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15. Boat Trips (2006)
- The University of Alabama Press
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15 Boat Trips Life on an island is just not possible without boats. The history of the Caribbean, both prehistorically and historically, is linked to the ability to build boats and navigate the oceans successfully. Not just anyone can go out and colonize an isolated, oceanic island. The most important factor is the colonizer’s voyaging ability, which is not always linked to how accessible oceanic islands may be to a population. Madagascar lies close to the east coast of Africa but was colonized by people from Indonesia (four thousand miles away!). A similar situation occurs in the Caribbean. It has long been assumed that people entered the Caribbean by island hopping from South America through the steppingstone islands of the Lesser Antilles. Yet present evidence indicates that there were more direct contacts across the Caribbean Sea, and that the Windward Islands of the southern Lesser Antilles were first colonized long after people had settled in Puerto Rico and the Leeward Islands. There is compelling evidence that people from the Isthmo-Colombian area (Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica) were in regular contact with the peoples of the Greater Antilles from the earliest period of settlement. It is likely that they took advantage of the cross-Caribbean current and the calm waters of the Caribbean Sea to reach the islands. Other prerequisites to successfully colonize islands include horticulture, a marine economy, a material culture that uses shell as a major raw material resource, and the ability to change an island’s resource base by introducing plants, animals, and assets through exchange. Since 500 BC, all West Indian cultures have met each of these requirements. 82 / Chapter 15 In the Caribbean islands, the direction of colonization generally followed the direction of the currents. The south equatorial current flows north from the Venezuelan coast up the Windward Islands. As it reaches the Leeward Islands it is eclipsed by the north equatorial current, which flows westward past the Leewards, paralleling the northern coasts of the Greater Antilles. The distances between the islands are not great, and once the 120-kilometer (75-mile) gap between Trinidad and Grenada was bridged, every other volcanic island was intervisible from the next with distances of less than 50 kilometers (31 miles). There was no fear of not finding the way home after setting out to investigate a new island. Once you can navigate well, you possess the maritime skills to sail past one island to reach a better one. Thus, accessibility fails to be a determining factor. In the Pacific, where the distances between islands are much greater, colonization occurred in quite the opposite way; here, navigators sailed against the winds and currents when exploring in order to ensure that they could return home. The ability to supplement the natural resources of an island with domesticated foods substantially reduces the risks involved in island settlements. When the Polynesians colonized a new island, they brought taro, sweet potato, fruit trees, and domesticated pigs and chickens. In the West Indies, in addition to root crops and some fruit trees, the colonizers brought with them dogs and small mammals such as guinea pigs for food. They also transported West Indian species, such as hutias (a large rodent) and rails (a ground bird, some species of which are flightless), from one island to another. Sweet potato may have been a key ingredient in island colonization by horticulturists, because it produces an edible crop in two months or less, quickly establishing a reliable food base. The Taíno were known to plant the root crop manioc on uninhabited islands, but never settle the island, creating food stocks for voyagers or for times of shortage. The Turks & Caicos Islands were first colonized about AD 700 by peoples TAÍNO WORD TRANSLATION Maca Large tree for making canoe Piragua Carib canoe with sail Cayuco Flat boat with no keel (raft) Caya “Towards island,” pass between islands Nahe Paddle [3.17.75.14] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 22:11 GMT) Boat Trips / 83 coming from Hispaniola. So, how did the navigators of Hispaniola stumble upon Grand Turk first? As you head north from the coast of the Dominican Republic, you encounter within forty miles a series of shallow banks: Navidad, Silver, and Mouchoir. They are submerged under five to sixteen meters (sixteen to fifty-two feet) of water today. These shallow banks may have given the appearance of islands on the horizon by virtue of their aquamarine color, and the banks themselves could have attracted fishermen...