The history of the Caribbean is rich with adventerous tales, blended

cultures, and natural diversity. The impact of colonialism and slavery

can still be seen in many of the island cultures today; so much so, in
fact, that travelers often note a sense of living with the near-tangible
history that permeates the region.

Caribbean Indians
Caribs (kăr'ĭbz) , native people formerly inhabiting the Lesser Antilles, West
Indies. They seem to have overrun the Lesser Antilles and to have driven out the
Arawak about a century before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The original
name by which the Caribs were known, Galibi, was corrupted by the Spanish to
Caníbal and is the origin of the English word cannibal. Extremely warlike and
ferocious, they practiced cannibalism and took pride in scarification (ritual cutting
of the skin) and fasting. The Carib language was spoken only by the men, while
the women spoke Arawak. This was so because Arawak women, captured in
raids, were taken as wives by the Carib men. Fishing, agriculture, and
basketmaking were the chief domestic activities. The Caribs were expert
navigators, crisscrossing a large portion of the Caribbean in their canoes. After
European colonization began in the 17th cent., they were all but exterminated. A
group remaining on St. Vincent mingled with black slaves who escaped from a
shipwreck in 1675. This group was transferred (1795) by the British to Roatán
island off the coast of Honduras. They have gradually migrated north along the
coast into Guatemala. A few Caribs survive on a reservation on the island of
Dominica. The Carib, or Cariban, languages are a separate family. Carib-
speaking tribes are found in N Honduras, Belize, central Brazil, and N South
America.

History
Carib people are believed to have left the Orinoco rainforests of Venezuela in
South America to settle in the Caribbean. Over the century leading up to
Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean archipelago in 1492, the Caribs
are believed to have displaced the Maipurean-speaking Igneri people from the
southern Lesser Antilles. Their legends (as recorded by Fr. Breton in the
seventeenth century) say that they killed (and ate) all the Igneri men and took
their women as wives. Anthropologists are divided as to how true these legends
are, but the fact that the Island Carib women spoke an Maipurean language
gives credence to this idea. They spoke Kalhíphona, a Maipurean language
(Arawakan), although the men either spoke a Carib language or a pidgin. In the
southern Caribbean they co-existed with a related Cariban-speaking group, the
Galibi who lived in separate villages in Grenada and Tobago and are believed to
have been mainland Caribs. Several words of Carib origin became part of the
english language, including hurricane, hammock and iguana.
Women
• played a subordinate role in their society
• handled all the domestic chores, pottery
• made ceramics, & raised the children

Men
• warriors
• making weapons for war, hunting, fishing, & trapping
• usually did the basket-weaving
• typical village contained:
• 30-100 members of several generations
• Carbet(Men's Houses) the central building -100-120 hammocks inside less
important buildings surrounded the Carbet, wives & families lived here

The islands also raided and traded with the Eastern Taino of the Virgin Islands
and Puerto Rico. The Caribs were the source of the gold which Columbus found
in the possession of the Taino; gold was not smelted by any of the insular
Amerindians, but rather was obtained by trade from the mainland. The Caribs
were skilled boatbuilders and sailors, and seem to have owed their dominance in
the Caribbean basin to their mastery of the arts of war.

The Caribs were themselves displaced by the Europeans, and were eventually
all but exterminated during the colonial period. However they were able to retain
some islands, such as Dominica, Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad. The
Black Caribs (Garifuna) of St. Vincent who had mixed with marooned black
slaves from a 1675 shipwreck were deported in 1795 to Roatan Island, off
Honduras, where their descendants, the Garífuna, still live today. The British saw
the less mixed "Yellow Caribs" as less hostile, and allowed them to remain in St.
Vincent. Carib resistance delayed the settlement of Dominica by Europeans, and
the Carib communities that remained in St. Vincent and Dominica retained a
degree of autonomy well into the 19th century. The last known speakers of Island
Carib died in the 1920s. The number of Caribs in Dominica today is about 3,000;
there are several hundred ethnic Caribs in Trinidad.

Cannibalism and patriarchy

controversies
In 1200, the Arawaks were conquered by the Caribs. The Caribs were a taller
and stronger Amerindian tribe than the Arawaks. They were also cannibals. They
were a warlike and savage people who are reported to have barbecued their
captives and washed them down with cassava beer. In the History of Barbados,
for example, it is reported that Caribs ate an entire French crew in 1596. They
were incredibly accurate bowmen and used a powerful poison to paralyze their
prey.

Europeans arriving on the Caribbean Islands in the 16th century remarked on the
Caribs' aggressive and warlike ways and apparent taste for combat. Carib
culture, looked at from the outside, seems to be heavily patriarchal. Women
carried out primarily domestic duties and farming, and in the seventeenth century
they lived in separate houses (a custom which also suggests South American
origin). However, women were highly revered and held much power. Island Carib
society was socially more egalitarian than Taino society. Although there were
village chiefs and war leaders, there were no large states or multi-tiered
aristocracy.

