1 September 2017). "Prophetic repairs: Narrative and social action among Puerto Rican Taíno". Language & Communication. 56: 19–32. doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2017.03.001. ISSN 0271-5309.
  36. ^ Smith, Johnnel; Spencer, Andrew J. (1 January 2020). ""No one will be left behind?" Taíno indigenous communities in the Caribbean and the road to SDGs 2030". Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes. 12 (3): 305–320. doi:10.1108/WHATT-02-2020-0011. ISSN 1755-4217.
  37. ^ "The Law on the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine does not fully comply with international standards – Damon Gerard Corrie | CTRC". Ctrcenter.org. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  38. ^ Corrie, D. (2021). A Phonetic English to Arawak Dictionary. Damon Corrie. ISBN 979-8-201-10203-6.
  39. ^ Corrie, Damon (2 September 2020). Lokono-Arawaks: Corrie, Damon: 9781393432555: Amazon.com: Books. ISBN 978-1393432555.
  40. ^ Corrie, Damon (14 October 2019). Amazonia's Mythical and Legendary Creatures in the Eagle Clan Lokono-Arawak Oral Tradition of Guyana: 9781393821069: Corrie, Damon: Books. ISBN 978-1393821069.
  41. ^ Corrie, Damon (28 September 2021). The Last Arawak girl born in Barbados – A 17th Century Tale: Corrie, Damon: 9781393841937: Amazon.com: Books. ISBN 978-1393841937.
  42. ^ "As Indigenous Heritage Month continues ... Indigenous artists pay homage to Lokono Priest John Bennett". Guyana Chronicle. 13 September 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  43. ^ Neola Damon (8 September 2019). "Indigenous art exhibition honors George Simon – Department of Public Information, Guyana". Dpi.gov.gy. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  44. ^ "The Arawaks left their physical signatures here – George Simon". Guyana Chronicle. 7 September 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  45. ^ "Tituba's Race—Black, Indian, Mixed? How Would We Know?". ThoughtCo. 1 January 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2021.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Jesse, C., (2000). The Amerindians in St. Lucia (Iouanalao). St. Lucia: Archaeological and Historical Society.
  • Haviser, J. B. (1997). "Settlement Strategies in the Early Ceramic Age". In Wilson, S. M. (ed.). The Indigenous People of the Caribbean. Gainesville, Florida: University Press.
  • Hofman, C. L., (1993). The Native Population of Pre-columbian Saba. Part One. Pottery Styles and their Interpretations. [PhD dissertation], Leiden: University of Leiden (Faculty of Archaeology).
  • Haviser, J. B., (1987). Amerindian cultural Geography on Curaçao. [Unpublished PhD dissertation], Leiden: Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University.
  • Handler, Jerome S. (January 1977). "Amerindians and Their Contributions to Barbadian Life in the Seventeenth Century". The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society. 33 (3). Barbados: Museum and Historical Society: 189–210.
  • Joseph, P. Musée, C. Celma (ed.), (1968). "LГhomme Amérindien dans son environnement (quelques enseignements généraux)", In Les Civilisations Amérindiennes des Petites Antilles, Fort-de-France: Départemental d’Archéologie Précolombienne et de Préhistoire.
  • Bullen, Ripley P., (1966). "Barbados and the Archeology of the Caribbean", The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, 32.
  • Haag, William G., (1964). A Comparison of Arawak Sites in the Lesser Antilles. Fort-de-France: Proceedings of the First International Congress on Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Lesser Antilles, pp. 111–136
  • Deutsche, Presse-Agentur. "Archeologist studies signs of ancient civilization in Amazon basin", Science and Nature, M&C, 08/02/2010. Web. 29 May 2011.
  • Hill, Jonathan David; Santos-Granero, Fernando (2002). Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area in Amazonia. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252073843. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  • Olson, James Stewart (1991). The Indians of Central and South America: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood. ISBN 0313263876. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  • Rouse, Irving (1992). The Tainos. Yale University Press. p. 40. ISBN 0300051816. Retrieved 16 June 2014. Island Carib.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arawak.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arawak&oldid=1256194910"