Physical Appearance

The Kalinagos were

taller than the Tainos, but still only of medium height. They were described as being strong and

built due to the emphasis placed on training for fighting. Their skin was brown and usually went

naked. The women painted their bodies with roucou (a red dye) and made fantastic decorations in

many colours. The men would also paint their bodies and wear headdresses and jewellery. Very

rarely you would also find them wearing cotton clothes around their waist. They had short heads

and, like the Tainos, they flattened the foreheads of babies. They had a complete absence of body

hair.

Political Organization

The Tainos had no such organization as the Tainos with their caciques. In peacetime they had only

few laws, only those made by the tiubutuli hauthe (village headman) who was the head of the

family since each family lived in a separate village. However, in war the Kalinagos became more

strictly organized. Each piraga (canoe) was captained by its owner and one of the captains was

chosen as Ubutu or Ouboutou (commander-in-chief). If the raid was successful, he would keep
this title for the rest of his life. The ouboutou planned the raids, chose the captains and distributed

the prizes. He was greatly feared among his men for his power.

The ouboutou became chief either by right of birth or through being an outstanding warrior. The

village men along with the chief made plans for fishing, trading and war or for organizing the

settlement.

Kalinago men lived together in a large, rectangular house called carbet, because they were

undergoing warrior training. The women carried food to the carbet but otherwise lived separately.

The Kalinagos slept in hammocks, but they also had a kind of bed called amais. Their utensils

were not as well made or polished as those of the Tainos.

Social Organization

The Kalinagos’ social organization was quite loose as their culture

emphasized physical prowess and individualism. A Kalinago village was made up of a small

number of houses, with a karbay or big meeting house as the central building.
The karbay was where the men assembled, but the only way in was through a small door. There

were many stout posts supporting the roof, and from these posts the hammocks were slung. The

roof was thatched with palm fronds or cachibou leaves, which were tied down by mahoe, or rope,

or cords. These cords were made from the bark of mahoe trees.

The houses which surrounded the karbay were oval in shape and much smaller. The walls were

made of reeds. There was only one room for the family, which included the father, wives and

unmarried children. There were, however, separate huts for cooking and storing precious objects

such as hammocks, bows and arrows. In the kitchen, there were utensils such as pottery and

calabashes, or couris. The rest of the furniture consisted of cotton hammocks, small stools and

four-legged tables of basket-work called matoutou.

Duties of Kalinago men

The men cleared the forests to prepare gardens, they built houses and

collected the palms for thatching the roofs, and cut trees to build canoes. Most of this work was

done in the dry season and so this was the men’s time during the first part of the year. Throughout

the year they secured food for the community.

Duties of Kalinago women

The women prepared and cooked the food. When the rainy

season had commenced, it was the women’s duty to plant crops. This is because it was women
who attended births and it was thought that all things that need fertility to grow must come from

women’s hands. The women also spun thread, wove hammocks and made clay pots for holding

food and liquid.

Economic Organization

Warfare was the Kalinago’s 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.

The Kalinagos produced several crops. Cassava or manioc was their main crop just like the Tainos.

They also grew yam, sweet potato and maize or corn. They grew tobacco and cotton which they

spun and wove into small strips of cloth. They also made strings for fishing lines and nets for

making hammocks. With the islands free for all the tribe, the Kalinagos planted crops wherever

they pleased. Usually they made farming plots from the village. The men cleared the lands using

the slash-and-burn technique, while the women planted the crops and tended them.

The Kalinagos hunted with bows and arrows, not just to get food but also for sport. For this they

used arrows made from slender reeds with tips made of sharp wooden heads.

Fish were caught in many ways. The Kalinagos used bows and arrows to shoot fish which came

close to the surface. They also used nets, traps and fishing lines with hooks made of shells. Lobsters

were caught in the reefs with harpoons. Conch and other shellfish were easily caught. The shells

were used to make tools. Many of the islands on which they Kalinago lived on had streams full of

fish. The Kalinagos knew how to poison the rivers by pounding the leaves of certain plants and

mixing them into the water. This would stun the fish, which could then easily be caught by land.

The Tainos were much better farmers than the Kalinagos, but the Kalinagos were better fishermen

and hunters than the Tainos. The Kalinagos had more protein in their diet than the Tainos due to
them consuming more meat and fish than the Tainos. The Tainos did not hunt or fish as much as

the Kalinagos.

Importance of canoes to the Kalinagos and how they were made

The Kalinagos were always travelling back and forth among the islands, and were excellent

seamen. The Kalinagos used their canoes to travel from island to island, fish, trade, hunt, and go

on raids. They made two different types of canoes, and they were not very different from the canoes

made by the Tainos.

The smaller craft, the couliana, was at most about twenty feet long and was pointed at both ends.

This type was used for fishing close to the shore and could only hold a few people.

The bigger boat was called canoua, the word we still use today. The largest of these were up to

fifty feet long and could carry thirty to forty people. These vessels were dug out of logs and

stretched by fire and soaked with water to make the wood expand. It was in these larger canoes

that the Kalinago went to attack other islands or to make long fishing and trading trips.

The canoes were rowed with flat paddles shaped like spades. A long pole was used to guide the

craft carefully over reefs. The bark of the mahoe tree was used to tie the large stone archer. Rafts

were also made from trunks of light forest trees.

Religious Beliefs and Practices

The Kalinagos were polytheistic. They also believed in many gods. They believed in evil spirits

known as maboya. The priest had the power to pray to the gods to turn back evil.

They believed

○ In the forces of evil.

○ In life after death.

 ○ In the existence of Heaven and hell.

○ That there is punishment and reward in the afterlife.

○ Those who were brave warriors went to a place where they were waited on by

Tainos slaves.

○ That the souls of cowards went to a dreary desert where they became slaves to

Tainos masters.

○ The priest or boyez was the only one who could communicate with the gods.

○ In offering sacrifices to the gods especially when they went to sea.

○ In using tobacco (incense) in the process of communicating with the gods.

○ In having festivals and celebrations in honour of the gods.

○ In keeping the gods happy (appeasing the gods).

○ In offering prayers to the gods for bravery

Both the Tainos and the Kalinagos believed in nature and ancestor worship.

Village Customs

1. Men and women lived separately.

2. Painting of the body to look fierce especially when going on raids.

3. They did not eat turtle meat. They thought it would make them slow and stupid.

4. They ate a lot of pepper. It was believed that this would make them fierce.
5. They flattened their foreheads from an early age. This was to make the arrow bounce off should

they get hit in the forehead during battle.

6. They often hung the skull and or bones of their victims in their houses like trophies.

7. All boys were required to undergo an initiation test when they reached puberty.

8. They were scratched with an agouti claw and pepper rubbed in the wound. If they bore it without

flinching, they were chosen to be a warrior. If they flinched, they would be numbered among the

priests.