Myths and Realities of Caribbean History

Myth 4. The Natives Encountered by Christopher Columbus in the Northern Caribbean Migrated from South America

Myth 4 The Natives Encountered by Christopher Columbus in the Northern Caribbean Migrated from South America Over the years, the impression has been given that the natives living in the northern Caribbean at the time of contact were in fact migrants from South America. However, archaeological data indicate that these groups were a Caribbean phenomenon as they were well established centuries before Columbus’s arrival and evolved autochthonously or indigenously in the region. The Taínos in Cuba and Hispaniola were the result of the pottery-making Casimiroids evolving into Ostionoids,who later became Taínos. On the other hand, the Taínos in Puerto Rico were the product of cultural interactions between the Saladoids in western Puerto Rico and Casimiroids in eastern Hispaniola.  A number of history books continue to perpetuate the misconception that the native peoples whom Columbus met in the northern Caribbean migrated from South America. For example, “The aborigines, or earliest inhabitants, of Jamaica, of whom we have definite records were the Arawak Indians, also called Tainans. Originating in the region of the Guianas and Venezuela where Arawaks are still to be found, these people at some very distant time sailed northward in their dug-out canoes, settling in each of the islands of the Antilles , from Trinidad to Cuba, arriving in Jamaica around A.D. 1000” (Black 1983). A later publication (Gilmore 2003) bears a similar perspective:“The Tainos arrived from between the first and 7th centuries CE [common era], and moved northwards throughout the Lesser Antilles until they finally settled in the islands of the Greater Antilles.” However, archaeological evidence has established that theTaínos were well established in the northern Caribbean from A.D. 1200 to A.D. 1500 (Wilson 1997) and therefore did not migrate from South America. In other words, they developed autochthonously or indigenously in the Caribbean over several generations, similar to the local development of East Indian, African, Chinese, Lebanese descendants or any other Natives Encountered by Christopher Columbus / 59 ethnic group in a variety of Caribbean territories such as Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada and Guyana.There are three schools of thought with respect to Taíno genesis in the northern Caribbean. The Saladoid-Archaic-Ostionoid-Taíno Model The first school of thought, described here as the Saladoid-Archaic-OstionoidTa íno model, argues that the Taínos evolved out of interactions between the Saladoid and Casimiroid (Archaic) peoples.According to this theory,the Saladoids migrated from South America, reached Puerto Rico about 500 B.C. and stalled in Puerto Rico for about 1,000 years. As a result, pottery was not introduced to the rest of the Greater Antilles until much later. The Saladoids in Puerto Rico were unable to move beyond the eastern tip of Hispaniola for 1,000 years because of the presence of relatively large, well-established Casimiroid descendants in Hispaniola. During this period, the relationship changed and the archaeological record suggests that there were intense cultural interactions between the two groups, leading to the creation of a new cultural entity—the Ostionoids. The process is best described as transculturation . Coined by Fernando Ortiz in 1947, transculturation can be defined as the constant interaction between two or more cultural components with the unconscious goal of creating a third cultural identity. The discovery of a crude pottery, known as El Caimito (Figure 4.1), at the La Caleta site in eastern Dominican Republic has been interpreted as evidence for interactions between the Casimiroid peoples of eastern Hispaniola and the Saladoid colonists of Puerto Rico (Rouse 1992). The site is radiocarbon dated at 305 B.C. to A.D. 120 and contains Archaic tool types (Keegan 1994). According to this model, the pottery vessels and designs of the Saladoids were simplified during the 1,000 year pause in Puerto Rico. For example , the distinctive characteristic of Saladoid pottery—the elaborate whiteon -red painting—was abandoned in favor of simpler decorative styles.The assumption is that the Ostionoid culture, which developed out of Saladoid and Casimiroid interactions at eastern Hispaniola/western Puerto Rico interface, spread east, west, and north to the other islands by A.D. 600, eventually leading to the emergence of the Taínos in the Greater Antilles (Figures 4.2–4.4). The Archaic-Ostionoid-Taíno Model The second school of thought, which is based on more current research, seriously challenges the notion that the Ostionoids and later the Taínos evolved out of interactions between the Saladoid and the...