The Calusa: Linguistic and Cultural Origins and Relationships

3. Records of Calusa Culture

3 Records of Calusa Culture We know from spanish colonial historical records that at the height of their authority in the 1500s and 1600s the Calusa were an extremely powerful people, controlling at least the majority of southwest florida and the Keys and the lands in those latitudes from the Gulf to the Atlantic. On the east coast they exerted control as far north as Cape Canaveral. At least 60 villages are said to have been under the control of the Calusa in the early 1600s (hann 1991). Calusa society was highly stratified, consisting of a paramount leader and his family, an elite class similar to what europeans would call nobility, a military class, and an ecclesiastical, priestly class, as well as the common man. in Calusa culture both the ruler and the nobles did not perform manual labor and had the privilege of consuming foods denied the ordinary citizen. The tribal ruler governedtogetherwithamilitaryleaderandthereligiousleader ,eachof whom had specific interrelated social and political duties (see macmahon and marquardt 2004). in spite of the historical record on spanish–Calusa contact discussed briefly in the previous chapter, and in spite of recent extensive ongoing archaeological work in the Charlotte harbor region, we know little, however, of the Calusa people themselves. The best 16 / Chapter 3 source for ethnographic data is, as pointed out earlier, certainly that left us by the spanish Jesuit missionary fr. Juan Rogel (hann 1991:230–285; Zubillaga 1946:272–311). fr. Rogel provides us with a thorough description of certain aspects of Calusa culture and religion , though be it from the negative and quite devious ethnocentric point of view typical of spanish ecclesiastical culture of the 1500– 1600s, so soon after the spanish conquest of muslim spain and its unbending treatment of the many thousands of spanish muslims and Jews, who were forced to convert, often as a result of inquisition torture, migrate to morocco, or go underground as Aljamiados. fr. Rogel came to Calusa territory in early march 1567 and was designatedmissionarytotheCalusa,remaininginCalusalands,with various trips back and forth to havana and northward to Tocobaga territory,untilJulyofthefollowingyear.inhislettertofr.Jerónimo Ruiz del Portillo of April 25, 1568 (Zubillaga 1946:272–311), Rogel provides invaluable information on limited but important aspects of the culture, particularly religious beliefs and practices. One can, i think, ignore the methods that Rogel used in his conversion efforts and concentrate on the remarkably interesting and important data he imparts to the reader. it is largely to him that we owe what little we know of Calusa religion in the mid-1500s. in his attempts to catechize the tribal leaders, Rogel learned that the Calusa believed that each human has three souls: one in the pupil of the eye, a second in the shadow that one casts, and a third in the image of oneself one sees in water, mirrors, and other reflective sources. he adds that when a person dies two of the souls, the shadow and the reflective image, leave the body, while the soul in the pupil of the eye always remains in the body. The latter soul was consulted by relatives after a person’s death for advice and help. When a person was ill, it was said that one of the souls has left Records of Calusa Culture / 17 the body, and shamans go in search of it and bring it back to the sick person, at the same time building fires by any opening into the person ’s house to prevent the soul from leaving again. Through specific undescribedceremoniestheshamanreturnsthewaywardsoultothe body through the nape of the neck. Rogel also reports that when a man dies the first two souls enter the body of another animal, and that when that animal dies, the soul enters yet another lower form of life until eventually, after a number of such transmigrations, it ceases to exist. Rogel reports that the Calusa with whom he discussed the Christian concept of an eternal soul laughed at him, considering the idea nonsensical. The Calusa agreed with Rogel that deity in general is the creator of all, butaddedthattherearethreedeities.Thiswasnot, however, in any manner similar to the Christian concept of the Trinity. The first Calusa deity, who was considered to be the greatest of the three, had charge of universal government and universal and common things, such as the seasons and the movement of the stars in the night sky. Theseconddeitywasinchargeofhumangovernments,andthethird was, in effect, a war...