Caribpeople
Main
American Indian people who inhabited the Lesser Antilles and parts of the neighbouring South American coast at the time of the Spanish conquest. Their name was given to the Caribbean Sea, and its Arawakan equivalent is the origin of the English word cannibal. Today the term Cariban is used to designate a linguistic group that includes not only the language of the Antillean Carib but also many related Indian languages spoken in South America.
The Island Carib, who were warlike (and allegedly cannibalistic), were immigrants from the mainland who, after driving the Arawak from the Lesser Antilles, were expanding when the Spanish arrived. Peculiarly, the Carib language was spoken only by the men; women spoke Arawak. Raids upon other peoples provided women who were kept as slave-wives; the male captives were tortured and killed.
The Island Carib were a maritime people, expert navigators who made distant raids in large dugout canoes. Warfare was their major interest. Internal conflicts were common; there was no important chief, military organization, or hierarchical structure. The men strove to be individualistic warriors and boasted of their heroic exploits.
Carib groups of the South American mainland lived in the Guianas, and south to the Amazon River. Some were warlike and were alleged to have practiced cannibalism, but most were less aggressive than their Antillean relatives. They lived in small autonomous settlements, growing cassava and other crops and hunting with blowgun or bow and arrow. Their culture was typical of the peoples of the tropical forest. Other Carib-speaking tribes, apparently much like the Guianan Carib, were found to the west on the wooded slopes of the Andes along the Venezuelan-Colombian border. To the southeast the Guicuru, Bakairi, and other Carib speakers lived at the headwaters of the Xingu River in central Brazil.
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Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
Assorted References
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derivation of cannibalism
( in cannibalism )
eating of human flesh by humans. The term is derived from the Spanish name (Caríbales, or Caníbales) for the Carib, a West Indies tribe well known for their practice of cannibalism. A widespread custom going back into early human history, cannibalism has been found among peoples on most continents.
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South American peoples
( in South American Indian: Tropical-forest farming villages )
...included the bulk of the Arawakan-, Cariban-, and Tupian-speaking peoples, such as the coastal Arawak proper and those of the Greater Antilles, the Achagua, Guahibo, Palicur, and others; the Carib of the Guianas, such as the Barama River Carib, the Taulipang, and the Makushí (Macushí); the Tupians of the coast of Brazil, such as the Tupinambá; and inland groups among...
role in
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Dominica
( in Dominica: The people )
The population is mainly of African descent, with some Europeans, Syrians, and Caribs. Dominica is the only island with a relatively large and distinctive group of Carib Indians, descendants of the people who inhabited the island before European colonization. Most of the remaining Caribs, a small number of whom are pure-blooded, live in the 3,000-acre (1,214-hectare) Carib Reserve. English is...
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Dominican Republic
( in Dominican Republic: History )
At the time of Christopher Columbus’s first landing on Hispaniola in 1492, the Carib people, for whom the Caribbean Sea is named, were preying on the Taino (an Arawak people), who had previously settled there. The two peoples had village-centred societies based on farming, fishing, and hunting and gathering, but they were less advanced than the large pre-Columbian civilizations of Mexico,...
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Guadeloupe
( in Guadeloupe: History )
Visited in November 1493 by Christopher Columbus, the two main islands—then together known as Karukera (“Island of Beautiful Waters”)—were peopled by Caribs, who had displaced the original Arawak inhabitants. Columbus consecrated the territory to Our Lady of Guadalupe of Extremadura in Spain, from whom it takes its name.
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Montserrat
( in Montserrat: History )
The original Native American inhabitants of Montserrat began to arrive in the Lesser Antilles about 3000 bc. Carib Indians, who arrived later, are said to have named the island Alliouagana (“Land of the Prickly Bush”). However, Montserrat was uninhabited by the time Christopher Columbus sighted it in November 1493, during his second voyage to the Americas. Columbus named the...
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Puerto Rico
( in Puerto Rico: History )
...seafood. In the late 15th century 20,000–50,000 Taino lived on Puerto Rico, which they called Boriquén (Borinquén, or Boriken). The Taino occasionally warded off attacks by their Carib neighbours from islands to the south and east, including the Virgin Islands and Vieques Island.
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Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
( in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Colonization )
Saint Vincent may have been given its name by Christopher Columbus, who is thought to have visited the island on Jan. 22, 1498 (St. Vincent’s Day). Its Carib inhabitants were left almost undisturbed until the 18th century. In 1673 the first Africans arrived, a party of slaves who were shipwrecked in the Grenadines and eventually reached Saint Vincent, intermarrying with the native Caribs....
