FIG. 167.—Kalina or Carib of Dutch Guiana.
(Coll. Mus. Nat. Hist., Paris.)
The physical type of the Caribs of Guiana and Venezuela differs slightly from that of the Caribs of the upper Xingu. The former are of low stature (1 m. 58 for men, 1 m. 45 for women), and mesocephalic (mean ceph. ind. in the liv. sub., 81.3), while the Caribs of the upper Xingu are below the average height and sub-dolichocephalic (1 m. 61 for men, 1 m. 52 for women; mean ceph. ind. on the liv. sub., 79.6).[653] What is characteristic of certain Carib tribes of the south (Bakairis, etc.) is the frequent occurrence of individuals with wavy or frizzy hair and convex nose, in the midst of the common type having straight hair, short and somewhat broad nose, etc. The ancient Caribs of the Antilles were short, somewhat light-skinned, and had the custom of deforming the head by flattening the frontal region of the skull.
FIG. 168.—Same subject as Fig. [167], in profile.
(Coll. Mus. Nat. Hist., Paris.)
From the ethnic point of view, the Caribs are distinguished by their acquaintance with the hammock; a plaited (not woven) texture; and a particular kind of cassava squeezer (p. [188]); by their fondness for painting the body; by the practice of the “couvade” (p. [240]), etc. The blow-pipe and poisoned arrows are not their “national weapons,” as has sometimes been said; the Caribs of the south are unacquainted with them, and, on the other hand, several non-Carib tribes of the Amazon basin make use of them. Their favourite weapon is or was the battle-axe of polished stone (basalt, diabase). The slight difference between the mode of life of the Caribs of the Antilles and that of the Caribs of the present day was due to the existence of anthropophagy, the presence of “communal houses” (Carbets), and to some other characteristics which denote their superiority over the modern Caribs from the social point of view.[654]
2. The Arawak linguistic family, as constituted by L. Adam, at first by the name of Maypure, has been called by Von den Steinen “Nu-Arawak,” from the prenominal prefix “nu” for the first person, common to all the Arawak tribes, scattered from the coast of Dutch Guiana and British Guiana to the upper basins of the Amazon and Orinoco. The principal tribes are: the Aturai and the Vapisiana of British Guiana; the Maypures and the Banivas of Venezuela; the Manaos and the Aruacos of the Rio Negro; the Yumanas and the Passehs of the left bank of the Solimães; the Marauas more to the south; the Paumary and the numerous Ipurina tribes of the Purus basin; lastly the half-civilised Moxos or Mohos of the upper Mamoré, and the Canopos or Antis of the forests of the upper basin of the Ucayale (Peru), of average stature, brown-coloured skin, skilful hunters.[655] The tribes of the upper Xingu are the Vaura and the Mehinacu. Let us also note the Parecis of the region of the sources of the Tapajos, among whom we observe the influences of the Quechua civilisation (Pandean pipes) or the Peruvian (a particular head-dress of birds’ feathers and porcupine quills, cotton textiles, plaited hats, etc.). In upper Paraguay, as far as the 21st degree of S. latitude, are also found tribes speaking the Arawak tongue; the Quinquinaos, the Layanas, etc. (This is the Moho-Mbaure group of L. Quevedo) On the other hand, in the marshy island of Marajos, in the middle of the estuary of the Amazon, there dwelt a few decades ago the Aruan people, who spoke an Arawak dialect, while in the north of Venezuela, the peninsula of Goajira is occupied by the Goajires tribe, which also belongs to the same linguistic family. De Brette estimates its numerical force at 30,000 individuals (1890–95).[656]
The pre-Columbian aborigines of Porto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba were Arawaks, to judge from the toponymy of these islands. The authors of the eighteenth century speak of the Ciboneys in Cuba, Bahama, and the west of Haiti, and of the “Aravagues” in the east of this latter island and in Porto Rico. These aborigines, although in a state of constant warfare with the Caribs, resembled them in certain characteristic customs (cranial deformation, colouring of the body, etc.). They were exterminated by the Whites, being reduced to 4000 in Cuba as far back as 1554. In 1848 there remained of these tribes but a few hybrid families in the Sierra Maestra of Cuba and the village of Boya to the north of the town of San Domingo.[657]