Instances of cannibalism were noted as a feature of religious war rituals, and in

fact, the English word cannibal comes from the Spanish caníbal, itself taken from
the Carib karibna ('person') as recorded by Columbus.

Claims of cannibalism, however, must be seen in light of the fact that in 1503,
Queen Isabella ruled that only cannibals could be legally taken as slaves, which
gave Europeans an incentive to identify various Amerindian groups as cannibals.
To this day the Kalinago people fight against what they regard as a
misconception about their ancestors.

Christopher Columbus
When European explorers first traveled to the New World, there were primarily
two races of American Indians living in the Caribbean: the Arawaks, who
originally settled in the Windwards and Leewards and eventually inhabited the
Greater Antilles and the Bahamas; and the Caribs who came from Venezuela in
South America and lived throughout the Lesser Antilles. History tells us that
before both of those groups, the Ciboneys came to the Caribbean islands
nearly four or five thousand years ago.

Christopher Columbus' voyages, although sometimes controversial, certainly set

the mark for New World exploration. There was an increased desire to explore
the west and forge new routes that would reopen the spice trade. This was the
motivation for Columbus’ historic voyages to the west and he called the islands
he stumbled upon the Indies because he thought he’d found the western
passage to Asia and maintained such until his death in 1506.

Following Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of the New World in 1492, Spanish

colonizers infiltrate the Greater Antilles, appropriating land and enslaving the
Island Carib population. The Carib Indians defended their island against the
colonialist masters, Spanish, French and English excellently. The Spanish were
the first to try and failed miserably. The French were the next to try by using
missionaries. The British were more brutal and systematically destroyed the
Caribs. The British introduced European diseases, such as smallpox and syphilis
and tuberculosis, a threat to which the Carib had no resistance and the local
indigenous population is nearly disseminated . Today there are a few thousand
Caribs that live in the Nort East part of the island. By the early 1500s, African
slaves, therefore, are brought over to these colonies to replenish a depleted labor
supply. Runaway African slaves and survivors of two Spanish shipwrecks in 1635
are taken in by the Island Carib. The intermixing of these races produces the
Black Carib peoples.

Garífuna History at a Glance

The Garifuna are the result of the intermingling of African slaves, Carib Indians
and some Europeans. The Garifuna, also known as the Garinagu, are direct
descendants of the “Island Caribs” and a group of African slaves who escaped
two ship-wrecked Spanish slave ships near St. Vincent in 1635. Fishing and
agriculture is a traditional way of living for the Garifuna . Today the Garifuna
populations can be found in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and many have
migrated to the United States approximately, 300,000 Garífuna live around the
world. The Garifuna, also known as the Garinagu, are direct descendants of the
“Island Caribs” and a group of African slaves who escaped two ship-wrecked
Spanish slave ships near St. Vincent in 1635.

Carib Food
The Carib Indians added more spice to their food with hot pepper sauces, and
also added lemon and lime juice to their meat and fish recipes. The Caribs are
said to have made the first pepper pot stew. No recipes exist since every time the
Indians made the dish, they would always add new ingredients. Their daily diet
consisted of vegetables and fruits such as papaw, yams, guavas, and cassava.
THE PINEAPPLE is originally unique to the Western Hemisphere, the fruit was a
culinary favorite of the fierce Carib Indians. The Carib had a big impact on early
Caribbean history, and the Caribbean sea was named after this tribe.

The Carib Queens of Arima, Trinidad

THE CARIB QUEENS OF ARIMA,

STARTING FROM THE PRESENT:
1. Valentina 'Mavis' Medina
2. Justa Werges
3. Edith Martinez
4. Maria Werges
5. Ma Gopaul
6. Dolores Medrano
7. Francis Sorzano

WHO ARE THE QUEENS OF THE

CARIBS
Previously, as in the period dominated by Maria Werges and Edith Martinez
(1930s-1970s), the Queen was the sole authority figure, with authority limited to
preparations for the Festival period. She was responsible for all cleaning and
decorations of the Church for the Festival, as well as cooking and providing food
for those who worked for the Festival, and in leading prayers and the procession
on the Festival Day. The Queen also received and controlled whatever funds or
donations were forthcoming for the preparations for the Festival.

In the contemporary Carib Community, I was told by key spokespersons that the
Queen was elected for her knowledge of Carib traditions, her ability to pass on
that knowledge and offer training in weaving skills amongst other things, and for
her ability to deal with the public, receive visitors, and maintain a high standard of
protocol on public occasions.
photo in the Santa Rosa Carib Community Cent re Valentina ‘Mavis’ Medina
of Queen Edith Martinez, circa early 1980s, teach-
ing children to weave using the terite reed to form
the cassava strainer (the sebucán, also known as
the matapí) as seen at the bottom of the picture