The wide Caribbean Sea bathes with its waters the lands inhabited by the ethnic groups belonging to the Caribbean Culture, which gave it its name. This brave race of warriors sowed terror among the conquerors due to its reputation for ferocity and its indomitable character that never gave up.
The Caribbean culture corresponds to a group of people that inhabited by the sixteenth century. At the time of the arrival of Europeans, they were part of northern Colombia, northwestern Venezuela and some lesser Antilles. Today their descendants, the Cariñas, are found in Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana and to a lesser extent in Honduras. In the Lesser Antilles they disappeared due to the European invasion, on the island of San Vicente they mixed with the Africans, giving rise to the Garífuna.
The origin of the Caribbean culture has not been precisely determined by archaeologists and anthropologists, as stated by an expert from roguesinparadise.com, and it’s important to point out that some people place the initial nucleus in the jungles of the Guianas (be they in Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname) or to the south and north, in the central region of the Amazon River in Brazil.
In 1985, the Venezuelan anthropologist Kay Tarble listed several theories about the origin of the Caribbean culture: In 1970, the United States archaeologist Lahtrap proposed that the dispersion center began from Guayana along the north bank of the Amazon River and as a destination the Colombian Amazon, the coast of Guyana and the Antilles.
Dr. Tarble continues with the American botanist Karl H. Schwerin (1972) who postulates the eastern mountain range of Colombia as a probable origin and the Orinoco River, the Guayana and the Amazon as destinations and in another stage from the Middle Orinoco to the Lower Orinoco and the Antilles; the North American archaeologist Betty Jane Meggers (1975) proposes the South of the Amazon heading towards the north of the basin of this great river and the North of the Amazon towards the savannah area.
Finally, the anthropologist Marshall Durbin (1977) suggests the place of origin of the Venezuelan Guayana, Surinam or French Guiana en route to the south east of Colombia, the northeast of Colombia and the south of the Amazon, respectively. For her part, the anthropologist Kay Tarble proposes a new model of expansion of the Caribbean culture, in which she places the Proto-Caribbean in the areas of the Guianas from the year 3000 BC according to the archaeological evidence and available linguistic information.
The linguistic family of the Caribbean culture is one of the most widespread in America and was made up of a large number of tribes that spread over a large territory of the American continent. This breadth generated that the Carib languages spoken in various areas had marked differences due to adaptations to the territory and contact with other ethnic groups.
The expansion of the Caribbean culture over a large territory has its justification in several anthropological aspects, among others its great skill in both maritime and river navigation as well as the custom of the men of this culture to look for women belonging to other groups (exogamy). It also influenced its expansion in being a town very well prepared for war.
According to anthropological studies and historical features, the Caribbean culture spread in the continental territory to the north of the Amazon with the Carijona and Panar tribes; to the foothills of the Andes, where the tribes of Yukpas, Mocoas, Chaparros, Caratos, Parisis, Kiris and others stood out; from the Brazilian plateau to the sources of the Xingú river: yuma, palmella, bacairi, in the Negro rivern Yauperis and Crichanas. In French Guiana Galibis, accavois and calinas. Features of the Caribbean culture were found in the department of Loreto in Peru.
The expansion of the Caribbean culture occurred mainly in the year 1200 AD, leading them to occupy large numbers of the Lesser and Greater Antilles such as Cuba and Hispaniola, as well as totally occupying Granada, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, displacing the Taínos and also invading Puerto Rico as well as the north of present-day Colombia and Venezuela.
The Caribs are organized into family clans called cacicazgos, dominated by a cacique who inherits his authority from a son or nephew. In some Carib communities, the cacique was chosen from among the religious authorities.
The cacique was the one who decided and dominated all the social, religious and political life of the community. Although they formed a patriarchal society in some communities, it was giving way to matriarchy, especially in the communities of the islands, an example of this change can be seen in the great cacica Gaitana in Colombia.
The social organization in the Caribbean culture was dominated by the caciques, the military leaders and the shamans who were the religious priests. At the bottom of society were farmers, artisans, merchants, and prisoners of war. The family played a preponderant role, being the cacique’s family the most important. Marriages were made with members of other clans and polygamy was practiced.
In the Caribbean culture, women were socially at a lower level than men. Their main responsibilities included the care and upbringing of children, domestic work, the production and processing of food, the preparation of clothing and planting and the harvest. Men dedicated themselves to war and the education of children in their rites and customs. Women and children lived in separate huts from the men.
According to the testimony of European historians, the Caribs were dedicated to hunting, fishing, gathering and trading with other clans. Agriculture was not among their most important activities, yet they cultivated cassava, beans, sweet potatoes, cocoa, and some tropical fruits. One of the activities to obtain food for the Caribs was fishing.
Trade was also very important in the economy of the Caribbean culture and was very important given its continuous movement from one place to another. Evidence has been found that shows that the Caribs traded with the Eastern Tainos who inhabited different Caribbean islands. As proof of this, it has been shown that the Caribs took the silver that the Spanish conqueror Ponce de León found in what is today the territory of Puerto Rico.
The members of the Caribbean culture who inhabited areas where the cold climate prevailed are said to have made cotton fabrics that they decorated with vegetable dyes, which were presumably used to be exchanged with other communities.
The Caribs were polytheists. The religion practiced by the Caribbean had elements related to the cult of their ancestors. The Caribs of the islands believed in an evil god called Maybouya whom they had to please in order to appease and thus avoid the damage he could cause. One of the main functions of the shamans was to keep Mabouya calm, in addition to healing the sick with herbs and spells. The shamans had great prestige for being the only ones who could avoid evil.
The rites led by the shamans, included sacrifices. Like the Arawaks and other Native Americans, the Carib smoked tobacco in the rituals of their religion. The English documented cannibalistic practices among the Caribs of the islands. In fact, the word cannibal is derived from the word Caribbean. Although the Caribs only practiced it in their religious rituals related to warfare in which they supposedly consumed body parts of enemies, some Europeans believed that the Caribs practiced cannibalism on a daily basis.
In the Caribbean culture it was a common practice to keep the bones of the ancestors in the houses, which was described by foreign priests as a demonstration of the Carib belief that the ancestors were the caretakers and guardians of their descendants. In 1502 Queen Elizabeth included cannibals among the people who could be enslaved, this provided the Spanish with a legal incentive and a pretext to identify various Amerindian groups as cannibals in order to enslave them and take away their lands.
According to the author Basil A. Reid, in his work “Myths and Realities of the History of the Caribs” there is sufficient archaeological evidence and direct observations made by different Europeans that reliably determine that the Caribs never consumed human flesh.
