Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Introduction

The arrival of the earliest inhabitants of the Americas and the Caribbean has been subjected to several
arguments, as researchers try to understand and explain how these groups of peoples reached and
populated these areas. Nevertheless, researchers have finally agreed that these people originated from
Central East Asia (Mongolia) and migrated to the Americas via the frozen Bering Strait/Beringia
during the 4th Ice Age.

The Three distinct groups which developed societies in parts of the Caribbean, Central and South
Americas were: 1) Tainos
2) Kalinagos
3) Mayas

Geographical Location

1) Tainos – mostly in the Greater Antilles, e.g. Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, parts
of Bahamas and Trinidad

2) Kalinagos – mostly in the Lesser Antilles, e.g. St. Kitts & Nevis, Antigua,
Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada, Puerto Rico

NB. The Kalinagos and the Tainos shared the territories of Trinidad and Puerto Rico

3) Mayas – located in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Yucatan

Peninsula

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THE TAINOS

Social
● Settlement – located on the coast or near other water sources/ rivers
● They were predominantly fishermen
● They had two types of thatch houses - the caneye (round house for the commoners and
the bohio (rectangular house for the cacique)
● Male and female had different responsibilities: men ran the government, women did the
farming
● They had various activities for entertainment e.g. batos (ball game)
● Customs – flattened baby’s forehead, wore jewellery in their eyes, noses, head and hands
and painted their bodies
● Recreation: arieto – playing of musical instruments made from tree trunks and roots, and
dancing, e.g. maracas, drums, guiro
● Food: corn, birds, fish, hutia (small rodent), cassava (manioc), cassava bread
● They wove baskets, hammocks and made spears, jewellery, arrows, fishing nets.
● Cultivated plots called conucos (small farm plot)

Religion
● They were polytheistic and worshiped zemis.
● Believed in a heaven called (coyaba)
● Believed in two supreme gods (male and female)
● The Cacique also served as a religious leader
 ● Priests and chiefs act as mediators between the people and the gods
● They believed in the after-life
● The smoking of tobacco (cohiba) - used as part of their religious ceremony – used by
chiefs to induce unconsciousness.
● Use of vomiting spatula and purging as a part of their customs
● They had gods of nature e.g. rain god, sun god and were nature worshippers
● Priests had to pray to request anything, e.g. crops to grow, health, etc.
● They did ancestral worshiping

Economic
● Economic activities were farming, fishing and hunting
● Primarily subsistence farmers, planted maize, cassava, cotton, tobacco etc
● Did not pay taxes
● Wove cotton cloth and baskets
● They were miners and trackers
● Practiced the barter system and traded a variety of goods such as fuits, beans, cassava,
sweet potatoes
● They reared small barkless dogs (alcos) and guinea pigs

Political
● Each society headed by a cacique
● Leadership role was hereditary (passed down from father to son)
● Each district was ruled by a sub-chief / noble
● Each village was ruled by a headman
● Larger islands were divided into provinces and districts, with each province having
several villages
● Ordered political structure:

Cacique (The Chief)

(usually male, & not a military person but a civic leader)
Responsible for judicial/legal (Chief Judge/Legislator), cultural, political
and religious functions (Chief Priest)

(Mitaynos or touchau)
Leader of Community
(Sub-Chiefs or Nobles

Priests

Council of Elders
(Village leaders, decision makers
Advisory Body)

Commoners
(fishermen, hunters, farmers, labourers)

THE KALINAGOS
Social
● Village settlements located near the coasts, rivers or low hills
● They had thatched houses
● Men lived together in a carbet, girls with their mothers
● Chief was called Ouboutou – was chosen for his strength and skills
● Women and men lived separate for fear of weakness
● Society – militaristic and aggressive
● Society – warlike nature
● Boys started at age 4 to be trained as warriors for life
● Men took pride in physical endurance
● Women did little craft like pottery and weaving
● War Boats (piraguas) were used to fight with the Tainos
● Customs – also flattened their foreheads, didn’t eat turtle and pigs and crabs before sea
voyage
● Wore headdress, painted their bodies and wore jewellery
● Did some pottery like the Tainos

Religion
● Polytheistic – worship idols and evil spirits
● Smoke tobacco as a part of religious activities
● Believed in evil spirits called maboya – each person had their own
● Worshipped ancestral spirits
● Believed in an afterlife where the souls of brave warriors went
● Some boys were trained as priests/boyez
● Tobacco played an important role in their religious activities

Political
● Political position was not hereditary but based on the prowess of the individual during
warfare
● No organized political structure and had very few laws
● Political system was not structured and organized like the Tainos
● The commander in chief or war leader, in charge of all the warriors was the Ouboutou
/Ubutu
● Justice was served on a personal level
● Village leader/ headman Tiubutuli Hauthae – he made the laws based on war

Economical
● Farming was done by women and fishing by men
● They had few economic activities, mostly involved in warring, hunting and fishing
● Did subsistence farming
● They spun and wove cotton, made pottery and ornaments made from shells
● The men were skilled wood workers

THE MAYAS
Social
● Society was made up of city states and located away from the coast
● Settlements were large and more permanent
● Society divided into ruling, working and merchant classes
● They were skilled architects who built palaces and temples
● Great stone monuments called stelae were erected
● They were great mathematicians with an accurate number system
● Studied astronomy and created a calendar
● They developed a system of writing called hieroglyphs
● Made reservoirs, elaborate ball courts and paper from bark
● They played a religious ball game called pok-a-tok
● Were weavers and designed embroidery and pottery
● Men practiced polygamy (have more than one wife)
● Social Structure:
Rulers

Priests

Commoners

Slaves

● Crimes were punishable by death

● Merchant groups played an important role in trade
● Ceremonial buildings and grounds
● Occupations: merchants, priests, craftsmen, architects, miners, potters, etc

Religion
● Polytheistic and believed in heaven and hell
● They worshiped 166 gods, had rituals and also smoked tobacco
● Priest called Ah kin served n the temples and were responsible for the people’s religious
needs
● Society was influenced by religious beliefs
● Believed in 13 heavens, each, each ruled by a god
● Chief god was kunab ku
● Made human sacrifices for gods
● Had huge stone pyramids with temples on top where they worshipped

Political
● Mayan empire divided into independent city states
● Society was hierarchical into rigid classes
● The head of each state was called halach uinic (true man).
● The halach uinic was the head of each city state and his position was hereditary
● The batabs/batabobs were the lesser chiefs who organized the village
● Nacoms were war chiefs who were elected if proved to be a superior warrior

● Structure: Halach uinic

 Batabobs Nacoms

Nobles

Commoners

Economic
● They were subsistence farmers who grew a wide variety of crops
● They were dependent on agriculture, but did fishing, mining and hunting
● Surplus farming was common to their society
● They store grains and other non-perishable crops in underground storehouses called
chultunes
● They planted on plots of lands called milpas
● City states trade with each other
● Merchants - ppolms / chontals were (responsible for trade)