Arawak
A
once-predominant group of Native Americans originally
inhabiting an area that stretched from present-day Florida
down through the islands of the West Indies and the coastal
area of South America as far as southern Brazil.
The
group is in the Arawakan linguistic family. The Arawak
were the first natives of the Americas encountered by
the Italian-Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus.
A
number of Arawak tribes have been extinct for several
hundred years.
Those
of the Lesser Antilles were subjugated in fighting
with the Carib peoples in
the late 15th century. The Arawak population in the
West Indies fell from a probable 2 to 3 million to
a few thousand by the early 16th century; by the end
of that century, island Arawak were extinct.
This
catastrophic mortality rate was due to the introduction
of European diseases, damage to the Arawak's food
supplies, and Spanish brutality and enslavement.
Before
the Spanish conquest, the large-island ecologies,
offering bountiful harvests and abundant fish, combined
with the compact and stable island populations, permitted
the development of an elaborate political and social
structure.
A class of hereditary chiefs ruled three other classes,
the lowest of which was composed of slaves. Conflict
between classes was apparently minimal. In this matrilineal
society, rulers were succeeded by their eldest sister's
eldest son.
Religion
offered a hierarchy of deities parallel to the social
structure.
The
Arawak tribes of South America better survived European
contact because their groups were smaller and more
scattered.
Their
social structure was also matrilineal but much less
complex.
Mainland
Arawak traded with the Dutch and English. In the 17th
and 18th centuries they made a transition to plantation
agriculture.
In the 20th century the existing Arawak began to accept
wage-paying jobs as a supplement to farming, hunting,
and fishing.
Although
their present-day culture reflects various non-Arawak
influences, this group has been noted since pre-Columbian
times as skilled potters, weavers, and wood- and metalworkers.
Today
some 30,000 Arawak live in Guyana, with smaller numbers
in Suriname and French Guiana. Arawakan-speaking groups
are also widespread in other parts of South America.
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This
figure of a man with a bird face comes from
the pre-Columbian
Arawak culture of Jamaica. The carved and
polished wooden figure is highly stylized
and distinctive, bearing no resemblance to
other pre-Columbian sculpture. It was probably
meant to represent a deity.
Bridgeman
Art Library, London/New York
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"Arawak,"
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com
© 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
