Indigenous culture

Indigenous people of the Caribbean are rediscovering their history, to revive their culture. This is taking place among the Kalinago of Dominica, the Bethechilokono of St Lucia, the Kalina of Arima in Trinidad, indigenous groups in Guyana, the Taíno of Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic and the Garifuni of Honduras, Belize and Guatemala. By sharing their culture and language with each other they are putting together a more intact cultural identity.

The Taíno people are one of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Trinidad, Jamaica, Haiti , Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Cuba’s largest indigenous group was the Ciboney inhabiting the central part of the island, while other Taínos dominated the eastern part. In the Greater Antilles, the northern Lesser Antilles, and The Bahamas, they were known as the Lucayans. They spoke the Taíno language (an Arawakan language). The ancestors of the Taíno entered the Caribbean from South America and their culture is closely linked to that of Mesoamericans. The study of today’s existing mainland societies by ethnographers has helped in the understanding of the pre Columbian cultures of the Taíno (Arawak) and Island Caribs. Many traditions and cultural practices were held in common. These included religious customs and beliefs, agricultural practices, patterns of social organisation and ceremonies. They also included the construction of thatched buildings, cultivation of manioc as a staple food, crafts such as hammock weaving, basketry, use of ritual objects such as stools, use of dugout canoes, use of tobacco and other hallucinogenic substances.

Their way of life reflected the environment of their small, heavily forested islands.There were large, permanent villages, and a complex system of government by hierarchies of chiefs. They traded with and adopted cultural practices from Central American civilisations . They were expert navigators and seafarers, trading and raiding throughout the Caribbean in dugout canoes. They valued bravery in warfare and were in continual conflict with their neighbours in the Greater Antilles and Guiana mainland.

Women had power due to their important role in food production. Island Carib women were even powerful enough to plan raids and older women had a central ritual role in encouraging men to go to war. Taíno women had control over the production and distribution of high status objects such as stools, headdress and clothes used by chiefs. The roles of men and women were segregated but seen as complementary and expressing the balance in nature. They co-operated in preparing tools for agriculture and food preparation.

The indigenous women would bring their children up with the songs, stories, foods, words and belief systems from their own culture, preserving the elements of indigenous culture despite of mixing with invaders.

Columbus The voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492 was the first chronicled journey to the Caribbean by a European. It was the beginning of the tragic process of destruction of the indigenous people and their culture that was to continue for nearly five hundred years. Contact with Europeans resulted in catastrophe for the peoples of South America and the Caribbean. Measles, influenza, small pox and later malaria and yellow fever introduced from Africa swept across the Antilles and deep into the tropical lowlands. Indigenous people had no immunity to these diseases. In some areas around 80 - 90% of the population died. Whole towns and villages were wiped out. The dead were left unburied whilst survivors fled. Social and political networks collapsed. The Effect Of Colonisation And Slavery After the epidemics the populations of the Greater and Lesser Antilles were faced with aggressive European colonisation. The Taíno were forced to work on colonial plantations or in the gold mines. They were required to pay tax to the Spanish crown in the form of food or gold. The disruption to the Taíno economy resulted in starvation and many died from the brutality of the Spanish.

The Myth Of Carib Cannibalism. On his first voyage Columbus was told of a fierce people living elsewhere in the Caribbean who were called "Caribs". The Spanish began using the term for any group who didn't co-operate with them. In the following centuries the term "Carib" was applied to people who resisted European control. Their alleged cannibalism was used to justify their enslavement and extermination. The Island Caribs, as with other groups throughout South and Central America, practised rituals that preserved or consumed the remains of ancestors and enemies. This was believed to transfer possession of the qualities of the dead person. There is no proof that the Island Caribs treated human flesh as a source of food. The Indigenous People resisted Spanish colonisation by either fighting back or fleeing to less accessible areas. European attempts to settle the Lesser Antilles were met with hostile resistance by the Island Caribs. The Island Caribs also organised themselves with other Carib groups from the Guianas to mount raids on European settlements. Because of their continued resistance the Europeans saw the Island Caribs as the main obstacle to the successful colonisation of the Caribbean.

How The Culture Survived.

Interaction of Africans and Europeans with indigenous people took place over hundreds of years. Secret contact took place at the start of colonisation between slaves and indigenous people. Escaped slaves were given refuge in sacred places such as caves. Fugitive Africans and indigenous people developed their own communities in the countryside. To survive they relied on their indigenous heritage, which represented many generations of knowledge about the Caribbean environment.

The indigenous people of the Caribbean in the pre-Columbian period believed that the spirits they worshipped were represented on and embodied in their craft products. They believed that the skills and design elements used were passed down from ancient spirit beings. Strict rules were followed when learning craft skills. Even today the measure of the beauty of an object is the care and attention to detail demonstrated by the maker and complexity is highly valued. Good craftsmen and women are recognised and respected in the community by their ability to produce consistently superior work. Traditional crafts practised by indigenous people in the Caribbean today are directly descended from arts that originated on the South American mainland. Through the sharing of craft skills older people pass on beliefs and identity to the next generation. Traditional crafts such as basketry, calabash work and woodcarving are an important source of income. The craft traditions that survived European colonisation did so because of their usefulness to the colonial economy. Specialist crafts such as basketry were required to provide articles necessary for the processes of the plantation system. Traditional canoes continue to be made for fishing, trading and smuggling throughout the colonial period.

Indigenous spiritual beliefs and ancestral values still exist in Caribbean culture. Many farmers use indigenous spiritual practices of agriculture such as avoiding certain days and using the lunar cycle to plant. Island Caribs’ gardens were placed at a distance from the home and were protected private spaces. In Dominica the practice of locating the garden in the hills behind the house still exists today. The way Caribbean gardens are mixed, with tree crops, root crops, spices and peppers all together, shows a link with indigenous practices. People in rural Cuba, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic still live in traditional houses called bohios, a Taíno name. Many Creole stories have indigenous origins, including supernatural beings such as the Ciguapa or Lajables, a beautiful woman beast with long hair and inverted or cow’s feet.

In fishing communities they are using traditional handmade fishing-nets or traps for catching fish, producing traditional saltfish, which is a national dish of St. Lucia as well as Jamaica. Old cooking tradition, using charcoals and claypots, is in use until today and people say, the food tastes different, better like that. Rastafarians are eating from calabash plates, made from St. Lucian national tree. You could find food selling, wrapped in the banana leaf, which was also used as a plate in slavery times. People here are living naturewisely. They know, how to process their own oil, coconut milk, coco stics, and many more. Traditional healing and herbal medicines, use of plant power is very common here.