Caribs Of The Greater Antilles example essay topic

Occupying various regions of south and Central America were a tribe of Native Americans known as the Caribs. The Caribs, whom the Caribbean sea was named after, "were probably originated in the valley of Orinoco River". (Bandelier, AD) The Caribs often practiced cannibalisms and were known for their ferocity. The eating of human flesh by human beings is known as the practice of cannibalisms.

Cannibal's is the Spanish name for the reputedly man eaten Caribs Native Americas who lived in the West Indies when Christopher Columbus arrived. The word Cannibalisms is devised from cannibal's. "Until recent times cannibalism was belied to prevail in central and western Africa, Austria, New Zeeland, Melanesia, Sumatra, New Guinea, Polynesia, and remote parts of South America". (Bandelier, AD) The second group of Indians met by Columbus and the Antilles were the Caribs. Columbus described the Caribs as cannibals, warriors and Savages. At the time of Columbus The Caribs held the whole of the lesser Antilles.

The Caribs would have probably exterminated the Arawaks and spread over the Greater Antilles if Columbus landings did not interfere. The Germans described the Caribs as being the nastiest, cruelest, lustful, lying people in the world. Caribs were not organized into a hierarchical structure under a chief, But in a savage way as individual warriors. ' ' (Hulme, Peter) Carib religions creed is the animism and fetichism characteristics of all Indians, with craft forming the leading part of their rights and ceremonials!" (Bandelier, AD) The Savages will always raid other tribes and torture the men, and the female captives became slave wives. European Carib encounters were often not friendly because of mutual economic advantages and mutual antipathy with the Spaniards. Caribs had to deal with an increasingly aggressive Spanish threat to their home islands.

Spanish records indicate constant Carib attacks on the tirade islands. "Frances long relationship with the Caribs smoothened the path for later colonial encounters with Island Caribs". (Boucher, Philip) Caribs had strategic as well as economics reasons for encouraging cautious contacts with northern Europeans. Trinidad was great strategic interest to Caribs who visited it frequently when trading and raiding on the islands.

"The Caribs were expert canoeists, and their sheets sometimes included 100 sail fitted, dugout canoes". (Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2002) The Caribs lived in small settlements. There ability to survive were the fact that they were Farmers and fishers and hunted gave with blow guans and bow and arrows. Carib communities were generally made up of several matrilineal kin groups. Unlike the Caribs of the greater Antilles the Caribs of Dominica seem to have played little part in either the Revolutionary Wars. At the end of the eighteenth century or the intermittent struggle with the warriors, the Dominican Caribs were very serviceable to the planets rear the settlements.

"The Dominican Caribs could kill the smallest bird with an arrow, or transfix a fish at a great depth in the sea". (Hulme, Peter) The Dominican Caribs were quiet, in offensive people, they spoke a language of their own and French, but none spoke English. The Caribs of the Greater Antilles were described as cannibal's savages, or warriors. The Caribs were all but eliminated in the century, when several European countries struggled for control of the lesser Antilles. islands of Saint Vincent and Dominica were the islands where small groups of Caribs remained.

Almost 5,000 remaining members of the tribe from Saint Vincent were deplored by the British Government to the Rout am Island off the coast of tundra's. They spread over the neighboring mainland and today survive in Guatemala and on a revolution in Dominica. Caribs of today that live in Dominica are of a cheer copper color, have long, sheer, black hair on their heads. They are short, snout and well made, but they disfigured their heads by pressing flat their noses, which is done in infancy. They live chiefly by fishing in the rivers and the sea, or by hunting in the woods, at both of which they are experts with their bows and arrows.

In Conclusion the Caribs description by most European countries did make them seem like Cannibal's, savages and warriors. But they are peaceful Caribs that lived at that time and still few living now. So maybe it's the Cannibalism or the warrior mentally that grade. The savages extinct, or maybe it's the fact that they would not allow people to come out of "no where' and take over there land and women. The Caribs Jamil Da wod!

2th Grade Research Paper 11/1/02 Mrs. Rodriguez

Bibliography

1. Bandelier, AD. Caribs The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume Online Edition. 1999 web 2.
Boucher, Philip. Cannibal Encounter. Baltimore, Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press, 1992.
3. Hulme, Peter. Visiting The Caribs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
4. Thompson, George. World History and Cultures. Pensacola, Florida: A Becca Book, 1997.
5. "Caribs", Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2002 web 1997-2002 Microsoft Corporation.