Myths and Realities of Caribbean History

Glossary

Glossary amoebic dysentery. Transmitted through contamination of drinking water, it is prevalent in developing nations, although it is occasionally seen in industrialized countries. It is sometimes called “traveler’s dysentery” or “Montezuma ’s revenge.” Liver infection and subsequent amoebic abscesses can occur . It is caused mainly by the protozoan Entamoeba histolytica. anthropophagy. Human cannibalism. The word is derived from Greek anthropos , “man” and phagein, “to eat.” anthropomorphic. Resembling human form or displaying human attributes. anthropozoomorphic. Bearing both human and animal characteristics or forms. appliqué. French word meaning “applied.” For example, a motif or design made separately, then affixed to a ceramic vessel. Archaic. A developmental stage characterized by a marine-oriented subsistence followed by a terrestrial hunting-based economy. The absence of pottery was until recently considered a defining characteristic of Archaic peoples. However, evidence of pottery-making among the Casimiroids and Ortoiroids has now invalidated this idea. assimilation. A process by which a minority group is absorbed into a majority population, during which the minority group takes on the values and norms of the dominant culture. Barrancoid. The Barrancoid peoples take their name from the site of Barrancas on the banks of the lower Orinoco River in Venezuela. Their culture seems to have developed out of the local Saladoid tradition in Venezuela between 1500 and 1000 B.C. Barrancoid peoples moved northward to the Orinoco river delta, perhaps displacing or bypassing other Saladoid communities as they went, and occupied islands of the Caribbean as far north as Puerto Rico. Like the Saladoids, they cultivated cassava, produced pottery , and lived in villages.The discovery of Barrancoid pottery in Cedrosan 132 / Glossary Saladoid sites in Trinidad and Tobago dating to A.D. 350 suggests extensive trade between the Barrancoids and the Saladoids. bejel. A chronic skin and tissue disease caused by infection by a subspecies of the spirochete Treponema pallidum. Previously called endemic syphilis. Casimiroids. The Casimiroids, named after Casimira in Dominican Republic, probably migrated from Belize in the Yucatán Peninsula and lived between 4000 and 400 B.C. in Cuba and Hispaniola.They made flaked-tools, conical pestles, disks, and daggerlike objects. Evidence now suggests that they were also potters and horticulturalists. Chican. The Chican subseries, which developed in the Dominican Republic, spread to Puerto Rico and St. Croix, if not to the rest of the Virgin Islands, and strongly influenced the cultures of the northern Leeward Islands. Usually associated with the Classic Taínos, Chican pottery, especially the Boca Chica style, is characterized by more highly polished surfaces and more refined modeled-incisions than the other Ostionoid and Taíno pottery subseries elsewhere in the northern Caribbean. cognates. Having a common ancestor. For instance, English and Danish are cognate languages, both being Germanic. Every language in the IndoEuropean language family has lexical items that are cognate with lexical items in another language in the family. Indeed, the Indo-European language family is defined by its cognates: one two three, eins zwei drei, un deux trois, and so on. cohoba. A hallucinogenic powder made from the seeds of the tree Anadenanthera peregrina and inhaled through the nose. The term also refers to the ritual involving the use of this substance. Cohoba was widely practiced by precolonial Amerindian groups throughout the Caribbean and usually involved fasting, dancing, purging, bathing, and chanting. culture history. An archaeological method by which archaeologists use artifacts to determine the who, when, and where of past cultures, based on the material record. Describing and classifying finds into groups is an important part of culture history, and classification can be done through design styles, geographic distributions, or chronological periods. An excellent example of the application of culture history in Caribbean archaeology is the “series” and “subseries” approach, which relates to “cultures” and “peoples” respectively. cultural evolution. Describes how cultures and societies have developed over time. Although cultural evolutionary models typically provide an understanding of the relationship between technologies, social structure, the values of a society, and how and why they change with time, they vary as to the extent to which they describe specific mechanisms of variation and social change. egalitarianism. A sociopolitical system that professes to support the belief that Glossary / 133 all members of a society are equal, particularly with regard to social, economic , and political rights. Some inequalities in relation to gender, age, and special physical characteristics may be found in egalitarian societies. This can be contrasted to a ranked sociopolitical system...