Carib as a Colonial Category: Comparing Ethnohistoric and Archaeological Evidence from Dominica, West Indies

Abstract

Documents and maps describe settlement locations and objects possessed by the Carib, or Kalinago, in the Commonwealth of Dominica during the post-Columbian period. Archaeological testing at multiple sites in northern Dominica reveals that historical Carib settlements functioned as trading sites, observation posts, or refuges, but such testing has not recovered material culture described in the documents. Part of the explanation for the lack of correspondence between ethnohistory and archaeology is the inadequacy of the Carib ethnonym, which has been manipulated by the political and economic interests of European colonizers since 1492. Beginning with the first voyages of Columbus, the Carib were portrayed as warlike cannibals who raided the “peaceful” natives of the Greater Antilles. Carib-French contacts in the seventeenth century recorded origin myths and linguistic evidence that fit with the initial Spanish impressions of native Caribbean peoples. Archaeological findings reveal some of the heterogeneity that has been obscured by the Carib category recorded in the ethnohistoric sources.

Anthropological genetic insights on Caribbean population history

“…30,32,33 Today, there is growing recognition that the uncritical use of these categories obscures the diversity of cultures coexisting in the Antilles during the Late Ceramic Age and early Contact period. 1,32,34 Thus, much current archaeological and ethnohistorical research seeks to better characterize the ethnic diversity of precontact Caribbean Indigenous communities, their responses to colonization, and their relationship to present-day islanders. 2,29,35,36…”

“…Although these groupings are not based on Indigenous self‐identification they continued to be deployed as valid analytical categories by anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians for much of the 20th century, and thus are now widely recognized and used in public discourse 30,32,33 . Today, there is growing recognition that the uncritical use of these categories obscures the diversity of cultures coexisting in the Antilles during the Late Ceramic Age and early Contact period 1,32,34 . Thus, much current archaeological and ethnohistorical research seeks to better characterize the ethnic diversity of precontact Caribbean Indigenous communities, their responses to colonization, and their relationship to present‐day islanders 2,29,35,36 …”

Colonial Encounters in the Southern Lesser Antilles: Indigenous Resistance, Material Transformations, and Diversity in an Ever-Globalizing World

“…Nowadays, the Greggs community of St. Vincent feels itself to belong to the Garifuna ethnic group and actively connects with its kin from Central America. Descendants of the Kalinago live in Dominica (Kalinago Territory), St. Vincent (New Sandy Bay), and Trinidad (Santa Rosa community, Arima), where they actively claim their Amerindian ancestry within the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Caribbean society of these islands (Boomert 2016;Hofman and Hoogland 2012;Honychurch 2000;Lenik 2012;Reid 2009;Sued Badillo 2003;Whitehead 1995).…”

Land, Labor, and Things: Surplus in a New West Indian Colony (1763–1807)

“…These documents do not enumerate the number of Kalinago in the later years. It became a noncategory (Lenik, 2012). While the Kalinago settlements were concentrated on the eastern shore of the island, the European settlements were concentrated on the leeward side (Honychurch, 1997).…”