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Virgin Islands ( in British Virgin Islands: History
)
The Arawak Indians who probably initially occupied the Virgin Islands had been expelled by the warlike Caribs by the time Christopher Columbus arrived at the islands in 1493, naming them Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgenes (“St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins”). In 1555 the Habsburg Holy Roman emperor Charles V sent a Spanish invasion force to claim the islands, and by 1596...
in Virgin Islands of the United States: History. )The islands probably were originally settled by Arawak Indians, but they were inhabited by the warlike Caribs when Christopher Columbus landed on St. Croix in 1493. They had extensive farms and settlements on the island. Columbus named the islands Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgenes, in honour of the legendary St. Ursula and the 11,000 martyred virgins. In 1555 a Spanish expedition defeated...
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West Indies
( in West Indies, history of: The Pre-Columbian period )
...Three distinct Indian groups occupied the islands: the Ciboney, concentrated in the western parts of what are now Cuba and Haiti; the Arawak, located in the Greater Antilles and Trinidad; and the Carib, who lived mostly in northern Trinidad and the Lesser Antilles. Apart from a small reservation of Caribs in Dominica with some 500 members, mostly miscegenated with blacks, and a few scattered...
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American Indian people who inhabited the Lesser Antilles and parts of the neighbouring South American coast at the time of the Spanish conquest. Their name was given to the Caribbean Sea, and its Arawakan equivalent is the origin of the English word cannibal. Today the term Cariban is used to designate a linguistic group that includes not only the language of the Antillean Carib but also many related Indian languages spoken in South America.
The Island Carib, who were warlike (and allegedly cannibalistic), were immigrants from the mainland who, after driving the Arawak from the Lesser Antilles, were expanding when the Spanish arrived. Peculiarly, the Carib language was spoken only by the men; women spoke Arawak. Raids upon other peoples provided women who were kept as slave-wives; the male captives were tortured and killed.
The Island Carib were a maritime people, expert navigators who made distant raids in large dugout canoes. Warfare was their major interest. Internal conflicts were common; there was no important chief, military organization, or hierarchical structure. The men strove to be individualistic warriors and boasted of their heroic exploits.
Carib groups of the South American mainland lived in the Guianas, and south to the Amazon River. Some were warlike and were alleged to have practiced cannibalism, but most were less aggressive than their Antillean relatives. They lived in small autonomous settlements, growing cassava and other crops and hunting with blowgun or bow and arrow. Their culture was typical of the peoples of the tropical forest. Other Carib-speaking tribes, apparently much like the Guianan Carib, were found to the west on the wooded slopes of the Andes along the Venezuelan-Colombian border. To the southeast the Guicuru, Bakairi, and other Carib speakers lived at the headwaters of the Xingu River in central Brazil.
Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
- derivation...
Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
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South American Indian languages South American Indian languages
...to determine. Many Indian languages in the Andes and the eastern foothills have borrowed from Quechua either directly or through Spanish. In Island Carib (an Arawakan language), borrowings from Carib (a Cariban language) have formed a special part of the vocabulary, properly used only by men; these words were adopted after the Island Carib speakers were subjugated by Caribs.
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spoken by Carib Indians Carib
...(and allegedly cannibalistic), were immigrants from the mainland who, after driving the Arawak (q.v.) from the Lesser Antilles, were expanding when the Spanish arrived. Peculiarly, the Carib language was spoken only by the men; women spoke Arawak. Raids upon other peoples provided women who were kept as slave-wives; the male captives were tortured and killed.
Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
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culture of South America South American Indian
...Cariban-, and Tupian-speaking peoples, such as the coastal Arawak proper and those of the Greater Antilles, the Achagua, Guahibo, Palicur, and others; the Carib of the Guianas, such as the Barama River Carib, the Taulipang, and the Makushí (Macushí); the Tupians of the coast of Brazil, such as the Tupinambá; and inland groups among whom were the Mundurukú,...
Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
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ethnological affinity with Carib Indians Carib
The Island Carib, who were warlike (and allegedly cannibalistic), were immigrants from the mainland who, after driving the Arawak (q.v.) from the Lesser Antilles, were expanding when the Spanish arrived. Peculiarly, the Carib language was spoken only by the men; women spoke Arawak. Raids upon other peoples provided women who were kept as slave-wives;...
Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
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role in Central American culture Central American and northern Andean Indian
...other cultural elaborations as well. In contrast with such highly developed groups, a few cultures in the area were based more on hunting or fishing than on even simple farming; among those were the Antillean Carib, Chocó, Ciboney, and Motilón.