Indigenous Populations of the Caribbean

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Indigenous Populations of the Caribbean
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What is the Caribbean?

• How is the Caribbean geographically defined?

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Definitions of the Caribbean

• the islands lying within the compass of the
  Caribbean sea. (Websters Universal Dictionary
  and Thesaurus 2003849)
• (Caribbean sea part of the Western Atlantic
  ocean bounded by the east coast of Central
  America, the north coast of South America and the
  West Indies)

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Definitions of the Caribbean contd

• The term Caribbean is applied to certain of the
  West Indian isles and the sea between them and
  the main land (Oxford English Dictionary 1989)

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Definitions of the Caribbean contd

• The Caribbean area comprises the islands
  extending from Trinidad, Aruba, Margarita, and
  others off the coast of Venezuela in the south,
  to Jamaica, Cuba, Hispaniola (the Republic of
  Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The main
  groupings are the four Greater Antilles, the
  Lesser Antilles (composed of the island arc
  (about forty inhabited islands) that extends from
  the Virgin Islands in the northeast to Grenada in
  the south emphasis added) and Trinidad and Tobago

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Definitions of the Caribbean contd

• A few units such as San Andres and Providencia
  and Honduras Bay Islands.are included, though
  the Bahamas are not (International Encyclopedia
  of the social Sciences 1968306)

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Major strength of these definitions

• We are able to locate (on a map) the general area
  known as the Caribbean

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Weaknesses of these definitions

• They are all geographic
• Very general
• uncertain which islands to include as Caribbean
• they include territories which are not considered
  Caribbean
• they exclude territories which are considered
  Caribbean
• being specific leaves no alternative than to list
  all the territories individually

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Linguistic Definition of the Caribbean

• Any effective definition of the Caribbean will
  consider the following
• Indigenous peoples
• Contact with Europeans and Colonization
• Slavery
• Immigrant peoples

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Linguistic Definition of the Caribbean

• The Caribbean refers to all the territories which
  have a localized version of a European language
  acting as the official language and a Creole
  language which acts as the national language of
  the population. Additionally these territories
  have a history of Indigenous and Immigrant
  languages in the speech community.

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Pre-Columbian Peoples

• Distribution and Languages

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The Pre-Columbian People

• What were the groups which were present in the
  Caribbean?
• The Warao also referred to as Tivitians
• The Caribs
• The Arawaks

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Pre-Columbian Peoples contd

• What was the distribution of the Amerindians in
  the Caribbean region?
• Arawaks -- chiefly Greater Antilles and mainland
  
• territories (coast and inland)
• Caribs Warao -- chiefly Lesser Antilles and
• mainland
  territories (coast and
• inland)

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Languages which were spoken

• Kalinya or Caribs
• Lokono or Arowak
• Wayana
• Trio
• Warau

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What happened with the coming of the Europeans?

• Demise of indigenous population and languages
  because of -
• The widespread distribution of the ethnically
  different Amerindian groups
• European diseases against which the Amerindians
  had no immunity
• Groups amalgamated
• Slave Trade

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Amerindian Groups in Suriname in 2000

• Language Family Language Location
• Arawakan Arawak/Lokono coastal area
• Mawayana Sipaliwini River
• Cariban Kalina coastal area
• Trio Palumeu, Tapanahoni,
• Sipaliwini R.
• Wayana Palumeu, Tapanahoni, Maroni
• Lawa Rivers
• Akuriyo Tapanahoni and Sipaliwini River
• Sikiiyana Sipaliwini River
• Tunayana/Katuena Sipaliwini River
• (Carlin et al 200237)

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Conclusion

• Every last word is a lost world